Analyse Ramifications

IT was noble of Prime Minister James Marape and his cohorts to initiate the Sapotim Wantok Foundation.
Such time when PNG is getting hungrier and needier by the day, the aid will reverse the rate of exponential decline affecting us all.
So what caused these starvation and destitution in the first place? Covid-19? Don’t think so.
What the Foundation is proposing to address is the very creation of the lockdown policy’s miscarriage.
The policy, brilliant in containing the pandemic, lacked strategic directions and leadership to mitigate its impact on socio-economic realities presently smothering ordinary citizens.
I recall at the special Parliament session to debate the state of emergency (SOE), a passionate East Sepik Governor Allan Bird, asking the PM where he was getting his advises and ideals from when formulating the lockdown framework.
Did he care to analyse the ramifications of the SOE lockdown on, micro-entrepreneurs daily providing food on the table for their families? Or traditional farmers and fishermen unable to trade their harvests at the markets?
Where is the rationale of saving a life (from Covid-19) only to lose it to starvation and inflated depression?
PNG is not all formal sectors.
Informal sectors contribute as much to the economy.
PM’s ignorance of this fact validates his reliance on imported factors to prescribe and control his dictation, a formula for weakness.
Let’s be honest, the imported cut and paste lockdown policy will continue to weaken the spine (ordinary citizens) of our country.
The obvious indication is PNG breastfeeding on donor agencies to implement its social service priorities.
Can we become the richest black nation breastfeeding?
If the Government had conducted a small self-analysis of PNG pre and post lockdown, it would have by now figured-out PNG’s real strengths and formulate a policy that capitalise on these, rather than replicating the stifling path of other global lock downs.
Fact of the matter is PNG does not have the advantages to afford such lock downs.
Enough of kneejerk band-aid solutions.

Douglas Patiken Barara,
8-Mile Port Moresby