18/05/2026
By Sam Koim
WHAT IS THE ROLE OF A MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT?
We have become so confused about the role of a Member of Parliament (MP) in this country that many of us no longer understand what an MP is actually elected to do. Even MPs themselves seem to be confused too hence this observation.
An MP is fundamentally a legislator. He or she is elected to understand the problems affecting the country, debate national issues, make laws, shape policy direction, appropriate national resources, and provide oversight over the Executive Government. That is the essence of a Westminster parliamentary democracy that we have adopted.
The role of an MP is not to personally become the bulldozer driver, school builder, road contractor, water supplier, funeral sponsor, hospital operator, or the walking ATM for the electorate. Those are functions of the State machinery and public institutions. The MP’s role is to build and strengthen the systems, policies, laws, institutions, and governance frameworks so that the system itself delivers services efficiently, fairly, and consistently to the people.
But in Papua New Guinea, we have gradually reduced the role of MPs into political hunters expected to go to Waigani, secure “largesse,” and bring it back home in visible forms — cash handouts, projects, materials, contracts, vehicles, and direct assistance. We judge MPs not by the quality of laws they pass, the reforms they champion, the institutions they strengthen, or the national direction they shape, but by the physical things they visibly distribute.
As a result, almost every MP and aspiring MP now believes that being an MP simply means delivering projects and largesse to the people. That has become the political culture and definition of leadership in many parts of PNG — the modern version of the traditional “big man” syndrome, where leadership is validated not by institution-building or national vision, but by visibly distributing goods and benefits.
So the mentality becomes simple:
