Monthly Archive for June, 2009

The tussle of private vice and public virtue

Published on June 30, 2009 in Politics. 0 Comments

PRIVATE VICE AND PUBLIC VIRTUE have been in a tussle for centuries and there seems to be no shortage of venues for the tussle to enlist and stage itself as an issue of public debate. This idiomatic tussle comes into play when matters of public interest appear to be hijacked, subjugated or replaced by some kind of private interest.

The ultimate ends of private interest are often concealed and what is generally gets to be told is how the pursuit of private interest can serve as means to achieve the objectives of public interest. Public figures who are prominent in such decisions are then treated with scorn and suspicion because of the belief that they have compromised public virtue in order to secure and promote some scheme of private interests.

This tussle is now being staged in the heart of Port Moresby where we are likely to see an uproar with concerns over a recent ministerial decision to reclassify and transfer the ownership of a public recreational area to an Asian developer which aims to develop the area into an industrial site of some description. A more detailed account of this issue is reported in The National (30th of June 2009).

The ministerial decision was sponsored by the Minister of Lands and Deputy Prime Minister, Sir Puka Temu. Legal processes are underway to challenge the surprising turn in the minister’s decision to circumvent an earlier decision by the Land’s Tribunal to preserve the Unagi Park as a public recreational space. The  Governor of National Capital District in PNG, Hon. Powes Pakop, has this to say on this issue:

Unagi Park should remain a public reserve for recreational purposes for the benefit of the city’s children and families.

I couldnt believe when I read about the re-classification of this piece of land that we the citizens of Moresby have come to know as Unagi Park in Gordons. The decision of the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Lands, Sir Puka Temu, to rezone and transfer the ownership of that land into the hands of some private persons should never ever be accepted period!
Moresby should arise immediately and vehemently oppose this greedy and stupid decision by the Minister. The decision to transfer ownership compromises our right to peace and recreation and we wonder why any legitimate government should be committed to promoting peace and popularity. Far above the ethical issues of public virtues and private vices, the bottom line is that we cannot sit back and watch this public space go to some private interests. The decision must be reversed and thwarted once and for all.
Cities are not just made up of concrete landscapes, free ways and skyscrappers. We need residential and recreational areas. We need parks and pathways, fields and ovals, some of which should be open and free from the enclosures and barricades.Unagi Park is neither like Bisini, Lyod Robson nor the Sir John Guise Stadium which carry an air of exclusivity about them. Unagi Park has a definitive spirit about it. Its characterisitic openess radiates a spirit of freedom and an individuality that encourages conviviality and mutual integration across all kinds of social and cultural boundaries of ethnicity, race, gender and religion.

Early this year I was privileged to attend a workshop hosted by the NCDC as they were thinking about development plans for our city. Our city planners are fully aware of the need to maintain a balance between industrialisation, urbanisation, immigration and the moral and physical health of our population in the city.Recreation is an area of priority that the NCDC has been working hard to develop and consolidate so that it adds a definitive cultural character to our city and its inhabitants.

When I take a view of Unagi Park from my cousin’s house up on Gordon Heights, I often have this peculiar feeling of looking into a play ground that is reminiscent of my village in the Sepik. It is important to be able to still feel that Moresby is your place just like our native villages, hamlets or hauslain. I hate to imagine what I would feel if I see an industrial complex parading itself as the appropriate alternative to a recreational area. In the meantime, I don’t even know what substitute our dear Minister would give us and our children if he were to decimate this public space in a desperate quest for the so-called industrial development.

It is generally held that recreation contributes to the development of our moral and spiritual character and, in this vein, play grounds are a kind of ethical laboratories. They encourage health, nurture self-confidence, inspire creative intrigue and healthy ambitions in sports, and in so doing, playgrounds diminish idleness and the kinds of negativity that are attached to the exclusive character of social and cultural boundaries.

We could go on arguing for or against the Minister’s decision. But at the end of the day, we want to tell the Minister that the Unagi Park has to be retained and properly developed into a public facility for recreational purposes. The NCDC is already developing and maintaining it and the areas within its vicinity. We need to keep this for us now and for our children in the future. Maintaining Unagi Park is a need not a want. Any government that has the interests of its people will acknowledge and act to secure this public need to maintain Unagi Park.