Law and order issues need to be addressed

Editorial

OVERTIME, the Government has focused on growing the economy through the various projects and developments.
And its various budget allocations has focused on – benefiting the bulk of the population dependent on the agricultural sector.
That is to motivate rural folks, who were just about abandoning their small plantations, to return to work on them in anticipation of improvements in world commodity prices.
There is also hopefulness in that the Works Department will rehabilitate some of the vital roads to enable efficiency and improved production in the agricultural sector and other economic activities.
Improvements in the agriculture, fisheries and forestry sectors in general are the reason for such hopefulness.
The small-to-medium enterprise sector have also been given due recognition in the budget and some serious government intervention is expected such as direct funding to the National Development Bank and a business incubation programme.
The objective in all this is poverty alleviation among the rural communities, job creation and – ultimately – national economic growth.
But the economic prosperity envisaged by the Government and its development partners would be pointless if PNG society is suffering from violence and social disorder.
Apart from investing in programmes to put money into people’s pockets to enable them to access quality products and services, it is simple common sense to also spend money to ensure peace and security in the communities.
There is a whole lot more to crime and lawlessness in our rural communities and urban centres than what is reported in the media.
Many very serious crimes are never attended to because of a breakdown in law and order and lack of law enforcement.
In all cases of violence and crime, the public naturally expects police to step in and arrest the perpetrators. However, when police manpower and resources are stretched, it is quite futile to expect them to attend to crime and restore peace and harmony in communities.
There is a frightening rise in violence in the country, in some instances it is used in the name of justice to penalise wrongdoers or suspects.
Such violence also manifests itself in holding the State and investors to ransom over matters that could be settled by the use of established systems to seek redress.
This issue has affected everyone and if not addressed soon will affect the future.
Law and order issues are on the rise, social ills, decline in ethical standard, decline in morality, increase in domestic drug and abuse and the list goes on
This is totally unacceptable and should never be tolerated.
A change of mindsets is needed so we do not always expect law enforcement agencies to provide security and peace in communities.
Instead of depending entirely on government agencies like police to be at all places at all times to react to crime and violence, the public need to be proactive.
We need to rid the sickening level of violence in families and communities.
Without peace and harmony, prosperity is pointless.
In fact, the absence of violence will be a substance to economic growth and a good quality of life.