Incredible fragility of a corrupted State
13 January 2024
PHILIP FITZPATRICK
TUMBY BAY - This latest violence in Port Moresby and Lae illustrates the incredible fragility of law and order in Papua New Guinea.
That a police strike could induce widespread and opportunistic looting in the country’s two lar gest cities is truly frightening, not just for people in PNG but for the whole region.
PNG's reputation as a veritable tinder box in the Pacific Islands has stepped up another notch. That's not good for anyone.
Also frightening are the deaths caused by shopkeepers taking the law into their own hands and gunning down looters.
It will be interesting to see what happens to them. Presumably they will have many sympathisers.
The thin blue line in PNG is extra thin at the best of times.
Perhaps the government needs to shift its focus from cultivating big multinational mining companies.
Perhaps it should stop crowing about the wealth these ventures bring.
Perhaps it should concentrate on people struggling to survive in the settlements and villages.
And on bolstering its police force.
Ray of hope and potential for "an efficient and transparent public service system", is in words reported from Governor Gary Juffa as Committee Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Public Sector Reform and Service Delivery (PCPSR&SD).
https://www.thenational.com.pg/understanding-to-fortify-institutions/
He and the Committee seek to present a clarity of intent and direction for the nation such as in the question, "Who is responsible for the national agenda through the consistent and continuous enforcement of efficient and effective administration of the public sector?"
This comment is firstly in support of PCPSR&SD.
Secondly, as with having hope of "respect of the concept of umpires, referees and judges", what briefer bolder familial name will be better or as effective as earlier was the title 'Kiap'?
Posted by: Lindsay F Bond | 10 December 2024 at 08:27 PM
Ever opportune. In every place are people who thrive on others ill luck. They arrive undeterred by inhibition, exercising initiative to personal or group advantage.
The word 'share' is stretched by acquisition triumphing over permission.
Is that not celebrated as sport as in NRL or AFL? Well sport at least has umpires or referees or judges? If not then onlookers get embroiled.
It seems, respect of the concept of umpires, referees and judges has a foothold for furthering calm.
Posted by: Lindsay F Bond | 16 January 2024 at 08:24 AM
The problem is deep and will remain while the "have nots" see others with more than themselves.
Where governance fails to meet the needs and rights of the public servants, being the Police, Defence Force, Health, Education and other workers that keep the country operational, there will be dissent.
The g imme culture is not dead, nor is distrust in politicians and leaders. Where is the money?
A nation divided by race and with a duplex name slapped onto it by outsiders opinions will remain so.
Those with vision and hope for the future are outnumbered by the many having none.
I have a friend who reached retirement age and was due a retirement package. He stayed on at work until his entitlement was paid, only to have the paypacket halved for whatever reason.
Another friend is sorely affected by the continued dalliance by the Law Courts over a land title case.
Mistakes? Maybe.
Mismanagement at the highest level, more likely.
What a shambles for the country we assisted towards Independence. Sori tumas.
Posted by: Henry Sims | 15 January 2024 at 09:28 AM
Aye, Lindsay, You might just say on a wing and a prayer goes Marape and his ilk.
Aye, indeed, they didn't kin the powder keg they have been sitting on.
Unleashed by the ongoing creed of greed I suspect.
Posted by: William Dunlop | 15 January 2024 at 09:10 AM
I suppose the recent rioting, looting and deaths only emphasise Moresby's standing in the Top Ten of the world's most dangerous cities.
I had a feeling it would be be in that list but was staggered to find it's No 3 on the planet --- behind only Caracas, Venezuela and Pretoria, South Africa.
So Moresby is rated more dangerous than Rio de Janeiro, Salvador and Recife (all in Brazil) and Johannesburg and Durban in South Africa.
Remember, Phil, how you'd be on edge after dark in Moresby --- and that was way back in the mid to late seventies.
Posted by: Richard E Jones | 14 January 2024 at 03:01 PM
Where bent coppers, corrupt fat cats (both elected and appointed) and an ignorant population who cannot plough the land they own and run to the cities at an alarming rate; it is plausible to say education, capitalism and democracy fashion disillusionment.
Posted by: Kela Kapkora Sil Bolkin | 14 January 2024 at 11:03 AM
A police force does not a nation make, nor sew, nor weave connections.
So far, prime minister Marape flagged his possibilities on NRL (a sport) and God (a hope).
Of the lands named (claimed) Papua New Guinea, what is reason to unite? Kinship?
One hundred and fifty years of extraneous intervention imposed on clans and villages is one form of grounding still needing 'care' in cultivation. Another perhaps, is that of 'enterprise'.
Collectively, enterprises appear as bilums, and of little consequence if any one is snatched.
Respect and appreciation are well short of love yet are on a continuum to caring.
All citizens, not only police, have the 'present' to grasp and the future to 'kindle' by befriending.
Is it that a Scot might say, it's your ken on kin?
Posted by: Lindsay F Bond | 14 January 2024 at 09:52 AM