SIM registration queried

THE mad rush and extended deadline given by the Government and Nicta for the registration of mobile phone subscribers in this country is suspicious.
This is because the relevant authority or department responsible did not come out to the public and disseminate the reasons behind this SIM card registration.
The Government did not come clear as to why and what benefits the people of this nation will acquire from registering their SIM cards.
This activity or programme of taking photographs or fingerprints, apart from filling up personal details, is indeed undemocratic.
Why should Nicta and other communication companies know the personal identities of all citizens?
Just imagine how 85 per cent of our eight million population, living in rural areas, will have their private texts and conversations exposed to the outside world when utilising their mobile phones.
Such foreign ideas of National Identification (NID) and SIM card registration did not even go through Parliament for debate before they were passed down to citizens to comply. Communications Minister Sam Basil and his Nicta team should not push this foreign programme down the subscribers’ throats.
Awareness and education of this SIM card registration must reach all bucolic areas of PNG and allow the public to gauge their views/opinions before implementation.

Ples Man
Lae
Morobe