Re: Negotiations can save heartache of violence [2]

The Editor

Matangi Tonga

Sir

Although the US is free of the avian flu presently, they may have to look a little closer at your correspondent and our fellow pilgrim Tama Foa. He may have fallen victim. I say this as I was surprised at his recent outburst over Laki Niu's constitutional proposal. Having read all the sources he quoted and Tama Foa's previous contributions on this forum, he's been up till now a rational and lucid although his extroverted and cocky personality often got in the way of a good argument. I'm left with no alternative but to suggest that he may have succumbed.

I think that I speak for most who are without legal background when I say we are interested in the legal changes proposed by Niu, Edwards and others like them as these are being framed out of our legal history, our existing laws and constitution, an understanding of where our communities are at present. They are also taking into account what's possible and acceptable locally and internationally. In that way, Niu's take and his proposal while not entirely new , pun notwithstanding, re-emphasises the need to marry some of the popular political aspirations promoted by the pro-democracy movement and its allied factions with a pragmatic and lawful framework so that parliament and the Executive can deal with the inevitable issues that the new proposals raise.

For the likes of Tama Foa and I, we too can understand and move the debate from the streets and the kava circle - the frontline of the battle for the hearts and minds of our people over the last two decades, to the rarefied atmosphere of Cabinet and the Executive boardroom... In this new front, the law and the implications of constitutional change are not too far behind. Just when we thought we're ready to accommodate yet another important step in the quest to understand the dilemma that we're in, Tama Foa will reel us backwards.

In the unlikely event that Tama Foa is not from a small island north of Lifuka - in which case he would be my kith and kin - and that he's just living up to his pseudonym as the The Cracked One, my apologies for taking liberties. Yes you can also be assured of my good health.

Sefita Hao'uli

formerly of the island of Foa

Auckland

tapu [dot] misa [at] paradise [dot] net [dot] nz (Sefita Hao'uli)