If authorities won’t help we must unite and work together

THE looting and scavenging of broken down vehicles along the Highlands Highway is a notorious part of the culture in that region.
It has been a risk on a par with fire risks where total loss is always on the cards.
Businesses have suffered and endured this stupidity and brazen lawlessness for years.
Sadly, such shameful criminal behaviour does not like it will stop, never mind the fact that the highway is the region’s economic lifeline.
Thanks to the Government’s failure to enact some of the recommendations of the Vagrancy Act, particularly those targeting the negative impact of the undesirable high influx of certain ethnic groups into the city, we are now also seeing the mob behaviour and looting culture in Port Moresby.
With no means to earn a living, hundreds of people ransacked shops which had caught fire last a few days ago. Some shops that were not on fire were also looted.
These desperate and unscrupulous opportunists will always be on the lookout to pounce on other peoples’ misfortune and tragedy to benefit themselves.
And they will readily take advantage of the Fire Department’s current incapability to quickly put out fires due to a lack of proper equipment and resources.
We can only hope that the civilised citizens can work together with the law enforcing authorities to stamp out this emerging menace from our towns.
We also hope that the new crop of MPs and government after the 2017 elections will take steps to seriously address the issues and rid our markets and other public places of seemly-organised mobs of thugs.
The local people are being marginalised and no longer feel safe.
It would appear that their leaders are rather powerless to give back to them their dignity, respect, harmonious livelihood, and safe environmental that they once enjoyed and still embrace modernisation.
The creeping trend by certain ethnic groups to dominate all the formal and informal sectors has been clearly evident.
The question is what are the local leaders doing to address their people’s plight and lopsided economic participation?
The coming elections provide yet another opportunity to vote for the much-needed changes.
Let us hope that people will wise up and not again be fooled by empty promises, drivel, nonsensical rhetorics and desperate pleadings for another term and chance to feather their own nests even more.

BT,
Port Moresby