Expectation – hard to kick out

 WESTERN Highlands Governor Paias Wingti told a gathering last week in Mt Hagen that it was time people stopped asking for money from their local MPs. 

The culture of expecting money, goods and services from MPs has long been entrenched in PNG society, since Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare led the first government out of the Australian colonial administration in the mid-1970s.

Perhaps this attitude has been helped along by or is a direct result of the country’s Melanesian traditions where the building of relationships between tribes in an area was dependent on sharing nature’s bounty and strengthening ties through the distribution of wealth.

That attitude still underpins much of the PNG society even in the year 2013, a modern age where the education and exposure to a new set of rules is supposed to bring the country out of the doldrums. 

Wingti was speaking at a launching of Anglimp-South Waghi’s five-year development plan at Komun in neighbouring Jiwaka. 

The former prime minister told his audience that trying to get money from the state through various guises and schemes was one of the main reasons little development was being seen in the province, and indeed elsewhere in the nation. 

“If you keep on asking from your member then the next step is your member will steal,” Wingti warned.

The pressure that MPs come under is no doubt enormous but much of that tension comes from the need to please and to say “yes” to as many supporters, hangers on and interest groups. 

The adage that one cannot please everyone all the time is apt but it should also be said that what is right for the people and doing what the people want are often two different issues. 

Saying that constituent pressure on MPs is the reason they commit impeachable acts is only half right.

Men and women who run for office must factor this into the daily grind of office, otherwise what is the point of seeking office if one cannot handle the most common of problems facing the Papua New Guinean politician.

“Your member will give you from what he or she receives from their salaries and when that is gone (or not enough) then the next is to use the district funds, and that is stealing.” 

If MPs or people do not take a stand to end this cycle then it will only repeat itself with every new member, or old one trying to stay.

The point that needs to be emphasised here is that not only is the dishonest application for funding or the misuse and embezzlement of state money rife, but there are no signs of the problem abating. 

With Jiwaka still in its infancy as provincial unit, Wingti’s between-the-lines warning to the provincial administration is not to let the same attitude and corrupt practices that afflict many provinces, including his own, set roots in the new province. 

The people are stubborn and will remain that way until they see that the law, along with the leadership from the provincial and national governments means business. 

Wingti said most District Services Improvement Programme funds were being misused because of this reason. Actually it would be interesting to see whether there are fewer instances of funds misuse in districts where the MPs are not under as much pressure to deliver.

In the end, stamping out of this attitude can only be achieved by an honest appraisal of where and why the corruption is being promulgated. For that to happen, the people and their MPs must answer the hard questions about whether their own conduct is in keeping with ethical and moral standards. Unfortunately, many in leadership and in the general populace believe that the idea that doing the right thing and doing what they consider to be right is all the same thing.