100 days in office

PRIME Minister James Marape’s government is on its way to recording 100 days in office.
Apart from the rhetorics enthusiastically peddled by ignorant Facebook trollers and equally blinded villagers inhabiting Gordon Market, the country is yet to see substance from this government.
The saying “one does not see the value of something until you lose it” is evident to many, especially those in the remote far flung places of PNG, who sorely miss the weekly contacts the former government had with them.
I dare say weekly because during Peter O’Neill’s reign there was newspaper reports of projects and services being delivered big-time every week. The O’Neill government was all about service delivery. The catch cry ‘Take Back PNG’ has no context.
What are you trying to take back PNG from? From the brink of economic collapse? From corruption? From the Asians? From international conglomerates operating in the country? Or are you taking PNG backwards?
Spell out policies that will identify and address the context in which the catch phrase ‘Take Back PNG’ will take effect.
For the record, PNG was never on the brink of economic collapse.
To the contrary the international financial ratings were attractive enough to lure international investors.
This government is fostering policies that ignore the simple fact that PNG is a part of the global village.
Our policies should be encouraging investors. As it is, this government’s unfriendly investment policies are definitely taking PNG backwards unwittingly fulfilling the catch cry ‘Take Back PNG’.
One action that irks like-minded and patriotic Papua New Guineans is the striping of the National Planning Ministry from Richard Maru, one of the best, if not the best minister PNG has ever had.
The Prime Minister’s actions reveal the personality and mindset he has.
If the Prime Minister can appoint opposition members to ministries for the first time in our country’s short history, he can surely work with the best minister who actually showed his confidence in him on the floor of the parliament.
The current government may have the confidence of the entire parliament baring Belden Namah and Sir Mekere Morauta, but it is fast losing the ordinary people’s support with its empty rhetoric and witch hunting exercises.
People in the rural hinterlands of PNG are missing the presence of the former O’Neill government and can easily see through the rhetoric.

Concerned , Pom