A Stop & Shop supermarket burns in Port Moresby. 10 January 2023 Photo: Facebook / Isaac A Itsima
The last fortnight pay-day, several service members saw a deduction on their pay and those deductions ranged from $100 PNG kina to $350 PNG kina (US$26-US$80) and that was blamed on a tax cut and many viewed it as an excessive tax cut.
Now, they were not sure whether it was a tax cut, or it was a glitch in the system.
Many of them were told later through a statement from the Internal Revenue Commission (IRC) and the prime minister's office that there was a glitch in the payrolls system.
That triggered a gathering of about 200 policemen and women, military personnel and correctional services personnel in Port Moresby, and they demanded an answer from the government that a "glitch" wasn't a satisfactory answer.
So they moved from Unagi Oval to parliament house, they opened the gates of parliament, and the Police Minister Peter Siamali Jr tried to address them. It wasn't satisfactory enough, so the security personnel withdrew their services and the city descended into chaos overnight.
Initially it was sporadic looting in various suburbs of Port Moresby, in the Gerehu suburb one shop was burned, and a few kilometres down to Waigani there was a shop that was burnt, and over the next three to four hours it became worse and several more shops were looted because there was no police presence there.
Post-Courier frontpage on Thursday. 11 January 2024 Photo: Screengrab/Post-Courier
Policemen were there but nothing could be done to the looters so it has denigrated to a point where there's widespread looting.
The finance department has tried to explain the so-called "glitch" but that hasn't gone down well with the service members. It could be that other issues have built up over the years and this was like a trigger to all of it.
The prime minister has also come out reaffirming that it is a glitch in the system and they are working to fix it.
But by the time they had identified that it was already too late because people were already on the streets protesting and looting shops.
The northern mobile group, a mobile squad unit from out of Port Moresby which looks after one part of the region, have been flown into Port Moresby, and that's expected to have some order restored.
The military has been called out to assist police to restore order.
Police chief David Manning has warned that they will not tolerate troublemakers and is calling for people to clear the streets of the capital.
Some calm can be expected today (Thursday) but it will be really difficult to get the looters off the streets without any force.
