Stop desecrating our Parliament

Stop desecrating our Parliament

By Patrick Matbob

It does not matter whether the decision to remove the traditional objects was taken unilaterally by the Speaker or that he was implementing a committee’s decision. The committee’s decision is wrong. Priest, author and teacher, the late Fr Frank Mihalic had this definition for the word committee – it is a group of the unqualified, put together by the unwilling, to do the unnecessary.

We, Papua New Guineans, have to constantly remind ourselves that our country is not a naturally forged nation. PNG is not made up of a single race of people, nor culture, language, religion or any common experiences. We do not even have a shared experience such as a war that would have brought us together. PNG is the nation of numerous tribal groups, languages, cultures brought together by colonial powers for their own interests. We are in reality an artificial nation and our biggest challenge today is to stay together as a country. This is the reality for the founders of our country when they created PNG. They wanted PNG to be a nation that would be united within its diversity.  In order to ensure the diversity existed, symbols and representations of our differences were deliberately sought and encouraged to be used to emphasise the rich diversity that was being united. The Parliament is a great icon of this reality as it encompasses PNG’s diversity as much as possible in the cultural symbols in an effort to unite us.

We are told that the cultural objects in Parliament are being removed because they are evil and unchristian and somehow responsible for the poor behaviour of our leaders. Religious arguments are complex because they depend on religious teachings and interpretations that vary. Yet the act of removing cultural objects based on Christian beliefs is a vain exercise. It is like trying to create heaven on earth, in this case, a heaven in Parliament devoid of all earthly beliefs and influences so that the Parliament is clean and pure. It is impossible. What about the hearts of our leaders which is really where the roots of all good and evil lie. It is us humans who decide in our hearts to commit the good or the evil – and we do so using our bodies and the laws and many other cultural objects that we have created – money, valuables, alcohol, drugs, weapons, art, music, etc. Did not Jesus rebuke the leaders in his time calling them hypocrites because their hearts were impure? “… You are like white-washed tombs beautiful in appearance, but inside there are only dead bones and uncleanness (Matt: 23: 27).” The cultural symbols in Parliament are evidence that our ancestors’ were spiritual people and were in a quest to discover God long before the arrival of Christian missionaries.  When the first missionaries arrived, they realised that the people had strong traditional spiritual beliefs. Early missionaries banned many evil practices such as cannibalism, sorcery and witchcraft and introduced Christianity. They also realised there were many valuable cultural practices essential to maintaining the well-being of a society and allowed people to continue practicing their cultures. For instance a quote from the early Divine Word Missionaries in Momase region – the missionaries were trained never to tear down a culture but to study and appreciate it, use its good points and whenever possible to baptise the rest of it. Thanks to early missionaries like them we still have bride price payments, initiation rites that train villagers how to live together, and the knowledge of art and crafts essential to daily living such as making canoes, houses, gardens, songs and dances, etc.  

We need our cultural symbols for they are of value to us to stay together as a nation. There have been actions by missionaries in the past to exterminate the cultures of people they encountered in the belief that they were making them fully Christians. Instead they only succeeded in dressing them up in white clothes to look like Europeans! The result has been a complete disaster and certain societies such as the Australian aborigines and former slave colonies are still trying to establish their identities today.

 So far people supporting the removal of cultural artefacts have not said how these objects are influencing the leaders and responsible for the problems happening in Parliament. They are putting forward arguments without any evidence and accusing and condemning others of idol worship and quoting scriptures that are taken out of context. Where is the evidence that idol worship is happening in Parliament? Are there cult groups or activities within Parliament where the objects are worshiped? How is this happening? We are aware of and have evidence of cult activities in our schools in PNG but there is no evidence whatsoever from the Parliament house.

Most of the objects within the Parliament were carved in Port Moresby at the National Arts School by artists brought from different parts of PNG. I am not aware of any cultural ceremonies held to dedicate these objects to spirits they were supposed to represent. The only ceremony we are aware of was the official opening of the Parliament in August 7, 1984 by Prince Charles representing the Queen as head of the Commonwealth.

The act of blaming cultural objects for our problems in Parliament unfortunately reflects the reluctance of our people to admit and accept that our leaders are human and weak and can do wicked things as well as the good they are expected to do. Are we not looking for scape goats for the sins of our leaders? We must also realise and accept that our Parliament system is new, and is going through changes which can have some upheavals like the recent political impasse. That does not necessarily mean our leaders are under some evil influence. It means we are looking for ways to make our Parliamentary democracy system work in harmony with the changes that are continuously happening in PNG today.

The cultural objects at the Parliament represent our cultural heritage which embodies our identity. Our identity is important as we develop in the modern world because it helps us to know our place in society and how we have come to be where we are. Without this knowledge we are open to being exploited and abused by powerful organisations that we come into contact with today. Our identity is also our history, which is important as we move forward that we do not repeat the mistakes of our ancestors.

The action of the Speaker and his committee also demonstrates a lack of respect and contempt for our past leaders and elders in Parliament. This ‘holier than thou’ attitude of casting stones at others is not healthy for us and is not the teachings of Christ. One of the homes of dying used by Mother Therese of Calcutta was an old Hindu Temple where Hindu gods were worshipped. This was of absolute no concern to her as she knew God’s love transcends races, religions, cults, beliefs, etc. Majority of those she cared for were not Christians any way. Jesus gave few key commandments: to love God and neighbour, and made it clear that on judgement day there were will be particular questions asked: When I was hungry,  when I was thirsty, … when I was sick and in prison … etc. So instead of defacing the Parliament, what are we doing for our people, women and children who hunger and thirst not only for food but for love and justice, who die of curable diseases, or imprisoned for committing crimes to survive?  

It is for these reasons that we should be careful with what has been happening at the Parliament. When we remove the cultural objects, what are we really doing? Are we really cleaning up the Parliament and the actions of our leaders? I think not.  We are removing the objects and symbols that help to bring us together as a nation. If we are not careful we could be dismantling PNG.