A call to action: Let us not passively let the fight go

GANJIKI D WAYNE | Supported by the Bea Amaya Writing Fellowship

IT IS A SAD REALITY that most people are not interested in the improvement of our country.

They don’t see how they should be involved in the fight for a better Papua New Guinea—primarily because circumstances have not yet hit home within individuals and because they feel powerless to do anything. Or they just don’t feel the problem.

But mostly because people simply don’t care. They’re indifferent.

Apathy, I think, is a worse epidemic than the corruption in our country.

Many of us do not really care that our country’s not being led well or that change is needed. We seem content just to build our personal empires, and live our own lives.

Someone asked me why I care so much. I really don’t know.

I look at things on the basis that God has created each one of us for a specific purpose for the specific time into which we’re born. And to fulfil that purpose He has put into each of our hearts a burden and a passion.

I believe mine is the people of PNG, their behaviour and its impact on the nation as a whole.

And so it is incumbent on me to do what I can—to say what I can— to preserve and restore that dignity.

I see around me a people who have lost sight of the inherent dignity and value that God Himself placed in all our lives. Such a perspective should make one naturally concerned.

This concern reaches the corners of this country because this nation and these people are those whom God chose for me within this bracket of eternity.

Apart from that, I do have a somewhat selfish motive. That is, I want my children to be born into, grow up, and live in a better place than I currently live.

I’d like them to live in a country where people respect each other, and everyone is looking out for each other (not just wantoks), where there’s unity, and progress, and less crime, and more justice.

I hope that my daughters could walk down the road without fear of being harassed or molested by unruly young men. And my sons could find inspirational people wherever they turn, to be men of courage and moral uprightness.

I hope leaders would emerge who are committed to improving the nation and not their private bank accounts and their pot (or beer) bellies.

I may be an idealist, but who isn’t? Deep down we all dream of a better world. I just like talking about it more than some. In spite of the overwhelming evidence that our children will enter a worse world than the one we currently live in.

We need to allow ourselves to dream. It is a definite cause of concern (and maybe that’s an understatement) that things could be getting worse. But should we give up trying to create a better world? No.

The status quo need not be the reason for us to give turning things into the way thing should be. God didn’t. We shouldn’t.

There is a lot to be done. But people need to do it. Money and resources are tools. People decide whether they are constructive or destructive tools.

And the fewer the number of good people using those tools constructively, the more destructive those tools become in the hands of wicked people.

We need to speak out (and work hard!) against corruption and the breakdown of morals in our society.

 

We have to actively reject corrupt practices such as giving and taking petty bribes. We need to stop littering our streets; spitting buai, vandalising property….

Corruption is a killer. Evil is all around us. It’s not easing up its effort to corrupt the world and destroy people. It corrupts our people through every mean available.

Corruption isn’t perpetrated in a vacuum. It’s done by people. While “agents of change” are wishing things get better, the agents of corruption are working hard—losing more sleep than those who hate corruption, simply to pursue their ends.

Successfully countering evil and corruption requires much more passion and action. We cannot expect things to get better without doing something to make things better.

We can’t afford to not care about what’s going on. Sooner or later it will hit each of us right where it matters.

You could wait for such a moment to jolt you awake or you could start doing something about it now. Apathy is like enduring a slow painful (maybe painless!) death.

Despite having the means to avoid such pain and death, the victim simply does nothing to improve his condition. 

We’re living in a time of conflict; conflict between good and evil. And to remain inactive in this battle is to allow evil to triumph.

As Paulo Freire put it “Washing one's hands off the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.”

Comments

[Mrs Barbara Short]

PNG lawyers and politicians and other "thinking people" in PNG need to watch what is going on at the ICAC in Sydney at the moment.

It involves investigations into members of parliament and their mates being given inside information so they can make millions of dollars out of mining leases.

The Sydney Morning Herald has been working hard to expose this corruption "in high places" since back in 2009.

So there is a message here for PNG newspapers.

O'Neill may have made a start at tackling corruption but he needs to have the courage to set up an ICAC which will have the necessary powers to work at exposing all the alleged corruption in PNG.

If he doesn't, why doesn't he?

[Chalapi Pomat]

I am with you. Keen and passionate about making good the joint.

Start with breaking things down into doable things. Put runs on the board. Firstly making good the little things that matters most to the people.

Stop the baragapment of their land and ocean. People depend on these to put food on the table and send their kids to school.

To this end - the number one item on the hit list is stop the deep sea mining at Solwara 1. It's a no brainer, Mr PM.

Doable? Yes. How? Count the losses, write-off with a stroke of a pen, closed the mine - thanks for coming. When? Now.

[Sigi Masis]

Eh, Masta Bop, tru tok ya. Disla meri pikinini blong let Soso em luk olsem bai kamap lidameri tru em gat gutpla rekot na planti komonsens na ol meri save holim wok ino olsem yumi ol man husait ol save drinspak nambaut na tok bilas karamapim stilpesin na lespesin blon yumi ol man. Gavana Julie em bai lidim bikpla sens bai kamap lon gutpla Kolples asples tru blon yumi tupla lapun man. Laikim tru.

[Mrs Barbara Short]

I just wish the lawyers and politicians of PNG could get "their act together" and see that an Independent Commission Against Corruption should be set up in Port Moresby ASAP.

The present case before the ICAC in Sydney is an excellent example. They have found a previous NSW Treasurer has been involved in some form of corruption.

He has been shamed, thrown out of his political party, and I'm sure it will have a great effect on his future in politics. His wife has been in tears.

I noticed the present premier of NSW was quick to justify his actions in the handling of the new casino proposed for Sydney. There were comments that it had not been "put out to tender".

Getting rid of corruption is a slow tedious business. There is a lot of investigation work to be done. I think in this case, which I mentioned above, that it was done by one of the leading newspapers.

There will be threats and there could be violence as people get exposed doing something which is corrupt. But I believe that until people do get exposed and shamed then PNG will not be winning the battle against corruption.

[Bob Cleland]

Yes, Ganjiki and Adam, but these altruistic and motivated idealists also need to have a firm understanding of how things are on the ground, and to have the knowledge and ability to act for forward change.

The apathy of the masses is because they ask, 'What's the use? Nothing happens anyway.' They need to be inspired.

A very few find inspiration in themselves. Most of us can be inspired only by the right leader.

I was fortunate to be present when the newly elected Premier of the Eastern Highlands Province, Julie Soso, gave an inspirational speech to a crowd of several thousand rapt listeners at the Goroka Show this year.

She spoke with passion and compassion. She spoke of the practical things that needed to be done in the Province, and how she wanted to work with everyone to achieve those goals.

She inspired everyone if the thunderous, sustained applause was any indication. My EHP friends, talking afterwards, were certainly impressed.

This is the sort of leader I'm talking about. In touch with the common people and with the ability to inspire and replace apathy with hope and action.

(The pity is that this event was ignored and unreported in the PNG media.)

[Sigi Masis]

Eh, ol pikinini! Ganjiki, Adam, Erasmus, Jeff, Don - ol lain luk olsem ol lain trutru nesenolis aidialis ol lusim ples hait na sanap nu lon san lait ya!

Yupla hamamasim mi nogut tru mi lapun nekdrai lon mekim wankain stori nambaut. Laikim tru yupla.

[Adam Neira]

Blessings to Ganjiki D Wayne. His essay is quite inspiring. Papua New Guinea needs as many altruistic, motivated idealists like him as possible.