Mining boom but nothing to show

IN the 1980s, Papua New Guinea had only one major mine and that was the Panguna copper mine in Bougainville, which is now closed.
Despite having only one mine, we were doing pretty well.
In the last two decades, new mines were opened and, among them, are Ok Tedi, Porgera, Lihir and Misima, not to mention oil and gas fields being discovered in Southern Highlands.
As such, we should have been better off than many developing countries if we were to include other sectors like agriculture, forestry and fisheries among others.
The good Lord has blessed this country with an abundance of natural resources.
We are now enjoying a mining boom and our latest ventures are the two LNG projects, not to mention the Ramu nickel mine.
But look at what is happening and where has all the money generated gone to?
The contributing factors are mismanagement, maladministration, misguided policies, poor planning, lack of knowledge, etc.
But all these are caused by only one sin – greed. As human beings, we are hungry for power and wealth.
As a result, our leaders and top bureaucrats lost sight of developing the country and thought only of themselves and how to dip into the honey pot.
They tried to cling onto power to gain more wealth and, unfortunately, they still do that today.
This is why we are not seeing any tangible development in this beautiful and blessed country of ours.
What came close to bankrupting us was the Cayman island deal as exposed by former prime minister, the late Bill Skate.
If only our MPs had the guts to back him up, we would not have been in the cesspool.
The point is, as a nation, we did not benefit from the whole episode.
Today, we have lost track of the number of trust accounts.
We have huge piles of money sitting and doing nothing.
If these funds end up where they were supposed to go, then our people no longer have to suffer, breaking their backs to make ends meet.
Our mothers and children do not have to suffer from lack of medicine and health care, our people do not have to be illiterate, our roads and highways maintained and new roads being built to help our rural people transport their produce to both local and international markets, and the list goes on.
Our greedy leaders ought to be ashamed and it is best they channel these funds to good use.
What is the use of being wealthy but unable to bring along even a single toea when you die?
The good Lord knows what is going on and he is watching.- Halpe Su’Aro Oksco Via email