PMV commuters under risk of Petty Crimes in Port Moresby: Why can’t the Police Intervene?
May 26, 2023
Port Moresby is PNG’s
capital city and an important center for trade. Its status of trade has been there long
before the arrival of Europeans. It is called home to a variety of ethnic
groups such as Melanesians
, Negritos
, Micronesians and Polynesians. Although Port Moresby may had its problems
during colonial
times, but was one of the beautiful and safe places to live just like Lae,
Mount Hagen, Rabaul and Madang. Fast-forward to post- colonial era, these major
centers particularly Port Moresby seems less attractive places to live.
Why Port Moresby is much unattractive
place to live? According to Isabel
Michell, an Australian volunteer to PNG, the reason for Port Moresby being
considered as one of the least livable cities in the world is that it’s
expensive, dangerous, and opportunities are limited. In 2017,
it was ranked 136 out of a total of 140 cities that are least livable worldwide.
The ranking was done to compare Port Moresby’s living conditions with other major
cities around the world in a foreigner’s perspective. It may be less attractive
and least livable for foreigners but not for the nationals.
Regardless of the city’s harsh lifestyle, it
seems that more Papua New Guineans prefer to live in urban centers than rural
areas. In fact, the population for Port Moresby alone has grown steadily
over the years. In 1950 the population was 15
700 and increased by 8
470 since 2015 as compared to the latest revisions on the UN World Urbanization
Prospects, the current estimated population is 456,000.
Correspondingly, Lae has
been experiencing a surge in population. The former Morobe Administrator, Sheila
Harou stated that Morobe is the biggest and most populated province in the
country. Its capital city, Lae has received more rural-urban drifters lately. Both
cities (Port Moresby and Lae) suffered rural-urban drift and posed huge
challenge on the respective city authorities in terms of providing adequate
social services and economic opportunities to meet the needs of the growing
population.
Studies have revealed
that the main driving force for rural-urban drift in any developing nation is
through push-pull
factor like socio-economic reasons which include education, employment
opportunities and good health facilities and infrastructures (good road
condition). Economic difficulties in rural areas push people towards searching
for better living standards in the city. It has been reported that most of
these rural
immigrants are illiterate who lack knowledge and skills to contribute to
the development of the city while few move in search for job and education
opportunities. More people are pulled
towards city life thinking that they would live in luxury, but it was not true.
The struggle is real for them as life is mainly centered on cash
economy. You have to work and earn
money to sustain you livelihoods since the cost
of living is very high as well as Kina value drops against the foreign
currency specifically the US dollars, where inflation becomes a recurring
problem, making life even harder than they could have imagined.
As a result of their
struggles, law
and order issues spiraled. The safety of Port Moresby residents becomes a
growing concern since most of them are regular commuters who travel to and from
work, school and other commitments using Public Motor Vehicles (PMVs) like
25-seater buses and taxi cabs. The number of speculators loitering around the
streets of the city escalates. Youths particularly young men who dropped out
from high school have now joined those on the streets and getting involved in
petty crimes such as, vandalizing properties, pick-pocketing, snatching mobile
phones and hand bags from vulnerable people mainly women, girls and elderly
men.
Recently it has been
reported that 90
per cent of women living in Port Moresby experience violence at bus stops,
travelling to work and while on buses.
There were also other reports from victims; Anne
Sipusipu, a teacher in Port Moresby had her bag snatched from her at one
time and her friend’s as well. They had to get off the bus and chase after him
to get the bags back. Lily
Korowa, a high school student like other young women, view that opportunists
often target women and girls. Her phone and money was snatched from her by some
boys in a PMV. She sometimes feels scared to get on the PMVs.
