Tough laws needed to solve law, order woes

I REFER to your news item regarding quick intervention by Wabag police that prevented all-out tribal war in Wabag (Nov 20).
While I commend the police for their swift action, I suggest it is now time to rethink our approach to resolving tribal fights in Enga province and elsewhere in the Highlands region.
The tribal fights is one of the major factors that is obstructing economic progress in the Highlands region and has become part of the overall law and order problems in PNG.
PNG has basically used two approaches to solve law and order problems.
The first can be categorised as direct or active approach to combat tribal warfare and general and order problems is done by making relevant laws and funding law enforcing agencies such as police, courts and Correctional institution services to uphold those laws.
The other can be classified as indirect or passive approach to solve tribal fights and to address general law and order problems in the country. Indirect approach involves using other means other than laws and use of law agencies.
It may consists of engaging people in economic activities, or funding social activities such as sports or facilitating spiritual development through the churches so that behaviour and attitudes of the citizens may change and they become law abiding citizens.
To combat tribal fights in the Highlands region, Highlands leaders need to employ direct approach to make the State’s presence felt and respected.
Tribal fights is a culture, a way of life that has been passed on from generations to generations and even now has become part of people’s thinking and accepted behaviour patterns and an important means of seeking justice.
In blindly trusting indirect approach will never eradicate tribal fights. The tribes who engaged in tribal fights have never been arrested and brought to face the full force of the law.
Police are ill equipped to arrest, charge and bring to courts tribal warriors who are sometimes better equipped than the law enforcing agencies. Tribal fighters who escaped justice have greatly undermined the authority of the State and law enforcing agencies.
The relevant laws, particularly the Inter-Group Fighters Act, relating to tribal fights need swift amendments. The present act is enacted based on Western ideologies and cultures where the focus is on individualism.
That is, an individual is solely accountable for his own actions because a person belongs to himself alone.
On the contrary, our people’s philosophy is based on group – where an individual does not belong to himself but to family, clan or tribe. By the virtue of our culture, group is accountable and responsible for an individual’s action.
In the Highlands, an individual’s problem or success is the entire tribe’s problem or success.
In that light, Inter-Group Fighters Act, should be amended to make the entire tribe held responsible and accountable for the actions of an individual member of the society.
Law enforcing agencies must have the power to arrest and charge any members of the tribe who started tribal fights.
If the culprits are still at large, then the members of the tribe or tribal leaders are jailed on behalf of the concerned individual member.
To enforce the Act and other laws, we need to increase funding for the law agencies such as the police.
In the Highlands region, leaders must fight fire with fire to deter tribal fights which are hampering development.
The police must made their presence felt either through building more police stations or use of more mobile police squads to patrol the provinces on a daily basis.
In the other parts of the regions, there may be minimal tribal conflicts but organised crimes such as rape, murder, robbery, theft, secessionist movements and a general decline in law and order pose serious threats.
It is a gross error to address law and order problems using indirect or passive means, though that is an important complementary approach. The State needs to put its big foot down and demonstrate to its citizens that the Government has long hands.
On the national front, the elected leaders need to make tough laws to combat law and order problems and increase funding for the law enforcing agencies to carry them out. Within the last five years, the country has seen unprecedented economic success and for first time in our history, the Government handed down K8.9 billion budget, which is three times greater than any given annual budgets in the last 32 years.
To sustain our economic success, addressing law and order problems should be the State’s number one priority.
Tough laws are now needed to solve law and order problems.
Our Asian neighbours do that. They enacted strong laws to combat law and order problems to achieve and sustain economic progress regardless of what the West think.
PNG needs to employ direct approach to combat law and problems including tribal fights in the Highlands region.

Mamando Pain
Laiagam