GIVEN the attitude towards telecommunication installations, the current warning from Eastern Highlands police to Mt Kerekonma landowners is both timely and justified.
In recent weeks there have been many reports of the vandalising of Telikom equipment and there has been much public reaction.
Outrage has been expressed through channels such as letters to the editor in the print media and over the airwaves through tokbek and other programmes.
There’s nothing new in these attacks, the theft of telecommunications equipment and solar panels and even straightforward vandalism, destruction for the sake of destruction.
Each time one or more of these landowner-generated incursions on Telikom installations take place, witnesses for the defence stress the inalienable rights of the traditional landowners, as if those were some kind of justification, even excuse for these acts.
Those unfamiliar with this scenario are sold the image of primitive villagers defending their ancestral lands against the punitive attacks of rampant profiteering developers.
In most cases, nothing could be further from the truth.
These repeater stations are often sited in almost inaccessible country and generally at the top or on the upper slopes of steep mountains.
There was little or no interest shown in these lands until Telikom set about exploring them and selecting a handful as sites to link the various parts of their network.
In other words, the financial value of the very small parcels of land involved was virtually zero until the advent of Telikom.
Telikom and provincial authorities have expended a large amount of money to maintain and protect remote installations and urban telecommunication networks alike.
The EHP police warning is therefore timely and the campaign to help people understand what the remote installations do and the benefits they bring is even better.
We hope the reported agreement to be signed between the landowners of Mt Kerekonma and Telikom, one that specifically binds the people to take care of the facilities, will see the beginning of a new deal for the embattled PNG telecommunication supplier.
Sadly, and only a short distance away, we read last Friday of Kainantu primary school falling victim to a break and enter gang.
This is not the first time the school has been ransacked.
But last week’s haul was valued at some K25,000 and that’s a small fortune for a primary school to lose overnight. Computers, photocopiers, printers and other items were stolen – the computers contained the academic records of some 1,200 students.
Once again we wonder about the impact of the politicians in the Kainantu area.
Although the elections remain recent, we would ask what plans are underway to deal with the needs and aspirations of the Kainantu people, while cracking down on what appears to be a significant criminal element.
Kainantu has become notorious, the once delightful Highlands town now a travesty of its former self.
Yet nobody can deny the area’s potential.
There’s gold in the hills; it may be that the prospect of huge wealth, when dangled in front of an unsophisticated target, has proved to be catastrophic.
Whatever the reason, the outcome is obvious.
And so is the need for a solution that will begin the long process of returning this small town and its surroundings to normality.
As we have written before, this cannot be simply a matter for the police.
The move towards change has to come from the hearts and minds of the people.
That means a big effort on the part of the community – one involving churches, youth groups, sporting and women’s clubs, village committees and educational authorities.
And above all such a movement needs leadership and that rightly and properly should come from the local members of Parliament.
The National has long observed a trend, one that places members of the House firmly in luxury in Port Moresby while their electorate wither and die on the vine.
This must not happen in Kainantu, particularly at a time when leadership is so desperately needed.
No government can be expected to invest in areas where facilities are at risk and where criminals rule the roost.
Community action is the only answer if Kainantu is to resume its former respected role as the gateway to the highlands.