PNG National Goals & Directive Principles Essay Competition

Wanem skelim blong yu long ol Bikpela Stia Tingting i stap insait long Mama Lo blong PNG?

What do Papua New Guinea’s National Goals and Directive Principles mean to you?

Faivpela Bikpela Stia Tingting i stap long Mama Lo blong PNG. Long  1974, wanpela Komiti ol kolim Komstitusenol Plening Komiti i raun insait long olgeta hap kona blong PNG long kisim tingting blong ol manmeri long wanem samting ol laikim long nupela kantri PNG.

The five goals and directive principles are inscribed in the preamble of PNG’s Constitution. In 1974, a Constitutional Planning Committee travelled right throughout PNG in an unprecedented attempt to articulate the people’s hopes and needs for the new country.

Ol i bin askim, ‘wanem kain kantri yumi laik lukim?”

They asked, ‘what kind of society do we want?’

Ol skelim ol tingting  blong ol manmeri na kirapim dispel ol Stia Tingting

These goals and directive principles are the result.

1. Integral human development.

We declare our first goal to be for every person to be dynamically involved in the process of freeing himself or herself from every form of domination or oppression so that each man or woman will have the opportunity to develop as a whole person in relationship with others.

 

2. Equality and participation

We declare our second goal to be for all citizens to have an equal opportunity to participate in, and benefit from, the development of our country.

 

3. National sovereignty and self-reliance

We declare our third goal to be for Papua New Guinea to be politically and economically independent, and our economy basically self-reliant.

 

4. Natural resources and environment

We declare our fourth goal to be for Papua New Guinea’s natural resources and environment to be conserved and used for the collective benefit of us all, and be replenished for the benefit of future generations.

 

5. Papua New Guinean ways

We declare our fifth goal to be to achieve development primarily through the use of Papua New Guinean forms of social, political and economic organization.

 

 

Tasol, Tripela Ten–Seven krismas bihain long indipendens, dispel ol Bikpela Stia Tingting i no karim kaikai long laip blong ol man-meri-pinkini  insait long PNG.

However,  37 years since Independence, the universal rights belonging to every Papua New Guinean man, woman and child expressed in the goals are yet to be realised.

Man i bin go pas long raitim Mama Lo, John Momis i tok PNG i stap nau long bikpela hevi. Maski i gat bikpela divelopmen i kamap insait long kantri planti lain i wok long bungim hevi yet – graun i lus taim ol bikpela wok bisnis i kamap na dispel wok long daunim sindaun blong yumi aninit long ol Bikpela Stia Tingting long Mama Lo.

As former Constitutional Planning Committee member John Momis said recently, PNG is at an important crossroads in its history. While it has great opportunities, it also faces extremely grave challenges – customary land is being lost as commercial development increases in PNG, and this threatens our potential to secure the rights expressed in these goals.

Long dispela as nau, mipela askim yu long wanem ting blong yu long ol Faivpela Stia Tinting.

So we are asking you to describe what these goals mean to you.

Yumi stil nidim ol Faivpela Stia Tingting o nogat? Na sapos yumi nidim, yumi inap kirapim ol long stretim future bilong yumi o nogat?

Are the five goals still relevant in PNG today? And if they are, can they be resurrected and used as the basis for a new discussion about ‘which way for PNG’?

To read the Constitution, click here. To read the CPC’s 1974 report, click here.

To listen to Our Pacific Ways being interviewed on Radio Australia about the essay competition, click here.

To watch short films featuring John Momis  discussing writing the Constitution, click here and here.

To watch a video about the National Goals and Directive Principles, click here.