A FAMOUS Malaysian tycoon lived a very modest lifestyle while his children globe trotted and whisked around Kuala Lumpur in the latest wheels from BMW and Mercedes Benz.
When asked why he lived the way he did while his children squandered his money, he replied: “My sons have a rich father, I don’t.”
And so it used to be the world over. The father rose from relative poverty to make his millions. The sons and daughters, who were raised in decent homes, had never known pain or hardship or how to make money, naturally found it harder to conserve the money.
Family empires generally used to last three generations as a result. Or so it used to be.
Times are changing and along with them, the ways of the wealthy and successful.
Unless you are looking at those few who choose to spend a former generation’s hard work and wealth and wait with baited breaths and their entourage of conniving lawyer friends for that last will to declare them the rest, many sons and daughters of today are moving in a different direction.
They are using the benefits of better education and the opportunities presented by global markets to expand the empires of their fathers and mothers.
So which group do our young Papua New Guineans belong to – those who choose to spend their fortunes made by their older generations or are they part of the emerging group that build and expand on the efforts of their elders?
Perhaps the question comes too early. More is the case that PNG’s wealthy are just emerging and that it will be their siblings who would decide what to do with the wealth their parents have made.
Still, the discussion is relevant here when we turn from individual and corporate to national fortunes and welfare.
Such awareness is important in managing growth, stability and in building on success.
After five straight years of political stability and of the promise of another five, Papua New Guinea’s fortunes are beginning to turn around for the better. Inflation is low. Economic growth is, for the first time, edging ahead of population growth and looks steady enough to last.
There is amble liquidity in the banking system. The super-funds are posting record profits well ahead of their most optimistic forecasts. The construction industry, which is a good barometer of economic growth, appears to be booming and improving.
The economic indicators are good. What about social indicators?
Can we build on this record? Can we take the nation to another level? Can other indicators of national wellbeing such as access to good education and decent health facilities, good nutrition, lowering child and maternal mortality, adequate employment, decent homes, reducing poverty, having time for leisure and pleasure and creating a peaceful and law abiding citizenry, be added to the economic gains?
The answers to these questions lie squarely with the economic and political managers of the nation.
For economic gain on its own means nothing if it cannot be translated to improving the livelihood of the people.
So nobody, least of all the economic and political managers of the nation, can afford to rest on their laurels today. They must balance economic and social policies so that the gains in one is used to improve the welfare of the people but without stunting growth altogether.
The temptation is to quickly spend the money quickly on grandiose socio-political projects such as massive infrastructure, which might not benefit the majority of people and which will have nil long term effects.
The K10 million per electorate announced last year can turn out to be one such project if they are not managed properly with proper accountability and transparency.
Huge schemes, which are not well thought through, will be still-born or would slowly fizzle out as soon as the funds allocated are used up.
With limited access to the rural areas, the bulk of the spending might be in the urban centres where only a privileged few reside.
If too much is spent on social growth, economic growth will suffer and we will have blown the future chances for growth out the window. If we concentrate on economic growth alone, we will end up with very pleased bankers and economists and very few others.
There will be exponential growth in social evils.
The challenge facing this Government and its young ministers is to make sure that this does not happen. It is incumbent upon the ministers to continue to pursue macro and micro economic stability. It is important to ensure that expenditure is contained and not blown out of all proportion.
Health, education and welfare policies must be pursued with responsibility and focus should on the long term outcomes and sustainability.
Opportunities abound in today’s world for expansion and for assistance. Those opportunities must be pursued diligently, ever careful of the equal number of con artists and fly-by-night operators, who also abound in the world.
Future growth does not, to my mind, require newer ideas but a steady and responsible dedication to expanding on and growing the ones which are working today.
It behooves today’s young leaders to grow the nation that our elders such as Sir Michael Somare, who celebrates 40 years in Parliament this year, has built.