Tirades of 'PNG wanem taim bai yumi senis?' [when will you change?] reverberate across households, streets and office work stations. Social media platforms are inundated with expletives and slander as individuals use electronics to wrestle out their discontent.

Meanwhile, institutions, groups and individuals churn out declarations to encourage pro-social behaviour as a lifestyle choice for Papua New Guineans.

These vessels for social change work tirelessly to implement their objectives. However, their effectiveness is sporadic and negative commentary is persistent. Complaint outnumbers compliment.

Perhaps it the ease with which we attribute all this to an ‘attitude problem'? It’s a phrase cited by many people who seek a causal link between the stagnancy of positive social change and the surplus of strategies.

Continual emphasis on a nation's demise fuels cesspools of frustration and feelings of helplessness. A barrage of criticism without any offer of personal contribution is counter-productive. Yet with so much discontent, perhaps the masses are on to something!

Could it be that the Papua New Guinean ‘attitude’ is a by-product of the very mechanisms that are being implemented to engender change? Perhaps Papua New Guineans are simply not responding to over-recycled, exorbitantly priced and apparently ineffective programs.

The pendulum swing intended to catapult citizens into a frenzy of active participation in social change has, instead, created passive observers. It has spawned a nation overrun with bystanders.

Let me explain. The Bystander Effect (Darley & Latane, 1968) provided insights from social psychology theory initially popularised through a murder case in the United States.

In short, this theory stipulates that individuals in a large crowd are unlikely to respond to help another who is in distress.

Two reasons are attributed for this. Firstly, the individual sees that no one else is responding and takes their cue not to intervene. Secondly, the individual believes that someone else from within the crowd will help.

In both scenarios, the result is that there is no response. Inaction from the individual. Now let’s consider this in the context of Papua New Guinea.

Distressing situations attracting crowds is typical of everyday PNG. Inaction by witnesses is the standard. A typical afternoon at the bus stop sees tensions boil over amongst commuters as each jostles to claim a seat on the PMV (public motor vehicle).

Verbal aggression and even physical altercations ensue. Rather ironically stickers inciting citizens to 'Stop the Violence' and ‘Keep our City Clean’ are plastered all over the vehicles.

Roadside, female-to-female violence attracts jeers and whistles of encouragement, the crowd rapidly increasing in numbers. Residents gawk nonchalantly from behind their fences. Meanwhile colourful billboards emblazoned with messages of self-efficacy occupy street corners. Before long they’ll be defaced by graffiti, betel nut spittle or pointless acts of vandalism.

Clearly, Papua New Guineans are struggling with the transference of message to action.

Social change programs implemented via government entities, civil and faith based organisation and individual donors are an increasingly permanent fixtures in our society. So too the social issues they seek to address. 

So why do Papua New Guineans continue to witness but not intervene? How do we move away from being a people with an ‘attitude problem’ and towards being a nation devoted to ‘community responsibility’?

One may suggest that core values of care, concern and respect for others’ well-being and safety are not emphasised enough or are altogether missing in the multitude of operating programs.

Papua New Guineans, young and old, are flooded with the guidelines to living a socially conscious life. Yet the flow-on effects of individual positive action to the community remain abstract.

It seems Papua New Guineans are unclear as to how singular actions contributing to the collective will generate the ‘change’ much yearned for.

Surely it is time those in control of the purse strings became more stringent and demanded that program providers jump off the bandwagon of familiarity and voyage down the path of innovation.

Equipping Papua New Guineans with individual skills should be the benchmark. Instilling transferrable attitudes and behaviours should be the measurable outcomes.

A Papua New Guinean who can demonstrate the capacity to voluntarily, at any time, use positive actions for the betterment of society ought to be a key indicator of a program’s validity, reason for ongoing implementation and thereby funding. Papua New Guineans deserve programs that work.

Practising empathy, combating negative behaviour with the use of positive images and role models with whom individuals can relate are pivotal strategies of the cited theorem.

As an extension, perhaps only Papua New Guinean nationals should be allowed on the frontline of program delivery and implementation. This follows the line of thinking that Papua New Guineans are more likely to relinquish ‘bystanding’ if they see their own countrymen in the forefront of a movement.

And what might be a realistic, practical, cost-effective and age-inclusive method to cultivate a strong sense of ‘community responsibility’ across all sectors of PNG? A public-library.

Public libraries are arguably a prime avenue where individuals can practice and observe how their positive action benefits a larger group. Membership is free but regulated in accordance to the individual’s demonstrated commitment of respecting the shared library resources.

Here, there are no ‘bystanders’. All library members are ‘active participants’ in ensuring that each upholds and contributes to the resource longevity.

In a nation where the enterprise of second-hand merchandise flourishes, such hubs are commonly considered treasure troves.

The potential for sourcing library resources is seen in the influx of organisations supplying literary resources throughout our country.

Public libraries: an inadequately-tried but perhaps more effective small step toward breaking the ‘bystanding’ in PNG.