PETER O'NEILL'S INFRASTRUCTURE SCAM FOR ATTRACTING VOTES:

by ROBERT MORUMBU
Several defenders of Peter O'Neill and his infrastructure scam commented on PNG Blogs when the article comparing dictator Kim Jong Un's (North Korea) infrastructure infatuation with Peter O'Neill's infrastructure infatuation. The point made was that both countries have been emphasising iheadlong dedication to infrastructure creation. North Korea has been doing it for years and it hasn't achieved much in improving their integral human development for the people as a whole. PNG is basically following the North Korea model and the results as a far as real development is concerned, is likely to be the same disappointment as North Korea is getting.
Peter O'Neill's infrastructure boom is a scam for several reasons. First, a lot of it is built with loan money, which all has to be paid back with interest, using the taxpayer's money. Second and worse, when the infrastructure is built poorly, it falls apart before the loan money used to build that infrastructure has been paid off in full. What then? More loan money obtained to rebuild the crap infrastructure before the first loan has even been paid off?
Third, and worse worse yet, the infrastructure being built is often extraordinarily overpriced. Why is it overpriced? Very suspiciously, a lot of the contracts seem to be going to cronies and their friends. What do cronies and their friends so often do, even outside of PNG, when they get building contracts from their politician and government bureaucrat cronies and friends? They kick back some of the contract money to those friends in government. They can't do that and still make a handsome profit for themselves unless the contract is purposely overpriced.
Of course the taxpayer gets to pay for that too.
Lastly, everyone keeps saying that all this new infrastructure is appearing here, there and everywhere throughout PNG. No, not quite. Very little of our nation's population or land area occurs in or near towns and cities. Yet, an appallingly high percentage of all this infrastructure has been built in Port Moresby alone, which holds less than 6% of the nation's population. The vast majority of rural areas are seeing no infrastructure creation of any significance, overpriced or not. Highlighting a few exceptions does not make a general rule. That's the kind of propaganda the government has been focusing on and it is clear that a lot of non-thinkers are believing every word of it, without analysing a thing of what they're seeing or reading.
A brain dead population is exactly what any dictator wants in order to stay in power. Peter O'Neill will be proud to see the support for his lunatic and unethical/corrupt infrastructure construction programme for PNG.
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