Public Servants throughout the country including elected leaders have been challenged by the Prime Minister, James Marape to perform their duties with diligence and integrity.
PM Marape was the keynote speaker at the Public Service Dedication Service today at the Sir John Guise Indoor Stadium in Port Moresby.
PM Marape opened his speech by recounting his experience during the last week travelling across the country visiting extremely remote and most neglected people and places.
Prime Minister James Marape reminisced his experience with the remote places he visited recently.
“Before that Wednesday, on Tuesday I was privileged to have visited, rather sad also, visited Weam our closest government border post to the Indonesian border. It looked as if I was going to visit another place, not Port Moresby, not Lae and not Hagen. It was as if it belongs to another country. It was a moving moment, when people there cried and said, Mr. Prime Minister, we think we are Indonesians. We thought we are forgotten. This broke my heart.” Prime Minister said.
There Prime Minister Marape met 13 faithful soldiers with worn out uniforms and paid them respects. He then addressed the concern to the Army.
“Mr Commander maybe we have not given enough money but their shoes were torn as if the last time they ordered their shoes was 10 years or 20 years ago. Mr. Secretary Defense, only 13 of them and they said to me, ‘Mr. Prime Minister you’re going on the chopper to Benchback, we are traveling 7 hours in the night by dinghy to come and catch up with you so that we remain on duty when you rest’. I said I’m okay, you can stay back. But true to their loyalty to the state and to our Lord they said you are head of our government, we will come tonight, and so they travelled overnight to Benchback where I overnighted.” PM Marape added.
PM Marape continued to lament on the level of neglect of the people in all the areas he visited from Western Province to Southern Highlands. He recalled the lyrics of a coined song women sung both in Normad and Benchback. ‘Empty ya, empty,’ while they hold up empty dishes and bilums depicting how they had been neglected for countless years, of things that we take for granted here.
“It’s empty. Empty of medicines, empty of educational opportunities, empty of connected road.” Marape recounted.
MP for Rai Coast, and Shadow Minister for International Trade and Investment, Kessy Sawang and Minister for PS and MP Nuku, Joe Sungi, and a few other MPs from Hela and SHP on route to Lake Kutubu accompanied PM Marape on the land lag of his local tour.