Officials condemn PM’s buai plan

PORT MORESBY – Designated betelnut trading sections in Port Moresby markets proposed by Prime Minister Peter O’Neill will not stop abuse, National Capital District Commission officials said.

Critical of the prime minister’s concept, officials insist that the current betelnut ban was the only workable solution to controlling the red spittle and littering of betelnut husks around the PNG capital.

The ban was already helping city residents change their attitudes, the officials said.

They said they were compelled to comment following the prime minister’s announcement that betelnut would be sold and chewed in designated places in the markets.

They said this would make it difficult for the National Capital District Commission (NCDC) to implement the ban.

The officials, who preferred not to be named for fear of repercussions, said the idea of building buai markets had long been debated by the city hall.

“Before the buai ban was imposed in the city, NCDC allocated several existing markets in the city exclusively to sell buai alone. But that did not serve its purpose.

Vendors were taking buai to public places, selling it to people on the streets,’’ one officer said.

“The buyers buy, chew and spit on to the streets and throw the husk as they go’’.

The NCDC officals told the Post-Courier: “If they are allowing betelnuts to come into the city, then trying to stop it from being sold on the streets will be very difficult.

“We have to continue with the ban because people have already accepted it and have started to change their attitudes.’’

Furthermore, they said the disbanding of the NCDC reserve police unit by Police Commissioner Geoffrey Vaki was a wrong move.

“Firstly, the NCDC reserve police were enforcing a law of this city which is legal and they were not directly involved in the Hanuabada shooting.

“The investigation has not yet been completed and yet he seemed fit to find the reserve police unit guilty of an offence not proven in court,’’ the officials said.

They also questioned the motive behind the disbanding of the reserve unit because the city rangers could not police the ban as the sellers and buyers did not respect them.

“Who will enforce the buai ban laws to keep the city clean into the lead-up to the Pacific Games in July – not his regular police officers because currently half of them are the greatest buai smugglers in the city.

“The other half is made of disciplined officers who are trying their best to assist us in enforcing the ban. Therefore without the reserve police, the city rangers cannot achieve the purpose of this ban if the buai markets are built,’’ they said.