Editor's Comment

By Pesi Fonua

With the rankling that is going on between the government and the Public Servants Association (PSA), to find a way forward there is obviously a need for both to revisit the Memorandum of Understanding they signed on September 3, ending the six-week national strike of Tonga's public servants.

The stumbling block is that the MOU has outlived its usefulness, which was simply to offer a way out for both parties and to end the strike. They have signed an MOU, which makes it impossible for them to find sensible solutions to their problems.

While government is pleading poverty that it can't finance the salary rise, Clause 8 of the MOU said that there would be no increase of any taxes because of the salary increase.

While the down-sizing of the public service was fundamental in the $40 million Economic Reform Programme; Clause 5 of the MOU said that "Civil servants who are on strike will not be disciplined or discriminated against."

Talk about interfering with justice, Clause 6 of the MOU reads "Students enrolled at Government schools who supported the strike will not be disciplined." So what about those who vandalised buildings, and have been charged with criminal offences?

The demand for the resignation of the Secretary of the Public Service Commission and the director and three deputy directors of the Ministry of Education appears to be very unfair, particularly if they are not to be given any right to defend themselves.

A revisit to the MOU, as proposed by the ADB economic experts who came to look at it, will show that there were ambiguous and open ended clauses, some containing human rights violations and even outright illegal demands. So that on this reflection, it becomes quite clear that both parties should renegotiate the MOU or we will be stuck with a document that has became irrelevant, and an obstacle to progress.