FROM OUR ARCHIVES

From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 13, no. 4, December 1998.

By Pesi Fonua.

The one good thing about impending economic doom is that it offers an opportunity for a serious look at what went wrong and how can it be corrected.

Tonga’s efforts to recover its economy are hampered by a  stumbling block—a lack of leadership—particularly in the three sectors of Agriculture, Fisheries and Tourism. These are areas with potential for multi-million exporting industries, but due to a lack of leadership, the final stages of co-ordination and making sure that things are done are the downfall of these sectors.

Co-ordination among government ministries, according to one head of a government department, is a beautiful idea, but unfortunately it does not exist. Instead, conflict between ministries and even within ministries is now considered to be the norm.

This frustrating lack of co-ordination lowers the morale and erases the motivation of the work force, at times hampering production and contributing to the stagnation of the private sector.

The solution, we can only hope, might be initiated by the new Prime Minister that Tonga is waiting for and whom has yet to be appointed by the King.

Realistically, Tonga has been without a Prime Minister for a year, because it was a year ago that the Prime Minister Baron Vaea handed in his application for retirement. But he must remain on the job until a replacement is announced. In such circumstances we are not going to see the Prime Minister implementing new programs, but rather to just keep things rolling along.

Looking back Tonga has had only three Prime Ministers within 50 years—the former Crown Prince Tupouto‘a Tungi K.B.E. (now the King) from 1949 to 1965, Prince Fatafehi Tu‘ipelehake from 1965 to 1991, and Baron Vaea of Houma from 1991.

History shows that during the period of transition of the leadership in Cabinet there is often a void. It occurred during the last ten years of  Prince Fatafehi Tu‘ipelehake’s Prime Ministership, when he was troubled by his debilitating illness. It is now occurring again during these past 12 months since Baron Vaea handed in his application for what must be a well-earned retirement.

Choosing the right man or woman to lead a new generation in a time of economic uncertainty will not be easy for King Taufa‘ahau Tupou IV, whose prerogative it is to make the appointment. As alternatives to his well-placed offspring, the King has a mere handful of worldly-wise or well-educated people with leadership qualities to choose from, and very few of these have had parliamentary experience (cover).

A Cabinet without a strong leader is like having a rugby team with an undecided captain. Without decisive leadership we can only presume that the most aggressive initiatives from Cabinet Ministers are simply deferred or left for the King in Privy Council to decide.

Delays in the decision-making processes can be disastrous in our times of rapid change, particularly when the matter to be decided may be only minor with regards to the level of authority of the King. Delays lose windows of opportunity targeted by would-be producers.

Indecisiveness

If indecisiveness is contagious, then our government’s decision-making process has been infected.

We only have to look at Parliament, or at a meeting of village leaders, or at the Cabinet Ministers. They all showed us before the end of this year’s legislative session that they could not even pass the simplest of decisions concerning a petition that was presented to remove the Speaker of the House.

The petition was presented to the King. The King sent the petition to the House. The House sent the petition to a committee. The committee through its normal working ethos spent about $200,000 in considering it, and using it to generate much publicity for some People’s Representatives for next year’s up coming election. Then the committee sent the petition back to the King and asked him to decide.

The moral of the story is that even Parliament can’t make decisions, and whether by design or default, the King has to have the final say.

Realistically, the Tonga government’s decision-making process is ludicrous. It slows things down, and this is why a number of very good projects are either being deferred or cancelled.

Before he retired as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Defence in May, the Crown Prince Tupouto‘a said that a high level of education was important in the economy of today, so that decisions could be made without referring back to head office.

The time has come for the Tonga government to decentralise its decision-making processes, and we can achieve that by having a dynamic, modern and forward thinking Prime Minister in Cabinet. Tonga needs a leader who can modernise our system of government and take us into the 21st Century. In Parliament we need modern, intelligent and forward-thinking People’s Representatives with an agenda to turn around the current economic slump and to advance the living standard and the well being of all Tongans.