Checkmating the King a recipe for disaster, warns Lo'au Society president [1]
Monday, August 6, 2007 - 16:53. Updated on Sunday, June 15, 2014 - 20:09.
By Pesi Fonua
The approval by parliament for a Tripartite Committee to continue with Tonga's proposed political reform was an unwise decision, according to 'Inoke Hu'akau, the president of the Lo'au Research Society, who believes that using politics and economics to spearhead the reform has been the wrong approach and that a clear social objective should have been set first.
"Because the Models for political reform that have been presented, including the recommendation by the National Committee for Political Reform NCPR, are very shallow in principle and way off the mark from the kind of political reform we should have, and the one that will bring prosperity to the country. So from my personal view that was an utter waste of time."
'Inoke said that when government and the parliament agreed to the pressure to proceed with proposed political reform they succumbed: "to a proposal for politically-motivated individuals and groupings to play a game of draughts over Tonga's political authority. The proposed models are just simply stating figures, reduce that number of seats in the House, then increase those. What for? Like a game of draughts, the purpose is to checkmate the king.
"The danger with that is that it's easy to call Checkmate, but what follows is that all the other players get knocked out. It was a similar game that Stalin did in Russia, and once he had the power he killed a few millions because once he said Checkmate, that was the end of the game, he had the political power."
'Inoke said that other reformers such as Mao Zedong of China did the same, "because he wanted to reform the political system. Mao, tried to change the structure of the Chinese society, he destroyed palaces and took away estates of wealthy families. The result of Mao's revolution was that it scared away foreign countries from getting involved in the affairs of China, but that was not really what Mao aimed for. He wanted to change the Chinese social structure. He could not do it, and you only have to look at China today."
Social implications
'Inoke believes that for a political reform for Tonga to be successful the people must first fully understand the social implications of such a reform. He believes that using politics and economics to spearhead the reform has been the wrong approach.
"Our political evolution during the past 131 years clearly showed us that once the social objective and implications are clear and are understood by the people, the political and the economic reforms successfully take place.
"With Tupou I, his social program was for the people to be free and for Tonga to be independent. The constitution was proclaimed and the people were given the right to own land and properties, and to worship and to go to school. It was well understood and everyone wanted to be free and independent.
"Under Tupou II, it was a difficult era because it was during his reign the new political system was in full operation. It was a transitional point, but fortunately there were people who loved this country and decided to stay put and see it through to Tupou III.
"Tupou III, set a social program for us to learn about our history, culture and ourselves. For us to know ourselves and songs and dances, our ceremonies, and culture. It was clear for the people to understand.
"Tupou IV, wanted to lift the standard of education and the economic status of the people. It was clear to the people. He established a shipping company, high schools. Banks were established and foreign investment was encouraged, they were all to elevate these social objectives that have been set," 'Inoke said.
Don't know objective
"Right now we don't really know. No one has told us the social objective of the political and economic reform that has been proposed.
"The problem with allowing politics and economics to lead the reform of any country is because its essence is an individual life style and selfishness. You are promised a right to have one vote, and if you start from that standpoint that is when things will fall apart.
"The only participation by the people is their right to vote, and this type of approach is known worldwide, but the real value of one vote is about one penny. The rest belongs to the others, because after you vote then you go home."
Fair sharing
'Inoke believes that fair sharing of national wealth could be an attractive 'social objective', and that it is something that has captured the interest of the people.
"People can understand it. They will have better roads, good transport etc. These were the main concerns of the people when they talked to the National Committee for Political Reform.
"If that objective was in place we would not have had that ridiculous salary rise. If government and the politicians had come and told us then about fair sharing, nothing would have happened."
'Inoke said there is a big difference in the meaning of sharing equally and sharing fairly. "To share fairly does not mean that we should have an equal share of the loaf of bread.
"The question then is: do we currently have fair sharing of national wealth? No, that it is definitely not fair sharing, because the public service is poor, the roads are bad, and the town is dirty," he said.
Privatization and democratisation
Looking at the reforms that Tonga has been talking about during the past 10-20 years, including privatisation and democratisation 'Inoke thinks Tongans need to get real.
"There is a big concern about the status of our education, because what we boast about is entirely different from the outcome. Our boast does not reveal itself. All we know is that they have very high salaries. The problem there is that we don't match the salaries with performance.
"For ten years we have heard the comment that they will push the private sector to be the engine of economic development. But at the dawn of the 21st century more than half of the private sector was destroyed.
"This is an issue that politicians like to talk about but it is the opposite of what they are doing."
Loau Society
'Inoke lives in Sydney, Australia but he was in Tonga to present the Lo'au Society report to King George Tupou V on his birthday, August 1.
There are eight chapters in the report. Chapter 2 is an assessment of the NCPR report to parliament, and Chapter 3 is a response by the Lo'au Society to the report.
'Inoke said that they are not proposing a model of government in their report, they are simply trying to clarify issues, such as the Land, the Nobles and other things.
He brought only one copy of the report, which he presented to the king. "We want the king to look at it first before we distribute our report to the public," he said.
The Lo'au Society was established in 1999 by former students of 'Atenisi who have moved on and studied in other universities overseas. "Annually we used to have a conference at 'Atenisi when research materials were presented for discussion. But then there was a change of attitude by Futa and we could not have our annual conference at 'Atenisi, and that was when we decided to form the Lo'au.
"Normally we do research and present papers on our own field, but since what has happened here we decided to focus our attention on Tonga."
'Inoke said there Lo'au chapter in New Zealand, Australia and the USA, and each of those chapters have their own executives, but 'Inoke is the president for the Lo'au Research Society.