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by Frank Senge Kolma
Need for peace and harmony
FROM birth we struggle to live.
In life, we strive to improve our lives.
Every man, every family, every assembly, every government, and
every kingdom from the beginning of time has strived to improve
the conditions in which each lives.
Sustaining our lives and improving our welfare are the challenges
and the very purpose of life.
We look for comfort and happiness in life. We strive to be free
from insecurity, fear, hunger, ill-health, illiteracy, violence
and tyranny.
The struggle to bring disorder into order, to attain a higher
level of comfort, to safeguard society against excess and harm has
been the job of governments from the time mankind arranged
themselves into villages, communities and city states.
It is moving towards improving the lives of Papua New Guineans
that must be the sole purpose of every individual and every party
desiring to participate in governance in Papua New Guinea.
Politics and politicians must desire to give our people a decent
and sustainable livelihood.
They must move to give our people access to basic services.
They must work hard to protect our people and to make them feel
safe and comfortable at home, in the workplace, feel secure in the
source of their income and their food and water supply, and to
give them an identity.
It is easier said than done, of course, what with scarce resources
and a population that wants to consume rather than save; that
wants to take without contributing to the general good.
Although everybody desires an improvement in their lot in life,
the normal human tendency is to fear change and to resist and
challenge them, where they are about to happen.
We tend to stick to
the familiar, even if it is
less than we deserve.
Change requires conviction, determination, persistence and
courage.
Sometimes that means going it alone. Sometimes it means going
against opposition.
Much has happened that Papua New Guineans can be proud of.
The peaceful march to independence. The establishment and
maintenance of important institutions of State, such as a robust
banking system, a dynamic, vibrant and independent judiciary, a
fearless ombudsman, and many more.
Political stability has been attained through the Integrity of
Political Parties and Candidates law.
Much more needs to be done. Chronic neglect of the rural areas and
the need for basic infrastructure remains a major obstacle to
progress in the country.
Jobs need to be created for the thousands of young people leaving
the school system.
But above all else, the people deserve and need to live in peace
and harmony.
The next government must set its sights on delivering peace and
harmony to our diverse people and communities.
No other policy matters more than this. No other goal can override
this goal. To deliver peace and harmony is to make our people
safe, secure and happy.
A safe, secure and happy environment will inculcate miracles of
its own, which would result in increased investment, in increased
employment, in improved health and education, it will reduce the
number of people living in abject poverty and ultimately result in
growth and prosperity for the nation.
This should be our penultimate goal.
Nothing else matters.
To achieve the penultimate goal, we have had to first appreciate
what exactly is meant by peace and harmony.
To my mind, that does not only mean the absence of crime.
It does not mean the absence of diseases. They are important and
necessary preconditions but peace and harmony in a community goes
beyond that.
It is a state of being, a way of life. It is the absence of fear
and the onset of security and invigoration and enthusiasm.
It is the release of creative energy and cooperative spirit, which
are so necessary in the development effort.
Only when the individual has peace of mind and is concerned
neither for his stomach and ill-health nor fear for the safety of
his family and himself, can he dedicate his time and resources to
improving his living conditions.
Unfortunately, after 31 years of independence, we have failed to
create this very basic pre-condition for development and progress.
As a direct result, each day our citizens live in fear for their
lives behind barbed wires and behind locked doors.
They do not have personal security, food security, job security,
social security, medical security and national security.
They lack self-esteem and self-confidence.
They lack innovative and creative ability.
They lack coordination, direction and energy.
There is a growing stampede for scarce resources, which has
resulted in broad daylight theft, in corruption, in bribery, in
allowing outsiders to help themselves to our resources without
regard for our people’s welfare, in prostitution among our
daughters and mothers, and in unemployment.
All of these conditions ultimately has resulted in this rich
nation regressing rather than progressing.
Australia is not wrong in analysing that we are well on our way to
becoming a failed state. And we can only have ourselves to blame.
The biggest crime is that we have not created a comfortable future
for our children.
Can these conditions be ever reversed?
Is it possible?
I say the answer is YES!
These conditions are reversible. They can be reversed with the
right policy framework, with the right strategies and with the
right management of them for full implementation.
Such a job needs full commitment, persistence and insistence. It
needs discipline.
We have friends in the global community, who desire to see us
succeed and they will help us succeed but the first spark must
come from within, from us.
This is what the next government must set as its primary task.
It must reverse the trends which binds our people prisoners and
endangers our children’s future.
Establishing peace and harmony is setting the foundations for our
future.
That must be our goal.
 
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