Help address law, order issues

Editorial

THERE are no single and straight-forward recommendations, formula or secrets to reduce law and order problems anywhere in the world.
Papua New Guinea we all know is confronted with pressing socio-economic, political, legal and administrative issues.
We accept the need for far-reaching social intervention to correct problems, much of which flow from poor parenting, compounded by the failure of the State to address poverty, public indiscipline and delinquency over a period of many years.
Maintaining peace and harmony in the city or out in the provinces and districts is not an easy task, but could be done through collective efforts from individuals, institutions, business houses, police and MPs.
Law and order issues are said to be on the rise in the country and everyone concerned are working overtime to have it address addressed.
The churches, non-government organisations, donor agencies and international friends are all coming in different capacities to help address this issue.
Their support though can only stretch up to a certain limit based on their scope of work.
While some areas have seen improvement, a lot still is required to eradicate this issue which if not addressed will be an impediment to development.
It is not possible to remove the problem once and for all because we are talking about changing human attitude, mindset and behaviour which have been influenced by the social environment that individual interacts with.
So they say the only realistic approach is try to develop methods, not to eliminate the issue or even drastically reduce it, and to live with it, ensuring the problem is manageable and do not seriously affect the citizens, visitors and investments.
However, all should understand that just as the social problems took years to fester and become open sores, social intervention takes a long time to work.
Social intervention cannot prosper in community environs where the law is impotent and criminals rule.
For social intervention to sustainably work, for people to go about their business freely and without fear, for children to go to school unmolested and without being lured by criminals, law and order should rule. To this end, in the very short term, and for as long as necessary, the security forces should take control of these communities haunted by those who have lost respect for humans or criminals.
Any place can be transformed easily if law and order issues are addressed adequately to allow a conducive environment for business activities and service delivery.
Police presence in the communities would bring an impact and bring about changes
PNG does not want just a police force.
We want a police force that will be effective and accountable and trained, properly disciplined.
But how can police do that with their budget?
The efforts of Police Commissioner David Manning and his commanders in addressing law and order should be commended with the limited resources they already have.
Various programmes launched by police and its line agencies to curbing law and order are there, but what good is a grand plan be without funding.
Here we have leaders who have the vision to make a difference, they should be supporting with logistics and funding.
These officers and many others need should be supported by way of ensuring funding is allocated to see through the plan.
The challenge goes back to those in authority on how we expect to see changes when adequate funding is not given.

One thought on “Help address law, order issues

  • To realistically discuss solutions to law and order issues we must understand firstly the integration of all issues /factors towards human development, something development agencies are very good at…and they will tell you law and order is the direct product expected at the end of the human development factors including social, economic, political and geographical status. I agree interventions will need a multi-sectoral approach , bottom and top down, starting with political wills which is not only a politicians agenda but every citizen.

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