In Tonga

PSA Vote of No Confidence

Posted by: Samiuela LV Taufa on June 03, 2006 10:00:27 AM

I biked around the Opening Day of Parliament yesterday and it truly was a festive event for many people wishing to see the children decked in their bright school colours. Our wheelchaired neighbour got herself a great spot just on the corner of Queen Salote College and Mala'e Kula. She had a deck chair out there with a number of her elderly friends. I wrote a little bit about the event here and here and there are more photos in our Photo Gallery.

I believe that the PSA and People's Democratic Party antagonistic march proved a few things.

Our best future lies in fixing the existing system.
The PSA do not represent near half the employees of government
The political parties do not represent near 1/10 of the people of Tonga.
Neither group are interested in the people

Our best future lies in fixing the existing system.

We are a small country, and transparency and accountability of government is a whole lot more important than giving readily manipulated voters the right to vote. Full democracies give power to an elite few who have short term agendas of maintaining and increasing their power. Of the pasifika experience we have wonderful examples of thriving democracies.

Fiji - our nearest neighbour does a coup every couple of years to retain power within the small elite whilst bush Fijians still get lip service from that same elite.

New Zealand - ooops, sorry.

The Solomon Islands - does this sound like another extended version of Fiji, or are the military in this case trying to get the people back the government ? Oh, and their issue has spilled into International direct involvement.

(Western) Samoa - Ooops, they just got their land back from Germany via New Zealand via UN Mandate(?) And they maintain a President for Life.

East Timor - the freedom leaders' mandated solutions become a greater danger to the people, than external supporters. Where the UN and Australia were first brought in for protection against Indonesia, Australia is now in again to protect the East Timorese from themselves.

In Greg Sheridan's piece: Throw troops at the Pacific Problem is a rather enlightening moment.

What is true of depressed people is also true of depressed nations. The moment just before they pass from being merely difficult, poorly run and impoverished to being actual failed states, where anarchy reigns and no coherent government functions, represents a peak of intensity.

It also represents multiple, simultaneous systems failures.

Such was the case in East Timor and Solomon Islands, the two South Pacific failed states in which Canberra has had to intervene with decisive military force to restore a semblance of order.

All the noise out of the PSA and People's representatives seem to be designed solely for the purpose of creating multiple, sumultaneous public service, law-and-order failures. Without any real ideas about what happens on the other end.

The PSA do not represent near half the employees of government

Let's go through the numbers. Approximately 700 to 1,000 people gathered with the marchers. There are 4,000 employees of Government, most of them situated on Tongatapu.

Looking at the reports, more than half of the people in the march didn't look like they were government employees, dressing in bush or non work clothing.

Visit bTonga

The political parties do not represent near 1/10 of the people of Tonga.

Again, 700 to 1,000 people are known to have marched.

Earlier in the day, most of Tongatapu attended the opening of Parliament (even if we only say 1/2 or 30,000 people attended the march.) This means that 29 times (2,900%) more people walked homje instead of coming to the march ?

A whole lot, whole lot more people purposely voted not to march than those who did march. The population overwhelming voted against the march or purposely stated that they did not want involvement with the march or whatever it represented.

Neither group are interested in the people

What really upset me, and highlighted the problem with the march is when they chose to start their march earlier than they were told.

1. There was a serious public safety issue with the timing of the march. A lot of children, high school and younger, in town during hte March. Pushing the time of the march early was primarily to maximise the number of people to attend and participate.

2. The march was started early in violation of their marching licensing, and breaching police barricades simply indicated that our vaunted new leaders have no intentions of law and order when it differs from what they want.

The serious issue of Law and Order is important. If our new political leaders have no intentions of supporting Law and Order, then what they really want is not a democracy but either totalitarianism or communism. Both systems of government seem to begin by initiating "People Centered" political reforms.

Are we headed in the same direction ?

I'm not sure how much longer I can survive. This site has gotten more and more political as the mess around this place gets stinkier and stinkier.

I'll try to get back next week with stories of the fair and the markets. Unfortunately, Number #1 son decided to sleep in so O4 and Mg are off to the faire with aunty and dad's at home babysitting (phew that diaper really stank)