Make it a year of positive change

 TWO days into a New Year and Papua New Guinea has a lot to look forward to.  

There is already the anticipation to bring on the best Pacific Games in July. This is the biggest event on the minds of the O’Neill Government and the people who are in the forefront of preparations for it.

The Pacific Games will bring out the best in PNG’s passion for sport and friendly rivalry. No doubt every citizen would want the country to do well in staging the Games and coming out victorious on the field as well.

As Prime Minister Peter O’Neill said in his New Year’s message yesterday, 2015 will mark the 40th year of independence as a nation and will provide an opportunity to take stock of and build on recent progress.

O’Neill said the focus of the Government would remain on the core policy areas that it promised to the people at the 2012 General Election while managing glo­bal economic concerns relevant to the country.

“Our nation will hold the largest Pacific Games that has ever been undertaken, we will host the Leaders of the Pacific Islands’ Forum and welcome hundreds of APEC delegates as we prepare to host APEC Presidents and Prime Ministers in 2018. 

“As a government, we will continue to ensure the development of our four key priority areas of free education for all of our children, universal healthcare, improving law and order around the nation and delivering vital infrastructure.”

It is the conviction of many Christian leaders and believers alike that 2015 is going to be the crucial year for PNG to end its “wanderings in wilderness” and emerge a prosperous nation where every citizen would share in the blessings. 

Pastor Peter Ropra of the AOG Full Gospel Church in Goroka shares some of his convictions in our Weekender story today.  

He joins many Christians and political leaders in calling for PNG to “cross-over” into new areas of development and prosperity for Papua New Guinea.

“The year 2015 for this country will be very significant, it will be the year, as I term it, the year to ‘cross over’. The 40th year is the year to cross over into the land of milk and honey, but before we cross over let us look at some of the very significant things that God told the people of Israel and Joshua His servant to do at the time they were to cross over,” Ropra says.

“There were certain rituals that God ordered for them to do as they were crossing, like the laying of 12 rocks on the dry riverbed of the Jordan River and the sacrifice on the other side of the River Jordan and the waiting for the three days and so forth.”

Before Papua New Guineans enter into this promised ‘land of milk and honey’ common sense requires that we need to change, improve and live by simple certain rules.

It is not only a spiritual requirement of repentance and returning to God that will usher in any great change.  Instead, the word of God requires us to be obedient to civilian government and respect others. Therein lies the responsibility of every citizen of this country, whether we are Christian or from other faiths.

Whatever the resolutions or plans we have made as individuals, families or corporations, it all rests on the individual doing what he or she has to do so everyone else is happy. 

This is a good time for new beginnings and a change of mindsets and this should start with each individual resolving to put the other’s interest before self.  If this simple rule is applied in the family home, office, factory or the village, what a difference it would make.

We need a simple change of mindsets to live more by the rules –  simple rules like motorists slowing down and stopping instead of running the red light. We need a change of mindsets to realise that living in a town or city is unlike in our traditional villagers and there are certain mores and etiquette to live by in mixed communities where there are other Papua New Guineans and nationalities.

A change of mindsets would require us to be a lot more considerate for others,  to give more than to receive and do more in serving others than expecting to be served. We need a change of mindset to be less critical of others and not dwell too much on their weaknesses but encourage and nurture their strengths.

Let 2015 be a year of positive change and 12 months from today, the country should have every reason to celebrate its achievements.