Party leaders uncertain of independent MPs votes

Honesty and trust most important - Daphney Hola:
I’M a PTOA member and supporter and a very excited first time voting machine how cool is that? I feel so blessed to be part of such a historic moment, this new era of “light” that has dawned on our Friendly Isles and! my candidate Misi Sika won yeeeeeeees! Me his Editor woooohooooo. I believe Misi with his insightful intellect, compassionate nature and progressive ideas to empower and benefit us the common folk and Tonga as a whole will make him a tremendous Parliamentarian for years to come; For the people By the people Amen.

“However”; After reading your article; “Party leaders uncertain of independent MPs votes”, about the impromptu press conference called by our PTOA leadership in which ‘Akilisi and Halapua unequivocally denied the ownership and questioned the origin and existence of a “List of “Proposed New Cabinet Members” that Semisi Vaipulu and Fakafanua presented to the press a few days ago. This “List” of course was part of an article entitled; “Government of National Unity - The Democratic Party of the Friendly Isles” posted on Melino Maka’s website tonganz.net, the article itself was without an author or source and generally presented as an “Official Press Release” directly from our presumably PTOA. The piece details the result of the election, the establishment of a new “Cabinet of National Unity” comprising of not just our PTOA elected but all of the new Parliamentary members, etc, etc,. At the end of the piece was an attached “List” with the heading, “Democratic Party of the Friendly Isles proposed cabinet lineup”, this “List” laid out our PTOA’s recommendations for PM and Ministerial posts.

Now, ‘Akilisi and Halapua are vehemently denying and disassociating our PTOA from any involvement in any way shape or form in supplying and originating this general “Official Press Release” with the “List”.

Am I to believe that Melino Maka as my uncle, owner and editor of tonganz.net and staunch PTOA supporter is a media fraud? Am I to believe that this brilliant New Zealand social activist for our people is that unprofessional and legally naïve? That he woke up one day and decided for the sake of random vanity to post this piece up as an “Official Press Release” without the consent of the PTOA? I’ll just call ‘Akilisi and explain later? An article that somehow and some way contains all the post-election talking points of our PTOA? Someone is lying and it’s not Melino Maka!

So what if we supplied the “List” as part of an “Official Press Release”? So what? Yes it’s politically embarrassing, very amateurish and reeks of arrogance from the senior elected members of our PTOA who are supposedly seasoned political veterans and insiders but so what? I’m particularly disappointed that Halapua is involved in this denial ‘cause I’m a fan of his work for he’s a proven universal mediator for change via real comprise and not divide.

I truly believe the foundation of our PTOA is made up of many intricate but commonly bound principles, attributes and values, the most important of these to me are “Honesty and Trust”. I for one no longer believe and feel that ‘Akilisi Pohiva and Sitiveni Halapua possess these critical components that elected members of our PTOA must have to push forward and invigorate our democratic ideals. Honesty and trust maybe little things to most considering the magnitude and complexities of political change, But to me, I’m sorry, these little things are the ones that really, really matters. “Show me a man who cannot bother to do little things and I’ll show you a man who cannot be trusted to do big things.” – Lawrence Bell

By your unfortunate actions ‘Akilisi and Halapua, you have irreparably lost me not only as a Demo member but a believer of the cause. And the very sad thing is, we as a nation has just put in the key to this new era and haven’t turn the key yet to open the door and the ones I trust the key to I can’t trust and have lost faith in. How sad and regrettable this whole charade has been, how disappointing. Now, I truly wish Misi ran as an independent, really, really do. Good luck and be very careful Misi, ‘ofa atu! - Daphney Hola