THE recent spike in lawlessness in the country needs urgent attention however lack of police manpower is a problem, says Police Minister William Onglo.
“The ethnic clashes in NCD, tribal fights in K92, youth fights in Rabaul and the recent Alotau mayhem are all matters needing urgent intervention.”
Minister Onglo admits that Police Force has manpower of only 6,531 uniformed officers and with limited resources, RPNGC cannot spread everywhere.
The Minister wants PNG to know that the leadership in RPNGC is not an issue but capacity and resources are.
“RPNGC has capacity and resources issue and not leadership issues and our government is very well aware of it and are taking every steps possible to address it”.
The Minister is also applauding police men and women across the country for doing their best despite all the obstacles they are encountering.
“My message to our citizens across the country is to respect our laws. Law and Order is everyone’s business and we need all to understand that we are human beings, not animals so we must use our common sense and do the right things.
“You don’t have to go to school to learn common sense, its God given and as human beings we must use it by respecting one another and make our police job easier.
“We also need all leaders at all levels to advocate the new norm, respect authorities and respect for one another too,” Minister Onglo said.
Meanwhile, he strongly emphasized for both the citizens and the media (traditional and new media) to do aggressive campaign and observe the COVID-19 protocols.
He said we need all the media, mainstream and social and the people to assist in aggressive campaigns to understand to live and operate under the new Norm.
“The basic rules for the new norm are very simple, wear Masks, Washing Hands and Social Distancing”, the minister said.
He said PNG citizens need to understand and practice the simple COVID-19 protocols and embrace the new normal.
The Minister also highlighted that with the new trend of mutation spreading around our borders, our health system cannot cope with the spread and before it lands on our shores, we have to look at measures that will effectively control the spread.
“An informed decision to instill further measures will be for all stakeholders to report thoroughly of the recent surge.
“Given the current scenario, we as a Government cannot ignore the pandemic surge and allow our people to be affected in numbers.
“We don’t want to come to a point where the surge reaches a breaking point nor allow the pandemic to affect our local economy and Law and Order problems,” Minister Onglo said.