We need strong, bold leaders

Appeasement? No!
PNG needs a leader like Winston Churchill.
A nation in distress seeks better leaders in times of crises.
Churchill took over power in Great Britain on the eve of World War II from the ever complacent Neville Chamberlain.
Chamberlain was forced to resign for pursuing a conservative policy of appeasement with Nazi Germany’s Adolf Hitler.
Appeasement is a policy of giving Hitler what he wanted to stop him from going to war. It was based on the idea that what Hitler wanted was reasonable and when his demands were met, he would stop.
In 1938, Germans living in the border areas of Czechoslovakia (the Sudetenland) started to demand a union with Hitler’s Germany.
The Czechs refused and Hitler threatened war.
On Sept 30 at the Munich Agreement – without asking Czechoslovakia – Chamberlain and his French counterpart gave the Sudetenland to Germany.
Instead of peace, the appeasement had an opposite effect.
Chamberlain’s hopes that this humiliating sacrifice would satisfy Hitler’s last major territorial demand and thus avert another catastrophic war were dashed within four months.
Hitler took the war path triggering WWII.
As Hitler smashed his way through Western Europe, public opinion in Britain swayed and was against Chamberlain.
He lost a vote of confidence in the lower house and in the house of commons and was forced to resign.
In the great emergency on the heel of Great Britain the country needed a man who could match Hitler in all fronts.
A bold, decisive and upright man with the nerve of steel and well-meaning to his words.
The man who could lead Great Britain in the time of crisis was Churchill.
A short and stocky man with a jowly face, broad body and steadfast determination to stand against the powerful Nazi forces and win.
Political cartoonists portrayed Churchill as the bulldog of Great Britain for its strength, tenacity and willingness to fight large animals.
Churchill provided that leadership.
His extraordinary leadership in WWII that marked him out.
Bold, brave and tireless in his resolve to take on the might of Nazi Germany, he inspired a nervous and hesitant Britain through his sheer energy and force of personality to defy stark odds and never give in.
He would inspire hope with practical and action.
Not just talk.
He was on the frontlines with the soldiers with his famous V sign with his fingers urging his men into victory.
In parliament, his rabble-rousing speech moved decisions; his jovial smiling features offered sagacious bonhomie, roguish humour, or robust self-confidence inspired so many and put people at ease.
He was decisive, quick and spontaneous.
His aura was felt by everyone around him.
His personality alone moved leaders of sovereign states to come together and form alliances against the scourge ravaging Europe and the world.
PNG is at the crossroads needing direction for the leadership of a man like Churchill.
A leadership to infuse vigour in the complacency marked thus far in the preparations against an epidemic that is decimating economies and laying waste to populations and work force.
A leadership with new direction and foresight to put an end to the incompetency that is producing misleading statements and conflicting information on vital statistics for the public.
We cannot afford to have a Neville Chamberlain and his erratic government that is downplaying the emergency and its potential catastrophe to proportions beyond a biblical plague.
Advice on health should be provided by people from medical profession are not political innuendo.
I share a concern raised by a respected physician on the starking reality.
Crisis management (prevention, preparedness, response and reconstruction) on the Covid-19 is a tough task for political and bureaucratic leaders.
It requires the leader with the Churchill’s boldness, courage, decisiveness and resolve to lead PNG in this great emergency.
We can never appease with coronavirus. The country is at the mercy of an epidemic owing to bad leadership and poor preparedness.

David Lepi,
Pan Melanesia