Puppets and Puppeteers

Puppets and Puppeteers

(read this aloud)

I'm not a big fan of GC. When GC put out his banners celebrating a political career of 40years, I'd drive by screaming at the banners "So what if you've been there 40 or a hundred years! We got nothing to show for it!" I'd get very incensed at his maneuvers to avoid motions-of-no-confidence. I'd complain constantly about him all the time. It's true just ask my fiancé! I didn't like NA. when I was in UPNG, NA had a convention at the MLT. I and like-minded students printed protest posters and pasted them visibly for NA members to read as they had their convention. His govt wasn't the best. And he wasn't my favorite PM. (I'm truly hoping that one day we can have a "favorite"/"best" PM.)

When the NA govt amended certain Acts, it disgusted me, raised suspicion and further inflated my contempt for the NA govt...and the GC.

But I'm Melanesian who has to justify a lack of respect for my elders. Otherwise my reverence either way has no meaning. Respect for elders is natural and perpetual in our Melanesian culture. If we are to treat them like common thieves or "corrupt" leaders, our negative perception must be justified.

Then along came "Hammer and Nail" (forgot who gave Namah and ONEIL that nickname). If I had such low respect for the PM's seat with GC in it, these two men, and their saints who "shall not be moved", stretched my contempt for government to an all-time low. And it was worse for them as persons. (My confidence had in fact been restored briefly when Sam Abal carried himself professionally, humbly and with dignity.)

I watched the blatant abuse of the Constitution at both its spirit and its letter. I watched the sheer cravings to gain and hold on to power mar good politicians. One puppeteer had the strings snatched from him by another, while he was too sick to hold on to it. The puppets moved and voted accordingly; what strings were used on them we can only speculate.

More rushed Acts were enacted than ever before. Authoritarian laws were born way before the people even knew they were conceived. In the GC puppet show at least we debated and protested. But it was in vain because those acts were passed. In the PO govt we didn't even get the luxury to protest! Until after the fact! The Acts were mostly for POLITICAL EXPEDIENCE, but were gift-wrapped in the "NATIONAL INTEREST". Did I mention the same puppets who passed laws under the GC repealed them again under the ONamah regime?

We watched in horror as the man who helped found this nation was "removed" from Parliament by a speaker-for-hire who had no legal power to do so. And then that GC was called a "stranger in the house" by a man whom PNG had thought showed wisdom beyond his years. Now the GC's "Appointment Committee" have reinstated him with a record landslide victory. Time will tell if their choice is justified.

We watched in horror as our favourite delicacy rice was headed for a monopolized market. To accomplish that the govt assisted an international millionaire fugitive to enter PNG. To compound the People's outrage the outgoing foreign Minister handed that fugitive a PNG citizenship. The minister's people have voted him back. What, so he can sell more citizenships and develop their homes?!

Top lawyers went silent when our Constitution was abused. Some of them even tried to defend those actions by naive & biased interpretations of the law. They even tried to pick on little guys like me whose opinions don't go beyond the Internet and social media. Then they joined the Party and tried to get elected into the Haus.

PNG saw a new style of politics. One that saw the emergence of "straight-shooting". So much straight shooting Involved misfires and blank-shots, immature, emotionally-charged childishness, folly-filled words. Bordering on arrogance and vanity, and blatant hypocrisy. As money was obnoxiously and illegally thrown around to "fund" campaigns some of us feared that our government had become "purchasable". That fear lingers...

We didn't have the best of times under the GC. But ONamah gave us arguably one of the worst of times. My contempt for the GC was negated by my contempt for the new guys who only stopped short of bloodshed to obtain and retain power. They were contemptuous of the very Document that gave them a glimpse of such an opportunity.

To purchase the people's support and forgetfulness, they were smart enough to give the people two favourite Turkish delights that weren't well thought out. They were prefixed by "free" to appeal to the people's free handout mentality. They set up a special force to show people they'd get rid of corruption. (They just ensured its TORs were not wide enough to come back to haunt them.) These Turkish Delights succeeded big-time.

When it seemed likely that the Supreme Court would speak truthfully for the Constitution, the Chief Custodian of the law was dragged through mud to reduce his credibility. Again. The move succeeded big-time. It made a villain out of a hero who was, up to that point, PNG's only hope for justice: the "Dark Knight". And it made a hero out of a man who, with the illegal support of paid-off police and army officers, defecated on the institution to which he owes his freedom. The "Joker".

Anyway, elections came and the People have partially purged the Haus. They've removed some of the puppets. And some leaders, bound only by strings of timeless principles, have been appointed by the people. Some puppets remain. And puppeteers.

We the people argue back and forth on who's best candidate for puppeteer. But I sure hope we get a LEADER instead. One who attracts the following of men and women with dignity, who need not purchase, extort or blackmail their support.

I hope and pray that PNG's confidence in the Speaker, the PM, the NEC, the Courts, the Police, the army, the GG, the lawyers and most importantly the Constitution, is restored. I don't see puppeteers restoring it. That hope lies in a TRUE LEADER...not a puppeteer.

