(4th April 2008, Afternoon Session)
"IN CONCLUSION"
by
GDW
The Governor General of PNG His Excellency Grand Chief Sir Paulias Matane and Lady Kaludia; Chancellor Stephen Pokawin and Distinguished Members of the UPNG Council; Prof. Ross Hynes and Members of the UPNG Senior Management; Academic and Non-Academic Staff of UPNG; Parents and Family of the Graduates; and lastly to fellow graduates...Good Afternoon.
It is truly a great honour and privilege for me to stand before you to deliver this Graduate's Response. I am also sincerely humbled to be given this opportunity.
Firstly our gratitude.
Firstly to the greatest and only God there is. To the Maker of the Heavens and the Earth. To God in whom we live and move and have our being. Outside of whom we cannot find purpose and reason and meaning. To our Great God Jehovah The Great I AM...."I Thank you....For All You've Done"
To our families and especially to our Parents. Take this moment as for yourselves. To Every Father and Every Mother who worked so hard to see us get to where we are, on behalf of every graduate and myself I say this "Thank you from the deepest parts of our hearts. We would not have made it without you...God Bless You...We Love You"
To the University Administration and Staff, both Academic and non-academic, we thank you for your dedication to the development of the graduates and students. For those lecturers and tutors who are overworked and grossly underpaid, we applaud your dedication and attitude of service towards this nation. Thankyou for not giving up along the way like a lot of others. God Bless you and Your families.
Finally to every one who has played a part, one way or another, in assisting these graduates through their pursuit of education: You can also take a moment for yourself. I say simply "Thank you and God Bless You"
It is said that the most exciting phrase in Graduation speeches is the phrase "And In Conclusion" and so I am content that if this talk needs a title I should call it "In Conclusion".
The theme for this 53rd Graduation carries quite a great deal of words but the key phrase I'd like to point out is "higher education as the key driver of good governance in PNG democracy".
After four years of undergraduate study I have arrived with perhaps one conclusion. This conclusion that I would like to share with you all is not new and this won't be the last time you hear it. The one person who has always spoken on this topic, and I am deeply honoured to stand before him to present this talk, is the good Governor General Sir Paulius Matane. But my prayer is that you hear this as if for the first time. It is my hope that every single person listening today would appreciate the sentiments expressed from this podium. I sincerely believe that true change and progress would come about if everyone would appreciate this very simple truth and act upon it. Every graduate and every continuing student and ultimately every Papua New Guinean citizen should appreciate this simple truth.
So what is this conclusion that I would like to present?
The Conclusion is this: that the KEY to good governance, or good leadership (or bad leadership), is all wrapped up in this one word: ATTITUDE.
It is the ATTITUDE of the most important & fundamental unit of any human society. It is the unit of the SELF (myself and yourself). Ultimately it is my own attitude that either makes or breaks me. And eventually it is my attitude that would bring this nation out of the mess that it is in. Likewise your attitude.
It does not take a University Graduate to realize that this nation suffers from lack of good governance and leadership and that it is performing well below its potential. So whose responsibility is it to change this country?
Everyone thinks it's someone else's responsibility to change and make a difference. This is having an adverse effect on our attitude and ultimately on our actions as units of a single nation.
For four years I have been watching us. We who are often referred to as 'future leaders' and the 'hope of the nation'. Those phrases come from what they call "The Knowledge Myth". That good leadership comes from good education. If this was true PNG would be one of the greatest nations in the world because we have some of the world's top brains in our leadership. There shouldn't be any problems with the usual evils that we read about each day. But NO! We are still struggling to compete with even our smaller and younger neighbours in the Pacific. Obviously education isn't helping.
I regret to say that I have observed over the last four years that we, so-called future leaders, have devoted more time to gaining more knowledge and have neglected building our character and developing positive attitude. I have witnessed from a national University, active ethnic differences amongst the educated elite. And yet we criticize and condemn nepotism and wantok system in government and bureaucracy? I have witness destructive little habits such as vandalism of state property by us the educated elite. Little things such as graffiti and the stain of beetle nut all over our infrastructure and land. And yet we expect our grassroots and leaders to show respect to each other and for property? I have witnessed drunken brawls and fights and have even witnessed domestic violence and abuse of women here on campus. Only very few are committed to building good character and attitude. And yet they call us 'future leaders'…I am often embarrassed by those tags.
