Prime Minister Hon. James Marape has urged everyone in the country to be law-abiding to progress the country, in respect of Found Father Sir Michael Somare.
He made the call at University of PNG on Friday (February 24, 2023) when addressing students during the second anniversary commemoration of the passing of Sir Michael. The Prime Minister also broke ground for a monument to be built on the UPNG campus to the memory of Sir Michael.
PM Marape – an alumni of UPNG – listed seven virtues of Sir Michael, including being a law-abiding citizen, which he said was the most important.
The seven virtues of Sir Michael are:
• OPTIMISM which enabled him to achieve what he wanted in life including independence for PNG;
• SELFLESSNESS and putting the interests of others first, including PNG ahead of his Murik Lakes area in East Sepik;
• PROMOTER OF NATIONAL UNITY;
• PROMOTER OF PNG WAYS;
• PROMOTER OF EQUALITY;
• CHRISTIANITY; and
• LAW-ABIDING.
“The best you can do for your country, going forward, is being a law-abiding Papua New Guinean. Everything else is secondary,” PM Marape said.
“If you claim to be a Christian, and you are not law-abiding, your are not a Christian. If you claim to be a Papua New Guinean, and you are not law-abiding, you are not a Papua New Guinea.
“Every Papua New Guinean must be law-abiding. That is the greatest gift our generation can pass on to the next generation.
“The foundation for our country has already been planted, in the formative years of our country since 1975, and up till today. Amidst the challenges, we, as your Government, are trying out absolute best to ensure that our country is safer, better, to be passed on to our children’s generation.
“But it cannot happen, if our generation can’t embrace all the principles and values our greatest leader ever – Grand Chief Sir Michael Thomas Somare – stood by and stood for.
“Chief among them was that he was law-abiding.
“If you truly care for him, and for our country, you must truly embrace the rule of law as we journey into the future. If all of us, from leadership down to society, follow the rule of law, our country can be the place the leaders of our country envisaged.”
