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Sports |
Let the public be the judge of EC
I REFER to the Electoral Commission’s
(EC) handling of the general election and the typical arrogance
displayed by public office holders.
Our politicians and government officials often do not realise
how much anger they caused when they praised themselves for
doing a sub-standard job.
This habit of self-praise is unprofessional and amounts to empty
pride. It reflects a culture of dishonesty and cover-ups of
serious faults of some leaders to prevent closer scrutiny and
evaluation of their performance by others.
Politicians do it all the time but it is alarming that public
servants are doing it just as often too these days.
The latest example of this is the Electoral Commissioner and his
officials who have been making a lot of self-complimenting
remarks but failed to own up to serious faults in their handling
of the 2007 elections.
In the aftermath of the elections, the EC has saturated the
media with a lot of favourable comments, biased analysis and
pontifications to justify their performance from preparatory
stages to actual polling and counting.
But the worst of all is the self-congratulatory remarks.
These can be construed as a means to pre-empt public opinion and
to
exonerate the EC from any likely blame or criticisms from
unhappy eligible voters and unsuccessful candidates alike.
For example, in the recent issue of the Government newspaper,
Gavamani Sivarai, the front page carried a headline in big bold
letters proclaiming: “Elections Successful”.
My question is – successful election from whose point of view
and on what grounds?
There were serious faults and failures in the preparatory work
of the EC that repudiate their claim of success.
What about the many thousands of people who did not vote because
their names were not on the common roll even though they had
registered?
These are people who had voted in previous elections, so how
come their names were missing from the 2007 common rolls?
Why were there so many mix-ups in the common roll where names of
people from one ward appeared in
another ward?
Many eligible voters did not get to exercise their
constitutional rights because EC staff failed to ensure people
in the rural communities were registered.
It was naïve of the EC to rely heavily on radio and newspaper
advertisements appealing to the people of PNG to go to the
nearest government office and register.
How can you expect people already disappointed with poor
Government services, high costs of living, and handicapped by
bad roads and high crime rate feel obligated to travel to the
nearest government station to register?
You, the EC with the financial resources at your disposal and
five years to do your homework, should have spent a lot more
time in the communities explaining the new LPV system, and
update the common rolls like the white kiaps used to do.
It is unbelievable that some of the problems that appeared in
the 1997 and 2002 elections were still there – common rolls not
updated, names of people missing from common rolls, names of
voters from one ward mixed up with names from other wards and
LLGs, etc.
With all the expensive computers in your offices and the latest
equipment for updating records and keeping files, what exactly
has the EC achieved in the last five years?
And now the EC is postponing the local level government
elections for another 10 months because its original plan did
not work out.
How about its unlimited excuses? Don’t praise yourself so soon.
I believe it is the prerogative of the public to judge public
office holders and congratulate them if we are happy with your
performance, or condemn you as a paid civil servant if your work
is poor or failed to achieve the desired results.
The Government and the civil service has a fiduciary obligation
to the people of this country, so public office holders should
always act professionally and work hard to achieve the best
results in their line of duty.
I appeal to all political leaders and public servants to think
logically and always do things in the right way.
Adopt a culture of honest hard work, diligence, good workmanship
with attention to details, and leave the prerogative to the
people to give honour and credit wherever it is due.
True Grit
Kokopo
 
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