Wigmen’s performance

THERE is something parallel between the performance of the Hela Wigmen in the Digicel Cup grand final and to that of the Marape-Steven administration in its first 100 days in office.
Watching the Digicel Cup grand final at the National Football Stadium on Sunday was going against my promise not to ever venture near the violence prone PRL, as it was called back then, and its bad memories.
It was actually the pomp and fanfare of the media’s overzealous reporting on Hela Wigmen that created the hype that attracted many not so keen followers.
The story was Hela Wigmen, a cellar dweller, making a meteoric rise to the top.
It would have been a fairy-tale ending for Wigmen had they made the best use of their opportunities.
They had a winning streak momentum, a frantic crowd screaming from all corners of the stadium and a great boost with the presence of the Prime Minister (James Marape) who from Hela, gave some pep talk to the team.
All went lopsided because they didn’t have the depth and structure in their game – seemingly they slipped into the finals by fluke.
The Wigmen lost the game before it started.
It was already a psychological defeat for them when they chose to base their game plan entirely on defence and cover their opponent’s attack with no offensive plan on their own.
More so an inferiority complex of undermining their own attacking capability.
According to an old adage “best defence is a good offense” has been applied to many fields of endeavour, including games and military combat.
Wigmen had no attacking plan, instead stuck to basic football and probed for soft spot against a well-structured and disciplined sliding defence.
It may be a vague inference to perhaps draw a parallel on Wigmen’s lacklustre in structure to the uncoordinated and ad hoc administration of the Marape-Steven government.
The first 100 days is quite long enough and the tell-tales are so obvious.
The slogan ‘Take Back PNG’, let alone making PNG a rich, black, Christian nation, is a far cry to practical and result driven war cries of Sir Mekere Morauta’s ‘To date with Destiny’ and Peter O’Neill’s ‘Wok Mas Go Yet’ in implementing the Alotau Accord.
Sir Mekere came into power with a purpose and clear sense of direction. It took him no time to put in the building blocks to trigger change and not before 100 days, PNG was already seeing public sector reforms to institutional change and structural adjustments happening spontaneously on key economic fronts.
In two years PNG’s reform agenda was near complete.
Not before 100 days the vipers’ nest of corruption at Vulupindi Haus was torn down and burnt in the ensuing Finance investigations.
Corrupt officials from state ministers down to assistant secretaries and beneficiaries got arrested, charged and sent to prison.
O’Neill was a service and high performer.
His absence now leaves a gapping legacy and an ire of silence so deafening as if the giant machine producing service delivery in all forms, shapes and sizes week-in week-out was abruptly put down.
All we can hear is the whining sound of a dying engine and the infinite excuses for failing to bring it back to life.
We are quick to embrace the new and different therefore we care about the immediate and not the important.
You don’t know what you have until it is gone.

Inap lo Kusai
POM , NCD