PNG needs maturity in political debates
by PETER S. KINJAP Papua New Guinea has entered the third week of the eight-week election campaign before polling commences next month. Unlike previous elections, this year’s campaign appears not as noisy as in the past. Social media has played an important role in the campaign so far with political parties buying Facebook pages to launch their awareness messages. Almost all the 15 political parties in PNG contesting the election now have a paid Facebook Page. The ruling People’s National Congress (PNC) has reportedly disseminated a lot of information about its polices and continues running social media ads. One of the PNC’s major party platforms is the Free Education policy. As the ruling party, it has implemented and PNG has felt its impact since 2012. Like any other government policy, the PNC free education policy has its weaknesses. In order to defend this policy, party leader and Prime Minister Peter O’Neill said recently he wanted to make the PNC’s free educat