Corruption rooted in society

CITIZENS of this beautiful and resource-rich country are now going into the polls to elect their political leaders for the 11th parliament, some 45 years after independence in 1975.
When I sit down and reflect and closely observe the start of the General Election 2022, I personally assume that at the end of this process, PNG will achieve nothing but a failed election.
We must say that corruption is part of everyday PNG.
In recent social media news, many serious allegations of election-related corruption was reported to have happened everywhere.
This is a clear sign of a failed election when a political office-holder or other government employees knowingly act in an official capacity to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for personal gain, which is political corruption.
Many strategies have been undertaken by most experienced and learned elites and leaders in past governments in order to counter corruption but to no avail, because there is a systematic organised crime body in all our localities.
Anti-corruption agencies have not been given the full respect by ruling governments to date because those in power often make laws for their protection.
The endemic social and political corruption occur on different scales from petty corruption to corruption that affects the government on a very large scale which is happening regularly in virtually all places in PNG from the villages up to the parliament.
In PNG we are experiencing issues such as unemployment, political instability, greed for money, smuggling, fraud, squandering of public money, illegal business transactions, deception, poverty, gender inequality, ethnic fights and divisions, inefficient administrative structures, low political transparency, low economic freedom and high inflation, low levels of education, lack of commitment to our country which are factors attributed to corruption.
PNG is at a crossroad.
The first President of United States of America, George Washington once said “human happiness and moral duty of every person on earth are inseparably connected”. Let’s fight corruption

Mike J Lucien