BY PAUL OATES

IN A RECENT article in PNG Attitude, a rhetorical question was asked about whether telling the truth in today's PNG could get you sacked?

It certainly seemed that the former Police Commissioner's speech about corruption in government, which he presented to a law enforcement conference, might have affected his continued employment, which was terminated not long afterwards.

PNG's new acting Police Commissioner, Anthony Wagambie, has now called a three-day conference of his senior police commanders and requested many to deliver presentations on a variety of important subjects affecting the RPNGC today.

It was reported that PNG's Internal Security Minister opened the conference. Minister Maipakai must have wondered what hat he was wearing at the time, since his PM had just announced another Cabinet reshuffle.

Mr Maipakai is no longer Internal Security Minister. He now looks after Industrial Relations.

PNG's police service is in a perilous position with numbers being at an all time low. In fact PNG statistically has the lowest pro rata number of police to population in the South-West Pacific.

Many of the nation's police (25%) are soon eligible for retirement or have actually reached retirement age (50%). Even the current acting Commissioner may be past the official retirement age.

If a large number of experienced police retire in the near future, those limited numbers currently serving will be further reduced. In a country where law enforcement in some areas appears to be problematic at best, this is not good news for PNG.

Acting Deputy Commissioner Fred Yakasa is to address the conference on his vision to revitalise the police force.

Many people will be very interested in what he has to say. One wonders however if his vision may be somewhat impaired by his knowledge of the previous Commissioner's demise?