Kotoa Movement working to keep the peace [1]
Thursday, May 30, 2002 - 11:00. Updated on Wednesday, February 10, 2016 - 14:31.
From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 17, no. 1, May 2002.
While the new Kotoa Movement, formed last year, sees itself as a non-political charity organisation, they also say their movement is working toward thwarting any uprising which could disrupt development.
The Kotoa Movement, which literally means The Altogether Movement, is as complex as its name implies. While it carries the banner of a mass movement with a tall list of things that it would like to see done to improve the functions of government, and to help the community, but at the same time it is saying that politics is low on its agenda.
Hon. Mailefihi, is one of three members of the Kotoa Information Service, who speak for the Kotoa Movement. He said that even though they did not hail themselves as a political organisation it did not mean that members of the movement do not have any political aspirations. “Individual members have their own political ideals, right across the political spectrum, from left to extreme right. I like to consider myself as being in the centre, but our own individual political ideal is the natural right of each member. The Movement stands primarily for efficiency in government,” said Mailefihi. “We support the legitimate government, the Constitutional Monarchy, which has been with us for over 100 years.”
Mailefihi likened the Kotoa’s approach to government to a farmer looking after his apple tree. “We would like to prune the tree, and pick and discard the rotten fruit. This is of course is the opposite of what some people are trying to do, which is to cut the tree down.
“The movement bases its working agenda on the Bible, which is tied up to our name, Kotoa, coming from the saying Ko e Tonga au —I am a Tongan. The Jewish people believed that they were god’s chosen people, but we believe that the Tongan people were god’s given people, we were given to god at Pouono. We believe in Judaeo Christianity,” he said.
Tree choppers
So, therefore can the Kotoa Movement be called a ‘Peace Movement’?
“Yes, you can say that,” said Mailefihi, “because in order to achieve the efficiency in government, which we want, there must be peace, so we are working toward thwarting any uprising which could disrupt development. Some people are trying to wreck Tonga’s legitimate government by trying to isolate us from the International Community. They are tree choppers,” he said.
Semisi Kailahi, a former teacher, now a television presenter, is another spokesperson for Kotoa. He supported Mailefihi’s pruning concept and pointed out that it was the Kotoa, who broke the story of the Troubled Trust Fund to the public through the Tonga Star, which resulted in two Cabinet Ministers being forced to resign. Sangster Saulala, OBN television manager, is the editor of the Tonga Star, and the third spokesperson for Kotoa.
Semisi said that another area they were currently looking at was the privatisation program of government enterprises, “to make sure that in the end government gets a fair return from their assets, and the service is cheaper and better for the public.
“We support the King, he was anointed by God, and the present system of government suits us. Our culture is unique, and therefore we want to preserve it,” he said.
“We don’t defend government for the sake of defending government. Politics, you may say, is one of the element of the organisation, and each member has his own political ideals, but we do not want to end there. We do not want to restrain ourselves to be just a political group, because there are things that we would like to get involved in. Recently, there was a accident that affected a family at Puke, so the Charity Foundation went out and helped them,” he said.
Human Rights
“With regards to Human Rights we are interested in Human Rights, but in the divine human right of man which is in line with the teaching of the Bible.”
Mailefihi stressed that Kotoa Movement could not support the legitimate regime and at the same time try to be a political party. “We can’t politicise the charity work that is carried out by the Kotoa Charity Foundation, and give away chickens only to those who, say vote for the Temos. That is why we would not identify ourselves as a political party, and we would neither nominate nor campaign for candidates for election.” Mailefihi said that some of the members of Kotoa raised the idea but they withdrew after they were reminded that the movement was not a political organisation.
Guinea pigs
The Kotoa Movement is seen by some as being a rival and opposition organisation to the Tonga Human Rights and Democracy Movement.
The Kotoa spokesmen say they do not think much of the Tonga Human Rights and Democracy Movement’s recent proposal for a new form of government, to be called a Democratic Monarchy.
“I have never ever heard of a country in the world that is called a Democratic Monarchy, and I am confused because they also want the King to be Head of State and Head of Government.” Mailefihi said that about 10 years ago the democracy movement had a different reform program, “and I suppose they looked at it and said that it was not quite right, so this is a new one. We are not guinea pigs for some people who want to try out some mishmash theory.”
Looking at the government’s Economic and Public Sector Reform Program, Semisi said that it, “is a bit airy fairy…for me it is like putting on a bit of make up. It is hard to see the practical side of this reform. If you look at the supporting team, these are the people whom we think cause the inefficiency in government. They are talking about privatisation and saying that is the way to go, but why not include people from the private sector in their reforming team?
“The monitoring of the work in progress is to take every two years, but after two years it will be too late,” he said.
Mailefihi said that for any reform to be effective three things had to be consolidated within government, “efficiency, honesty and sensitivity to the social science of the country. We can have an efficient government but a large part of the population may still be neglected. It is the quality of life we are looking for, not the per capita.
“The pigs problem, for example, I have a Government Gazette of 1907 which shows they were already having problem with pigs then, but even today we are still fighting the same problem. The availability of cheap fencing material is probably the answer and we are looking at that.”
Non-Profit
Meanwhile Mailefihi said that Kotoa was currently processing an application to be registered as a non-profit organisation, and they had established three different units, The Kotoa Charity Foundation (KCF), The Kotoa Training Institute (KTI), and The Kotoa Information Services (KIS). He said that KCF and KIS were already operating. “Excluded from these units is the Society ‘A e Kau Fa‘a, (a society of squash growers who are exporting their own squash), because they have already been registered and are in operation.”
Mailefihi said that the KCF was managed by ‘Esau Namoa and ‘Etuate Lavulavu, and the KIS by Mailifihi, Semisi Kailahi and Sangster Saulala.
“It was essential to get KIS in operation to counter some of the negative press reports about Tonga,” Mailefihi said. “After some of the insulting comments that Matt Robson made about Tonga, we thought it was necessary for us to go to New Zealand and meet him. Not just one person, but four of us, to let him know that we were very concerned, and to hear from him what was bothering him. Matt didn’t think that he had said anything bad about Tonga, but he blamed others for feeding him with wrong information.”
Training Institute
In the future Kotoa wants to set up a Kotoa Training Institute, something both Mailefihi and Semisi believed was urgently needed, “because there are a lot of young Tongans with special skills, but the unfortunate situation is that when they leave for overseas they can’t get a decent paid job, because there is no certification and therefore they work just as labourers. There is a big difference between say $10 an hour for labour and $30 or $40 an hour for a person who holds a certificate.
“We also would like to set up a driving school in association with an Automobile Association overseas. I think it will save a lot of lives and it should be supported by insurance companies.”
Semisi said that the KTI could also offer orientation program for Tongans who wanted to travel overseas, “counselling them on how find accommodation, jobs, and giving them general information of where they are going,” he said.