I find ultimate confidence in that the people's faith in God has not wavered.

God Bless Papua New Guinea.

WE THE PEOPLE

The redemption of this country lies not in its resources and in massive projects. It lies not in a booming economic plan, nor a new political system. It lies not in the creation or the swelling of wealth. 

But it lies in its people. It lies in changed hearts. In redeemed souls. In renewed mindsets. In transformed attitudes. In corrected values. In truthful beliefs. 

It lies in the hearts of courageous patriots who love this country to death. And hate injustice and corruption likewise. It lies in patriotic leaders who love the people enough to die for them. 

Like the Spartan King Leonidas told Xerxes (who said he would kill his own men for victory), "...I will gladly die for mine" (in "300"). 

The hope of this nation lies in a wise people who appoint such leaders. 

Heavenise day!

Ganjiki

Late Paul Pora on Politics, Business and Family

By John L P Schmidt ▶ Sharp Talk

As a Businessman come Politician who has passed on now, I'm happy to share some thoughts in brief The Late Paul Pora and I chatted about to his Business life leading to his Political life and to his only regret at the end:

His statements

Politics: Many will enter politics without having prepared financially to invest their time, skills & own money for an idea of doing good for the nation, they will borrow or sell themselves into debt that only corruption can repay as their salaries in government won't.

Business: I realize now that no businessman should sacrifice his years of efforts without understanding the long term impact on ones children, the nation in the future will have a greater chance of added value if I spent more time showing you kids how to be assets and not just think money is a solution to keep you quiet or entertained that created expectation. I sacrfice my assets for liabilities who only took till there was nothing left to be taken. If you choose to go into Politics one day, build a business first then a business team around you and set standards and results you expect of them while you serve, set systems that will not allow theft of your business and always never trust anyone with your wealth your children must take on, even in family. Never mix Politics and Business that money can create greed easily that will lead to corruption.

My greatest regret is I gained the world at the expense of knowing my children. We gave each other peace of mind and in a rare moment said the words 'I love you' and wished each other well.

I tell his grandchildren of their 'Opa' and how we come from a unique man who was fatherless himself, an outcast for being half cast and who achieved a lot yet was a man who's was calm and at peace with nature and with himself knowing he made many mistakes and was not perfect. I hope readers can take whatever is good from our chats for their own lives or just know a little more about him than just his Public Life as many had met him or read about him or possibly even seen him in his craziness in his lifetime :-)

John P Schmidt

Are We Losing our Dignity?

Fellow Papua New Guineans

 

Help me understand you. I see our famous "attitude problem" not letting up and I just have to ask some difficult soul-searching questions.

What makes us behave the way we do? We can camp out there in public, and slumber on like we're in our private backyard while the world passes by. We defecate and urinate in the bushes nearby (or corners of buildings and fences) and yet seem unfazed by the blatant stench that invades the air. We throw buai skins and litter right where we sit and stand, and vomit buai sputum on the nicely built pathway, roads and bus-stops on which the rest of the world must also trod. We paint an ugly picture of our pavements and consequently ourselves. While we drive about we toss out our litter like our whole nation was one big rubbish dump. We make fires right there on the roadside. We go days without a bath and don't always smell the best. We smoke in PMVs while mother and baby cough it up beside us. Doesn't it cross our mind that such behaviour could just be "not nice"? How about "yucky"? Too strong?

 

Help me understand. Is it because we were visited by "civilised" people only recently that we're a bit slow on matters of hygiene and cleanliness and common decency? Perhaps being less than a century into modern civilisation renders it difficult to comprehend such simple standards? Maybe it'll take two, maybe three more generations before we see such change. I'm wondering if we ever wonder about our own mindset and behaviour. 

I'm worried that we're losing our sense of dignity. You know—the inherent dignity that God gave to all man when He created us in His image and likeness. The kind of dignity that requires us to pay sufficient respect to ourselves and our bodies and to fellow man; not to mention to God's natural handiwork that surrounds us.

I'm worried that we no longer see ourselves worthy of that self-respect that should provide the restraint against such loose behaviour. What can we do to remind ourselves of that value that God Himself stamped into you and me? Is there any possibility that we can see such immensely valuable truth? I'm sure if we understand that divinely-ordained value in our own lives and bodies we'd pay careful attention to the way we treat ourselves and each other.

Help me understand. Have we lost sight of this? Or have we just not caught it yet? Education doesn't seem to help. I see highly educated and wealthy people behave no different. I wonder how a citizenry of such high-calibre can behave in such a lowly manner. All that awareness and education and wealth seem impotent against the strong negative mentality and attitude that possess us (as opposed to us possessing it). Not even exposure to "city-ness" seems capable of making a dent in the mental bars that imprison our mindset and determine our attitude.

I don't mean to offend you. But truth often  is offensive cause it disturbs our comfort zone. If I do by my words, I hope we realise how much more of an offense we cause fellow city-dwellers (including expats) who appreciate cleanliness and hygiene and decency. By the mere fact that they have to drive or walk passed an eye-sore of bodies, litter and spittle, and to sniff the stench... ought to make us rethink our circumstances...and our mindset.

