The standoff between a small faction of the Royal
Papua New Guinea Defense Force (PNGDF)
and the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary Force (Police) on Saturday, 6th of December 2014 in Port
Moresby, Papua New Guinea, highlighted the lack of respect and command within
both discipline forces. The issues to the root cause of this lies deep, however
I will try at best to highlight what I think is a major cause to all this.
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| J-Mart Supermarket at Taurama Foodland was looted on Saturday. |
The lack of respect for command in the army was
evident when even the Commanding officer of PNGDF Brig. Gilbert Toropo from
Southern Highlands could not even control his men at a roundabout circle (next
to PNG Motors) on the Hubert Murray Highway in Port Moresby. He was directly
standing in the centre of the roundabout, which is about 4 meters wide in
diameter when the soldiers a few meters away from him (standing adjacent to the
Murray Barracks single quarters) were attempting to stop a police vehicle with
intentions to burn and cause serious injuries to a lone senior police officer
and his family. Luckily, for the police officer, he and his family escaped
through quick thinking and reactions from him. The vehicle almost overturned,
at Murray Barracks residential gates on the Hubert Murray Highway, the load
leading to Boroko but it was by luck that the police officer escaped the
clutches of death. Standing some meters away was the top military man in PNG
who, the public witnessed at hand how he was shunned and was not even accorded
the courtesy or respect of command as the events unfolded. Whilst these were
taking place, opportunitists’ were looting the J-Mart shopping centre at
Taurama Foodland.
Turning our attention to the police, they are
no better then the army, they have been involved and are despised by the civilian
population for breaching human rights, murdering and causing serious harm to
the civilian population. There structure of command is all over the place with
factions supporting a political appointed commander whilst others are
supporting the legitimate commander on merit. They are the most despised people
in Papua New Guinea.
The problems of lack of command and
dysfunctional systems in both disciplinary forces have come about because of
one man’s greed to steal and remain in Power. Peter O’ Neill the Prime Minister
of Papua New Guinea is the man behind all these problems. He has strategically
placed his people without due regard to good governance principles in core
areas. As such, it was envisaged that such problems would burst when it has
reached a boiling point where it can no longer keep a lid over the trail of lies,
betrayal, and political maneuvering done for the sake of remaining in power and
stealing the country’s wealth. It has been shown evidently by the conduct of
the disciplinary forces as well as the public’s show of outrage over how they perceive
the country to be going.
