ham fisted and befuddled?

In yesterday’s article in the Sydney Morning Herald, Prof Allan Patience, departing University of PNG vice-chancellor and political science professor, said that PNG is a vast administrative and political mess, representing a serious problem right on Australia’s doorstep. “The systemic corruption that poisons the political system from top to bottom is well known. Transparency International continues to downgrade PNG each year on its international corruption index. Late last year, the PNG police force was strongly criticised by Human Rights Watch International for routinely imprisoning, bashing, torturing and raping children.“Crimes of violence are escalating, including bashings, murder and the rape of very young children, teenage girls and women. HIV/AIDS is out of control, as are malaria and tuberculosis. Health services are collapsing.“The education system has all but disintegrated. Literacy rates are plummeting as schools close. Teachers are not being paid properly, or are not being paid at all. The higher education sector is fragmented and grotesquely under-resourced. It long ago ceased being the main builder of human capacity for PNG.”Prof Patience said that over the past two years, the U N Development Programme had placed PNG successively lower on its human development index because essential services were failing and governance was stalling.