IT is not unreasonable to suggest that the Government has adopted a policy of simply ignoring public disquiet over major issues.
This year has begun with a welter of concerns expressed by the public and there has been little or no response from the Government to most of those concerns.
It is well known that in Papua New Guinea issues are on the front page one day but fade into the background the next.
This reaction comes from both the public and the media and it is, in our opinion, an attitude that urgently needs to be changed.
Riding out the storm may be sound practice at sea; implementing such a policy as a way of ignoring awkward accusations is another matter.
In summary: The people of PNG are now paying massive increases across the board as a result of the fuel charge hike by InterOil.
It is not just the cost of fuel at the neighbourhood bowser; it affects all cargo carried by road and that covers both imported goods and PNG’s vital exports.
It impacts upon the cost of public transport. It has a negative affect on sea freight and the operations of coastal shipping. It directly influences air fares.
Food costs have begun to sharply escalate.
Many imported tinned and other packaged foods are now showing a 25% retail price increase.
And as the costs of raw materials soar, so inevitably do the prices to the consumer of the finished products. Quality bread in some shops has now reached the K5 a loaf mark and is set to rise further.
The fuel price hike, justified or not, was illegal because it flatly ignored the monitoring and controlling role of ICCC.
Yet the Government has had little or nothing to say about what appears to have been open defiance of PNG law.
Next price rise came from notorious white elephant PNG Power.
In that instance as well, there has been a well-publicised exchange of words between ICCC and PNG Power; the rights and wrongs of the conflicting claims are difficult to determine.
What matters is that it is no comfort to the consumer to be told that most of that rise was held back 12 months and is only now being applied; the consumer is not earning a toea more so it is simply another huge inroad into an already meagre salary.
Then Eda Ranu decided to increase its water supply and sewerage service charges. As with the other price hikers, these increases are made to sound eminently plausible; the new charges appear to be the very soul of logic and reason.
Add to this list the ridiculous attempts to justify the payment of some K25 million to somnolent parliamentary committees that have, with the exception of the Public Accounts Committee and by the Speaker’s own admission, failed to address their functions.
A very determined attempt is underway to equate the non-performance of those committees with supposedly inadequate funding.
Do ordinary workers in the community simply fail to carry out some of their duties for a year or two and then demand massive increases before they will address the work that has been neglected?
They do not; they would be sacked if they attempted such a ploy.
The public has no such recourse when it comes to the House and its members.
As far as we are aware, just one Member of Parliament has come forward publicly to oppose the massive expenditure almost certain to be approved by our elected representatives.
Former chief justice and Governor of Madang Sir Arnold Amet has made his point of view very clear, but so far neither the Opposition nor Sir Arnold’s fellow National Alliance members have spoken out on the issue.
Papua New Guineans at all levels in the community cannot be expected to go on struggling to meet ever-increasing costs without some assistance from Government.
Given the constant Government claims of a vastly improved economy, the public is entitled to see evidence of that reflected in their daily lives. Instead, the cost of living and supporting a family grows and grows again while wages remain static.
The year 2008, once seen as filled with promise, is already turning sour for the people of this country.