A former prime minister of Papua New Guinea and the current chairman of the PNG Sustainable Development Programme says many in the country fear the government.
Sir Mekere Morauta has referred the prime minister, Peter O'Neill, to the International Court for the Settlement of Investment Disputes because of the government's new laws to take over the Singapore-registered SDP fund.
He says the fund pays almost half a billion US dollars in taxes each year, and the Ok Tedi people have 1.4 billion US dollars that will now go to government coffers.
Sir Mekere's Australian media advisor Mark Davis was deported last week, and he says others around him are harassed.
He compared the prime minister to Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe.
"This is Mugabe in the making, Papua New Guineans are scared, ministers are scared, MPs are scared, everyone is scared. No one is saying anything, except for me. And of course people who work around me are now being victimised because of that. But I will continue to say what I am saying."
Sir Mekere Morauta.
