Bribery is bribery, there’s no grey area

The give and take, or Nere Tere, politics in Chimbu was not born out of any Christian conviction or moral philosophy.
It is one of the many ugly faces of contemporary Highlands politics that is deeply rooted in greed and corruption.
“Nere Tere” brings about more pain and suffering than it does progress and happiness.
During the last national elections, in Chimbu, a lot of intending candidates, as well as incumbent MPs, were dishing out huge amounts of cash to voters to gain their support and a tick on the ballot.
A lot of church-going people I have spoken to said that the most acceptable thing one can do is to accept money and other favours from only one candidate of your choice.
They think that it is not wrong when you accept money from only one candidate and give your vote to him in return.
“We have taken his money and we have given him our vote in return, so we are not carrying any guilty conscience with us,” they said.
Their interpretation of their so-called “Christian conviction” or morality is totally wrong.
Bribery is bribery.
Whether you take money from only one candidate or 10 different candidates, it’s still bribery.
The voter who sells his vote and the candidate who buys it are behaving as if they are buyers and sellers trading off prime real estate.
The politics of free handouts, collusion and stupidity in which both the giver and taker collude contributed to the country’s demise. Those voters who sell their votes should be stripped off their democratic right to vote in an election.
Those candidates who are vigorously engaged in the corruption of vote-buying should be banned from ever contesting in elections.

Paul Waugla Wii, Via email