Police Commissioner’s parade held in NCD

Caption:  Second in Command of the parade and Met Supt of NCD Andy Bawa (second from front) showing how it’s done during the parade.

Caption: Commissioner Kulunga

Caption: Officers marching by the Commissioner

By MATTHEW VARI

Wednesday, December 18, 2013 (Midweek Chronicle, PNG) 

THE Police Commissioner’s annual end of year parade was held for the first time in Port Moresby in a show of strength and discipline, with a combined force of over 450 officers and recruits, at the Unagi Oval in the Gordons suburb on Friday.

Normally held at the Bomana Police College, on the outskirts of the Nation’s Capital, the parade was moved to the city for the general public to witness.

Those in attendance included representative from both the Chinese and United States Embassies, World Bank, Assistant Commissioner Australian Federal Police Allen Scott, and Deputy City Manager for NCD Honk Kiap, along with members of the police hierarchy.   

In his address to the parade, Commissioner for Police Tom Kulunga thanked his officers for the parade, guests and members of the public who were present to witness it.

“Wish to welcome and thank you all for being here at the police commissioner’s end of the year parade here at the David Unagi Oval in the National Capital District.”

“The parade is usually held at the Bomana Police College, but my management has decided to hold the parade here to allow members of the NCD Community the opportunity to witness the parade.”

“It is my hope that your experience of today will rekindle your sense of nationalism, especially during this festive period- and bring each of us closer as one people.”

He told them that the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary (RPNGC) was the peoples’ police force.

However the commissioner also highlighted the negativity that surrounded the force, which he said took more prominence in both local and overseas mass media, over many positive things achieved during the year.

“Whilst there are many negative incidents with our police personnel, which do not reflect well on the constabulary- we must be fair and acknowledge the many good positive achievements during the year given the very challenging environment and general difficult nature of our people as well.”

He reiterated the difficulty of policing the country- saying it was challenging country to work in, and the people at times were very difficult to work with.

“I am not making any excuses, but the statistics do tend to put things in a different perhaps more understanding perspective.”

“You add the more than 800 language groups into the equation and you will realise the PNG is indeed a very difficult and challenging country to police.”

“The point I’m trying to make is that we have to take into consideration the prevailing conditions, the challenges, and difficulties the police force faces.”

“So we must build upon the positive achievements to encourage and improve our performances.”

Commissioner Kulunga reminded those present of the long a proud history the constabulary had in policing the nation which was over a century old.

“We are in fact some 125 years old and helped to pacify this land of many nations,” he said.    

“We took part in world wars, in case if many of you do not know- the fire service and the PNG Defence Force are actually offshoots of the police force.”

“It was the constabulary that did the ‘brukim bush’ (paved the way) to unite PNG into one country.”

He added that despite the many bad stories that were heard about police conduct throughout the country- amongst the negative stories there were many positive ones to be told as well.

“It is quite sad but the reality is that good stories or news is not used so that bad news make headlines through the local and international mass media.”

He said that there were many policemen and women who were doing their jobs throughout the country in difficult environments with very limited resources, in order to provide police services throughout the length and breadth of the nation.

“We are making arrests, we are charging people, and we are convicting criminals,” he said.

“You have to only check the jails to see if the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary is working or not to see that our jails are full, and filled to capacity or beyond.”

“I have a dedicated management team that is committed to reforming and changing the RPNGC into an effective, efficient, oriented police force.”

“My management and I are merely not just warming the seats.”

“We are determined to be agents of change and are committed to leaving behind a legacy, which is a tough but not impossible vision to achieve.”