| Business |
Maintaining communication
NEARLY two weeks have passed since
The National highlighted the situation in Daru in our Western
province. Readers may recall that the local prison remains closed
after more than a year, while the police cells have become so
overcrowded that criminals have allegedly been freed, despite
their status.
And on top of that, the local resident magistrate has decided to
close shop, reasoning that there’s little point in sentencing
criminals to a non-existent prison. The prison was apparently
closed for health and sanitation reasons and there seems to be no
indication of when it will re-open or be replaced by a more
satisfactory facility.
More alarmingly, local authorities have remained incommunicado for
nearly a month. They appear to be unwilling to put residents in
the picture, to reassure concerned parents of children at the
local school or to give any indication of how long this situation
will persist.
Repeated attempts by The National to contact Daru police commander
John Kerry have produced no results, nor have attempts to speak
with provincial administrator Nelson Hungrabos. It seems that both
the Western province administrator and the police commander need
to be reminded that they are employed to serve the public.
The Daru public is reportedly concerned that polling, now only
days away, could lead to a spate of break and enter, assault in
public places and cases of theft. These fears have been added to
by the belief that most Daru-based policemen will be deployed to
other parts of the country.
It is wrong that a small and isolated community such as the people
of Daru should be living with escalating crime and the fear of
worse happenings to come. Regardless of the actions the police and
the provincial administration can or cannot take, they have no
right to cut themselves off from the public.
Such an attitude can only lead to uncertainty and growing fear
among the population. We call upon the provincial administrator
and local police commander to clarify the situation.
Specifically – when will the Daru prison be reopened or other
satisfactory action taken to house prisoners securely?
Will significant numbers of police based in Daru be moved out for
election duties elsewhere?
When will the hearing of cases resume in the Daru court?
And what other measures have the provincial government and the
police force taken in the interests of the law-abiding citizens of
Daru?
And on another matter ...
ATTACKING Telikom, PNG’s telecommunications supplier, has almost
become an art form. We have done our fair share of criticising the
organisation but we believe our comments to have been justified in
the light of Telikom’s bad record of service to the public.
But last week’s major telecommunications crash does not appear to
have been primarily Telikom’s fault. Even householders can observe
the massive fluctuations in power that occur from time to time.
Fluorescent tubes dip and flare, refrigerators are reduced to
grinding along one minute and shrieking like landing Fokker
Friendships the next. Electric pump operated water supplies gurgle
and splutter, then produce a cascade of muddy fluid.
And computers, television receivers and music decks are rendered
useless if consumers don’t have access to UPS equipment. The
irregular power supply was the root cause of last Tuesday’s major
collapse of fixed phone lines; acting CEO Peter Loko says that
Telikom engineers are now hunting for new back-up generating and
automatic switching capacity.
We compliment Mr Loko on his forthright explanation and his
refusal to shrug off responsibility for the outage. That’s the
kind of leadership the public appreciates from its corporation
heads – and one might add, from its politicians.
And we remind the residents of Port Moresby and other cities and
towns that Telikom is engaged in a major struggle against cable
vandals. These criminals sever the company’s landlines and sell
the copper cabling; we urge the police force to step up their
investigations into those who buy this cabling.
Prosecute the buyers and the cabling black market will cease to
exist. Until it does, Telikom is faced with huge replacement
expenses on the one hand and the ceaseless grumbles of the public
on the other.
It’s about time we all gave Telikom a break.
 
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