![]() By Rebecca Negere Students from the PNG University of Technology (PNG UOT) in Lae, Morobe Province are currently staging a peaceful protest within the University campus to petition the government of Papua New Guinea to make the vaccination of COVID-19 voluntary and not mandatory. The protest started today with a boycott of classes by the students and a petition being presented to the Government this morning. They are not sure at this stage when the protest will end but it will depend on the Government’s decision on their petition outcome tomorrow on the floor of the Parliament. Speaking to Tati's Journal this afternoon, the spokesperson of the petition, Mr Bill Lata, who is the Chairman of the COVID-19 Committee and the President of the Post Graduate Students of the PNGUOT Student Representative Senate said that they saw the need to petition the Government of Papua New Guinea today regarding its’ decision on the COVID-19 vaccination.
"There is no better time than now and there is no better group of citizens of this country that can address such an issue that is affecting the voiceless people of this country than us," Mr Lata stated. The scope of the petition that was submitted today is centered around the “No Jab No Job” policy. "The issue of Covid19 and vaccination are broad and confusing and we are not stopping the roll out of the vaccination nor do we claim covid is fake, but our point is for the government to make it (Vaccine) voluntary in both the private and public sector," Mr Lata added. The petition presented this morning was in three components. The first component in the petition is to ask the Government to make COVID-19 vaccinations voluntary and not mandatory. “Make the vaccine voluntary so that husat i laik kisim (covid-19 vaccine) bai kisim, husat les, maski, as far as our democracy is concerned," Mr Lata stated. "The second part of the petition was to ask them (the government) to give an executive order directing the private sector to remain compliant to the laws of the land, respecting the rights of the people.” “They (private sector) must exhaust all other avenues in preventing COVID-19 before resorting to the ‘no jab no job policy’," he said. The third component of the petition was for the private sectors to reinstate all the workers that were laid off in Lae in some companies due to the no vaccine no job policy that was initiated by the companies themselves. “Although we respect the private sector as our development partners, they must also respect us as the citizens of this country and we can find a win-win solution for this situation," he added. The PNG UOT Student Representative Senate President, Mr Elizah Kapma who also spoke with Tati's Journal shared the same sentiments that the lead spokesperson Lata had mentioned. He added that, "the issue of vaccination has been here for a very long time now and we have always asked ourselves if we cannot address it now, then when? And if we cannot address it, then who? That is the kind of approach we are taking now to address this issue of concern for our 10 million people," said Mr. Kapma. End.// Images supplied. Comments are closed.
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