I reckon you thought I’d be talking about food; or a mumu or something
to do with food. Nope, you’re wrong! I want to talk about something different;
different in the sense that it is not food that I want to talk about here.
“…bus broke down on the highway. It would cost K3000 to fix the crack
engine. Assist me with K1500, it is urgent!” The voice demanded into the phone.
“…have been in town for two weeks now and I have been going around empty
stomach. Send me some money so I could find food and catch a PMV home.” A pleading tone echoed.
“…got two vehicles here in my yard. One needs to be registered and
should be up and running on the road. The other needs a bit of fixing. Will you
assist?” A proud owner of the two useless vehicles asked.
Did you get the picture now? It is not food but now is taim bilon kaikai.
“…we’re in town and the boys have bought themselves beer. Because we’re
many what we have won’t be enough for all. Please send us K50 to get a few more
bottles.” A drunk blasted into the phone.
I guess by now all know what I meant by taim blong kaikai.
All intending candidates are bombarded by requests, mostly preposterous
requests. And they will have to find ways to make their potential voters happy.
A request that is not met by a favourable answer means loss of support. And it
is bad; actually worse than bad.
It is any wonder, most politicians, when voted into parliament; spend
more time enriching themselves and less and less time worrying about the state
of the poverty in the country.
For an intending candidate, it is not an easy road. Even after much
publicity and awareness about the dangers of kisim na votim the PNG voter, especially in the highlands, are more
inclined to do just that.
This is why the election time, especiall for the highlands regions, is
time bilong kaikai.
The challenge now is; how can we as educated people change this kind
of mindset. Blogging, Facebooking etc won’t work. If they do it would only be minimal.
We must go to where it matters and spend real time; I mean time in years
between elections to educate people.
This is quite an interesting contrast to the coastal areas especially in Manus. The people there often greet campaigners and candidates very hospitably and welcomingly. They even accept goods, money etc that is offered by candidates and their supporters. However, when the actual voting takes place, people do their own thing, go their own way.
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