Vote for right Leaders who will Bring Services?
By LUCAS KIAP
The perception of most people in Papua New Guinea is that to see development, everyone should vote for right leaders who will then bring them the badly needed services. People will always urge voters to vote for the right leaders. Even leaders on the campaign trail will always urge votes to do the same.
Recently (on Wednesday, July 31, 2013), the Post-Courier reported that the Prime Minister Peter O’Neil urged voters in the Angoram electorate in the East Sepik province to elect the right leader who will bring the people of Angoram services and implement new government programs. Indirectly, he was telling the voters that, the candidate contesting under his PNC party has every credentials of a right leader – whatever it is.
The question is - what do we actually mean when we say, vote for the right leaders who will bring services?
Are we trying to portray that in Papua New Guinea we have two categories of leaders – right and wrong leaders? The right leaders will bring services or development and the wrong leaders will bring disaster or something worse to the people – is this what we really mean when we say, elect the right leaders?
Perhaps, this explains the absence or lack of services and development in the country – we must have been electing wrong leaders to run the country since independence. The wrong leaders could also be responsible for the disappearance of billions of kina for development every year, some of which the Task Force Sweep has been investigating and the culprits are yet to be punished.
The notion of wrong and right leaders is a serious misconception because there is no such thing as wrong or right leader in the world except dictators and corrupt leaders. Every elected leader is to serve the people and that is why we have leadership and government. There is no reason to make people believe that the lack of basic services is to do with the wrong leaders. Instead development should be nationalized and standardized so that the nation’s wealth can be fairly and equally distribute to all the people regardless of the class of leader they elected.
But in Papua New Guinea it seems we have some leaders we called them wrong leaders and there are some leaders we called them right leaders. This misconception of leadership classification has deprived us of basic goods and services as the lack of it, we often blame us for electing the wrong leaders. The elected leaders on the other hand, feeding on this misconception have been escaping responsibility by also blaming the people for electing the wrong leaders.
However, if the people are willing to suffer more by blaming themselves for electing the wrong leaders, and if the elected leaders prefer to continue to mislead the people by blaming them for electing the wrong leaders, then how do we make sure that we elect the right leaders or what is the guarantee that every leader we elect is the right leader?
Also, the people should know that every year the government allocates development funds in the budget for every electorate and every province, regardless of whether the people elected the wrong leaders or the right leaders or the leaders elected are in the government or in the opposition; the people deserve to get basic services. That is the reason why we have leaders and government.
The question now is – do we continue to let our elected leaders exploit our wrong perception and ignorance about leadership while we blame ourselves for electing them, or do we blame them for stealing our money for basic services and development? For me letting the wrong leaders exploit our ignorance and living in luxury while we continue to toil the land with sweat every day for survival is injustice - denying ourselves of the opportunities to a better life like our wrong leaders.
The perception of most people in Papua New Guinea is that to see development, everyone should vote for right leaders who will then bring them the badly needed services. People will always urge voters to vote for the right leaders. Even leaders on the campaign trail will always urge votes to do the same.
Recently (on Wednesday, July 31, 2013), the Post-Courier reported that the Prime Minister Peter O’Neil urged voters in the Angoram electorate in the East Sepik province to elect the right leader who will bring the people of Angoram services and implement new government programs. Indirectly, he was telling the voters that, the candidate contesting under his PNC party has every credentials of a right leader – whatever it is.
The question is - what do we actually mean when we say, vote for the right leaders who will bring services?
Are we trying to portray that in Papua New Guinea we have two categories of leaders – right and wrong leaders? The right leaders will bring services or development and the wrong leaders will bring disaster or something worse to the people – is this what we really mean when we say, elect the right leaders?
Perhaps, this explains the absence or lack of services and development in the country – we must have been electing wrong leaders to run the country since independence. The wrong leaders could also be responsible for the disappearance of billions of kina for development every year, some of which the Task Force Sweep has been investigating and the culprits are yet to be punished.
The notion of wrong and right leaders is a serious misconception because there is no such thing as wrong or right leader in the world except dictators and corrupt leaders. Every elected leader is to serve the people and that is why we have leadership and government. There is no reason to make people believe that the lack of basic services is to do with the wrong leaders. Instead development should be nationalized and standardized so that the nation’s wealth can be fairly and equally distribute to all the people regardless of the class of leader they elected.
But in Papua New Guinea it seems we have some leaders we called them wrong leaders and there are some leaders we called them right leaders. This misconception of leadership classification has deprived us of basic goods and services as the lack of it, we often blame us for electing the wrong leaders. The elected leaders on the other hand, feeding on this misconception have been escaping responsibility by also blaming the people for electing the wrong leaders.
However, if the people are willing to suffer more by blaming themselves for electing the wrong leaders, and if the elected leaders prefer to continue to mislead the people by blaming them for electing the wrong leaders, then how do we make sure that we elect the right leaders or what is the guarantee that every leader we elect is the right leader?
Also, the people should know that every year the government allocates development funds in the budget for every electorate and every province, regardless of whether the people elected the wrong leaders or the right leaders or the leaders elected are in the government or in the opposition; the people deserve to get basic services. That is the reason why we have leaders and government.
The question now is – do we continue to let our elected leaders exploit our wrong perception and ignorance about leadership while we blame ourselves for electing them, or do we blame them for stealing our money for basic services and development? For me letting the wrong leaders exploit our ignorance and living in luxury while we continue to toil the land with sweat every day for survival is injustice - denying ourselves of the opportunities to a better life like our wrong leaders.
