It is not for them to choose how our future should be like but it is for us to choose ourselves! The champions of Papua New Guinea’s Independence, whom we today call the founding fathers of this nation Papua New Guinea when fighting for independence had one thing on mind which was freedom of choice called, Independence. Independence is a complicated term when one wants to describe the actual context of what was being sought after. ‘Self determination’ and ‘freedom of choice’ are better phrases that describe the actual context of what these founding fathers wanted to choose. Looking back, we wanted self governance. Self Governance to choose how this nation should be charted forthwith, self determination in terms of fiscal and economical powers and choices, self determination in terms of nation building, development, education and law making. We wanted complete independence and power from our colonial masters to decide how we should run this nation. Looking at where we are now, I see that our colonial masters have more or less allowed this independence or transition of power of choice to take place. Unfortunately, where we could not provide for ourselves in terms of development companies, mining companies, logging companies etc thus we continue to see foreign investments on our soil which is really something no one has complete control over as this nation looks to the new horizon of globalization, these corporations are here to stay unless we can provide better alternatives. Looking on into future and deciding where we have come from, we have come from true independence (tribal culture), to an era or colonialism onto era of interdependence and looking into an new era of globalization. While I maintain my respect for our founding fathers by-which we have few left, I find it incredulous that these men are still at the helm of this nation calling for ‘changes’ once again for the future. We have Sir Julius Chan still calling for New Ireland’s Autonomy, Sir Fr John Momis calling for Bougainville’s Independence and I recently over-heard the good old Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare once again calling for more autonomy or some form of more autonomy for the provinces. While I respect that these leaders have a wealth of knowledge of time and experiences the question I wish to bring forth is, Is it for them to continue choose how our future should be like or is it for us to choose ourselves? They have been given the freedom they desired on a golden plate why not hand it over to the younger generation to choose to chart their own way forward in this day and age. Unlike in the past when the Grand Chief had something like 4-5 Degree holders around him, today we have thousands upon thousands of degree holders, masters holders doctorates and even professors also. My simple call in this article is based upon my observations stated above, let the younger generation of Papua New Guinea choose how best we want our nation to be run. Let the young Bougainvilleans choose whether they want to be part of Papua New Guinea or not, let the rest of PNG choose also by way of public forums, opinion polls and others. In the same way that independence and self governance was freely given unto them, let them also freely give unto the next generation of Papua New Guinean’s to chart for ourselves how we want our nation, Papua New Guinea for the next forty years to come.
Posted on: Tue, 02 Sep 2014 01:19:49 +0000
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