SYDNEY — It's back to the future for Papua New Guinea. Only this time round the friends of the young, troubled South Pacific nation are hoping it's not a case of the more things change, the more they stay the same.
After a rush of short-lived governments, a mountainous pile-up of public debt and its bloodiest election yet, PNG finds itself with a new government of the most surprising complexity. Heading it as prime minister is the man who led the first government 27 years ago, Michael Somare.
The Chief, as he is fondly (and sometimes angrily) known, is back in power — to his own surprise and that of his many political opponents and overseas friends. And as the "father of his nation," he is back at a time when the country's social and political stability are plumbing new depths.