English needs improvement

Letters

I RECENTLY asked my 12-year-old niece, doing Grade 6 at New Erima Primary School, NCD, to verbally describe the school in general.
This is to form a general appraisal of the school. I encouraged her to communicate in English and was troubled with her predicament and struggle to impress her narrative in this learned language.
Though riddled with grammatical errors and bad vocabulary structures, given her grade the discourse was not that bad.
However, to ease her unease, halfway through, I urged her to continue in tok pisin and was overwhelmed in the stark difference.
Her demeanour changed, boldness crept into her voice and the narrative became clearer, more structured and easier for me to understand and appreciate.
Mind you, I had to put a halt to her pulsating demonstration of raw intelligence when no ending was in sight.
This experience reminds my observations of high number of Parliamentarians’ public performance during media reporting and Parliament’s question time on innumerable occasions.
As was the case with my niece, it pains me seeing most struggling to express and impress in their English.
It is inevitable considering English is an imported tongue, however, PNG’s geopolitical influence must never be undermined by speech defects because parliamentarians do not speak English affluently.
Regrettably the lack of fluency coupled with grammatical blunders and poor public speaking techniques, prevalent in many of the public speeches by parliamentarians except when reading from prepared scripts, distorts the connotation and rational of government policy directives and creates vagueness.
It generates a public impression of skepticism in the speaker’s intelligence and credentials to understand and navigate strong leadership.
Fact of the matter is, a high number of parliamentarians lack the required in-depth English language knowledge and art to communicate intelligently and correctly to influence public opinion and appreciation.
Which brings me to the logical question:
Why ill-equipped parliamentarians publically speak a language that has proven and continues to ridicule their intelligence and national/international influence?
Why tamper with foolishness?
Unless able to communicate intelligently and fluently like the notable Ian Ling Stuckey, Allan Bird, Garry Juffa or Bryan Kramer, stop making fools of yourselves and embarrassing us in the process with your illiterate depressing English.
Learn from patriotic statesmen like Kennedy Wenge and the firebrand Sir Pita Lus.
They may not be learned persons but are able to influence public opinion and appreciation with their simplicity.
Why? Because they are able to communicate boldly and clearly their leadership in a plain language we the majority of the people, who matters understand.
Leaders from powerful economies such as President Xi Jinping of China and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany choose not to speak the English language publicly relying on interpreters, yet they are highly capable.
Ironically most PNG parliamentarians slave at it?
English is a colonial tool because it wounds national pride, hurts our sense of importance, and arouses inferiority, while tok pisin and Motu, strengthens national pride, instill our sense of ownership, and unites us as one country one flag.
Let us take back our language.

Douglas Patiken Barara,
8-Mile, Port Moresby