­­Can we learn from our own history?

IT has been said that history is a nation’s greatest teacher.
Can Papua New Guinea learn from  its young yet colourful history to help itself in fixing the current political impasse and guide us in 2012 and beyond?
Yes, we can!
A nation “is not a dog whereby it shall go back and eat its own vomit”, but is made up of people who can and must learn from history so that we do not go down the same path.
But first, we should assess for ourselves where PNG is as a nation.
After 36 years of independence, are we underdeveloped, are we developed or are we an impove­rished nation?
PNG as it is, is sitting on the verge of major unprecedented development that will surely put us on the world’s map as a truly developing nation instead of a third world     backyard.
By 2014, we will see the full fruits of our much talked about LNG pro­ject and our annual budget of K10 billion will go up to K30 billion.
Come that year, development, sealed roads, quality hospitals and clinics, better pay on par with expatriate pay should not be a dream anymore, but a reality.
MPs that we put into government will have to deliver these services to the people of PNG.
But we currently have a PM and DPM who are issuing promises left, right and centre, just like “hot hamburgers” as in Peter O’Neill’s own description of our chief justice.
They have trampled down, stepped on and used as toilet paper our Constitution and are now trying to do the very same thing to our judiciary – the knights that uphold our Constitution!
It is time to recall history to a developed province of PNG and the pride of the Pacific, that is the Au­tonomous Region of Bougainville.
The pollution of Bougainville’s rivers is the catalyst that drove the province and PNG into an all-out civil war, in the name of secessionism and in the name of a few who had a dozen promises.
While it is human nature to blame others for our mishaps, do we not realise the power to make decision has been in our own hands all along?
Papua New Guineans must not be fooled for if we allow this to go on any longer we will see bloodshed like we saw in Bougainville, and instead of moving forward, we will leap 20 years back into disarray.
If the war in Bougainville never happened, we would be years ahead of where we are right now and pro­jects like the LNG would be just another catalyst to bring this nation another step forward.
I call on all Papua New Guineans to stand united as one nation for our constitution, and for our future.
Enough is enough.
We must not allow a government that does not live by the rule of law to rule any long­­er.

Aseyava Nava
Port Moresby