After the serious riots that shook the capital Port Moresby in January, the blame began to be shared: “But everyone must take their responsibility”, says Father Giorgio Licini, PIME missionary and secretary of the local Episcopal Conference
“Port Moresby Black Wednesday”: this is how it was renamed last January 10, when the capital of Papua New Guinea was rocked by violent protests following the cut in salaries of public employees, attributed by Prime Minister James Marape to «a IT system error”. The government responded to the serious disturbances, with hundreds of shops attacked and numerous buildings and cars set on fire, with a state of emergency: in the subsequent clashes there were at least 22 victims.
These events represent a wake-up call for the government, but also for the local Church which could receive a visit from Pope Francis in August. The Episcopal Conference intervened on the serious social situation of the country with an official note signed by the archbishop of Port Moresby, Cardinal John Ribat: «In addition to the incalculable loss of human lives, the price paid by the entire community is very high: many will add to the growing unemployment”, we read in the text, which also touches on another painful topic: “We are receiving worrying news that several Catholics involved in prayer groups and youth ministries have also joined in the devastation”. The archbishop then underlines the need for “realistic policies on employment and social security. Issues that are not addressed by politics.” We report here a comment by Father Giorgio Licini, PIME missionary and general secretary of the Episcopal Conference of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands.
It took a few days to make sense of the sudden “Black Wednesday” riots on January 10 in Port Moresby. In the meantime, the blame has begun to be shared out, as if there were someone more responsible than the others. But we must take collective responsibility. Ordinary citizens, churches, the state and the government are equally responsible.
Many citizens are opportunists. Not only do they flock to the capital in excessive numbers without valid reasons for study or work, but they throw rubbish on the streets, organize themselves into gangs, bring the conflicts of the Highlands to the city, impose their ways on the more peaceful and submissive coastal populations.
The Churches at the moment are too fragmented. The mainline traditional churches have lost much of their moral influence on communities. They are said to still provide substantial social services in education and healthcare, but there is not much left of the evangelistic spirit and transformative evangelical values of the pre-independence mission days. The new Evangelical and Pentecostal communities largely confuse faith, politics and money by pursuing the Gospel of prosperity rather than the conversion of hearts and righteousness of life. The decline in general education and critical thinking is pushing the country into the abyss of religious fundamentalism and the anachronistic idea of Christianity as the religion of the Constitution.
This would further compromise the already deteriorated independence of the constitutional bodies and weaken the idea that the State is bigger than the government of the day and does not coincide with it. The state functions less today than at the time of independence. Fifty years ago the concern was about the limited number of citizens with the level of education and experience necessary to manage the State, its departments and its agencies. Now that the enthusiastic pioneer administrators are no more, their successors are plagued by problems of corruption, self-interest, wantonness and favoritism, poor results and ministerial performance.
Ultimately the responsibility rests with the government, which reflects the poor state of affairs across the board. With the least credible Parliament in the country’s history, where the majority of members are likely to have won in the counting rather than in the votes, Papua New Guinea has seen too little in the last five years or so in terms of cleanliness of politics, fight against corruption , local and foreign investments, health and education development, urban and rural electrification, air and sea transport, price control of basic necessities; only the rhetoric and unattainable goal of the “richest black Christian nation on earth” remains.
The prime minister tried to patch things up after January 10, and rightly so. The cabinet reshuffle, however, raises more questions than answers. The appointment, reappointment or retention of ministers already rejected by the people more than sufficiently reveals the lack of democratic sensitivity and respect on the part of the political leadership. Those who failed to control and discipline the police are still in charge of the police. Those who just a few months ago astonishingly declared to Parliament that there is no jobs emergency in the country are still sitting somewhere in the halls of power in Waigani making or helping to make decisions. Some are looting the city, but perhaps because others are looting the country. Morally and politically, if not financially.