By REG RENAGI
Well many a media pundit in recent years has hinted at it before in one form or another.
As the government seems not too bothered about our national security for many years, it can start tomorrow by scrapping the entire defence and police force with half the over-bloated public service.
What a great way to cut costs for the government in future.
The billions saved will allow more money to be spent on health, education, infrastructure and other politically attractive pork-barrel programmes by local MPs in their respective districts.
Similar to defence, our police too is also a big budget consumer with a less than satisfactory outcome in controlling crime, and the public service being perceived as potentially corrupt; and non-productive.
Do you know what will happen if we ever took that course?
Total chaos and anarchy will reign throughout PNG.
Thirty-five years after Independence, we still have people in our society that are still primitive and aggressive in nature with a corrupt culture, who in no time will hold the whole country to ransom through increased gun violence; and other serious crimes of flouting our civil ‘rules of law’.
The security vacuum created by removing defence as an important element of national power; the potential for widespread civil strife and internal insurgencies will greatly increase.
So abolishing the PNGDF and the police may sound too easy for a government ever thinking of making some big savings.
The whole exercise would one big false economy.
In its place: more serious problems than solutions will immediately arise that will eventually collapse total government control over its subjects.
That’s one key reason (there are many others) why an economically strong country has a standing military force to protect its national interests.
PNG's first challenge is to enhance its sovereignty and security.
The government can achieve this by bridging the gap between declared defence commitments, and actual military capabilities.
Integral to a vision of a credible defence posture are the realignment and consolidation of existing commitments, a vigorous modernisation programme for the next 15 years and beyond, including a sweeping reorganisation, especially of our higher defence command.
The second challenge is to improve defence management in all core competence areas.
That is, the way defence manages its equipment acquisition; its people's careers, planning in every area from how we fight to how we feed our people.
All these processes need to be revised due to military technological and management changes in the world in recent years.
The government and defence cannot allow itself to become complacent in the face of great changes sweeping through our society and region.
PNG’s task whether in the military or the whole country is to become the master of change, rather than its servant.
Change, be it technology or in the way we manage and organise ourselves, is something which the PNGDF needs to drive.
These two key development challenges must be well managed at a time of budget constraints and during an extended time of peace.
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