Breakdown in discipline, respect a concern

LET us not pretend and shy away from the truth which is the breakdown in discipline and respect in our society.
This issue has affected everyone and if not addressed soon will affect the future.
Everyone is taking a knee-jerk or reactive rather than looking at a proactive approach to dealing with the situation.
Law and order issues are on the rise, social ills, decline in ethical standard, decline in morality, increase in domestic drug and abuse and the list goes on
It is time to seriously look at restoring the good moral behaviours back into the education system – from primary right up to the secondary schools.
In the past, public annoyance such as making loud noises after 10pm in neighbourhood, consumption of alcohol and drunken behaviour in public places, urinating and carrying offensive weapons in public places were a NO-NO!
The fathers and mothers of 1960s and 1970s were brought up and taught by the colonial administrators how to behave, how to dress and the way to conduct one’s self in public places.
They were neatly attired and well groomed.
Christianity throughout the land was an agent of change pushed through by the main stream churches, the Catholic church, Anglican church, Seventh–day Adventist, United church and Lutheran church.
They strengthen the morals of good behaviours through the teachings of Christianity, further setting and emphasising the virtues of good social behaviour.
Just look back to the past and see the photos of the 70s and 80s – the next wave of Papua New Guinean leaders who grew up from under the wings of these founding men and women leaders learned a lot from.
Sadly, these men and women were only are very small percentage of the total population.
As the country pushed on from the 80s to the 90s and into the beginning of the digital era, the governments of the day also responded to keep up with rapid development changes and trends.
The Government is putting up more government schools and the church run schools are getting less and under-capitalised and not able to fully teach the new generation of Papua New Guineans what it did in the 70s and 80s.
It seemed as though, we have forgotten quality education and are putting more focus on quantity, in an attempt to get as much people as literate as possible. And in the process, we left out an important component – behaviour, one would have thought.
Today we see school fights after school fights and a lot of public brutality.
It seems we have gone back to our pre-historical behaviours of being head-hunters, execution of sorcery agent, taking land by war, stealing women and the list goes on. The government of the day needs to admit that making tougher laws will not solve the social behavioural problems of this country.
Let the main stream churches once again become the main drivers of social behavioural changes for the new generations of PNG.
The main stream churches that still remain in PNG after over 100 years had a lot to do with changing us. Let us give it back to the main steam churches.
They know best how to do it and have done that to the first wave of new generation of PNG who have brought us to where we are today.
Let them teach them (new generation) the right way to behave, the way to dress and to respect and love one’s neighbour.