The Making of Leadership in Papua New Guinea: Elections, Bribery, Cheating and Corruption
By LUCAS KIAP The current states of affairs in this country whether good or bad according to your judgment are the reflections of the standard and quality of leadership we have had over the last 38 years of independence. To understand the standard and quality of leadership in this country, let’s go back to how our leaders are elected to parliament, hence elections. In the Highlands where I come from, leaders are not elected democratically as it suppose to be through the ballot paper but usually elected through force, intimidations, bribery and cheating. In the following I share my personal experiences of election bribery and cheating starting from the 1997 up until the 2012 general/national elections. As far as I can recall, I had first witnessed bribery during the 1997 general elections. In that year I was doing Grade 9 at Fr. Peter Secondary (formerly known as Fatima Secondary) in the new Jiwaka Province (before it was part of the W.H.P). All students were asked to go home to v