Author:
Fr. Robert Laka (Mother Enga)
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Date Posted: Mon, Aug 21 2006, 03:30:21pm
I appreciate your comment, Evaluator. You don’t have to be a Catholic nor a religious person to response to my paper. I wrote my paper in the name of Humanity and anyone, regardless of religion and belief has the right to say what he/she thinks and feels.
About your points asking me to justify the relief of a poor person when his two children are in school, well, squandering of money in the name of free education and relieving a poor man from the village are not the same thing.
When I mentioned that, money is being squandered in the name of free education, I expressed, that the right to education is a basic human right and that right must not be denied by any leaders in position. That right is what freedom is which individuals possess and every person deserves that right to be upheld. In that manner, Evaluator, the poor man’s two children have the right to education. I am not against the right to free education, where I need to justify it. However, the relief from the burden of increased school fee is lauded on the part of the poor person. But my question is, if these two children finish their studies, are there jobs created for them? Maybe in other parts of PNG but not in Enga. I might be wrong, for which I would stand being corrected.
However, if I am asked, to elaborate what I meant by squandering of money, in the name of free education means, then I am to maintain my stand as it is. I see squandering of money in terms of lack of proper accountability and records of the millions being spent for the students; squandering of money when the whole bunch of “mi kam wantaim gavenor long paiem skul pee” end up in hotels for days before returning back to the province but most of all, I define squandering of money, in terms of jobs not being created for Engans who wish to come back to work and serve Enga. Well, the list goes not, I don’t have to elaborate.
Every toea spent on an Engan soul to achieve his/her education counts and there is an expected benefit to be given back to Enga. However, that education benefit or “return” is not in progress. I mentioned earlier, that I don’t blame the multitude of Engan intellects passing out from tertiary levels. However my point is that, a well organized people orientated government, who wishes to move a country or province forward, invests in human potentials to harvest the benefit. By doing so, job is created in any level. Communication and understanding usually takes place with the government and the students in order to return back educational benefits in terms of service. The student does not have to reimburse the amount gotten from the government. Everybody takes for granted what the government gives and nobody even bother to return back to Enga to serve her. Some, in fact most graduates want to, but there is simply no job created for all. Even if job is created, for instance the teachers or health workers, working conditions, roads and other deteriorating basic services puts down their morale, which lacks the commitment and enthusiasm they have. One leads to another problem.
To have all this in order and progressiveness, the leader (together with his advancers) has to be economically competent, morally sound and empathetic to ALL ENGANS, regardless of who casted votes on whom. By then Enga will be always beautiful. Mother Enga would be crowned with the abundance of her gold and adorned with the beauty of her pyrethrum, well, much more. Enga is yet to come up, before it is consummated in a very, very short term, leaving nothing for our children.
About where I come from, you are correct about your facts about me earlier, but I am NOT the late Fr. Robert Lak. Mi pikinini Enga, ino hagen.
And to the surfers, I suggest we should behave with the use of our language on this web. I guess the intention of the person who created this forum is for logical exchange of words and ideas. To you sari songster, sometimes, it is wise not to annoy others by the style of language you use. I guess POLITENESS is the name of the language; we Engans need to have, rather then being aggressive. It doesn’t help in the long run.
Fr. Robert Laka (Tsikiro Tange)
Slovenia - Europe
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