DEAR EDITOR, I strongly recommend that due to our current serious government’s financial constraint, all social events should be terminated ASAP from our national government budget for the next 5 years in order to cater for our vital economic development activities and needed services to help boost our economy and serve the livelihood of our people.
Example, national security, health and education are needed services for our current and future safe, educated and healthy society.
Social events such Melanesian Art festival, Pacific Games are some of the social events that are waste of public funds and do not bring into the country any sustainable and tangible benefits to our economy and people.
These events only bring our government and people huge burden on our government budget and burden on our needed services delivery.
A classic example was our hosted Pacific Art Festival that had resulted in the governments lack of funds which contributed to lack of appropriate medicines at our hospitals and clinics.
Such government action deprived our people rights to access the appropriate medications for our health and wellbeing.
Our people did not feel or see any sustainable and tangible benefits from this multimillion-dollar social events, instead more negative results overwhelmed the event positives such lack of appropriate government services, lack of medicines, increase of new diseases etc.
I therefore called on our current government and PM as the leader to withdraw all funding for any social events for that matter until our economy is strong enough to host such events.
Let us not hide ourselves from the truth and reality on the ground because at the ends of the day, our own people will suffer the ripple effects of those wrong and bad decisions.
J Diau
Honiara
