Democrazy or Democrazier? [1]
Tuesday, November 29, 2005 - 19:30. Updated on Tuesday, April 22, 2014 - 14:37.
The Editor
Democrazy or Democrazier?
See: Democracy or Democrazy [2]
Amongst the issues raised by Inoke Fotu Hu‘akau's contribution to the debate is an initial reference to George I, Tonga's foremost reformist Given George IVs stance, Hu‘akau will have to agree that he was a successful proponent and a deliverer of the urgency agenda in recent Tongan history bar none.
George, by Hu'akau's standards probably spent more time devising rather than analysing and not only did George place urgency on the changes he wanted, he imposed it. From my standpoint, a perfect example of a reformist at work. He moved us on to another platform - whether we liked it or not. That he subdued and flayed his opponents in his haste to get us there was heavy-handed compared to what has been voiced at Pangai and other fora recently. To be consistent, Hu'akau should find George sacrilege.
Today's reformists are no different from George or other reformers of history. In their own ham-fisted way they all brought to bear on society, their individualistic view of the world. That is no accident nor should they be decried or damned for it. It is in the nature of those who practice politics as opposed to those who simply observe and comment, that pragmatism has a far greater priority, and some may say THE only priority.
Urgency Agenda
There is no perfect state. There is no perfect government. There is no perfect leader and there is no perfect society. Politicians, scholars and the populace alike exist and put up within a range of the imperfections that is Tonga as we know it today. In his day and time, George I arrived at a stage in which he personally could no longer tolerate the state of the nation and embarked on an urgency agenda. Again to be consistent, Hu'akau will agree that we're in the imperfect position today as a consequence of his lack of political and philosophical sophistication. But that's only one view. Some will argue that the urgency agenda took Tonga out of a more intolerable situation then and that was a better outcome. Not a great deal can be gained will it be possible to go back in time and wonder what life would have been like without George's anxiety to see changes quickly. What we do know is that either we...re in a better state now than we would have been or to follow Hu‘akau's views, we would have been better off had George taken a little less urgency. Either way, George's urgency agenda took us out to and away to another place earlier in history.
In the end, I think George and those of his ilk today, and I am talking about the reformists from the pro-democracy movement, are driven less by the philosophical urges of observers of politics. They are driven more by the degree of imperfections in our society, which they no longer find tolerable and if you like, they are also responding to their selfish obsession to act and therefore impose urgency.
I personally have no quarrel with politicians and their aspirations for themselves. Somewhere in the midst of all they espouse to do for THE PEOPLE, are some which I agree will be good for my interests as well.. Some will set out to reform and capture those changes which I would like to see take place and I commend them. They will also impose some conditions which I will find acceptable but will have to live with them until they've become adequately intolerable and I can vote them out. That is the real world that the pro-democracy movement wants for the majority of our population.
I would have liked Hu‘akau to give us a little more on how urgency is arrived at or how it exists in the socio-political context. So far it is portrayed as a politically questionable characteristic of the reformist agenda. Can a reformist agenda remain one without some degree of imposed urgency?
Sefita Hao'uli
sef [dot] haouli [at] ihug [dot] co [dot] nz