Northern Governor, Gary Juffa, has warned the Government not to succumb to ‘external pressures’ to legalise prostitution.
Juffa, in a statement, says this sinister push is ill-founded and disrespectful to the people of Papua New Guinea, especially women.
He states that legalising prostitution is not the solution to the social issues surrounding the activity, and it will only cause greater problems and even encourage it.
PNG’s inability to address growing transnational crime and lack of capacity would only mean that the industry would be poorly regulated. It would certainly be run by organised crime syndicates already operating black market brothels using foreign prostitutes.
Juffa further reiterates that in his 16 years as an official tasked with investigating and addressing transnational crime, he is certain PNG’s law enforcement entities would be overwhelmed and unable to cope.
The industry would see the entry of foreign prostitutes who could be brought in with sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) as mere money-making commodities and spread HIV/AIDS as well as other STDs.
Juffa stressed that legalising prostitution would also encourage young women to consider it as an actual career, which would cause more social issues in PNG societies.
"We cannot insult our womenfolk like this. If marriage and religion and traditional culture had any say then we must not allow this mad proposal by foreign academic idiots who understood nothing about us or our culture but claim to do so.
“There are other solutions we must consider, not legalising prostitution.
“That will only cause problems, not solve anything. I have nothing against decriminalising it but believe we cannot legalise it."