I BELIEVE IN AND STAND FOR: (A) A TOTAL TRANSFORMATION OF THE WAY WE THINK, FEEL AND DO THINGS IN OUR LIFE AND LIVING WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? THIS MEANS THAT WE MUST: (i) HAVE A CONFIDENCE IN OUR OWN CAPABILITIES, KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS (ii) EMPOWER OUR TRADITIONAL SOCIAL / ECONOMIC STRUCTURES, MORAL PRINCIPLES AND RELIGIOUS VALUES (iii) PROTECT OUR HUMAN DIGNITY, RIGHTS AND FREEDOM (iv) UPHOLD EQUALITY, HONESTY, RESPECT, PEACE AND JUSTICE (B) A SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF OUR LAND, HUMAN & NATURAL RESOURCES AND BASIC INFRASTRUCTURE WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? THIS MEANS THAT WE MUST: (I) MOBILIZE OUR LAND FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT (II) SYSTEMATICALLY AND HOLISTICALLY DEVELOP OUR HUMAN RESOURCES (III) SUSTAINABLY DEVELOP OUR NATURAL RESOURCES AND (IV) DEVELOP AND MAINTAIN OUR BASIC INFRASTRUCTURE (A) WE MUST HAVE A TOTAL TRANSFORMATION OF THE WAY WE THINK, FEEL AND DO THINGS IN OUR LIFE AND LIVING. What does this mean? This means that before we make any attempt to bring about any forms of change in our human and natural environment, we must first, visualize it in our mind and then feel it in our heart, the extent of the comfort and satisfaction each and every individual in our family, our clan and our village within our LLG will enjoy. The change must make our life comfortable and every person must feel it and get the desired satisfaction out of it. There should not be any destruction, discomfort or dissatisfaction caused to our social, cultural, human and natural environment. Our mind and the heart must always detect and filter the discomfort and dissatisfaction. What do I mean by this? I mean that we must always be critical and careful in the way we do things. In other words, if we want any forms of change to take place in our social, cultural or human and natural environment, then there has to be a careful investigation, examination, evaluation and analysis with open consultation between leaders and the people. By doing so, will necessitate the avoidance and elimination of any detrimental consequences of any of the change. The dependent mentality or indoctrinated mindset must be dismantled or deconstructed and positive or better mindset must be reconstructed in the minds of each and every person in our family, clan, and village within our respective LLG. (A) (i) WE MUST HAVE A CONFIDENCE IN OUR OWN CAPABILITIES, KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS. What does this mean? This means that every person must have confidence in his/her own ability to achieve his/her goals in life. The knowledge, skills and experience which were acquired over time must be tapped in, cultivated and developed to the extent that is required to transform a life of each person so that he/she will then transform his/her social, cultural or human and natural environment in our village, our ward and our LLG. How can we do this? We must have a systematic survey in order to determine level of education, skills and experience and establish the human resource inventory. Then through formal education system at the: (a) college, (b) technical and (c) vocational level or through human resource rehabilitation scheme such as short term training and capacity building workshops, we can reshape and transform our mind and heart to think independently and confidently in the way we do things. The set of instructions must be designed in such a way to make a person gain self-confidence. In such trainings the heart and mind of a person will be guided in the required direction and his/her consciousness will be activated and elevated to the required height. Through open dialogue or question and answer form of interaction, the participant will be expected to dismantle or deconstruct his/her dependent mentality and indoctrinated mindset. The reconstruction process of independent mindset begins automatically from then on. There are skills and knowledge which are useful and relevant but are foreign to us. How can we acquire them? We must have our own knowledge and skills as a foundation before we acquire only those foreign knowledge and skills which are useful and relevant to us. In order to acquire the foreign knowledge and skills, we must bring the foreign expertise ashore or send our children overseas if we do not have required facilities. Also, in any resource development process, we must ensure that the relevant and useful foreign skills be transferred to us. It is through skill transfer that we will be capable and confident in doing things by ourselves. By doing so, we will certainly transform our village, our ward and our LLG. (A) (ii) WE MUST EMPOWER OUR TRADITIONAL SOCIAL / ECONOMIC STRUCTURES, MORAL PRINCIPLES AND RELIGIOUS VALUES What does this mean? This means that we must comply with the directive principles of our national constitution by making use of our existing social structure as an alternative delivery mechanism and continue to sustain our subsistence economic structure. This is the way we survived waves of economic crises in the world and therefore, we ought to maintain it. However, if the population per village or per LLG increases over time, then the volume of production of commodities per village or per LLG will increase as well. This will necessitate commercialization of garden produce and cash crops. Do we need our moral principles and religious values in our social and economic activities? Our forefathers’ success and achievement in life was determined by their careful observation of our moral principles and religious values. In other words, our forefathers strived to maintain peace and harmony by strictly and seriously complying with our moral principles and religious values. Failure to do so brought them disaster. Learning the lesson from our past, we must strive to maintain peace and harmony between each other in our village, ward and LLG. All the principles and values of life must be outlined and defined and then published into booklets and taught in schools in our villages within our LLG. If we teach our children this way in their early age, they will become good citizens of our nation as they submit to authorities both in the church and the state. (A) (iii) WE MUST PROTECT OUR HUMAN DIGNITY, RIGHTS AND FREEDOM What does this mean? This means that our dignity, rights and freedom of every person in each village, ward and LLG must not be denied in any way or in any form, directly or indirectly by the church and state or even by our own custom. We must defend and protect our dignity, rights and freedom. Every clan and tribe in respective LLG has their own identity and they must take pride of it. In other words, every clan must protect and maintain its totem and emblem, its myth, legend and history that give identity, character and dignity to each member of