COVID-19 is here to stay. We have to learn to live with it. It is the new normal. So we hear these messages from authorities mostly via the media. I’m not sure the simple villagers up in the inland hamlets and on some of our far flung islands have got these messages and understand the meaning.

As we know, majority of our people reside in the rural and remote areas and they lead basic subsistence ways of life and with some involving in cottage industries or small to medium enterprises (SMES).

Nobody in the different echelons of mandated authority in Papua New Guinea is telling us how we will “learn to live with it (COVID-19)” as part of the “new normal”.

Our powers-that-be are not telling us in concrete and succinct terms what they are doing for the people and corporate entities to “learn to live with COVID-19”.

How are we, especially the ordinary folks who are the majority, supposed to “learn to live with COVID-19” in significantly altered economic and social circumstances.

The normal ways of going about life and doing business from the basic cottage industries up to the major corporations have been altered. We do not know when we will return to the normal ways of life pre-March 2020 when COVID-19 first arrived in PNG and restrictions set in.

Businesses have begun to learn to live with COVID-19 by taking measures as radical as cutting jobs and downsizing operations at significant costs to their very existence.

At the same time, business houses, individually and through their peak bodies, have come out publicly saying they have not seen any support from the government, if any, to stimulate the economy and support their business to retain some form of normalcy.

Businesses are the mainstay of our economy, apart from the income tax from the working class and the goods and services tax (GST) paid by everyone at the point of sale of goods and services.

We as a nation must be concerned if the businesses feel they are not supported by government and they have taken steps like cutting jobs and downsizing operations without any relief from government in sight.

The same is the case with the ordinary people – those in formal employment and in subsistence ways of life in the rural and remote areas where majority of our people reside.

What is the government doing to make the ordinary people learn to live with COVID-19 as part of the new normal?

Yes, we see media publicity from the government, World Health Organisation and others about good hygiene practices to avoid contracting COVID-19. Beyond the good hygiene messaging what is there from the government to assist the ordinary people to continue to maintain their livelihoods? How are people supposed to continue to live and lead the new normal life under the various restrictions which, while curtailing movement of people and normal ways of life, have also restricted businesses and the entire economy is in recess.

Our better educated citizens may see and understand the worldwide impact of the COVID-19 pandemic that has affected the global economy and the economies of individual countries including PNG. They also read and know the responses of governments of countries of the world to keep their economies functioning amidst the global pandemic. Our learned people also have read and understood the responses and approaches of the government of PNG toward the impact of COVID-19 on the national economy up to this point. What the government of PNG has done, not done or supposed to do has been the topic of much debate on social media, mainstream media and other forums.

The educated folks know the extent of living in a stressed economy where income generation activities have been curtailed and cost of goods and services continue to increase.

Many of the educated elite have gone to the social media to express their frustrations, anxieties and fears of what is going on in the middle of the pandemic. We can only hope those in authority are reading these sentiments on the ground. But signs are that nobody is really paying attention.

It is the same with the majority of our people in the rural and remote areas. Who from officialdom is going out there in the ‘bush’ and listening to the frustrations, anxieties and fears our small people in brought on by the “new normal” of COVID-19 and responding?

Who is listening to and responding to the sentiments of the small coffee, vanilla, cocoa or copra farmer out there in the bush?

Who is listening to and responding to the sentiments of the kaukau, broccoli, cauliflower or carrot farmer up there in the hinterlands of the country?

Making grand statements about COVID-19 during media briefing sessions in front of the television cameras in posh offices of Waigani is one thing. People out there want to see the government’s hand in resuscitating the economy and assisting them in tangible ways along the way. They want to see the government putting in place tangible mechanisms to help everyone to stay above water in this global pandemic and its restrictions in particular that are on the verge of drowning out the viability and existence of corporations and individual persons. We can therefore ask, what is there to take for everyone in the pronouncements of “learning to live with COVID-19” in the “new normal”?