Posted By Staff Reporter
By Hon. Allan Bird Among the many good reasons I had for voting against the Bill the most compelling was that many of my constituents didn't want me to. From pastors, lawyers, doctors and other professionals to ordinary people: they all asked me not to support the Bill. I informed Government Caucus that I would vote against the Bill because it was my people's wish. My conscience is at peace. I have always been an advocate of our Constitution, Civil Liberties, strong checks and balances and Good Government. This Bill went against all those principles. I have always spoken out against corruption and any Bill that seeks to suspend the operation of the PFMA is a step in the wrong direction. This is the first Bill in my knowledge that suspends the Public Finance Management Act by its operation. At the start of the pandemic I spoke of the need to protect our individual rights. While we can argue that sometimes we need to suspend people's rights for their own good, I believe this should only be done with much deliberate care and with clear trigger points. I believe those trigger points are already clearly spelt out in Section X of the Constitution. Civil rights should only be suspended only in exceptional cases. The recent SOE was one such exception. The suspension of civil rights should never be a normal thing as this Bill seeks to do. Many will argue that we are doing this because we don't have enough doctors and hospitals and medicine and equipment. While we quote international statistics we conveniently forget that COVID19 has no cure. That the countries with the best health systems in the world, best hospitals, best equipment, best medicine and best doctors have been UNABLE to cure COVID19. So even if we fixed all our hospitals, recruited the best doctors, bought all the best medicines, it would still be no match for COVID19. The best weapon against COVID19, as shown by real data all over the planet is a very strong immune system. There is nothing in this Bill that will provide anyone with a strong immune system. Only good food, regular exercise and a clean environment can do that. If I am to support any Bill, it must be done so on the basis that the Bill will add value to our people. Not take something away. The burden of ensuring laws are good should not just be a job for the Supreme Court, it should also be the responsibility of Parliament. While the COVID19 pandemic continues to warrant serious attention, PNG remains unable or unwilling to collect data on how the disease is affecting us medically. Economically it is killing us. The Constitution requires us to use "PNG Ways" as much as possible and not to copy the rest of the world. Yet in this instance, our PNG Ways are missing. Our founding fathers put much thought into the freedoms we enjoy today. They did an amazing job which I hope we do not throw away in our haste to believe we are correct. As Sepik people continue to voice their disappointment to me on the outcome of the Bill, I simply say to you what I said to you all in August 2017: I am only the tip of your spear. I remain your servant: your spokesman. Nothing more. Next : PNG Needs Visionary Leadership Now Note: Let Your Views be heard : Send all your Political Commentaries to us through our email : pngfacts@gmail.com Share this Comments are closed.
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