Country Manager for PNG NRL Cathy Neap in an interview gave her thoughts on a recent conference regarding the violence during elections and the democratic process of the voting system.
Cathy Neap believes that it is the actions of people and how being responsible for our actions makes a difference, and that one does not need to become a politician for change to happen as the roles we play in our daily lives play a big part in changing our nation.
“As my role as a sports person, being in the field, seeing how a team sport is played, every sporting team they have a captain. So just like that in our normal election, we are trying to vote for a captain or trying to vote for our leaders in our country.
In saying that, the leaders are there to bring development and represent us but that doesn’t mean that they will work as individuals to change our country, all of us as citizens of this country we play a very big role in this team called Papua New Guinea.
“The actions we make are contributing factors on how things happen, for example, I’m a rugby player in the field, when the ball is in my hands, my captain doesn’t tell me how to pass the ball or how to run or which player to pass to, I make the decision when the ball is in my hand.
“Whether to pass or whether to run with it. The same is when I’m defending, whether to tackle or not to. Based on the decision that I make, it has an influence on the team or it has a ripple effect. There are consequences the team has to pay for those actions.
The actions that we make by casting our votes or even in our normal daily lives, these are the things that pull us back because we are not contributing positively into our nation or we are not following the procedures that our government put in place or the rules that we are supposed to follow we are breaking them.
“In that way there’s a ripple effect going on and then everyone is suffering because of our own actions and that contributes to our country not developing really well.”