In a recent email exchange between me and a lawyer for the ONamah "govt", I came to realise the rationale behind the "govt's" lawyers in carrying out, in almost a blank robotic devoid-of-conscience manner, their clients' instructions. Two significant perceptions were revealed in the email exchanges.
There are lessons here for this election period:
1. The Elected leaders are the ONLY people mandated to think up and decide what is in the nation's "BEST INTEREST". I was scolded because I was putting forward my opinions on what's best for PNG, when I had NO MANDATE to decide. That disqualifies YOU and me, and EVERY ONE else who is NOT an elected leader, from thinking up and deciding what is the Nation's best interest. So we're all wasting our time discussing and debating on Sharp Talk or anywhere else right? This is an amazing perspective that this lawyer has. We are expected to be blind citizens, blind public servants, devoid of any independent ability to assess whether an act or omission is in the best interest of the country. Or if we have any opinion we must subject it to the elected leaders.
We must believe without question, our elected leaders when they open their mouths and say "I'm doing this for the good of this nation". That is law. That is the gospel. Who am I—who are we—to question such authority?
With this premise these lawyers have hung on to their client's word, not willing to believe anyone else when they pointed out the red lights for the country. They wrote their laws, "PR"ed their moves to make them saintly, and defended them vigorously. And with the majority of the nation's populace being unable to form proper opinions based on truth, they swallowed lies like they were the gospel. They turned their hatred to the ones hated by those who spread the "gospel" the loudest.
I refuse to buy such a rationale. That's not the way God made us. He made us to reason, to question, to asses and consider. One of His greatest lines in the Bible is "Come, let us reason together." If the all-knowing God is willing to sit down and reason with us "mere mortals", what makes our elected leaders think they should not try to reason with their people, with us? Why should they be right all the time and our opinions don't even get a vote?
No. I think ordinary citizens of PNG, even "loud-mouth" public servants like me, have the inherent mandate to assess and decide what is the "nation's best interest"; and attempt to articulate it so that the nation can have something, other than the elected leaders words, to consider. We become dangerous tools, like those lawyers, when we wilfully vacate our independent consciences on matters that touch us directly or indirectly.
2. "You shouldn't bite the hand that feeds you". The government pays you your salary/fees, so don't speak out against it. In this caution to me the lawyer betrays their way of thinking: that the client, in paying for everything, decides what side we're on. After realising such a rationale, it makes no use to reason with such people. They don't have the luxury of seeing reason through unclouded glasses. They MUST side with the "hand that feeds them."
It's a really sad perception...and not very accurate. For us public servants, we're not paid by the government; we're paid by the People of PNG--by their sweat and taxes. Biting the hand that feeds us, in our context, means taking from the public purse, and serving ourselves rather than the public, etc. And it can even mean remaining silent while the nation is dragged through the mud by rogue "elected leaders". When we see what's wrong and we let it slide, that's when we betray our EMPLOYER: the People of PNG.
The government of the day just so happens to be our current boss. It's like the relation between sub-ordinate employees in a company and their top managers. The sub-ordinates, appreciating the interest of the shareholders, have it within their unwritten duty to break the silence when they notice the detrimental actions of top managers—actions that may hurt the interest of the true owners.
So whilst mercenary lawyers are loyal to their clients, public servants are loyal to our people. (Yes even when those people are so confused because the "Boss" of the day has produced a beautiful report of himself). And in their loyalty to the people, which is a loyalty that's higher than to the government of that day, they must find a way to serve the people best—be it in speaking out or in doing their job well.
It's indeed sad that people could posses the above two perceptions regardless of the confronting truth and reality of the mess.
But it tells us this: The people we are about to elect will need to have a balanced and sound philosophy of the "the nation's best interest". We can't always take their word for it. We need to read between the lines, assess their past actions; weigh out their words, to find out what they think is the nation's best interest. They have to be willing to listen to reason. They must consider the opinions of their sub-ordinates, testing their opinions against a higher standard—not their own. They have to be humble enough to admit they are wrong. They shouldn't shove "my word is gospel" down peoples' throats. And the people should not let themselves be fooled.
Sadly many people WILL let themselves be fooled. But I believe that the few who do elect good-thinking leaders will provide PNG the much-needed ballsy and truthful leadership. So much so that even if that kind of leadership is a minority in Parliament, it will be a formidable force, a voice of reason that can steady a ship even if the captain gets too drunk and off-track. God knows we need such leadership.
God Bless Papua New Guinea.
Ganjiki
Comment by Allan Bird under this piece, in PNG Blogs:
ReplyDeleteGDW, you are right young brother. In everything we do, we must focus on the lowest common denominator, our people. Unfortunately, most of our people have not been sufficiently educated and therefore the responsibility falls back on those of us who are to do the right thing for our people. The fact that we are educated is both a privilege and a great responsibility.
For me personally, I would rather die defending something that is good then to live a lie protecting evil and evil doers anywhere. You see our problem is that we have no idea what good leadership actually looks like. We are therefore left to judge between bad and worse. We are not sure if there is a third option; actual good leadership because we have never seen it in our country.
I refuse to bow down to “leaders” who will beat up judges, put guns to people’s heads and stuff money in their pockets and in the same breath declare “Vote for me, I will fight corruption and uphold the Law”.
I am on the campaign trail and I am pleasantly surprised that my people openly tell me, “Allan, sapos mipla votim yu go insait long palament, yu noken tru sapotim display corrupt Peter Oneil na Belden Namah. Sapos yu wokim displa, mipla bai bel hevi tru long yu - ol brukim mama lo.” I like the original title of our members of parliament, it was “Representative of”. That title was more appropriate. The title “MP” indicates a special class and that I feel contributes to the cargo cult we now know as parliament.
All my life I have known the freedoms of democracy and whilst I am unhappy with our lack of developmental progress, I am not yet ready to hand over political power to a mob or a dictator. I believe that God made man a free being and if man is placed in a bondage situation, the desire to be free will eventually lead to violence and anarchy. We saw this in Germany, the Baltic states and more recently in the Arab peninsular. We must learn these lessons.
In all our endeavors we must always seek to find the truth. Truth is an immovable substance and if we cling to it, evil in all of its guises will never prevail. Freedom is a true thing; we should never trade it for development or anything else.
I think it is the duty of every educated citizen to stand up against evil and tyranny it all of its disguises. In 2003, I argued for the State to legislate the behavior of Vanilla exporters and everyone in the room disagreed with me. Today, our industry is almost dead and many growers suffered. I learnt a very important lesson at that time and that is that those of us who know better should try the hardest to ensure that the right thing is done. I did not try hard enough because 48 people disagreed with me. I will must not make the same mistake twice.
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Thanks Allan for taking the time out on your campaign trail to write a reply to my piece.