that clan in each village. In the same way, each tribe must protect and maintain its language, boundary of land, rivers, lakes and islands for the common use in their LLG. Any form of change must not deny the rights and freedom of the people. (A) (IV) WE MUST UPHOLD EQUALITY, HONESTY, RESPECT, PEACE AND JUSTICE What does this mean? This means that every person, young or old, male or female, poor or rich, educated or uneducated, upright or crippled are all equal according to the real meaning of the term “equality” which is one of the universal principles of humanity. Also, the laws and the constitution of our independent state of Papua New Guinea make us all equal under the laws. Nobody is above the laws. Even the enforcers of laws such as judicial officers, the police and correctional services personnel are all under the law and they are equal with all of us the citizens of this nation. It is therefore, we must uphold this universal principle at all times. Honesty, respect and peace are human values very essential for the existence of harmonious human environment. These values give character to individuals and activate the moral consciousness in the mind and stimulate the human senses beginning in the centre of the heart of each person. There won’t be any corruption if our leaders, bureaucrats, developers and representatives are honest to us and respect us. If all those above individuals are honest and respect us, we will surely live in peace and harmony in our respective villages, wards and LLGs. It is therefore, we must ensure that honesty, respect and peace be upheld at all times by every person in our village, ward and LLG. Justice is another universal principle that exists to provide a balance to our life and living by regulating our human behaviour through its laws. It is therefore, we must ensure that every person is treated fairly and justly in each village, ward and LLG through the existing justice system of our independent state. (B) A SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF OUR LAND, HUMAN AND NATURAL RESOURCES AND BASIC INFRASTRUCTURE What does this mean? This means that all forms of development must be carefully thought out and planned in such a way that it continues to sustain the generation after us. This generation must play a custodial role for the next generation by taking care of our land, human and natural resources. We must also lay the foundation by establishing basic infrastructure to enable our children to build on from where we make a start. Failure to do so will affect our long line of generation in future. (B)(i) WE MUST MOBILIZE OUR LAND FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT What does this mean? This means that we must carefully mobilize our land which is now held under customary ownership. Each clan in each village in each LLG must not give away all or half of their land to the state or the developers but only certain portion is made available for commercial use and for public purpose to bring in income and desired services to all. All clan land must be properly surveyed, demarcated, documented and registered under each clan name which is the rightful custodian for our future generation. No land should be registered under any single person’s name unless absolute consent is given by the clan concerned and is approved by all other clans in the LLG. Land is our mother nature and it is from the land that we derive all necessities of life. Therefore, we must protect our land at all times and at all costs and make use of it wisely in order to sustain our life and living. (B)(ii) WE MUST SYSTEMATICALLY AND HOLISTICALLY DEVELOP OUR HUMAN RESOURCES What does this mean? This means that we must holistically develop our human resources to the required and desired level which will be capable of making wise use of our natural resources in order to make the life of individuals satisfactory and comfortable in each village, ward and LLG. How can we do this? We can achieve our objectives regarding the development and advancement of the skills and knowledge of our human resources by: (i) Conducting a systematic survey in order to obtain data relating to educational levels, skills and experiences of individuals per village, per wards and per LLGs to establish inventory for planning purposes, (ii) Conducting a systematic training and capacity building workshops regularly in each village per ward and per LLG in order to rehabilitate our untapped or under-developed human resource, (iii) rewriting the suitable curriculum which will be relevant, applicable and friendly to our people in the village as well as in the settlement and (iv) striving to acquire and transmit to our children those knowledge and skills relating to advanced modern technology which can be applicable to our environment. (B)(iii) WE MUST SUSTAINABLY DEVELOP OUR NATURAL RESOURCES What does this mean? This means that before we develop our natural resources, we must conduct certain studies such as (i)feasibility studies, (ii)business opportunity studies, (iii) social mapping and (iv)socio-economic impact assessment in order to determine the economic viability and both positive and negative impacts of the potential development project. For instance, if we negotiate for the gold or copper to be extracted from our land, we must allow all the above studies to be conducted in order for us to know the geological and economic reserves of our mineral. Only then can we decide how much reserve to be extracted for us to earn our income to meet other needs we have in our village and in our LLG. We must not allow all the reserves to be extracted. (B)(iv) WE MUST DEVELOP AND MAINTAIN OUR BASIC INFRASTRUCTURE What does this mean? This means that we must ensure that every village within the LLG is accessible by road, by air or by sea. In other words, we must construct roads to link every village and build bridges to cross rivers and build jetties in the suitable landing locations in each maritime village within the LLG. By doing so will allow accessibility of goods and services and transporting of cash or food crops by each village within the LLG. We must make sure that our existing infrastructures such as roads, bridges, jetties and even, classrooms, church buildings, aid posts and health centres are rehabilitated and maintained in perfect conditions. With the introduction of mobile phones, we must allow certain portion of our land such as top of our hills to be used by mobile phone companies to set up transmitters or transmission towers to enable us to communicate for business, personal and emergency purposes. Conclusion Above are eight points outlined under two categories and they express my developmental aspirations, concerns and considerations. They are only there to guide us.
Posted on: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 00:26:55 +0000
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