DANIEL KUMBON
A much travelled Port Moresby resident wondered what strangers might think of Papua New Guinea when they read an article headlined ‘PNG on the brink of anarchy’ in large red letters on a magazine’s front cover.
Immediately below the headline was a photograph of the so-called raskols of Port Moresby posing with threatening eyes and long-bladed knives. Men feared by residents who lived behind barbed wire as if in a maximum security prison.
The writer described a typical day in Port Moresby. “Business comes to a standstill at 6:30 pm. By 7:30 everyone is behind the barbed wire fences that surround their homes and the early hours of the night are left to the rascals who roam the streets.
“Dogs bark their warnings, and every shadow or silhouette brings fear. Thus life is lived in suspense. Yet deep within us is a strong yearning for peace. The break of dawn is a sight that brings relief from unease of the previous night. This is life in Port Moresby.”
Then the resident related how depressed he felt on a visit to Cairns which, unlike Port Moresby, was safe with shops open till 11pm and where people walked around freely.
“Why can’t PNG towns be like Cairns?” he asked. “Maybe because we have not really made the transition from primitive tribal communities to sovereign nation state.”
Is this a common feeling among ordinary Papua New Guineans? Should leaders carry on as if nothing was wrong?
Leaders and people in positions of authority need to seriously reflect on PNG’s achievements and failures as an independent nation, especially on the eve of the country’s 40 year anniversary.
I myself have witnessed the cold-blooded murder of a village court magistrate, the fatal shooting of a senior police officer and serious injuries inflicted on other police in separate incidents in Enga Province.
“I am very disturbed at the attacks on my officers and I appeal to all leaders to help and apprehend the suspects to police,” then Regional Highlands Police Commander Bunu Katusele said. “I think leaders have to come out now and help the various law enforcement agencies to control law and order.”
A report by Dr Bill Wormsley and Michael Thoke in 1987 said people were becoming less and less clear on what was customary and what was modern. Young people were not learning the principles of customary law.
The academics recommended that the government address underlying social problems if it wanted the law and order situation to improve.
A former Enga police commander, Superintendent Mathew Minok, maintained that the solution lay with the word of God coupled with improved public relations and cooperation between police and the people.
Minok from the once rich fertile Tsak area of Enga had seen over 300 men killed in tribal fights in his valley. Much property was also destroyed.
Minok had even been chased into enemy territory by his own people when he tried to maintain a neutral role in the conflict between the Taskins and his own Yambaren tribe.
Inspector Peter Pyaso was gunned down supposedly by Lakain tribesmen in the remote Lapalama area of Enga when he went to stop a fight between the Lakain and Kakapandan tribesmen.
He had previously tried to persuade the government to legislate that tribes pay compensation for every police officer killed or injured when they tried to stop tribal fights.
“Most of the time, the lives of the policeman are in danger,” Pyaso wrote. “It’s about time the Police Department made some constructive decisions to boost our moral and make the risk worth taking in our fight against crime.”
What the reply was is unrecorded. But Inspector Peter Pyaso was killed and nobody was arrested and nobody paid compensation.
Then the inevitable happened. The next time one of their members was injured, police took revenge.
After a police reserve constable was injured by an arrow as he was trying to stop a fight at Sirunki in Laiagam District, police shot dead four youths.
Shortly after they went on another revenge spree when Constable Andrew Rumbia was killed by an arrow near the mining township of Porgera.
Police retaliated by shooting dead a man, burning stores and houses and slaughtering domestic animals.
If law enforcement officers were attacking the people they were supposed to protect, there was something drastically wrong.
The subsequent speeches by leaders were often inflammatory – leading to fully fledged tribal or regional confrontations ending in more death and destruction.
Deputy Chief Justice, the late Sir Mari Kapi, said: “Many leaders have got into conflict with the law, the respect for authority is at its lowest ebb. This is the age of what some people elsewhere have described as a golden age of greed, the philosophy of me, and age of individualism. I will get what I want regardless of what the law says.”
The onus was definitely on leaders to maintain stability and attain the political, social and economic prosperity of PNG.
Although our Constitution calls for ‘equal opportunities’, Parliament has made it economically impossible for the majority of the people.
As we approach our fortieth birthday as a nation, the gap between the haves and the have nots gets bigger.