From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 17, no. 3, November 2002.

The government’s current Economic and Public Sector Reform program, is a futile exercise, believes Dr Feleti Sevele, the Tongatapu no. 2 People’s Representative, in the Tongan Legislature. He says it won’t work until government learns to interact with the productive members of the community.

Dr Feleti Sevele believes that the Tonga government is now doing the opposite to what they hoped to achieve from their reform program.

“We can’t have an Economic Reform and the Public Sector Reform Program piecemeal, and they can’t do it themselves, because they are looking at themselves. You can’t reform yourself, you need someone else to do it for you. We can’t have a proper reform when the Prime Minister takes about four or five portfolios, is a chairman of four or five boards and he is hardly in Tonga.”

Feleti questions how it was possible to reform government’s role, for instance in the privatisation process,  “when soon after they sold the hotel to the Chinese, the Minister of Police and the Minister of Finance ended up being the directors of the hotel.” Feleti believes that Ministers were eager to become members of boards, “because…each director is paid $7,000 per annum.”

He disagrees with the reasoning that Ministers become directors of some boards to look after government’s assets. “It is not the government’s asset it is the people’s. You and I have just as much right to be a director of those boards, because ultimately the assets belong to the people.”

Work together

Feleti says there has been a lot of talk about the Private Sector being the driving engine for the government reform program.

“They must have the input of the Private Sector, and they must sit down and work together with the Private Sector. There is none of that at the moment. What they are doing is consulting the Private Sector.”

Feleti points out that consulting the Private Sector about decisions that government has made, is different from working with the Private Sector and accommodating their input into the reform policy. “They should be interacting with the Private Sector, the productive sector, agriculture, all the time. They should know what the exporters want, what MAFF should be doing.

“You know of all my years in Tonga, since I returned from Noumea, not one Minister of Finance has ever asked me: ‘what do you want to do?’ Instead, in February, I asked for a licence to export squash to Korea, a company there was willing to take 1000 tonnes. I just heard from government in September, far too late. There are a lot of things that are going through the motions, but no action. They still have not come to terms with the reality that we either export or die.”

Proposals

In answer to the question, ‘what would he do if he was in a position of power to implement a reform?’ Feleti replies that he would reduce custom duties, and put the emphasis on Sales Tax and GST.

“People have the choice, if you buy, you pay the GST. I would reduce government expenditure. There is an enormous amount that can be cut. No senior civil servant would have a vehicle for his personal use.

“I would overhaul the wharf and keep only about five people there. I would get two top guys from New Zealand or Australia to look after the wharf.

“I would then insist that each minister had a plan for the next three years. I would say [to the Minister of Labour], we want new industries and you had better come up with it. This is the kind of industry that we will have in three years, and this is the employment it will generate. Don’t tell me it is hard, you go and do it.

“[to the Minister of Finance], You make sure that all our resources are used wisely, and government companies are sold to the best tender, and also to the person that will keep the employment up, and give Tonga a better service.

“OK, Private Sector, what do you want?…You have a lot of capital, what are the manufacturing requirements, and what are the protections you want. How many people can you employ?”

Smuggling

Feleti, who owns one of the biggest retail supermarkets in Nuku‘alofa, expressed his concern about the closure of Tongan Falekoloa, or small village shops, because of competition from shops that sell cheaper goods. “The reason why they are cheaper is because they have been smuggled in, and when you smuggle things in the economy looses. Encouraging corruption and cheating,” he said.

However, Feleti argues his case specifically against smugglers of foreign origin, rather than home-grown Tongan smugglers.

“We want development, and we want our people to be employed first. As a Tongan my primary obligation is for Tongans, and if you call that racist, so be it. The others, they can come next.” Feleti believes that Tonga is heading for a very difficult time, and will end up facing the same racial problem as the Fijians. “It took Fiji over 100 years to get into all sort of problems, the loss of any sense of entrepreneurship or any sense of enterprise, or initiative from the Fijians. It will take us only 50 years. It is already happening.…We have to look ahead for the next 30 to 50 years.…in villages where nobles have allowed non-Tongans in, the Tongans have closed down their shops,” he claims.

Small boys

With regards to Tonga’s desire to be a member of the World Trade Organisation, and the latest government effort to establish a market in Pago Pago, American Samoa, and in the future in Auckland, New Zealand, Feleti remains sceptical.

“We are small boys and let’s stay small boys. We want to get into some of these world bodies, I mean, who cares? How much weight will Tonga have on a world body like WTO? What is the point of people going there and us spending money? Let’s address the issues here. They can send us the report, then we can read about what is happening. [To have] us going to some of those meetings is just to get the per diem and the travelling allowances.

Let’s focus on local consumption and export. Let’s teach our people trade. We are not doing that. Let’s be more independent. When Tonga High got burned down, we could not rebuild the school. What did we do? We looked around for aid, to China, [but] there is no such thing as a free lunch.”

Export markets

Feleti who is also one of the major exporters of Tongan squash to Japan, does not support the government’s endeavour to establish market outlets for Tongan produce overseas. The Tongan government this year leased land in Pago Pago and built a market there for Tongan produce, and government is looking at establishing markets in New Zealand and Australia.

“I don’t believe government should go out and build markets overseas. The thing is let’s get the production to work. In New Zealand and Australia there are buyers and they already have the structure, and they may say that they will take their commission, but so what? Look at Fiji, they have been very successful in export, and they don’t have warehouses overseas. Here we are trying to privatise, and now we are trying to build government warehouses,” says Feleti.