86 candidates contesting 17 seats

When we head to the voting booths I pray we as voters are able to look past the person's gender, religion/church and family ties, to be able to firstly seek out the candidate with integrity and honesty. Majority of Tongans are Christians and if we read a little into the bible it would not take long to see that integrity and honesty are very important values leaders must have. It would be unwise to just choose the person with the most persuasive rhetoric because even dishonest people can be persuasive.

In the run up to the elections an important issue that will definitely be raised is how can we alleviate poverty and how can we raise the standard of living of the poor. This is an important issue for every society but in Tonga it is especially a foremost issue. In Tonga where cultural values are relatively strong we've grown up learning the importance of taking care of each other. Its a small island and a lot of us know each other. So in Tonga, how we help the poor is a big topic, its undoubtedly an issue important to the vast majority of us.

There are two ways we can help the poor. 1) Through charity 2) Giving them jobs. With number 1, the kind of policies we may look at are redistributing wealth, taking from working class etc via taxes and giving it to the poor, or diverting peoples surplus capital to the poor. The drawbacks of this is that a redistribution without wealth creating activities means that as populations grow, each persons slice of the pie gets smaller and smaller. With number 2, giving them jobs, the kind of policies will be job creation mainly in the private sector. When a person or firm has surplus capital, besides charity, they can either invest (create more jobs), or save, in which case the banks will have funds available for other people or firms to borrow and invest (create more jobs). If we want people or firms to invest or save, taxes need to be low, Government bureaucracy and corruption minimized, Government intervention in the various markets minimized, fair and just judicial system, security and police enforcement also strong etc.

My personal belief is there are some fellow Tongans in very dire situations where welfare policies are urgently needed, but I think the main focus in alleviating the struggles of the poor, with the longest term benefits, is giving them jobs. The individual does not need Government to make big economic decisions for them, the individual would know best how to allocate any surplus capital they generate, if left to themselves it would hopefully and most likely generate more economic activity.

Lastly, something I've heard around on the media or from other fellow Tongans is that the reason are poor is because we lack natural resources, which to me is an unhelpful and untrue assessment. There are many countries that have prospered despite lack of natural resources, they gathered or imported raw materials and focused more on increasing the value of it and exporting the final product. Some products require very little raw materials but a lot of human skill in designing or making it. We often take pride in having the most phd per capita, so we can perhaps take that as an indication Tongans have the capacity to acquire the skills required to produce those kind of products. So there is a lot of opportunity there for Tonga to be blessed and prosper.

All the best to candidates and the voters in the coming election.