Unfortunately our education system has not and still does not actively promote the building of good character and values. I would like to challenge the government and the University and other Education institutions to focus on developing character and not just equipping with education. I do not believe that education alone is paramount in the building of our human resource. The building of our human resource lies in our laying down values which eventually shape our character. Good attitude in people means effective human resource and eventually good leadership.
I believe that this nation can be great. I believe that it will be. I am confidant because I feel, and so should every one of you, that the responsibility for progress in this nation rest upon me...It rests on the improvement of SELF. It starts and ends with the SELF. As an individual I have to change. I have to move towards building character and a positive attitude within myself. We have to Change our mentality in thinking that everyone else has to change for this world to change. Leo Tolstoy describes the defect in our way of thinking like this: "Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself".
It is an issue of responsibility. Do you know that the responsibility for change and progress rests solely on you? 'Cause if you think it is someone else's than you will not take any steps to changing...to growing as a leader and as a good citizen of this nation. And if you stop growing and developing positively in your character....There's only one other direction for your character to go...DOWN...it starts decaying. Even Michael Jackson understood that if you wanted to make a difference you have to start with the "Man in the Mirror". It's my responsibility. It's YOURS. It Starts and Ends with me. That should be our attitude.
RESPONSIBILITY comes from two words: Response and ability. So if you have the ability to respond then you cannot deny that you have a responsibility. Your ability to respond lies in first changing yourself, something that is within your power.
As student leaders we are fond of criticizing our current leaders. We talk about their failure and their corruption. But let me challenge ourselves with this question to the SELF: "Am I going to be any different?"… "Will people say positive things about me when they talk about me?"… "One day when my name is on the papers will they treat me with contempt or with deepest respect?"
The building of good attitudes and character does not happen overnight. It's a long process that needs patience and discipline. Are we in that process? Have we started yet? Because we can't wait another day to start changing. We can be confident if we are changing because if we change positively; like fire that attitude of change will spread and eventually the whole nation will catch on. Good leadership is not a phenomenon that arises in a day. It is a daily process of development and change.
What are the qualities you and I demand from our leaders? Selfless-ness? Sacrifice? Integrity? Honesty? Loyalty? Nationalism? Respect? Honour? Courage against Corruption? Those same things are demanded of us no matter what capacity we are in. You are always in a position to influence those around you, and they influence you. Will you give in to corruption in the tiniest of measures. What have you and I done for ourselves that would see the development of these traits within us. The good Governor General always stresses these qualities and Henry Kila has stressed them to us today as well; what are we doing to improve ourselves and develop these qualities cause you cannot sleep and wakeup one day all of a sudden have an attitude of sacrifice and loyalty to this nation. More importantly what are you and I doing now? If we do not embrace them we will always only be criticizing others and developing ourselves into hypocrites.
These are challenges that we have to really ask ourselves and think about and act upon. And we have to act now to develop ourselves. Maybe when we do we can really earn the tag future leaders. Only by being different can we really make a difference.
I leave us with this quote from one of the history's greatest leaders Benjamin Franklin: "By improving yourself the world is made better".
That is all I have to share with you: these small thoughts that every citizen of this great nation should appreciate.
Again to all who have played a role in the achievements of these fine women and men...our deepest gratitude.
And to the fellow Graduates...I wish everyone, not just success, I wish you satisfaction and fulfillment in whatever path you trod in the next steps of your lives. In whatever role you play in life and whatever roles you play in this country; that you shall find your purpose and be fulfilled.
Congratulations!
Thank you and God Bless You All!
--
"INSPIRING PASSION"
Empowering and Inspiring! Great speech!!
ReplyDeleteIt's sad that 3 years later - we all still talking about the word "ATTITUDE".
We all - at different levels have identified that this is OUR biggest drawback - but what has been done? - at the highest level - where the Education system includes and focus more on building of good characters and values- NOTHING.
How can we make this happen?
Do we wait for the next government - and a number of elections later - and we still talking about "need-of-change-in-attitude"
:-/