Time for capital to clean up its act

 AS far as capital cities in the Pacific region go Port Moresby would have to be ranked on the lower rung in terms of cleanliness. 

It is unfortunate and embarrassing but any visitor to the nation’s capital does not just contend with the humidity and crime but the general shabbiness of the place. 

It is not as if the city authorities have not tried to do something about it. 

They have, after all, enacted regulations to control for example the sale and consumption of betel nuts. 

Much has been written and argued about the detrimental effect this plant, which is a mild depressant, has had on the clean image of the city. 

But it has become such normal part of everyday life for many people that bans and restrictions have not checked the trade and consumption of the nut. 

The biggest problem with chewing buai is the disposal of the spittle. 

In Port Moresby, as in every other place in the country where buai is chewed habitually by a significant portion of the population, the biggest eye sores has been the sight of red stained  walls, posts, pavements and basically all manner of public property. 

But it is not just buai that is causing the city to descend into an unsightly state. 

The general demeanour of the populace is not helping. 

Sure, there have been improvements to the general attitudes of people but the de­facing of public property continues unabated. 

Port Moresby is not just the melting pot of a nation of a hundred cultures and many more languages; it is the face of the country. 

The first thing most visitors see when they first set foot in Papua New Guinea is Port Moresby, although some tend to bypass the city altogether and head straight to other ports that receive international fights, and so it is time for a makeover. 

It will not be an easy task but it must be done if Port Moresby is to become city that carries the pride of the nation. 

Moresby South MP Justin Tkatchenko and National Capital District Governor Powes Parkop have attempted to beautify the city with a number of initiatives, with the buai ban being just one such approach. Now Tkatchenko, who holds the added title of national events minister, along with his sports portfolio, is embarking on a clean-up of the city’s transportation sector. 

It, if anyone, who has had the privilege of having been to other Pacific countries, can attest will not win any awards. 

Tkatchenko maybe swimming against the tide here but he is determined and has started the push for a cleaner public transport system. 

Raising concerns because the city is set to host several major events over the next two years, the former gardener/landscaper turned businessman and then politician has stated frankly that Port Moresby has filthy public buses, taxis, as well as dirty streets and public areas which are an international disgrace. 

“Taxis are filthy, buses are filthy,” Tkatchenko told fellow MPs Parkop and new Minister for Transport Malakai Tabar. 

Tkatchenko took aim at a slack road traffic authority that was not doing its job to keep unroadworthy and unsightly vehicles off the public motorways. 

“We have to start introducing harsher penalties. 

“Trafiic authorities that are in charge of these things need to get off their backsides put these people off the road if they are totally filthy and not roadworthy. 

“We can’t put up with these K20 and K50 bribes anymore,”  he said. 

If Tkachenko’s stance is too abrasive for some and akin to making a mountain out of a mole hill then those people should pause and ask themselves how their city is really perceived by foreigners. 

Do they have a real sense of pride in their home, the capital of an independent nation, the largest in the Pa­cific, outside of Australia and New Zealand. 

With the Pacific Games next year and the Asia-Pacific Economic forum in 2018, the city must clean up its act and men like Tkatchenko have the duty of telling it the way it is. 

“Ownership is the biggest thing, people not taking ownership of the streets or of public places. 

“If a Papua New Guinean goes to Australia, he changes his attitude and stops throwing rubbish, so why can’t they do the same here,” Tkatchenko asked.