The Opposition Leader and PNG Party Leader Belden Namah has proposed taking a better approach to providing free education and health service if he becomes the next Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea.
Speaking at a recent PNG Party rally in Rigo in the Central province to show support for his party candidates, the Opposition Leader told the people that the best approach to this is to start from the bottom up, which is to improve the enabling infrastructures first.
Namah said the provision of free education and free health service was initially a PNG Party policy when the party formed the coalition to install Peter O’Neill as Prime Minister. But this policy was rushed by the then prime minister as a means of securing support from the people come next election.
When Namah was Deputy Prime Minister in the then O’Neill government, he proposed not to implement the policy yet until there are improvements made to the education and health sectors by way of building more schools, hospital, colleges and universities to enable more professionals in these sectors.
He explained that by doing this, there should be no issues with spaces in schools and there will be good coverage of basic health services provided to the people.
The Opposition Leader now wants to implement this PNG Party policy properly if he is re-elected to office and becomes prime minister after the 2022 National General Election.
“When we go into power, we will still have free education and free basic health service, while we have that we will build more schools, more nursing colleges, more universities, more medical faculties,” Namah told the people.
“We will not put the cart before the horse, we will do it right because PNG Party believes in doing the principal things right. We don’t have to be too complicated; we can come back to the basics.”
Mr. Namah attended the PNG Party rally at the Kemabolo village on Tuesday this week in the Rigo District to show support for his candidates running under the PNG Party banner like the former Central Provincial Administrator Mr. Gei Guni Raga, who is running for the Central regional seat.