A Port Moresby Correspondent

This morning the PNG National newspaper had two articles on its front page. The first was about a tribal fight that went up and down the highway in the Western Highlands for a distance of 10 km and lasted several hours. There was no report of the Police attending.

The second incident was in Bougainville, where a son, protecting his mother, received serious stab wounds and is now in hospital. The Police know the identity of the assailants and have sent out word for the leaders to bring them to the police station. Surely this is a case where the Police must go out and arrest the perpetrators and bring them in forcibly if necessary. After all, the law has been broken.

Increasingly people appear to have contempt for the Police and either ignore them as having no official status or feel they can operate directly against them. People apparently believe that their leaders and politicians will protect them against arrest by the Police. They believe the community can control the Police, politicians and public servants. That people can make any sort of threat without retaliation.

What has happened to law and order in PNG?

Corruption is probably the main cause. Any situation can be bought out of, or so it would appear. And this is obviously what the community believes.

Every day there are articles in the press that demonstrate this. And what is the Government doing to stop it? I would suggest the Government does not care, nor do the politicians – providing they are being paid off everything is okay.

I am a PNG citizen and first came to the country more than half a century ago. I intend (or should that be intended?) to retire here.