 

But that depends entirely on whether we have some capacity to commence such a train of thought. Or perhaps the comfort of being among so many people who think and practice the same debunks the need for a positive deviance in the mindset. It takes a lot of courage and strength to "be different", to say "change starts with me", and to start going against our own crowd. 

Could I trouble us to give it some thought please? Think long. Think hard. Think deeply. We might see a way out of our self-imposed mental prison. And when you find a way out how much better will life get for you and everyone else.

We can't wait on politicians (who by the way are a summary reflection of the kind of people we are) to bring the change down...

We've got to take it up to them...

God Bless,

Ganjiki

Five Yearly Ass Kissing Fest

By GDW

(I apologise for the crassness of this piece but I don't apologise for its truth.)

Every five years they try to make the people feel like they're the most important people in the world. They try convincing us that we are powerful. That now our opinion counts. Now our cries are heard. They make us believe that they live and breathe for us. They tell us to choose well ("choose well" translates into "choose me!").

They colour their speeches with words that tickle our ears to make us believe in their vain prophecies. They feed us with left-over lamb cuttings from New Zealand, to fatten our stomachs for one unhealthy evening. They pour into our gullible livers enough alcohol to clean our sputum-stained Moresby pavements. They scatter wads of cash into the wind for our lazy hands to reach out and grab. And they provide a craved avenue for the dangerous release of sexual appetites.

They promise the world and paint their glorious portraits for a blind people. And like programmed droids we dance to their music, and scream their names loudly without quiet contemplation.

Do we not see the power we inherited? And do we not see the trail of decisions both good and bad, which starts with our pen and lasts five years?

Every five years they come down so low, and kiss their EMPLOYER's ass. We give them a superficial mandate to rule for all the nice feelings we got when they kissed away. And the next five their EMPLOYER kisses theirs. Blinded by shallow-mindedness their conscience doesn't even allow regret.

Off they go. Paupers become millionaires. Not because they worked hard but because they had the Employer's mandate to sign a document; and so they did...for the highest bidder with the thickest yellow envelope. And the Employer, the people, gets nothing or less than 20 per cent.

What makes us sell so cheaply such dear power? Like Esau his birthright for Jacob's broth, WE THE PEOPLE our votes for the politicians' kiss.

It takes a wise people to appoint a wise man. But fools will always choose one of their own.

In a few weeks..and maybe in the next five years...we shall again learn how wise THE PEOPLE are.

God Bless PNG.

Ganjiki


Sent from R&G's iPhone

West Papua-A Model of Freedom and its Undesirable Price

When West Papua becomes free and independent they will be more patriotic and nationalistic than Papua New Guineans can ever be.

Because of the blood they are shedding for their Freedom. And with the passion that ensues they will advance faster than us...without losing sight of their heritage the way we have.

I shed a tear as I see the pictures and read the stories of their struggle.

Sometimes I wish we should have gone through such pain to have our freedom. Because we are now a nation of ungrateful citizens. But I could never wish for such pain on any people. I pray your freedom comes soon.

God Bless You West Papua, I'm literally crying as I write this. I was in Indonesia recently and saw the luxury. Maybe it needs you maybe it doesn't. But it surely doesn't deserve you.

Thanks to all those trying to wake us simple people from our slumber, helping us see the price of freedom that our Melanesian brothers and sisters on the other side of this great Island of ours, are paying.

I have started an organization in PNG to awaken patriotism in Papua New Guineans. I don't know if we can ever succeed as we can't look back to a history that's iced by the blood and sweat of our fathers and forefathers. But we take for granted our freedom. We have squandered it and defecated on it. We sell it cheaply and rubbish our fellow citizens. We cheat our State. Maybe the golden platter we took ours on is not so golden after all? Maybe we're just only now paying for our freedom with our vain attempts to progress without a solid sense of national identity.

West Papua-from where I have treasured brothers and sisters-needs our help. They need more than our prayers. They need our words, our walk, our stand.

I don't know what to do. I write this simply because I can write and I'm grieved by my West Papuan family's reality. Maybe the least I can do from now on is write for you. And when you stand free one day I hope I'll still be alive enough to write of it. Then I'll take a bow and say you deserve it. And you will understand your freedom, not like my countrymen and me. You will treasure it in your Melanesian hearts better than all us Melanesians can imagine.

We were born free, you're dying for it.

Yet we know not birth pangs. If there were such pains no one has told us. For we certainly can't feel it.

But oh you can West Papua. And you always will. Thus the sweetness of your victory will supersede our imported sense of self-worth and self-righteousness and misplaced values. We're still not free. We're enslaved by tunnel-vision and corrupted values.

You won't suffer our delusion. Your freedom shall be stronger. Truer.

In the words of the great George Telek, "Fridom mas kamap long West Papua"

God Bless You West Papua! And set you FREE!

Ganjiki D Wayne
Melanesian