UNITECH STUDENTS PROPOSE 48 HOUR PETITION DEMANDING RESIGNATION TO PM. IS UPNG LOSING ITS MOMENTUM?
As a young country the positive role played by PNG’s uni students in advancing society has been less consistent than in many other countries, where activist uni students turned the tide against evil at for different national struggles. But now we in PNG are exposed to Peter O’neill, whose utter disrespect for the law starting from his late 1990s’ NPF arrest, to his 2011 ignoring a Supreme Court order, to his very recent sacking anyone who tries to apply legal procedures he doesn’t like, almost spits in the face of God-fearing Christians. His actions challenge decent minded citizens to fight back.
Last week UPNG students made a brilliant start at energising uni students nationawide, when they demonstrated at Unagi oval. It brought back memories of times past when UPNG students were the conscience of the nation as they went on strikes and marches. Assisting their efforts at last was the 180 degree turn of the Post Courier and National from several months ago. Both dailies are actually covering this student activism in a positive light.
The demonstation at Unagi oval indicated that the country was finally waking up to the massive prime ministerial abuse of power taking place. The only problem was that it didn’t seem to lead to any Step #2. What happened to the UPNG students? Are they doing anything?
In contrast, Monday’s papers carried lots of information of the protesting Unitech students during a presentation by SRC president Eddie Nagual at Eriku oval last Friday. This was not only the second action by Unitech students over Peter O’Neill’s abuse of power, but Nagual used the rally to lay out the next step in the activism process. He proposed a petition demanding that the PM step down (not step aside) to allow the corruption investigations against him to proceed without further political obstruction. If the government did not respond positively in 48 hours, students would go on boycott again but this time they would do so in a way that would result in the shutdown of Lae city, in solidarity with proposed shutdowns of the highlands highway in Simbu and Western Highlands.
This proposal received strong support from the audience, which the Post Courier estimated at around 1000 people. The people have been crying for a leader of decency and finally in Lae they see that leader in the person of Eddie Nagual.
Once again it looks like Unitech students have their shit together but UPNG students do not. But anyone visiting the UPNG campus quickly realises that this erratic student activism isn’t because UPNG students don’t care. Instead the problem lies with their leadership, and its inability to put together a cohesive strategy that will, in fact, allow them to build one action into a more intensive followup action, that is followed by yet another more intensive action, on and on until they are victorious.
It almost appears that the UPNG student leadership almost welcomes the government telling them they can’t protest or demonstrate because it gives them an excuse to stop doing anything. Truly committed activists never let barriers come into the way of achieving their goals. They find creative ways to get around every obstacle.
Because UPNG has a political science study programme (unlike Unitech), there should be ample students able to build upon the lessons of history to develop a protest strategy that will win. But will they? Can they? Those are the first questions. The next question is whether the UPNG SRC, most particularly to SRC President Bobby Yupi, will take the winning strategy and implement it fully?
A big part of UPNG’s problem in getting their act together is the continuing suspicion over the loyalties of the SRC leaders, and whether they’re truly committed to fighting against evil. Rumours of SRC President Bobby Yupi being bought off by O’neill have persisted for months and have never been convincingly countered by Yupi. Instead, he has fallen into the unconvincing strategy of threatening defamation suits to anyone who alleges he has been bought off, which is about as convincing an argument for Yupi as it is for O’neill pursuing his own defamation court cases. Innocent people don’t use that defence. Instead, they open the books to their lives (in this case, the financial records) to prove to everyone that they’re guilty of nothing. Will Yupi do that? If he doesn’t, he has no one to blame but himself for the fact that the allegations aren’t going away.
Right now, UPNG activism looks behind that of Unitech. But everyone should be aware that Unitech’s winning strategy didn’t exist only a year ago. At that time, Unitech SRC president Livingstone Hosea, was in the same fix as Yupi. Hosea called off the ‘bring back VC’ boycott after only 10 days and when challenged with allegations of having sold out, he attempted instead to convince Unitech students that he was acting in their best interest and that it was better to be selfish rather than fight for greater ideals.
Whether he was innocent or guilty of the allegations, in the end Hosea was humiliated and became irrelevant as Unitech students themselves passed him by and proceeded to victory in their goal of bringing back their VC.
Let’s hope Bobby Yupi isn’t headed for the same fate, even though it looks like it. The signs are that Yupi is a foot dragger who is subtly finding ways to undermine student motivation and destroy any change of an organised and extended UPNG student protest, instead of wholeheartedly emerging UPNG students to do the right thing in the name of Jesus Christ.
At Unitech, it was apparently the Engan students especially, but also other highlands groups and Sepiks working together in a strongly committed way that maintained the 5 week boycott against all odds and which brought the O’neill government into capitulation. At UPNG, it is clearly the Engan students who will make or break the current paralysis. They are refusing to let tribal loyalties or Peter Ipatas’ political pressure cloud objective assessment that what the PM is doing is spoiling the name of our country and is ethically and morally wrong.
We should all wish that we will face the greatest challenge in our lives when we are young, energetic, optimistic and idealistic. If those challenges are noble ones, we’ll forever be proud if we take the risk and actively join the fight to ensure that goodness prevails. The experience will strengthen our principles and build self confidence in ways that last a lifetime. On the other hand, if we let a precious opportunity to fight for what we believe in slip away, the subconscious realisation that we did nothing to stop evil from prevailing will cause the shame of cowardice to be forever lodged in our brain. We can ignore it but we will never escape it if we have any conscience at all.
That’s why God, in His divine wisdom, makes it clear in our souls that when good battles evil, we will be most rewarded in our souls that we stood up on the side of good and we took a risk to fight for the principles of the Holy Spirit. When we do this, God will abundantly reward our souls.
Bobby Yupi, stand up and be counted. No more lame excuses. Start a genuine battle for good against evil in which you are 100% committed. If you start being strategic like your brata on the other side of the mountains, you will win. And if you win, you will never regret that you took the risk!
