RESPECT FOR THE DISHONOURABLE: THE WORST SICKNESS OF TODAY’S PNG SOCIETY
Only in Papua New Guinea would police be scuffling with other police over whether or not a legally valid arrest warrant would be served. That, in fact, was what caused the pushing match.
Only in Papua New Guinea would there not be screaming daily editorials demanding that public officials adhere to the rule of law and serving of a legal warrant. Instead, yesterday’s editorial title in the PC was the meek “Vodafone Good for Competition” while in the National it was the milder “Japan, PNG reaffirm strong ties”.
And only in Papua New Guinea will its citizens respond to this outrage against democracy – police pushing around police to keep a valid arrest warrant from being served - with nothing more than plaintive meowing, proving that we have indeed become a nation of pussycats. We’ve been demanding big change in PNG and we’ve gotten it, transitioning from fierce warriors to pussycats in less than 4 generations. In the past, those who were wronged roared like lions. Now we meow.
Shall we continue meowing as the big changes continue and our democracy transitions from the current de facto benevolent dictatorship under Peter O’Neill to an outright one?
The legal debate between police that took place outside the court house yesterday was probably more educational than anything said inside. Here is what was said, according to the Post Courier:
POLICE TRYING TO SERVE THE WARRANT ON PALO: “Whose interest are you serving in preventing us from serving him [Palo] this warrant?”
POLICE RESISTING SERVING OF THE WARRANT ON PALO: “Where’s your protocol in dealing with leaders, he is a leader and he should be accorded the normal practice, he is not a common criminal to be treated like this?”
Who wins that argument amongst thoughtful analysts? Is it the side who serves the public interest and is merely carrying out legal duties? Or is it the side who says that those legitimate legal duties should NOT be carried out because Ano Pala, friend of mega-millions thief and Indonesian fugitive (but now PNG citizen!) Djoko Tjandra, is “a leader” and as such, “should not be treated like a common criminal”?
Is serving a warrant the same as being treated “like a common criminal”? Let’s look at how not only common criminals, but also suspected criminals are treated in PNG today. The suspect , before they even see the inside of a courthouse, much less arrested and questioned, are typically shoved, beaten and kicked by police. Onlookers might meow in outrage but usually just stare. Innocent until proven guilty? No one makes mention of that as the now bloodied suspect is shoved into the police vehicle and driven away. Yet, even when it is clear to all but the legally blind that a public figure is on the take (circumstantial evidence is incriminating and sufficient for conviction; non-lawyers and non-judges are smart enough to conclude the obvious about some of our elected leaders), defenders of the Honourable this or that, surround their hero with the finger shaking “innocent until proven guilty” retort. Too bad no one says that when the hungry kid stealing the wopa bisket has his nose broken as police slam his face against a cement wall. Too bad these “innocent until guilty” defenders of justice stay silent when they witness police kick an old woman after they’ve grabbed the buai she was selling illegally on the sidewalk in Boroko.
The hypocrisy in all this should make any person with a conscience sick to their stomach, make you retch and want to vomit. Yes, Peter O’Neill is innocent until proven guilty, Ano Pala is innocent until proven guilty, they’re all innocent until proven guilty, but the statement itself loses all meaning when it’s not enforced across the board. Why are we so damn concerned with protecting Paul Paraka’s crooked teeth, but not the teeth of the kid who stole the wopas? What has brainwashed us into treating our elected officials as if they were Kings and Queens. DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM, they ask? We nod our heads in reply, lift the ratbags onto our shoulders and carry them around as if we were putting on a comic play to the rest of the world.
The problem all boils down to our moronic practice called “respect the leader”. Our elected leaders are accorded the title “Honourable” when everything we know about them is clearly DIShonourable. Because they’ve managed to steal millions rather than caught for stealing a package of Wopas, we say that they can NOT be treated like common criminals, but must be continued to be called Honourable and bowed to.
No one expects Ano Palo to be given today’s everyday brutal PNG justice that affects PNG families throughout our country. All we should demand is that he be subjected to the law of the land. Out of respect, the police will hold back on beating him up and knocking out his teeth, although he undoubtedly deserves it.
Prime Ministers and Presidents in democracies all over the world are commonly treated with far less respect than the most disrespect than we would dream of even treating convicted Dishonourable Paul Tientsen. In those countries ‘defamation’ barely exists as a defence tool for a public official who feels people don’t show them enough respect. Yet, in the countries whose citizens show the least respect for their leaders, have you noticed something? Check out the TI corruption index ranking of countries. Countries whose people seem to show their leaders the least respect also seem to have the least corruption! Why is this?
Obviously it’s because the citizens of those nations put their leaders on notice that there will be no meowing when the leaders go astray and they’ll be closely watched for secretly wandering hands and dipping fingers. There will be no special treatment if they go astray. Less than 2 weeks ago, the past president of France was hauled into the police station and questioned for 10 hours. Oh, wouldn’t THAT be a miracle if it ever happened to one of our past or present leaders here in PNG!
We’re part of the problem. How often do we preach to our kids that they aren’t showing respect to their parents and their elders? And how often do we make it clear that automatic respect only extended to immediate relatives, while for everyone else, respect should be always earned, not demanded.
Our sickness for giving respect provides the open door our white collar criminals happily scamper through as they arrange their lawyers around them like a defence ring and then proceed to use every legal and illegal procedure known to the human race to obstruct justice.
Yes, the ratbags are likely to win anyway. Look at Peter O’Neill. He escaped justice in his NPF trial, despite all the paper evidence retrievable and readable for over a decade on the Post Courier web site that strongly suggested his guilt. He further escaped justice when the people of PNG and all the coalition partners of his government never demanded that he explain to all of us exactly how he got off free when the evidence of his guilt was so clear. This year O’Neill got the Post Courier to quietly remove all the NPF scandal inquiry evidence from their web site. No one even meowed. Instead, we’ve been giving Peter O’Neill respect, respect and more respect. Look where it’s gotten us. A perpetual O’Neill government clown show.
What do you expect, after all we’ve all got the RESPECT sickness. Peter O’Neill upholds our national motto of “injustice for the poor, respect for the rich”. Let the hungry kid get his teeth knocked out for stealing the wopa, yeah he was was obviously guilty so why give him the constitutional protection of innocent until proven guilty. But at the very least, can we please do more than meow in supporting those police who want to serve the white collar ratbags with a warrant? <strike></strike></strike>
