GARY JUFFA MP
IN PNG, good will be attacked, and attacked vehemently, by evil and this is certainly something we should all be aware of by now.
It is becoming more and more evident that, when those who support what is right stand up for it, they are attacked with much vigour and anger by those who have something to hide and protect.
Yesterday I spoke to the Minister for Higher Education, Delilah Gore, and urged her to speak to the protesting students at Unitech and make an effort to find a way forward that will take on board their concerns. The solution is not force and brutality, it is dialogue and understanding.
Time and time again in PNG when the interests of the people and what is just are brought to the authorities, they react by dismissing and attacking the people and those who bear the messages.
Just look at the Nautilus seabed mining scam, the Borneo Pacific scandal, the Manus asylum seeker debacle and many other instances of what is so obviously wrong. One wonders if evil itself has infected those in power and flows through their veins.
I myself am reeling from a deluge of outrageous lies in the form of internet postings by logging advocates and their agents but still stand for what I believe: PNG, my people, my land.
If it comes to it, we must be willing to sacrifice even our safety and security, and attack evil with aggression and anger and outrage.
Good and its proponents cannot be expected to just stand in the corner draped in white robes, pointing a feeble finger at what is wrong with a meek countenance, shirking any physical confrontation.
Rather, those who believe in good must be ready to confront evil, grapple and fight with it and expect blows which they must withstand and resist.
Only then can good prevail. Otherwise we are just merchants of rhetoric.
Gary Juffa is Governor of Oro Province and a member of the national parliament of Papua New Guinea