THE QUESTION IS NO LONGER WHAT WE NEED TO DO, BUT HOW WE ACTUALLY DO IT?

 by EMMANUEL ISSAC

Yesterday night, I watched an interesting clip from the US historical archives, a cable TV news live debate of 1960 between 2 former US Presidents, John F Kennedy (35th President) and Richard Nixon (37th President).

It was their last round of debate before the US went to poll to elect their new President to succeed the then incumbent Dwight D Eisenhower, the 34th President of US, who is a decorated 5 star WW2 veteran.

R Nixon was the V/President under the Eisenhower government and was trying to succeed his Republican predecessor. The topic of their debate was on US foreign policy and as one would expect, Nixon had to praise the Eisenhower government’s foreign policy and inform the American public that, if elected President, he was going to continue or carry on the good work done by Eisenhower.

Both men were gifted orators and there can be no doubt about it since both men ended up being the President. Nixon was asked to make the opening statement and man; he did a marvelous job. I was wondering how President Kennedy was going to respond to such a marvelous opening statement. I didn’t see how he was going to make a response to such a well prepared watertight statement.

Man or man. How president Kenny responded blew my head off. Instead of contradicting Nixon on his speech, as is expected. He rode on it.

He agreed with Nixon that those things he identified were the things that needed to be done. Kenny said there was no issue about whether those he identified needed to be done. However, the question was really on how the Eisenhower government addressed those issues and how he was going to address them often citing the failures of the Eisenhower government, a normal approach.

The above words of JFK struck many cords and strings in my mind.

Year in year out, in our PNG national politics, the people are bombarded with policies after policies and things that needed to be done are always identified. But nothing gets done. The same key problems that the people had then still exists to today.

CORRUPTION

Before we do anything else as a nation, like what President Abraham Lincoln said regarding racism in US, the number one decease or evil we need to cure ourselves is CORRUPTION!

Corruption is the cause of all injustice suffered by our people.

It is the reason why people miss out on basic services.

Corruption is the reason why our people are dying for want of basic medical needs.

Corruption is the reason why our roads continue to deteriorate quickly right after construction having completed.

Corruption is the reason why some schools are in dire need of maintenance.

Corruption is the number one enemy of the people.

We all know the above. But we have not made any progress at all in combating it.

People who have built their empires on corrupt gains continue to live a high life whilst the innocent continue to suffer in poverty often signaling that in PNG you can profit from corruption and prosper.

Often the very same corrupt people are elected into key government offices or appointed top public servants.

The question is not whether corruption is dangerous to our growth as a nation. We all know corruption is dangerous. But the question to ask now is, HOW DO WE TACKLE CORRUPTION?

I give my personal views on how we should do it below.

First, the people must vote in reputable leaders to represent them in Parliament. Check the backgrounds of the people who are standing for election before voting them. If they are implicated in any corrupt deals or associate with corrupt people, please people, do not vote them. People who have benefited from corruption can really NEVER fight against it. For this job, you need people who have never had any part in any corrupt deals.

Second, and more importantly, our Police force is a very important institution that must necessarily be strengthened. The National Fraud and Anti-Corruption unit must be well stuffed with lawyers and accountants and other highly educated individuals who will assist with carrying out high profile investigations.

For example, we have 2 very helpful pieces of legislation apart from the recently passed ICAAC Act. Those are the Anti Corruption and Money Laundering Act and the Proceeds of Crimes Act, as Amended 2015.

The above Acts vests an important right on the Police and imposes a duty on the banks. The Acts vest the Police with the right to have access to the bank accounts of every individual in this country and the banks are obligated to report of any suspicious transactions to the Police.

If the Police can partner with the banks through the above pieces of legislation, we could make a lot of arrests on money laundering and save the State lots of money apart from ridding our nation of top white-collar criminals.

For example, if you become suspicious of a Minister or Secretary of a department with respect to sudden rise in wealth, all one needs to do is obtain their annual salary package and their expected upkeep expenditure for him and his family, of course adding any lawful allowances or incomes from any legitimate business he or she is involved in. If any payment is said to be payment from an investment, check out that firm that paid and whether that firm declared profits and complied with our investment and company laws.

If the monetary accumulation or increase in property portfolio and such of the Secretary or the Minister does not match their normal salary and allowances and other lawful income, you know they are getting the money from somewhere and you need to find out about that source because the Police have this power.

The Police have the power under the above pieces of legislation to randomly question any person as to his source of income should he (the Police) become suspicious and his suspicion is well founded.

The Constitutional right of silence does not work here. You have to disclose or else your property will be forfeited to the State. I have done a case on this so I am speaking from experience.

As you can see from the above, we need a vibrant and efficient Police. That is for the good of our country.

As one learned person from Africa Professor Lumbusa once said, the State institutions outlasts the term of a Prime Minister, Minister or MP. If you are serious in fighting against corruption, you need to strengthen the State institutions so that they will carry on the fight against corruption.

To strengthen the above, we need to avoid the politicization of State institutions.

In recent times, we have witnessed an unprecedented meddling into the affairs independent State institutions by the Government (of course not necessarily this current government). This must stop.  

CERTAIN RADICAL CHANGES NEEDED


As you will note from above, our laws make accessing bank accounts of suspects by the Police very easy.

Criminals are using 4 common ways to avoid detection. I know they are many. These are the few I know of.

One, having safe or locker for cash at home. Cash is hard to trace.
The above legislation have made corruption traceable and easy so many have resorted to keeping money at home and dealing with cash.

Two, many opt to have offshore accounts to confuse the source of income. That is why we need to pass a law that prevents our top public servants and MPs and ministers from saving money in offshore accounts.

Three, use of friends. Many people hide behind as shadows and give orders whilst other people do their bidding. That other person also benefits and for that benefit, he or she covers the real demon behind him and acts as if the property or money is his or hers.

Fourth, many of these corrupt people use well established businesses and established individuals. Corruption proceeds like cuts from mega projects are others are made to look like genuine commercial transaction and paid to companies owned by these corrupt individuals. In this way, the corrupt money comes back into the money circle and is used as legitimate income.

To prevent all the above, we need to make our political leaders feel the effects of their decisions.

We must pass a law preventing Government MPs, Ministers and top public servants from sending their kids to overseas schools. That is if the State is going to fund their education for their kids.

With their own money through salary sacrifice or whatever, they can be allowed.

The question is, why can’t our politicians trust in our own public education system? They are the ones in charge of its running. What are they afraid of?

Also about health. Has anyone seen any of our politicians go through the public health clinics we have, whenever they or their family members are sick? They should experience the health care they are providing for the country.

Until and unless our elected MPs feel the pain of the life we live and they walk through it themselves they will always be out of touch with the reality facing us