Leadership is not only political | By Patrick Matbob

When we talk about leadership being responsible to resolve issues, we are not talking only about politicians.

We are talking about leadership in all levels of governance, political and administrative, at national, provincial, local as well at tribal and clan level.

Leadership in churches, and community organisations also matter. It is the absence of leadership at tribal and community level and at LLG levels that is the biggest issue in PNG.

Where the leadership at these levels are intact, issues are resolved quickly at that level. It is when leadership is absent, that the issues escalate and need leadership at a higher level to resolve.

PNG always had clan and tribal leaders to resolve issues in the village. However, the problems facing us today are not often caused by things happening amongst clans and tribes in the village.

Development issues are brought into the local communities, and locals are faced with issues outside of their villages and need leadership at higher levels to deal with them.

We must also understand that police are law enforcers and are not necessarily the best people to deal with complex issues. Leaders are needed here, and the police can provide secure environment for issues to be resolved.