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Ombudsman Commission of Papua New Guinea - Speech 26 July 2006

Introduction

‘WE THE PEOPLE OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA - pledge ourselves united in one nation. We pay homage to our cultural heritage the source of our strength. We pledge to build a democratic society based on justice, equality, respect and prosperity for our people. We pledge to stand together as one people, one nation, and one country. God bless Papua New Guinea.’

National Pledge

Identifying and reminding ourselves of our cultural heritage and the source of our strength is fundamental to the mind as one prepares for the days’ work especially for us working in public offices. You must feel a belonging to a people and you must have that desire and the urge to contribute to your mandated cause where you will assist others in their sectors in collectively meeting the hopes and the aspiration of our people.

‘In this troubled world our children will receive the type of education that will be the envy of many. The basic education curriculum will involve a strong recognition of custom that goes back many thousands of years, a respect for elders, parents, brothers and sisters and a basic knowledge of the modern world. The Plan {NE PLAN 05-14} provides for this and procedures will be established to make it work. Let no one stop this happening’

Sir Barry Holloway

Let no one stop this happening.

Let no one stop this happening. Let no one, the parent, the government and education managers fail as a cooperate body or as an individual in the duty today to plan for the education of a child tomorrow. Apart from the unborn child in Papua New Guinea those children now attending Elementary school are innocent as they hop, skip and jump and learn, not worrying about the cares of life and what tomorrow might bring and yet someone must plan ahead for them – for their schooling or for their health. Planning in stages in the education of a child to young adults and then accommodating them – according to their calling in technical or formal streams and to allow them at the end of their schooling to enter the community and employment is a task requiring astronomical capital outlay and qualified, committed and visionary professionals who must look beyond the short term. Education acquired must be a gain to an individual and community.

In PNG we must try and be responsible

Many parents are reckless when it comes to the question of education – where it starts, whether in the home or in the classroom with the teacher. Such reckless attitude can be passed onto the generation after us if each of us does not take responsibility over family and marriage issues and values at this point in time.

During the late 60’s many of us village boys and girls were led to believe that one has to go to school in order to work in an office, to be a pilot, a doctor perhaps but definitely not to remain behind in the village. Only stupid children of stupid parents were left behind in the village. The focus of education then was outward and upward and away from the village. The country lost much during those times, ancestral ways of village management, identity preservation, traditional behavioral control mechanisms and the dirtying of hands from the use of land. The educational reforms of the last phase and now are now trying to regain what has been lost, what it should be as the appropriate focus for education – and let no one stop the efforts at the provincial and national levels.

The appreciation of Christian and Traditional values and the formation of character is to me the most important of all that an individual or a country desires of and from its’ people. Our ancestors were men and women of character, nobility and virtue. The rights and the wrongs were clearly identified and measures were swiftly taken to deal with them, at least from my society – and then there was order and respect for the elders, brothers and sisters. I am speaking here of a tribe, clan or sub-clan where there were set of do’s and don’ts that molded and guided their behaviors and not about the intra-tribal animosity that was there in a larger scale.

Ethics in action must regain its’ prominence in the homes, in classrooms, in government offices and everywhere. For the new generation to exercise ethics we today must show through our examples our own moral standing in the family homes, at the work place, churches and communities. What is our personal conviction in distinguishing between a right and a wrong? Does it show in our action? You have planned for character formation in the education plan to 2014 – that the future citizens must call a sin by its’ right name and condemn it outright. The teaching and learning environment on ethics or anything else is a two-way interaction best described by this quote (unknown) below.

‘a teacher teaches by what he says; teaches more by his action; teaches most in how he lives’ end of quote. {Unknown). If we replace ‘teacher’ with ‘parent’ – the same principle is applied.

Used to be the 3’E’s

Management of nations used to be about the 3’E’s of effectiveness, efficiency and economization. Government planning in the purchases and application of resources were done to maximize productivity using the magic 3 E’s. However government scandals of the 70’s brought to sense’s that an important aspect – that relates to the conduct of an official was missing – that of the 4^th E or Ethics. Ethics had to be legislated thereafter to complete the equation that management has to apply in order to be successful in any given situation or achieving the desired results when complying with an organizations’ lawful mandate.

Thus entered the 4 th E.

Let us hear what the doubters of the 4^th E says

‘.. there are many who doubt that ethics can provide a solution to the kind of acute governance problems that give rise to scandals in government and business. Ethics is seen as too weak and too nice to be of real effect in what is seen as a tough, dirty and unprincipled world. Business and government give ethicists a very polite and respectful hearing. However, one suspects that ethicists are viewed like the Sunday school teachers in a brothel – naïve, totally ineffective and an embarrassment to those who want to get on with their business.’

‘It is seen as negative (telling people what they should not do), impractical (because they have to do it to get along, unenforceable (because it is seen as backed only by conscience), more likely to catch the innocent than the craftily guilty, purist, religiously based and a set of rules about individual conduct that do not take note of the ‘real world’.

End of quote.  Preston, Samford & Connors

Encouraging Ethics and Fighting Corruption, ANU

Identity of a people and prosperity of a nation

Prosperity is a progressive result of a people who designs, own and pilots its’ destiny in the political, social and economical affairs of the nation state. Comparing our progress since independence we have lost many years of development and have not saved sustainable wealth for our future generation. It is time to re-adjust and do things differently – you in Education, the others in Health, we all must promote ethics to the young and the old, it has to be everyone’s business. It has to be everyone’s business to do things right, following the rule of law, respecting others as equals in our interactions with them.

Eight Hundred plus languages and cultures was very important in their considerations when the Constitutional framers were framing our Constitution. If you go over the ‘National Pledge’ it is about conduct – or proper conduct that must bring about justice, equality and respect – all are ethical issues. All are to do with relationship and how one interacts with the other.

To conclude I ask; Where lies the identity of our people and the prosperity of our nation?  I’d say ETHICS,  but more,  it has to be ETHICS IN ACTION.