15/09/2021
2021 INDEPENDENCE MESSAGE FROM THE HEAD BISHOP OF THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA
The Evangelical Lutheran Church joins the nation in commemorating the 46th Independence Anniversary of Papua New Guinea. We thank God for guiding us through in the last 46 years of our political journey. We stand together as a nation and celebrate the joy of nationhood as well as the joy of our political freedom, our national unity, our cultural heritage, our noble traditions, dur democracy, our dignity and our values.
Since independence many political, social, economic and religious changes have taken place and transformed our societies. Our nation has been transformed from simple agrarian life to a modern cash economy, from traditional bigman and chieftain political systems to a modern structured government, from traditional religious belief system to universal religion centred on Christ and from small tribal communities to a nation. Those aspects of societal transformation bring many positive benefits as well as many challenges. Therefore, we must take our Independence Day not only as a moment of celebration with excitement but also as a moment of deep reflection on the complex challenges we are facing as a nation.
On this occasion of our 46th Independence Anniversary I wish to reflect on issues of population increase, social disorder and abuse of democracy as key challenges among others. Within the last 46 years our country's population has increased dramatically. This has caused huge social and economic burden for the country because there is an imbalance between population growth and development growth Infrastructure development does not meet the need of the growing population, therefore existing infrastructures are overstressed. As more people are being born the demand for resources and development increases, thus creates further social stress for the country. We need to address this issue to guide our political journey into the future because development plans without addressing population growth will have negative consequences on the country.
We celebrate with joy as a nation because independence offers a sense of unity. With the spirit of national unity we, as citizens, must respect each other and work towards the common good of all. However, since independence the level of violence in the country has increased so much, thus diminishes our values of love and respect. Ethnic conflict is spreading from village communities into the cities and towns. Murder in various forms is increasing in many communities Child abuse is increasing, thus affecting many families. Family and domestic violence occurs frequently in the communities and tears families apart. Sexual violence in different forms is increasing across the country. Use and abuse of drug threatens human life and creates fear in the communities. Violent behaviour of youths contributes to the breakdown of law and order in the country.
Violence hinders progressive development and human growth. It creates fear and destroys the sense of neighbourhood, brotherhood and nationhood. Therefore, we need a collective action to overcome this evil that is destroying our nation. We are a nation of diverse social and cultural groups being united by our common national identify as Papua New Guineans. Therefore, we must have a deep sense of respect and love for each other. We must learn to accept each other regardless of our gender, language, ethnicity and culture. We must learn to embrace each other as one people of a thousand tribes scattered across the valleys, mountains and islands. As a nation we must learn to respect the rights, dignity and freedom of every citizen irrespective of their social, economic and political status in society.
As an independent nation we embrace the fundamental principal human liberty and affirm the value of democracy. We have built our nation on democratic principles and want to be guided by our collective value of common good that holds us together as a nation. Our constitution explicitly expresses this fundamental value of humanity. Democracy recognizes the freedom of citizens to be engaged in society such as freedom to express. to move around, to make choices and to engage in private or public life. Democracy empowers us to be part of the process of change in nation building. However, we must also admit that we have abused our democracy and instead of using it to for the common good we use it for the individual good. We have used our freedom to make bad decisions, misuse resources, abuse election processes, manipulate and dominate the will of citizens and voters during elections and elect leaders in undemocratic manner. This is a clear suppression of democracy. Since independence we have suffered many setbacks in terms of development as a result of democratic abuse.
Democracy must always go together with good reasoning. Every citizen needs a certain level of reasoning on the kind of leaders we need in the country, the kind of leadership model the society requires, the kind of government the country needs and the kind of future we want see for the country. Sound reasoning is necessary because it will enable us to make proper decisions that contribute to the common good of our nation.
Next year is a critical year because we will have our rational elections. We will not celebrate our next anniversary before we go to the polls so I want to appeal to the citizens to apply democracy and use their democratic rights with good reasoning. Decisions and actions based good reasoning will contribute to the common good of society. Let us all act together and contribute positively to make PNG a better place to live in.
On behalf of the Evangelical Lutheran Church I wish you all a happy 46th Independence celebration.
God bless us and our nation.
Rt. Rev. Dr. Jack Urame, Head Bishop - The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea
