Letters to The Editor in The National, Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Bulolo MP Sam Basil has allowed himself to be seen as incapable of resolving the ethnic problem affecting his electorate.
He has seen it fit to shift the blame.
This is a real test of his leadership.
He has not condemned the actions of his people when they raided homes belonging to the Sepiks.
He has failed to address the problem head-on.
He made a wrong judgment and has now set a frightening precedence.
PNG is facing mammoth development challenges and the last thing we need is to create more problems for ourselves. – Real nationalist, Port Moresby
News and developments in Bulolo, Morobe province, Papua New Guinea
Refer earlier posting -
ReplyDeleteDo not politicise the Bulolo conflict
By SAM BASIL
Bulolo MP
As the 2012 elections are fast approaching, I would like to once again appeal to serial general election candidates and recycled leaders not to politicise the issue at the expense of the Bulolo ethnic clash.
There are opportunists who use pen names in letters to the editor or on the ground, taking sides with either party of the conflicting groups, playing the blame game or publishing more unfounded accusations.
I see these cannot help the affected and the vulnerable ones on ground zero.
When the election writs are delivered by the Governor General in April to July 2012, then we all can play the political game.
Today's situation demands common sense from all walks of life to help in any way possible.
Morobe governor Luther Wenge and myself may have not done enough, but when we all come to properly analyse the situation, we will find that there are so many contributing factors that has led to the re-emergence of the situation.
Law and order, lack of funding, slowness of the provincial law and order committee meeting, disappearance of the uncertified report by the Wau urban LLG manager, police not enforcing the full force of the law on both sides of the conflicting parties, lifting of the liquor ban by the magistrate at the request of the liquor traders and worst of all politicking of this unfortunate issue.
The office that I hold is not a private business that I own.
It is a public office, therefore, every aspiring or recycled politician has every right under the sun to contest or recontest.
I will not run away with this office.
It belongs to the people and the people themselves will decide who will be their next political leader.
The time will come when we all will hit the polls.
I appeal
This is just some comments to support Basils comments stated earlier;
ReplyDeleteConflicts are created by people and people should know how to solve them. However, conflicts are very difficult to solve if they are created through continuous lawlessness activities under the nose of so-called community leaders, church pastors, local politicians like ward counselors and presidents who are watching them as they pass by. Many of them are not taking active role in addressing the issue from the start but are only interested in themselves.
Fingers should not be pointed at the MP. His responsibility is to fight for effective and proper deliverance of basic goods and services at the national level channelling approriately to the local leaders, and then to the people especially at the rural areas.
Other mechanisms in the administration process like Kiaps, council managers and district administrator, district police commander and others should be held partly responsible for the recent ethnic clash between the Morobeans and the Sepiks.Many of them do not know their roles and responsibilities in public offices and as such MP should be aware of them. They are like stumbling blocks to the development process. If they can't perform, they should go before any nasty happen again.
Rise in homebrew production and consumption, and drug abuse in the electotrate are some of the core contributing factors to the problem for the last couple of years.
The problem would not escalate to that extend if the local leaders, church leaders and police do their homework by carrying out thorough investigation at the start. It is believed that the locals took the law into their hands because they were already fed up with continuous law and order problem in the electorate.
Maintaining peace and harmony in the community is the sole responsibility of the community leaders from all sectors at the start. Don't blame the MP for not addressing the issue properly. Everyone in the community both citizens and the leaders should play their part to maintain better law and order in the community.They should be upholding the laws of this nation as true citizens.
I believe, the only answer to prevent such problems and many others from occurring in the future is to promote and encourage 'Spirirtual Development' in the lives of evryone living in a community. Gods Inspired Word has the power to change people (2Timoty 3:16). Only by placing complete Faith and Trust in the work that Jesus Christ did on the Cross at Calvary and inviting Him into ones life can change a person completely. Change begin from inside (heart) and is displayed on the outside (2Corinthians 5:17). Only Jesus is the Answer (John 14;6).Come to Jesus and you'll find peace (Mathew 11:28).
We need to pray for our leaders and not pointing fingers at them because it won't do any good. What can you do as a citizen of the community you are living in and the nation as a whole in order to promote and instil peace and harmony? Stop pointing fingers because when you point one finger at someone, the rest point back at you.
Concerned citizen of BULOLO
UOG, Goroka