Minister of Finance asked to walk, and you have to wonder how long the Minister had been waiting for the 'cut-off' date to be rung?

Unfortunately for the former Minister of Finance, who seems to have been within the few generally respected both in and out of government, he was just too willing to let the opposition thinking be aired, and especially on the ever popular Tonga-Now (morphed) Tonga Review.

Good luck to Mssrs 'Utoikamanu and his family.

Government has announced, and published through their website http://www.tonga-now.to the following:

Lao fakaangaanga - Procurement Bill 
 
Policy Decision for the Draft Public Procurement Bill
Purpose: The purpose of this Bill: - legislation and regulation governing the Government Procurement process 

A BILL FOR AN ACT TO PROVIDE A LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR PUBLIC PROCUREMENT IN TONGA AND TO PROVIDE FOR OTHER RELATED MATTERS

Interestingly enough, this has a partial IT solution (or at least the mechanisms of IT assist in providing efficient solutions.) Obviously. Which brings me to some other IT news I'd read through the ether.

ABC Radio Australia Reports

 Pro-democracy Tongans criticise China loanA bid by the Tongan government to secure a big loan from China has been criticised by the country's pro-democracy movement.

The loan is expected to be announced during a visit by Tongan Prime Minister Fred Sevele to the Chinese capital Beijing this week.

It has been reported that the low-interest $US50 million loan would aid in the reconstruction of central Nuku'alofa.

The loan has been criticised by Tonga's opposition democracy movement, which fears borrowing such a large amount will increase Chinese political influence in the Pacific state.

Mr Sevele has told Radio Australia he does not believe that the loan would cause a problem.

"We borrow from the Asian Development Bank, we borrow from the World Bank, private companies borrow locally and from overseas," he said.

"So I would say that good, well-intentioned people would not look at it that way.

"The thing to remember here is that we need the injection of such funds to rebuild Nuku'alofa."

Around 80 percent of Tonga's capital was destroyed in pro-democracy riots last November.

There's problems with both sides of this story, but it sure as hell ain't as big as a problem as the one we now have because downtown doesn't exist anymore!!

Some good are good at kissing a**, some people are good at just being it.

 Why not!

Government's trying again to have a registry, directory of business' that other people might want to browse through when trying to find services in Tonga.

TCC does it through a phone book and yellow pages.

The Ministry of Labour Commerce and Industries tried it at various points as trade directories and something else,

Now, we have another service by Government (and this time you don't get charged for the privilege)

Tonga-Now has set-up a directory for businesses, church groups, government agencies, NGOs and Services under the heading "Organisational Profile".  You can showcase pictures of your products or services and even provide contact details for your organisation.  This is a free services and we are building up the database so that Tongans can stay connected through the internet.

Source: Free Organisational Directory Profile - Register now!

I'm not quite sure about the "so that Tongans can stay connected through the internet." but it couldn't hurt to get your group listed on the site?

We're almost ready for the clean up job to begin in earnest and there seems to be a near universal condemnation of the riotious (righteous?) hooliganism that has darkened Tonga.

Now is the time for all those wishing greater transparency and accountability of the government instrument of Tonga to start questioning why and what is happening in Tonga.

1st there was the reports of prisoner abuse, which has been disclaimed by the people from whom it was supposed to have come. In other words, group X was said to have published the report, but person Y head of group X says they had nothing to do with the report and the use of their letterhead was not sought nor approved.

The report is a little farcical but do highlight areas that should be a concern for the Government in its preparations of material to ensure legality that it not be thrown-out in court. For all those people complaining about abuse, fund some lawyers for the supposed victims (i.e. put your money where your mouth is.)

2nd there's another funds misappropriation question floating that Government has paid between $1.9 and $2.9 million pa'anga of Shoreline's bills to ensure electricity was re-activated. No one seems to be coming out with the details, but this should be something that people should be digging up instead of burning down.

Shoreline was in real strife after their HQ was burnt down, and electricity was a serious concern for business (and especially for refrigerated products/meat necessary for survival?) If this funds adjustment is so fundamental to the survival of Tonga we need greater transparency of this action.

3rd, special assistance seems to have been sought for Chinese business' effected by the riots, such as appropriating the Queen Salote Memorial Hall, as well as the Nuku'alofa GPS. What seems quite unfair is that this same special attention has not been afforded to Tongan companies who themselves have lost ALL and Significant stock and are now leasing/hiring new facilities.

Question: Accusations of racism is part of this whole riot manifesto. Let's just increase the disaffection?

4th, we're hearing rumours of some level of assistance in the reconstruction from New Zealand, and even Australia but even stronger rumours that greater assistance will be sought from China ? What is that ?

Australia and New Zealand should just rebuild Tonga, come-on!! They can easily spend 90% of the costs in their own countries (building suppliers, technical skills) and spend 10% or less in Tonga's economy.

