Editor,
"The cycle of corruption, coups, counter-coups and yet more corruption has proved hard to break. And there is little sign that Ivory Coast is going to prove any more able to rid itself completely of the military virus than much of the rest of Africa" (Africa Political Analysis).
This is the reality of socio-economic reform in Africa and I urge the political movement in Tonga to have a little look aside to the cycle of coupe in Fiji during the last 2 decades. I still do not understand why Tonga is so blindly desperate to adopt such democratic system that proven to create so many damages in the country like Fiji, the Solomon Islands and many countries in Africa. I believe that Tonga must revisit the history of the socio-economic develop in those developing countries. Everybody is so worried to see that Tonga will fall into the trap of military virus and cycle of coups and corruption. This is a straight message to the Pro-Democracy movement to rethink the process seriously.
It is very interesting to hear the comments from Laiseni Qarase on Saturday 19 May 2007 "that the country and its people have been moulted into coup culture that will take time to eradicate. Fiji had 4 coups over the past 20 years and that should spell disaster for a country such as Fiji. He said there...s no guarantee that coups will not happen in future unless people realize the impact it will have on the future of this country".
Would this be a straight message from Mr. Qarase to Tonga? I though that poverty alleviation was the ultimate objective of development, but now, many poor countries are facing the consequences of their own political fake and grappling for power. The former Leader of Fiji is now admitted the disaster of so many coups within 20 years only and again, if Tonga blind to realize this, then I said your are obsession and your political interest have override what is best and right for Tonga. Is this the kind of Tonga you create for 2008 ... 2028?
I learnt from the Net that your economic status was not too bad before 16/11. The government was challenged with the high pay rises to the public in 2005 but still the economic development was not even closed to stagnancy. The value of your pa...anga was quite strong reasonably and the foreign reserve and inflation were on the right tract. Apart from that, we learnt from the Tourists and the locals too that Tonga is a paradise and the people...s Freedom is not comparable to any country in the World. In this sense, I believe, Tonga was a perfect, unique and the most stable country in the World. There are so many witnesses that the cycle of coup and political unrest had no positive impacts at all on socio-economic develop. In any case the Government wishes to proceed and discuss the People...s Representative to Parliament (PR) new Model, there are certain aspects of the Model that you should consider seriously, including i) Prosperity: the Model should ensure the performances of the Parliament in developing good policy development to create prosperity to the country ... Prosperity is the function of good policy development and the conducive environment that Tonga would create for the Productive and Private Sectors to functional - Can the elected 30 MPs create better policy development and performances verses the current system? Clear answers on the advantages and disadvantages of the New Model must be explored in the process and you must compare and analyze the old and the new Models (and Systems), ii) National Security ... the Model must ensure that Tonga will not fall to the military virus and cycle of corruption, coups and counter-coups ... the constitutional power of His Majesty is very important on this issue of military virus. There are several assumptions that the new Model would create, but remember, that the dealing with the demon that you do not realize now could erase your dignity forever. This is an alert to give enough time to analyze the applicability and susceptibility of the PR new Model to the system it will create. The series of coups in many developing countries in the World have proven the more wrestling of the Politicians on "Power" ... hungry for power with very less attention on the adverse impacts of the incidents on the society as Mr. Qarase commented and the likely motive of the black 16/11. This is a message again for the Politicians and the people of Tonga to realize.
'Ofa atu,
David Tapiaka,
dtapiaka [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] nz
