| Business |
Reviving respect for the law
BIRE Kimisopa first came to public
attention following his appointment as Police Minister.
It became obvious very quickly that this was a minister unlike
many of his predecessors in the portfolio and his contemporaries
in other ministries.
The new man lost no time in beginning the huge task of reshaping
the RPNG Constabulary. And one of his first moves was to institute
an inquiry into the Force.
This was to be no superficial brush through ageing files but a
long overdue probe into what was fast becoming a disaster area.
That report was the first honest and realistic attempt to identify
and examine both the problems within the RPNG Constabulary and the
image of the Force held by the public, a mixture of fear and
contempt.
It appears that not very much action was taken as a result of that
report, despite the in-depth nature of the investigation, the
contact with the public and the wholehearted support of Minister
Kimisopa.
And then the minister was moved into a new portfolio.
The public was certainly at a loss to understand why a man who was
clearly achieving much in one portfolio should suddenly be moved
to another.
Suffice it to say that Mr Kimisopa became the Justice Minister.
This is another ministry fraught with problems: we hear that the
Government intends to completely separate the Justice and the
Attorney-General’s department should it be re-elected.
Last week, a White Paper on law and justice administration
policies was launched in Port Moresby.
Minister Kimisopa uses the occasion to express grave concern at
the lack of public support for the laws of the country.
He told the gathering that there is growing disrespect for the
rule of law in PNG and referred to the widespread crime that is
eating away the fabric of our society.
We unreservedly applaud Mr Kimisopa’s remarks.
The minister is not exaggerating but merely telling the truth.
The National has been making much the same comments for some years
now; matters have declined in recent months to a point where
respect for the law outside of the courtroom is virtually
non-existent.
Mr Kimisopa added: “People from the top down to the grassroots
level do not have any respect for the laws any more; the same laws
are broken again and again and most of the time the perpetrators
go unpunished because there is no proper representation.”
The minister made it clear that he was referring to lack of police
evidence or the failure of the prosecution to properly represent
crime victims.
We can but agree.
In the past year, we have lost count of the number of serious
cases that have been dismissed by the courts because of lack of
evidence. In some cases the inability of the police to marshal
evidence and prosecute effectively is clearly deliberate.
It is obviously impossible for members of the bench and
other presiding court officials to order the continued and
indefinite detention of accused simply because the prosecution is
“not ready”, is “unable to find” either files or witnesses or
both, or because evidence such as stashes of marijuana or
quantities of stolen goods have again mysteriously “disappeared”.
Turning to the public sector, Minister Kimisopa said that
widespread corrupt practices and misappropriation of public funds
in the sector and in government departments called for the setting
up of inquires.
He referred to what he called “growing concern” over reports that
leaders in this sector are collaborating with each other to divert
money intended for the public into their personal accounts.
And Mr Kimisopa noted that even if these cases can be rectified it
cannot be done overnight and “once the leaders lose public
confidence and trust, it is hard to get that back”.
We would hope that every leader reads, absorbs and echoes Mr
Kimisopa’s remarks.
In the estimation of The National, our courts are one of the few
remaining bulwarks of the society we created in 1975.
They are not perfect.
Not every decision by judges and magistrates is a model of
justice.
But courts cannot hope to
operate effectively unless they are fully supported by prosecutors
and even more importantly, enjoy the respect of the general
public.
 
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