Prime Minister James Marape has decommissioned Finance Minister Rainbo Paita from his Cabinet position following his leading a defection to the Opposition. Prime Minister Marape stated that Finschhafen MP Rainbo Paita displayed a lack of respect for Cabinet decorum by not submitting his resignation before leading the defection to the Opposition. Marape said, “It certainly gives me no pleasure in decommissioning Rainbo Paita, who has got caught up in this political play and betrayed the trust bestowed upon him, by being the ring leader of Pangu Pati and Government MPs joining ranks with the Opposition." "Cabinet solidarity has been breached by the defection of Paita.” “While I respect Paita’s right to form new allegiances, the fact that he has shown open revolt and chosen to associate with the Opposition and led other Pangu and Government MPs to the other side, leaves me with no choice but to decommission him immediately." “I know other Ministers are currently in the Opposition camp, by choice or being forced to, and we are reaching out to them.” Prime Minister Marape recalled that in 2019, when he resigned from the Peter O’Neill government, he didn’t move out with a crowd of MPs and Ministers as Paita had done. “Paita, by his act of dissent, has shown no respect for Cabinet decorum by jumping ship without writing to me as Prime Minister and indicating his areas of dissatisfaction,” he said. “He has to indicate where I have gone wrong and why he has decided to move away from my Cabinet.”