O’arise all you children of this land…otherwise *bai yu kisim pen!

Sound familiar? In our uniquely Papua New Guinean way, law is something that we learn (more like taught to us) at a very early stage in our lives. We are taught the boundaries of acceptable behavior almost from the moment we are aware and can decide our actions.

When we are children, we either get reprimanded (loudly) or smacked for; disobedience, for hurting others (and at times yourself) and for not doing chores. The older you get, the reprimands continue (although louder) and the smacks either cease or become beltings. The reprimands and the smacks are the indication that what you are doing (or not doing) is wrong and from then on you know to avoid doing that particular thing. Eventually you discern for yourself what you can and cannot do. This becomes your law, the premises on which you base your moral conduct throughout your life.

A quality that makes us unique is the fact that we have many different ways of thinking and doing things (let me repeat once again we have over 900+ tribes!). What is culturally correct here in Central Province may be taboo in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, what is protocol in Madang may be seen as madness in neighboring Morobe province and so forth.

The ‘Mama Law’ (Mother Law to you non Tok Pisin speakers) or The Constitution of Papua New Guinea was seen as a means of bringing together what was generally accepted as correct and incorrect so that we could function together as one nation despite our many different ways of doing things. It was meant to give us something to grasp when things got murky, as they do in the waters of justice. 

The Constitution of Papua New Guinea has generally done its job-kept us intact as a nation, given us grounds to get rid of unwanted people and institutions, given us grounds to prosecute criminals and their aides, yes it has done a pretty good job in imposing laws.

But whose laws exactly? Yesterday’s protest 'not march' but gathering or whatever the organizers are calling it now, really got me thinking. Whose laws exactly are we defending and how will the majority of the people of PNG be affected in general by the proposed changes.

At 10am yesterday, I walked along Independence Drive towards Somare Foundation with the intent to join the protest to get the Judicial Conduct Act and the motion to delay the 2012 National Elections repealed.  I saw a crowd gathering next to the Sir Buri Kidu building (former Australian High Commission building) and I thought all those gathered around me were there to join the protest  but after talking to the *buai sellers, I learnt I was wrong! That was in fact the usual weekly crowd that flock the government institutions housed in any of the four buildings on a daily basis. After more than two hours of standing around, chewing buai and waiting for some sort of direction on where to move and when, I decided to move (humans were not created to stand in one place for two hours). 

A walk around the Gordon 5 area to the Gordon Police Barracks showed two things, the first was that for everyone else in the neighborhood, things were going on pretty much as usual (buai sellers were selling, tucker shops and black market liquor shops were all operating as normal). The second that, most people were in fact still in the dark as to what this protest was about!

‘Confusion’ or ‘in the dark’ are two terms that probably best sum up yesterdays gathering. From a mere smattering to a couple of thousand when announcements (eventually) began, people were generally ‘in the dark’ as to what exactly was hoped to be achieved by this gathering. Yes there were moments when you felt the crowd impassioned by what was being said like when Laeko Bile (President of the Central Provice Council of Women) questioned our leaders "Are you being honourable or horrible leaders?!". People gathered wanting to be part of a movement that would push the government of today to change things for the better.

Then you had the PNG Royal Constabulary..who while the rest of their colleagues were making their intimidating presence felt at the protest gathering, others were having their own gathering within the Gordon barracks supposedly to discuss their grievances or issues with their colleagues from Mt Hagen, who were brought down for what purpose and by whom we still do not know.

Meanwhile the rest of the nation was pretty much at a standstill. Protests were organized throughout the country. Some of them successfully delivering their petitions others having to give them to some second party instead. 

There are so many arguments for and against the proposed changes to the constitution. There are many more arguments for and against the validity of Mr O’Neill’s government, John Paska’s movement, Sir Michael Somare’s government etc. etc. etc. But as far as most Papua New Guineans are concerned they do not care for any of the three mentioned or their supposed ideals, convictions and righteousness, NO most of us simply want what is fair. We want to be able to go about our daily business, get medicine when we get sick, make money from our own land by our own terms, we want to be able to have confidence that when someone does wrong they will be punished and finally we want to be able to vote for who we think will best represent us.

So now folks my question is whose law exactly are we going by these days? Our law or their law?

*bai yu kisim pen! = you will get hurt!

*buai= betelnut or areca nut