B’ville referendum not in PNG’s best interest

I AM against the Government’s plans to allow Bougainvilleans to choose their political destiny through a referendum in 2019.
It has now established the Bougainville Referendum Commission to prepare for the watershed event.
As the precedence will be set by the Bougainville referendum, other provinces in Papua New Guinea, especially the resource-rich and  advanced provinces, will be seriously considering self-determination and autonomy.
PNG is blessed with natural resources but if our resource-rich provinces break away our country’s economy will collapse.
Southern Highlands and Morobe provinces have expressed their desire to attain autonomy and more are likely to follow.
What benefit will PNG get from giving autonomy status to these resource-rich provinces?
The Government is telling us that it needs more revenue to boost development and growth.
Therefore, it should discourage the resource-rich provinces from trying to break away and become autonomous.
Instead, the Government should work closely with them and address their problems amicably and promote our national identity.  It would be very sad for a Papua New Guinean, who visits a friend in Bougainville, to convert kina to their currency and use a passport to travel there.
We have diverse cultural groupings but God created us to live in unity as one people, one nation.

Jeffsatu Lypin Lokait
Port Moresby