Our own ‘cannibalistic’ leaders milking country dry

 PNG appears to be the most morally-corrupt country and the most miserably-governed states in the third world. 

Equally worrying is Transparency International’s  annual reports that show the level of corruption among PNG politicians as one of the worst. 

We are sick of the corrupt, incompetent, mendacious, self-serving political class that practise the new cannibalism so clumsily and with  such  grave  consequences  for  Papua  New Guineans who suffer in silence. 

PNG should be placed in a special category of  “ruined states’’ which are victims of corrupt ruling elites that cannibalise their state’s wealth and resources for themselves, their families and their tribal cronies. 

Glaring examples include Robert Mugabe’s  Zimbabwe and  Kim Jong-il’s North Korea, where leaders of such countries deserve to be labelled as the “new cannibals”.

Such cannibalism in PNG is systematically undermining the country’s economy, its society and the livelihood of the silent majority. 

At least half the population is below the poverty line, with women and children being the worst victims of disastrous governance. 

We are still poor beggars and slaves in our own beautiful, rich country due to bad leadership and governance. 

Careless  leaders  with  no  regard  for  the  people are milking the country to bankruptcy with continuous thefts, misuse, mismanagement and misappropriation. 

Millions in public funds are unaccounted for while goods and services are so unevenly  distributed in the country. 

We are running a nation on ad-hoc band-aid assumptions, banking on luck, fortune and chance from the mining boom with no clear long-term sustainable development plans, guidelines, strategies or policies. 

The writing is on clearly on the wall everywhere; there are loopholes that breed corruption  at the highest level and seriously need to be patched. 

We  are  only going  around in  circles,  adding fuel to the fire time and again. PNG is now at the crossroads heading for disaster. 

We seriously need good leaders more than we  need  money. 

Charles Bilisin

Lae