| Business |
A question of timing
SUCH actions may well be legal.
But they fly in the face of the intentions of the electoral laws
and they represent an affront to the concepts of transparency
and good governance.
We’re referring to the two
10 seat Land Cruisers and a Caterpillar bulldozer that have
suddenly appeared at Kabwum.
These three pieces of equipment are apparently much needed in
the area; one of the four wheel drive vehicles will go to the
Kabwum police, while the other will be given to Derim health
centre.
The people in the Kabwum area are reported to be excited at the
advent of the vehicles and a big celebration at the remote
station is scheduled for today.
Bob Dadae, Kabwum MP and deputy Speaker of Parliament, purchased
the vehicles from his electoral funds.
On the surface that’s an admirable story illustrating a wise use
of resources by the local member, an action that is intended to
meet two demonstrated needs in his electorate.
But then there is the question of timing.
Is it pure co-incidence that this major expenditure of the
people’s money has produced such tangible results just a day or
two before the national election, in which the sitting member
will be defending his tenure of the Kabwum seat?
We know from previous experience in many parts of PNG that
voters, particularly in remote areas, automatically assume that
the arrival of expensive vehicles and equipment comes as a
donation from their local member.
We are not suggesting that Mr Dadae and his campaign workers
have made any such assertions to the people of Kabwum, but we
are certain that many electors in the area will nevertheless
believe that the vehicles are a striking example of the
generosity of the sitting member.
This incident is an example of what is happening all over the
country in the lead-up to the elections.
Promises of million kina projects have suddenly engulfed the
nation.
Huge sums have been promised for the immediate reconstruction of
some of the nation’s more notorious stretches of road and the
most decayed of our many bridges.
Clinics and aid posts long since closed have been listed for a
coat of paint, a nail or two, some basic drugs and perhaps a
trained health extension worker.
Grandiose plans to built tens of thousands of houses and to
freely educate the rapidly expanding ranks of our children have
been revealed.
Others have sworn that our Defence Force will be rejuvenated –
and those evil Australians shown a thing or two – by the
injection of two or three thousand more men and women.
The only major outcome of such a move, if it ever took place,
would be to further swell the already swollen Defence Force
budget.
It would add nought to our ability to defend ourselves against
any conceivable enemy.
Doubtless these visions will join the dozens of others that have
been made prior to each of the preceding six national elections.
And like their predecessors, they’ll moulder on some dusty shelf
until the whole nation has forgotten their existence.
The constructive use of electoral funds is obviously a better
choice – if only the timing was not so blatantly associated with
the national election.
The spending of electoral funds days before a national election
cannot help but have a major influence upon voters.
Such actions can only contribute a great deal towards any
re-election campaign by sitting members throughout the nation.
This undermines the campaigns of those standing against the
sitting member
and does so in a way that is almost impossible for those
candidates with limited funds to parallel.
The question is why such a significant use of electoral funds
could not have been made at any other time during the past five
years of this Parliament.
And the answer is obvious – the use of these funds is held back
to reap the greatest possible polls benefit from the largest
number of people within the constituency.
In general terms that is the kind of action that helps make a
mockery of our alleged democracy.
There is a clear need for a further overhaul of the electoral
provisions so that this kind of stark voter manipulation ceases
to exist.
 
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