Change of approach on compo

Editorial, Normal

SOMETHING extraordinary happened in Wabag last Friday.
The relatives of 16 people who perished in a terrible passenger motor vehicle accident a few weeks ago gathered at the Enga provincial headquarters and agreed that they would not press for compensation from the bus owner.
They decided it would be far better to pursue claims with the Motor Vehicle Insurance Trust.
Quite apart from the fact that any claims lodged with the MVIT will have to be assessed and compensation will be dependent on the investigation, the fact that the people have opted to seek compensation through this legal means is action worthy of praise and emulation.
This is, perhaps, the very first time that many different families, all from the highlands which is notorious for its compensation and payback traditions, have decided not to press for compensation.
This is no small matter.
In a region where compensation claims – and outrageous ones at that – have become the norm, this move is a beacon of hope in the tempestuous seas of despair and escalating violence.
That common sense has prevailed where once threats, roadblocks, payback killings and such like used to rule, is a twist of fate that borders of the miraculous.
It is no exaggeration.
The unwritten law in these parts is that if a live is lost, you have to pay for it with your life or your life’s savings and that of your entire tribe. Then, you spend the balance of your life paying off your own people for their support.
Nothing is free in this society.
Many a time we have seen roadblocks following fatal road accidents where relatives of the deceased demand compensation and, virtually, rob people from the tribes or district and even province of owners of vehicles.
We have seen vehicles taken away and burnt or kept until owners go to pay for them, regardless of whether the vehicle belongs to the offending party or not. This has become a norm and the police, hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned, have often had to play the role of mediators.
Sure, we can see that in this instance, the relatives could well see  (indeed, have admitted) that the financial capacity of the PMV owner is limited and that he could not possibly pay a decent sum for all the deceased. By extension of that argument, we could also see that were the owner of the vehicle some big company, the situation might have been different.
Still, this is a start.
If the authorities can see this and encourage such attitudes, perhaps, the gesture might spread and find acceptance among Papua New Guineans.
These are the kind of attitudes that the government must be on the lookout for since it cannot seem to curb the bad and criminal behaviour of people.
Many bad habits which have sprung up among our communities, such as outlandish compensation claims and sorcery killings, have developed because the government had tended to turn a blind eye on these acts which were clearly illegal.
Of the hundreds of reported sorcery killings and scores more, which go unreported, only a handful had ended up in court.
There is no clear legal position on sorcery and, if there is, its enforcement is so lax that it encourages people to engage in sorcery killings which are clearly wilful and premeditated murder in most instances which carry the death penalty.
The government’s lax attitude towards inflated compensation claims, payback killings and sorcery killings tends to encourage, rather than discourage, perpetrators.
Compensation claims follow a similar trend.
The size of claims have continuously increased with no limit set by any authority at the village, district, provincial or national level.
Limits for compensation, therefore, have tended to depend on the ability to pay and the other’s ability to intimidate and coerce such payments.
Governments at all levels have placed these issues in the too-hard basket where they have festered and developed into social problems of a magnitude that now threatens peace in the communities.