Traditional Death Penalty Practice to Restore Law and Oder in Papua New Guinea
I am not sure if this letter will ever reach you. Let alone the good Lord decide. If this letter reaches you one day, please accept in your heart to read from the start to the finish. I know I have a point but the highly brutal police force won’t allow me come anywhere near to speak to you. I could have gone to the media but nothing productive is sure to happen as you will regard my writing as just another Papua New Guinean writing. Maybe I should live the letter in a signed enveloped “Attention: Attorney General of PNG” with your secretary but then I am not sure if your fancy secretary would be considerate enough to pass the letter to you. Therefore I wrote to Hubpages.
Over the months I have been reading your press releases on daily newspapers and like everyone else formed my own opinion. Not many are taking your call to implement death penalty seriously. Many Christians are arguing against your call. But let me ask them “was there something like eye for an eye penalty in the bible? They may be right! I don’t know. I am just a poet. I may be right, I don’t know. They are just Christians. And that is the funny thing about human beings.
My opinion unlike that of others is strongly based on my cultural background. I come from small indigenous tribe called Zia that inhibit the little stretch between the borders of Oro and Morobe Province. Mr. Attorney general, ours is a history of tribal fights and cannibalism just like any others in Melanesian society. But ours evolved around very civilized yet simple social structures. I am sure yours is no different from mine with common leadership universals.
The key ingredient that held the Zia tribe together and in order was discipline. Take everything away from a society including their material possessions and love and they will still find ways to survive how severe the situation is….But take away discipline and every individual break down to nothing and so the society.
In the Zia society, we had only four clans. Wapo represented by eagle, Bego represented by Hornbill, Sakia represented by White Cockatoo and Yewa represented by bird of paradise. The four clans were represented in the house of assembly called Bui. In the Bui, death or life of individuals were decided. Good governance was paramount. Like in the bible, every sin carries same weight. Murder or steal from other garden both carried same penalty. I am talking about sanctioned death my good attorney general. It was happening on our soils well before the Westerners arrived with the so call ‘Human Rights and Religion’
The most interesting part is how death was sanctioned. Maybe understanding this highly intelligent system of Zia would give you some clue as to how you can mobilize other attorneys and interested individuals to drive your message to the wider mass. When someone was found guilty of misconduct, a team of highly intelligent officials were used to swiftly terminate the lawbreaker (s) without trace. The practice was called Butu Dao. No one lawbreaker’s body was ever found according to history. Even the bones were not found until today. Even no one dared to ask why, where, how and who…It was highly confidential. I am thinking aloud why this isn’t possible now. It happened in the past and it worked. We can learn from that and modify the system to suit today’s legal needs.
They didn’t have attorneys like us today but only relied on the four tribal heads in the Bui. The system worked wonders. It was a successful system in that time and in that locality. Their high level of discipline and intelligence saw them rose to fame defeating and claiming victories in areas they walk and fought. So we ask, are there lessons to be learnt from Zia people? Yes I say.
PNG is heading down a path to total destruction and chaos. Discipline is the key thing that will bail us out of this chaos. Politicians steal people’s money, policeman drink and drive in police vehicle and bash innocent people, rascals break and enter and kill and rape…Innocent people are being deprived of their rights to own greater wealth and abundance. Our seas and land are mined with no thoughts about the future generations. It is a shame to see other attorneys blinded by money to support lawbreakers. It is even a uttermost disgrace when these lying tongue attorneys walk away smiling with their suitcases of lies when they falsely argue and win cases for lawbreakers.
Before I finish, let me say something about the much publicized Human Rights Law. To me its sounds crazy to talk about human rights in PNG. Human right is just an abstract idea. It is funny in PNG to talk about human rights because we haven’t reach the stage where majority of people in the society are economically, politically and mentally independent like other developed nations like Australia, USA and New Zealand. These giants are well developed so they can sit down and play around with ideas like Human Rights and shoved into down our throats.
We need to discipline our people to restore order before we can talk about Human Rights. Otherwise, why keep people who are continuously disrupting the good and hardworking nation builders? Why keep these unscrupulous participants in the name of Human Rights? Mr. Attorney general, you have the power to decide. Talking about human Rights is the final step we tend to bring first. But if Human Rights is preventing you from restoring order in the country, use Butu Dao practice of Zia people.
Thank you my good attorney general and I pray this letter reaches you one day.
Ian D. Hetri