This is frightening
because I have witnessed similar attacks several times and have been a victim
of such a theft once. It was on a Saturday morning in 2020; I had my bag pack
on my back and got off from a PMV at Gordons right in front of the Total Fuel
Station. I was heading for the next bus stop for my final destination. Along the way, I had goosebumps because this
place has so many stories of people being robbed. Anxiously, I figured something bad was going
to happen at that moment. All of a sudden, I was confronted by a stranger and
in split seconds he tried to pull something from his trousers’ pocket that
looked like a knife. He ordered me to give him the bag. I refused and was prepared
to defend myself. Then, I felt someone trying to grab my bag from behind, at
that moment I knew I had to fight so that I don’t lose my valuables. I spun in
between the two robbers and with all my strength pushed the one in front of me
and yelled, “Leave me alone! I’m just like you trying to earn a living every
day. Or if you want to prove it, come get the bag”!! That little commotion took
people’s attention, even the security guards at the main market gate stood
there and watched ignorantly. The men who was standing in front of me let go as
soon as I yelled. He told me to go, and pretended as if nothing happened.
So the point is you will
have to defend yourself in these busy places in Port Moresby when faced with
such attacks. No one would help you, not even the police or security guards.
Such is a harsh reality every commuter has to live with. Even going out in the night to buy groceries
in shops is not safe for women and girls.
Why can’t the police stop
all these attacks? The challenges Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary (RPNGC) faces
are real which prevent effective policing services. One main obstacle is lack
of man power. The registered police officers are outnumbered by the country’s
population of eight
million people. According to the PNG 2019 Crime and Safety Report, the
approximate number of police officers in the country is 4500
which indicates that it is a country that has one of the lowest police-to-people
ratios in the world. That is, one
police officer is to every 1145 people, which is higher than the UN
required ratio of one is to every 450 people.
In fact, RPNGC confronted overwhelming
challenges in attaining the corporation of local communities that frequently
chose to take the law in their own hands when dealing with criminals. This is
because the police on-the-ground are scattered and their response
to a crime scene is very slow. It’s about time RPNGC start training and
recruiting more than the required number of police officers.
Another
challenge is police are undertrained. PNG
Police recruitment is an ongoing initiative taken by PNG government and
every year the RPNGC continues to train and send new recruits into the police force.
The question of how well they are trained is and should be a concern for the
respective government authorities. In 2015, the former Police Commissioner, Gari
Baki proposed to extend the duration for training recruits from 6 to 18 months
needs to be put into effect since these recruits have to be taught the elements
of law and various aspects of sociology so that they can understand the society
(behavior of the people) in which they are expected to serve and the law that
constitutes all of them. Thus, six months is not an ample time to fully train
and educate them these things. Every recruit has to be well versed with the
required knowledge, skills and experience and the code of conduct as a law
enforcer.
Lack
of funding is also an obstacle. The
Police Department has been under constraint budget
for many years. Having not enough funds made readily available that can cater
for basic law enforcement tools like radios and weapons, resources and impose
internal discipline drives ineffective policing services. For instance, in 2016
– 2017 the RPNGC encountered tremendous budget cuts further affecting their
performance.
People have high
expectations of policing services since they are the law enforcers. So to
improve their performance, adequate funds must be allocated to the RPNGC, like
the K3.9
billion that was proposed by the current Police Commissioner, David Manning
in 2020. The money can be put to good use like developing and maintaining
police barracks and police stations in the country, improve officers’ salaries,
build good training facilities and train more new recruits.
Therefore, the indication of effective
policing services will be seen through reduction in law and order issues in and
around the country provided the officers’ needs are met.
Given that, the surge in
rural-urban migration, harsh city lifestyle , escalation of petty crimes as
well as safety of vulnerable people is not guaranteed due to the fact that
people outnumbered the police, the future of Port Moresby in terms of reducing the
crime rates does not look promising and needs an holistic approach like the Safer
Port Moresby Initiative that aims at addressing the primary causes of crime
that have accompanied the unprecedented urban growth of Port Moresby. This is a
complex issue not only for Port Moresby but the nation as a whole and it will
take time for real change to occur.
Author:
|
Loretta Dilu Strategic Management School of Business and Public Policy University of Papua New Guinea |
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