The Sacrilege of Parliament & the Demarcation between State & Religion
The sacrilege committed by Theo Zurenouc in destroying work of Art by PNG Master Carvers displayed in Parliament is akin to Pope Fransis ordering the destruction of the work of Art by Michael Angelo in the Sistine Chapel. The idea that by removing this works of Art , Parliament and the Body Politics of PNG will be cleansed from Dark Pagan Forces associated with this body of Art Work is a misguided attack on our aesthetic past that has helped define us as a people.
The sacrilege to parliament is based on the interpretation of the Christian Covenant in the new testament bible with the Semitic God of the old testament Bible and that there can be no worship of idols but that of the one true God Yahweh . That this idea forms the Fundamental Philosophical and moral basis upon which Modern PNG is constructed upon and must be held on to the exclusion of any other belief system to give meaning and Christian purpose to our Modern Government is erroneous.
This view is held by Fundamentalists Christian religious sects and find support in Parliament by Leaders who ought to know better . Many of these leaders are in a symbiotic and unholy alliance with these fundamentalist sect to garnish votes at Elections and in return for these sects to receive monetary benefits from their political benefactors including Provincial Governments who are budgeting up to 10% of their Budget and giving it to these sects as Tithes.
Let those that come later know that PNG is constructed with a clear demarcation between the Religious and the Secular in the Constitution and PNG is constructed out of 700 tribes that make up this nation and that while the constitution acknowledges our Christian heritage and deals with the issue of State and religion in the edict prescribed by our Lord Jesus 2000 years ago [ Give to Caesar what is Caesars and to God what is God,s”] religion cannot super impose itself on the secular state .
It is important for our current elected leaders to know that the influence of the Christian faith on our land is merely 100 years old and that while it now forms part of our heritage it cannot with its antecedent history of Euro centric biases and prejudices replace our traditional believe systems that have been part of the landscape of this land for over the last 40,000 years as to do so would deprive our nation and people of a inner soul and render Black people like us shipwrecked not dissimilar to the Black people in the American Diaspora.
The current malaises facing the Nation today should not be blamed on our Ancient past represented in aesthetic traditional Works of Arts or our belief system instead they should be seen as challenges that must be overcome through Government practical social and Economic Policies. The Leading Black Political Thinker of our time , the Kenyan Ali.Z.Mazrui has linked the Corruption, inefficiency, mismanagement and Decay of Governments and Infrastructure in Africa directly to the failure of Black leader to mould and integrate their Nations into the World Capitalist System through the western construct of Religion, wealth creation, extraction and distribution and according to Mazrui for Black Nations to succeed they must hold on to what he terms Cultural continuities that have defined previous Stateless societies as a People and adapt these cultural beliefs and social systems and structures and practices into the Morden Capitalist Frame work to makes their countries work.
There are however many cultures such as India and China and those of East Asia that have successfully made these transitions and have build Morden successful Nation States by holding on to their culture and belief system which incidentally does not include the three Great Abrahamic Faith of the world. It is important that our Leaders understand this and spend time in their overseas travel to study and appreciate the different cultures and believe systems that make up the world we live in.
Not too long ago the Great Chinese Statesmen Cho En lai was asked by a French T.V. crew in 1972 before his demise in the Plane crash to comment on the contribution of Western Civilisation and the French revolution of 1887 in particular on Human History, his reply “ It is too early to comment “ . Indeed Cho En Lai has 5,000 years of continued documented Chinese history [which predates the Bible by another 3000 year ] to give his qualified prognosis of human history and on the effect of Greco- Roman ideals of Democracy and of the Semitic religious influence based on the Idea of a omnipresent God which carries little sway in the Middle Kingdom instead Chinese society is influenced and guided by ideas laid down by great Sage such as Confucius on Filial responsibility and on the art of state craft by Sage such as Sun Tsu and on ideals of religion shaped by the Lord Buddha . The impact of Western civilisation on the 40,000 year old Stone Age Cultures of the People of the Island of New Guinea and Australia is still being written and shaped by all of us who live in it today.
The effect of Western Colonialism on Africa in the last 200 years provides a living laboratory for Students of History and Politics to draw lessons from as we try to make sense of what is happening in our country today and to develop world class solutions to problems confronting us today . These world class solution will no doubt have to take into account the nature of the global village we live in today on the one hand and at the same time to look into our past and craft solutions out of ideas that have enable us to survive as a People over the last 40,000 years and to apply these solutions into building a Modern State, with Modern Cities, modern towns , modern villages and a Modern Parliament .
While the peace of Westphalia of 1648 has given Europe the building block for the rise of the Nation States and with it the art of state craft and the imposition of a Ethnocentric world view in the last 200 years on the bulk of the World Population we are finding it today in a number of countries failures of biblical proportion in attempts to get previously stateless societies and to mould them into the Western Construct of Nation States. A case in Point is the unfolding drama in Afghanistan where everything done since 2002 to leave behind a viable institutions of State on a tribal people will come to naught as soon as the coalition of Western Forces withdraw in 2014.
Somalia is another such country that does not exist as a state but exist as a People bonded together only through language and the Clan system. Attempts to mound countries such as Somalia into the Western Construct of a State will continued to fail. A number of secular State in recent time including Iran and Egypt have democratically rejected the Eurocentric World view and are going back to Theocracy or Religion as the basis to reconstruct their societies. If that is what the Speaker of parliament wants for PNG then he must recommend this idea of Government to the Parliamentary committee established by parliament to look at Political reform currently headed by the Hon .Poponawa MP
In the PNG context at Independence provisions in our constitution caters for the ‘Cultural Continuities’ alluded to by Ali Mazrui and can be found in the Underlying law provision in the schedule of our Constitution and in the National Goals and Directive Principals and in specific land use laws following the Commission of inquiry into Land matter in 1973 . As we all know pre Contact Melanesian Societies are egalitarian and embrace the Christian Value of Giving and Sharing where wealth is shared equally making our societies some of the most socialistic in the World .
In recent times attempts have been made to change our People and society into a Fully functional Capitalistic one and what we see today in terms of the Breakdown of law & order and corruption is a direct result of the failure of these Policy choices. It would go a long way towards building a more just and egalitarian society if Policy makes come to recognise this fact and mould our State and policies to reflect our Socialistic and egalitarian past which incidentally also has a Christian Slant in the value of Giving and Sharing and Equality.
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