Burden of free services

I AM writing again about the political events of the last few weeks.
The visions and aims set by Prime Minister James Marape are high and noble and some of them also constitute a very tall order.
They can be achieved but, in my opinion, one of the problems this government is inheriting is an economy heavily burdened with services that are provided free of charge.
The free services in health and education particularly are not achieving their intended purpose.
People, who queue up to receive these so called free services, find themselves at the end of a line where classrooms are full or overcrowded; there are limited learning resources, poor education quality, exhausted tuition free funds, limited opportunities to be selected to tertiary institutions, and limited employment opportunities at the end of schooling/training.
For health services, it is the same.
At the end of very long queue, you would find no medicine for your ailment.
Health facilities and services have deteriorated or are non-existent and there are few or sometimes no health workers available to serve you.
I’m listing these two of the so-called free government services because they are becoming painful and burdensome and have not satisfactorily met the needs of the people.
A third world developing nation like PNG should subsidise costs to these services rather than to provide them as free.
A large percentage of the government’s national budget has been allocated yearly to provide free health and education services.
The greater portion of our national budget should go to areas of greater economic return.
The new government, I believe, is inheriting this economic burden created by its predecessor.
We also, as a nation, face the dilemma and challenges to our traditional beliefs, cultural practices and social order and lifestyle of our people.
These would continue to stand in the way to change us from a poor society into a wealthy society.
Educating and making changes in the areas of people’s attitudes and their philosophical beliefs would help us move forward with the aspirations of this government.
PNG is simply not rich enough to afford free services to the people.
Everyone must work hard to contribute to the development of this country.
The cargo cult handout mentality must be stopped.
This government must look back at all of its existing institutions and fund them fully.
Renovate and upgrade and uplift them to their highest quality and standard.
Limit expansions of new projects – let’s fix what we have first.
We boast about new projects but they built at the expense of our old and existing institutions.
This government should also invest effectively in our roads, highways, wharves, bridges and other existing infrastructures.
This will open up the free flow of services leading to better economic outcomes.

Simple Citizen