War on Corruption or Crime
By LUCAS KIAP
The rest of the country has joined the bandwagon of the government and the opposition to declare war on crime in Papua New Guinea – in response to the recent surge in violent crimes across the country. Sadly, we have waited too long only to react after so many innocent and precious lives have been taken away prematurely by those who have no regard for human life nor understand their own existence in our human society. Nothing we say or do now will ever replace nor return those lives. Only time will tell if our (as usual) reactive measures by legislating and imposing tougher penalties will deter future offenders or not – the most server being the death penalty.
Before jumping on the bandwagon, there are critical and fundamental questions still remain and need to be asked and answered if we are to find a lasting solution but in reality that will be impossible. In countries such as the USA where the death penalty is applied, it never prevents offenders from committing such crimes. If such crimes can still be committed in a very powerful, rich, everyone literate, have access to information and have severe penalties, PNG must be prepared to take a extra step and dig deep to find a lasting solution. PNG is therefore having its share of a global problem that cannot be simply eradicated by imposing the most severe penalty – the death sentence. Instead, being the most responsible people, we all must be proactive in our approach to address the problem – that is to find and address the root causes first before being reactive to solve a very deep and complicated problem.
To find the root causes, one must prepared to ask the question – PNG is relatively a rich country in terms of natural resources with a small population and a large land mass but why it is poor struggling to address its escalating law and order problems? It is because of corruption, which, for the last 37 years, we have been letting it to grow systematic and systemic. It is now making our lives difficult, limiting our opportunities, making our systems malfunction, setting back our progresses, creating loopholes for our systems to be manipulated, distorting of our democratic values, depriving and denying us of our basic human rights and trapping millions of our citizens in poverty. Now we are starting to sow the seed we or our leaders have planted 37 years ago.
Remember that eighty-five percept of the population lives in rural areas and in settlements, where poverty is prevalent. Poverty is an ingredient of worst crimes. If we continue to fail to provide or neglect them the opportunities they need to live a better and meaningful life in our society, we are in fact widening the gap between the richer and the poorer. When that happens, what do we expect from the poor whom we have denied them equal opportunities – struggling to survive while we on the other hand enjoy what we have taken from them? Unfortunately, the victims are also the victims of corruption.
To conclude, to address the root cause of crime in the country, corruption must be equally treated as a worst crime against the State and her people. It has been and is still responsible for most of the social problems in the country which eventually leads to worst crimes. Therefore, whatever penalties applied to murders, rapists, drug edicts, and alcoholics, state criminals or white collar criminals whoever they are must also be treated in the same manner.
If we fail to address corruption now, it will return to haunt us when we least expect – in our cars, at our homes, at our work places or wherever we are, it will find us one day. To avoid what is eminent, let’s act now before we start jumping up and down again only to tear our country apart.
The rest of the country has joined the bandwagon of the government and the opposition to declare war on crime in Papua New Guinea – in response to the recent surge in violent crimes across the country. Sadly, we have waited too long only to react after so many innocent and precious lives have been taken away prematurely by those who have no regard for human life nor understand their own existence in our human society. Nothing we say or do now will ever replace nor return those lives. Only time will tell if our (as usual) reactive measures by legislating and imposing tougher penalties will deter future offenders or not – the most server being the death penalty.
Before jumping on the bandwagon, there are critical and fundamental questions still remain and need to be asked and answered if we are to find a lasting solution but in reality that will be impossible. In countries such as the USA where the death penalty is applied, it never prevents offenders from committing such crimes. If such crimes can still be committed in a very powerful, rich, everyone literate, have access to information and have severe penalties, PNG must be prepared to take a extra step and dig deep to find a lasting solution. PNG is therefore having its share of a global problem that cannot be simply eradicated by imposing the most severe penalty – the death sentence. Instead, being the most responsible people, we all must be proactive in our approach to address the problem – that is to find and address the root causes first before being reactive to solve a very deep and complicated problem.
To find the root causes, one must prepared to ask the question – PNG is relatively a rich country in terms of natural resources with a small population and a large land mass but why it is poor struggling to address its escalating law and order problems? It is because of corruption, which, for the last 37 years, we have been letting it to grow systematic and systemic. It is now making our lives difficult, limiting our opportunities, making our systems malfunction, setting back our progresses, creating loopholes for our systems to be manipulated, distorting of our democratic values, depriving and denying us of our basic human rights and trapping millions of our citizens in poverty. Now we are starting to sow the seed we or our leaders have planted 37 years ago.
To conclude, to address the root cause of crime in the country, corruption must be equally treated as a worst crime against the State and her people. It has been and is still responsible for most of the social problems in the country which eventually leads to worst crimes. Therefore, whatever penalties applied to murders, rapists, drug edicts, and alcoholics, state criminals or white collar criminals whoever they are must also be treated in the same manner.
If we fail to address corruption now, it will return to haunt us when we least expect – in our cars, at our homes, at our work places or wherever we are, it will find us one day. To avoid what is eminent, let’s act now before we start jumping up and down again only to tear our country apart.
