Dion urges people to recognise roles

 THE regional member for East New Britain Leo Dion said he still maintained his primary function as the elected representative of the province. 

“This fact cannot be changed and I have a constituency that I represent just like the four open members,” he said.

Dion, the deputy prime minister, was responding to a statement last Friday by a leader from Pomio, Camilus Tati, claiming he (Dion) was duplicating the role of the governor.

Dion said it was ignorance of the facts that did not only cause animosity among leaders and those they led but seriously undermined the intelligence of the people. 

“Leadership is noble and those who are already playing leadership roles in our society, community province and country must play this (leadership) role with genuineness and honesty and not on deceit and deliberate ignorance that will achieve nothing but create confusion in the minds of the people we are supposed to serve as leaders,” he said.

He said the ordinary people’s intelligence must not be taken for granted, especially when they became more educated and were accessing information through various means to be better informed about developments affecting their lives as well as happenings around them.

“If there is any confusion created as a result of East New Britain’s regional member becoming the deputy prime minister and minister of cabinet and the open member for Kokopo being elected from among the four open MPs as governor, then they must use the system to seek clarity rather than use the media for cheap political point scoring,” Dion said.