Not saying that the assistance is not immensely appreciated and 'undeserved?' but let's face facts that a lot of the new AID benefits the donor country just as much, if not more than the receiving country.

5th, the South Pacific Forum (?) have suspended Fiji from their forum until Fiji returns to a democratic government and the "rule of law" is re-instated?

Someone tell me, but isn't Tonga, NOT a democracy and currently in a questionable state of "rule of law" ?

Australia and New Zealand supposedly do not interfere with local politics, and since no one has been shot in Fiji, their moral stance should be reviewed since their attack against Fiji has nothing to do with security of Fijian citizens but of their own national interests.

With downtown still empty, the rubble cleared out, but the emptiness still leary we have been getting a regular dose of patriotic fervor from government publications, but especially television broadcasts sponsored through the Prime Minister's Office. At first, the patriotic (were they patriotic or self-serving) broadcasts were interesting if not repetitive, but now they just aren't even interesting at all (even if you really wanted to learn about whatever it was they were reviewing.)

The Public Servants Association (PSA) were allowed to air a program last night, and things were quite refreshing.

1st, let's just be plain clear that I have serious differences with Mele 'Amanaki. We grew up together some time in the past but we have definitely divergent paths.

The Government broadcasts are articulate, but difficult to follow. Hey, I'll admit that probably the poetry and visualisms in the language are beyond my uneducated years.  Mele 'Amanaki and Vili Vete were not only articulate but made a whole lot of simple sense (leaving your biases away for a minute or two.) Listening to Mele and Vili present their arguments you really have to worry if you were in government. If these two can make an impact with listeners (although as unlikely their petition will get another airing as opposed to government spots going on ad-nauseam) then we have another ball-game starting soon.

There were admitable blots in the presentation, like a lack of repetition of who was being boycotted. But I presume those who follow the PSA know who they are going to boycott.

The PSA brought up some serious accusations or questions that need answering from Government. The following points are what I could pick up from Mele and Vili's presentation

1. Common Courtesy, Contracts do not apply to the Governance of Tonga.
2. The efficacy of the selection process for the Public Service Commissioners.
3. Petitions don't mean much

Common Courtesy, Contracts do not apply to the Governance of Tonga.

A review of the signed Memorandum of Understanding between the PSA and Government/Cabinet indicates that Government have selectively ignored important sections of this document, and worse will not respond to enquiries by the PSA to why Government has chosen to ignore their agreement. (Of course, we are not hearing which parts of the agreement the PSA and Government workers have broken or not kept in good faith.)

Key positions? The redundancies were supposed to be a review of unnecessary posts, but they seem to have specifically targeted PSA members in that a good majority of the offers of redundancy can be attributed to PSA members, and more importantly there are supposedly unnecessary posts still in place because they include supporters of Government.

Key political aspects of the MOU were ignored and only afterwards were PSA executives informed on a this is what we have done, take it.

The efficacy of the selection process for the Public Service Commissioners.

Government quickly came out with a statement last week that the Public Service Commissioners are legal positions and accusations (listed with the above statement) are groundless and will be ignored (my wording)

Mele refers the points mentioned in the Government Press Release as disagreements PSA have running with Cabinet, with whom they made the Memorandum of Understanding, whilst the key problem PSA (and a number of people I have met) is that no-one believes that a sound methodology was used to select these commissioners.

Colloquially:

How in the hell do people who have always lived in the Private Sector, have no human resource management background, get pre-selected to positions of reviewing Public Servants ? Otherwise known as, are these people in place because they are good friends of the Prime Minister ? 

Petitions don't mean much

800+ signatures (presumably of Public Servants, but not specifically stated) were supposedly collected in their petition to Government. In response, Government makes a press-release that is not in the true spirit of the petition.

The Minister for Public Enterprises will be ready to meet with the Executive Committee of the PSA and discuss their concerns if this can bridge the relationship between the PSA and Government.

[ref: link]

 You gotta love the big state mentality in our small country. Like, it's three appointments, two nations away to grab these people and just talk it out ? Geezzzz, you don't even have to like them, or agree with them, but you can sure as hell get them if you want.

You'd think with the way we're running our hands-off between Government and detractors that it is really hard to get time for these people to get together. Really people, if you wanted to talk to the PSA executives, they are frikkin' government employees, you can force them to sit at the table with you because you run their daily agendas (or am I mistaken and Government employees in Tonga don't have executives above them, and therefore just sit under the coconut tree all day?)

Let's see:

Mele 'Amanaki works for government, Vili Vete works for government, other PSA executives work for Government.

Minister in charge of negotiations calls Minister in charge of Mele 'Amanaki:

"Set Mele's appointment so she can be in this office this afternoon, 4:00 pm"

Minister for Mele: "I think she's not going to be in the office"

"Did you hear me say please?"

