By Dr Joseph Ketan

I had this article posted two years ago under a slightly different name. The message is particularly appropriate for 2022. So, in case you missed it, here it is.

Honest leadership is important in transforming people’s lives. National development goals can be achieved when we have men and women of integrity in key leadership positions. Papua New Guinea is trailing behind all Pacific Island countries in development indicators, mainly due to bad leadership and poor governance.

The absence of integrity at all levels of government, in systems and processes, and in government officials has contributed to the sorry state of affairs in this sad little rich country.

How can you tell a genuine leader from a counterfeit? A fake leader is a cheap imitation of the real one. He is a pretender. He has no plans for you, for the district, or province, or country. The words that he utters are not even his own. He parrots what he hears from others.

Such a man (rarely a woman) is there for himself: first, he will invariably break rules to get himself elected to parliament; and, second, he will use any means, legal or otherwise, to enrich himself, to the exclusion of his electorate. Principles do not matter in his amoral world, so he has no qualms about robbing his country to enrich himself and his cronies, via kickbacks from inflated contracts. This type of leadership is responsible for the loss of integrity in the electoral process, for the corruption of state institutions, and for loss of trust in politicians and public servants.

International observers are often baffled by the apparent lack of common sense among PNG voters in returning corrupt MPs, but they, of course, are not always aware of the fact that the electoral process, at all stages, from polling to counting to declarations, has been hijacked by politicians and their henchmen. If Prime Minister James Marape is serious about taking PNG back, he should help us take back our electoral system from corrupt politicians, electoral officials and security personnel.

A parliamentarian is NOT a genuine leader if he fails to serve the interests of his constituents. In addition to holding your MP to account for election promises vis-à-vis annual appropriations in electoral development funds (including services improvement program funds), you should consider the following points.

Your local MP is not a leader:
1. If he had forced his way into parliament through corrupt and/or violent means;
2. If he has blood on his hands, either by killing people directly or indirectly by supplying firearms to hired gunmen and paying them to do the killing for him;
3. If he had started out as a poor man and now has millions stashed away in his bank accounts, here and abroad, has several houses, has more than one luxury vehicle, and several wives and girlfriends;
4. If he regularly uses God to justify his actions and inactions;
5. If he sits out crises rather than addressing issues before they reach crisis point;
6. If he stands and watches his constituents kill each other in gun warfare;
7. If he stands and watches women and children walk miles to access health and educational services, markets, and shops;
8. You can add to this list, depending on what kind of MP represents you.

I have been observing PNG politics for many years now and I am disgusted by the shameless theft of public money by politicians and public servants. Rather than building world class educational and health systems, we have neglected these key sectors, as well as failing to develop agriculture and tourism to their full potential. There is something terribly wrong here. Politicians and public servants are supposed to develop our health and education systems to international standards. Yet, they have consistently shown no trust in our health and education systems by seeking health care and education services overseas for themselves and their families. This is a serious violation of trust.

We must take decisive action now: (a) it is time to stop politicians and public servants from sending their children to private schools overseas; (b) to stop them seeking health treatment in Singapore and other countries; (c) to stop them from residing in Australia and coming to work in PNG; and (d) to stop them from transferring stolen money from PNG banks to offshore accounts.

The Commonwealth Government of Australia, the Federal Police, and Australian commercial banks are required by international protocols to work with Papua New Guinea police and other organizations to prevent stolen money from being invested in Australia. The process was started by anticorruption lawyer Sam Koim and the Taskforce Sweep Team, so this important work needs to be continued by another state agency.

Political will is urgently needed here. Prime Minister James Marape has to demonstrate to the world that he is indeed serious about weeding out corruption in PNG by empowering a state organization to finish the work started by Sam Koim and his now disbanded team. Symbolically, the Prime Minister’s decision will help atone for the misery caused by poor decisions taken by parliamentarians.

Experience from Africa and elsewhere in the developing world shows that the flight of capital is usually followed by fugitives. This will happen here if we allow our politicians and senior public servants to own homes and reside in Queensland, NSW and other states of Australia. We have to be smart by learning from the mistakes of other countries to do things right.

The 2022 elections gives us the opportunity to throw out corrupt men and elect good leaders to represent us in parliament for the next five years.


Acknowledgement: I remain grateful to my good friend Dr HENGENE PAYANI (School of Business at UPNG) for raising some of these issues with me. A few years ago, he published in the THE NATIONAL newspaper a feature article on THE FLIGHT OF CAPITAL from PNG to offshore bank accounts.