Youths urged to step up

THE future success of Papua New Guinea rests with young leaders coming out of the universities and they must rise up to the occasion and take the lead, Madang Governor Sir Arnold Amet said last Friday.
Speaking to final year students of Divine Word University at their inaugural ‘Thanksgiving and ommissioning service’, Sir Arnold said PNG had suffered significantly due to bad leadership in politics and public service for 34 years since Independence.
Therefore, he said young leaders coming out of universities could no longer sit back and turn a blind eye but step up to the plate and demand for positive change, however difficult that might be against the status quo.
“Time is overdue to be audacious.
“Young leaders, we have no choice,” Sir Arnold told the fourth year students.
He challenged the future leaders to be courageous as they leave the comforts of university and go out into the workforce and society to be “creative and proactive” and institute change.
The retired chief justice said PNG could not be led in the same way as it had been for 34 years.
“We cannot do the same things and expect different results,”  Sir Arnold said.
He said if it meant changing ways of doing things and realigning paradigms, it should be done.
He said a recent AusAID report confirmed that PNG was way behind in meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) which is due in 2015 and that was a serious report card on a country that was otherwise naturally blessed.