Govt must boost our military capacities

 THE O’Neill Government needs to seriously review the Papua New Guinea Defence Force to expand its capacity and shift its focus to undertake major civil projects aimed at developing the defined economic corridors. 

The Government needs to expand the country’s military capacity by restructuring PNGDF to recruit 100,000 new personnel. The Defence Force must train them, discipline them and spread them out strategically to undertake civil construction projects, especially building roads, bridges and wharves in the defined economic corridors. 

This operation must be conducted in full military style where discipline must be upheld and adhered to at all times. 

An equal number of males and females must be employed with very strict code of discipline like no drinking of alcohol, chewing of buai and smoking. 

This is critical because it will ease unemployment, cut down wastage of money and time on contractors, and increase our military capacity. 

We must never lose sight of the fact that we share a land border with the biggest Muslim state which is unwilling to grant West Papua independence. 

We must prepare our military for unforeseen circumstance. 

Young people entering the military will develop a sense of self respect, discipline and patriotism. 

Currently, the military is under utilised and is a liability to the State. 

Under the proposed restructure, the Government needs to identify strategic locations and spread the military where they can work with other government agencies. 

This will open up the country faster and link all the provinces. Economic activities will accelerate as the economic corridors open up. 

If the Government needs more money, it must go ahead and borrow.

Thus far, we have seen Prime Minister Peter O’Neill thinking outside conventional economics and this is very encouraging. 

The days of thinking within the box and being scared by conventional economics is over because this country will never go broke the moment we step outside and think big. 

O’Neill must be commended for providing the right leadership that is going to transform PNG into a successful economy in the not too distant future. 

Samson Wena

Kerowagi, Chimbu