Policy implementation

THE new government had already instill some sense of hope and confidence to this nation through the slogan “Take back PNG”.
Assurance given to this nation indicates that our young prime minister is confident of leading this nation to realise its dream by 2029, not to do it alone but to join hands with like-minded leaders, civil servants, elite citizens and general public in all walks of life to share ideas and transform this country to become one of the richest black Christian nations on the planet.
The most decorated statement entailed with wisdom is, he does not want a single child to be left behind.
Every leader have their own vision, dreams and philosophy on how they will lead their people or nation and our new PM had his own.
PNG anticipates to see some tangible transformation and the speeches made by the prime minister already attracted some glory and was well followed in detail and captured and absorbed by the entire nation.
To lead the eight million-plus people of this nation is not an easy task.
I know my good PM’s own statement can put much pressure and burden on himself but not to worry about this as your coalition government have some capable young leaders from both side of the house who can help to drive this dream forward.
This is first of its kind in PNG for a prime minister to seek ideas from all citizens to take back PNG.
People are in a mode of contributing their ideas, but how and when a question to many remains.
One alternative I propose, if the power of social media such as facebook can contribute to the removal of Peter O’Neill, why not all ministries create their own Facebook page purposely for public forum, for citizens to stream by writing their thoughts and views contributing to that particular ministry.
Example, Health can have its own. Education, Works, Mining, Fisheries, Agriculture and the list goes on.
These pages can have their admins to monitor citizens views whether good or bad, can be filtered, strained and copied for assessments for policy draft.
Good and smart ideas can be copied and included to set up file that can be used as information’s to design policies under respective ministries to fulfil government ambition.
People can contribute their ideas through that mode of communication.
Again another troubling factor.
Two things that really an issue here is the concept and the practical.
We can come up with new ideas, laws, policies, government structures etc.
However, the most worrying part is some laws and policies are not being supported and implemented properly.
Some policies were underfunded, some policies were abused in terms of manipulation, some proposed provisions of laws lay idle and collect dust in parliament and some not fully implemented.
Development structures under respective essential ministries have not been fully utilised and so forth.
Example, our health structure is fragmented and also this free health care policy does not work well with us.
Our education system is being experimented in an adopted and phase out system.
Overall outlook, there is no visible linkage or policy interaction connecting all statutory bodies and respective government agencies.
How can a responsible government realise its achievements?
How can a government know that people are benefiting?
All government agencies should be intact, driven with unison approach to fulfil government ambition and aspiration in terms of effective service delivery.
Concepts are easily said and formulated.
The issue really holding back this nation is policy implementation.

Hanam Bill Sandu
LAE