Minister in charge of negotiations calls Minister in charge of Vili Vete:

"Set Vili's appointment so he can be in this office this afternoon, 4:00 pm" 

Minister for Vili Vete: "Sorry dude, we suspended him for some reason"

"Fishcakes Foobar, well send one of those drivers you have to his house and tell him I'll talk with him this afternoon 4:00 pm"

Minister in charge of negotiations secretary says: "But Minister, you're scheduled at the buffet with the Minister of Foreign Affairs from Australia."

"Girl/Dude the frikkin reason everyone's visiting us all the time is because I haven't met with these ornery folks! Go get me some coffee and get someone in here who can tell me what's been happening the past six months."

Probably took me longer to dream up the above scenario than for the action to have taken place.

Go read Government's take on the whole story.

Go Tonga!!!

There's a new company in town (or at least I hadn't really noticed them until they started putting out this advertising about some real cheap pricing.)

A friend of mine, mostly living in New Zealand, asked me about this company a couple of weeks ago and I said I thought they were running some sort of scam. And here's why.

Note that their advertising is really unbeatable pricing, how many places can you go to get a NEW Computer for $989.00 ? Even DELL and WalMart can't beat what these guys are saying their going to provide with their new PC (let's just say for example that the TOP$989.00 is going to be something like USD$500.00)

A few things that they don't mention or clarify in this scam advertising.

* new PCs on the right column, doesn't really apply to the advertised PC on the left column. This deal isn't for a new PC, it's for a REFURBISHED PC.

* Pentium III - 800Mhz, 256MB Ram, 10GB HDD, CD-ROM is what you're going to get at this great price. This may have been a premium machine 7 or 8 years ago (circa 1999/2000) but it is not available brand-new anywhere in the world today.

* Preloaded Software: Win XP SP2, Office 2003 is probably illegally installed pirated software. This means that you will be like most everyone else in town, but it shouldn't really be a feature if it's illegal?.

* The above preloaded software is probably going to run like a dogggg. Last time I had a Pentium III 800Mhz, I was using better specs with 512MB Ram, 20GB HDD and I thought the performance on that machine was horrible using XP.

* FREE 512MB Flash Drive value TOP$100. I don't know where they're buying their flash drives, because the 2GB I'm using (i.e. 4 times the capacity they're promoting) only cost me AUD$69.00 12 months ago.

Just another reminder that (a) we need some consumer protection in Tonga, and (b) let the buyer beware.

Go all the way to the Austria Embassy in Australia to find out about getting married in Tonga ? 

Getting Married in Tonga

Non Tongan passport holders who wish to get married in Tonga.

There is a law that anybody holding a visitor's visa in Tonga (i.e. foreign passport holders), must apply to the Principal Immigration Officer (Minister for Foreign Affairs address see below) for permission to marry (Section 10 of the Immigration Act).

NB: If a person holds a valid visa (Not a visitor's visa) s/he is quite free to marry in Tonga without going through these formalities.

You'll have to verify things yourself before attempting to take action on these matters, but there you go, there are formal proceedings to marrying in Tonga on your visitors visa.

The Tonga Government released a couple of days ago, electronic copies of the current legislation.

For those in the country, you can go to one of them Government offices (I don't know which one, but check the below website for details) and they will gladly give you a CD with the law books in there.

Now, this is way cool, because we've just recently had a little bit of argument with the neighbours about they wanting to have parties 'til 3:00 and 4:00 am with all their attended noise etc. Not that its that important for me to dig through the non-existent noise regulations in Tonga, but if I wanted to, now I have the freedom to look it up.

An being as we all regularly believe ourselves smarter than the average person, and in somecases smarter than lawyers, now you can prove it to yourself.

My cousin Sione Takapautolo Toefoki (nee Koloi) was a lawyer and had these law books and law reviews at his house so I used to spend a bit of time just hanging out with him and being fascinated by how Tongan law worked by just reading through those reviews etc.

Now, everyone has the opportunity to walk through these legal papers, and our schools now have full access as well.

Thank you

Thanks to the Internet and our American friends in Tonga, now you can also witness the horrors that recently passed in Tonga, on Video.

One of the advantages of this modern day and age, is the empowering of communications through blah blah blah.

As I understand, the video was a 28 minute recording spliced/cut into 5 pieces for your / our consumption on http://video.google.com As I understand, the videos were originally taken by some Europeans on a visit and through other friends I was forwarded the links by Jason Kearns.

Watch for yourself and make up your own mind.

Part #1: http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=341182694447105774
Part #2: http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=3278578352089958184
Part #3: http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=4838872777964209971
Part #4: http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-3914434662315308409
Part #5: http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-5727634689898396884

As per previous videos alluded to on this site, you can watch the videos directly in your browser, or you can take the above links to http://www.keepvid.com and download a higher quality and/or save the videos to your hard disk. Just so you can visit the disaster and spot your friends.