Namah wants Government to lift lockdown immediately

OPPOSITION Leader and Vanimo-Green MP Belden Namah wants the Government to immediately lift lockdowns nationwide and promote aggressively the “Niupela Pasin” (new normal) Covid-19 public health protocols.
“Lockdowns are killing the economy and putting people out of work and shutting down businesses,” he said.
“Unless the Government lifts lockdowns immediately, it will be creating a social and economic disaster far worse than the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Lockdowns are encouraging criminal activities and disrupting the education of a whole generation of children.
“The Pandemic Act has given this prime minister (James Marape) and the pandemic controller (David Manning) unbridled powers. “Marape, Manning and a close knit group of ministers and supporters are now usurping the powers of the legislature, the judiciary, the bureaucracy and even the executive government.
“We are fast moving towards becoming a police state.
“While lifting lockdowns, I call for ‘Niupela Pasin’ protocols to be promoted and encouraged by public health workers and civil servants and not members of the security forces.
“Police and soldiers are abusing the human rights of our citizens and adding further to the hardships and misery imposed by the pandemic.
“Police should be performing their mandated policing roles,” Namah said.
“Soldiers have a massive task of guarding our unguarded land and our wide-open sea borders.
“Warders should be maintaining prisons and rehabilitating the criminals.”