The law and order situation in the country continues to deteriorate, prompting calls to the government to seriously address this matter so to minimize it to manageable level. The Governor for Enga province, Grand Chief Sir Peter Ipatas, said that this is a cause for concern for the government, and that it falls back on the political leaders to address these issues within their own provinces and districts. Sir Ipatas said the recent kidnapping of the 17 school girls at Mt Bosavi in the Hela province shows just how the crime trend is also changing and it is very scary. “We are at the cross roads where we can lose this country, don’t just pretend that everything is okay, there are some fundamental things that need to be fixed and one of them is law and order,” said the governor. He said the police and even the defence force are not able to deal with this matter and therefore, there must be efforts as well made to increase their capacity to deal with law and order issues. Sir Ipatas also said that a proposition that he put to parliament to try to manage the law and order issues in the country, has not been even looked at. He said since his last proposition, he has not seen any other propositions put forward to address the problem, which is a concern because he believes the government should consider every option put forward to address the law and order issues. The governor then encouraged the new and young parliamentary leaders to take up the initiative to tackle law and order within their own jurisdictions. “You young leaders, you have duty. You focus on your people and address the issues. You get the small things right and the big things will fall in place,” said the governor. Sir Ipatas raised this very important matter in parliament during the grievance debate session, in light of the escalation of crime in the provinces that have made headlines in the media lately.