Editor,

I hereby wish to respond to Lopeti Senituli's letter of March 5, 2010 in which he was defending the Government Procurement System. In his defense, he accused Ms. Norah Mallaney of Washington DC, USA of contradicting ( in his words - ". . . is full of contradictions ") the Procure System of the Government of Tonga.

In this letter, I will try to point out Mr. Senituli's accusations and what Ms. Mallaney, in my opinion, meant in her letter of March 3, 2010. My purpose here is to prove that Mr. Senituli is the one who is ". . . full of contradictions, " not Ms. Mallaney.

1) Mr. Senituli repeated the following statement by Ms. Mallaney : ". . . clearly point to major weaknesses in Tonga's procurement system that have nothing to do with individuals making poor decisions and everything to do with weak rules of the game."

What Ms. Mellaney meant :- Ms. Mallaney meant that " individuals who made those poor decisions and the rules they were governed by, really have nothing to do with the Princess Ashika's tragedy. Instead, it was the type of the Procurement System and the Government that control the purchase and operations of the Princess Ashika are, at the end of the day, the real liability for the said tragedy, not the individuals. The individuals blamed by the Prime Minister probably were employees of the Government. Why are they now being separated from the Government? To lay the blame on them? C'mmon, you guys can do better than that!

2) Mr. Senituli again repeated the following statement by Ms. Mallaney "While the choices and actions of individual procurement officials undoubtedly played a role in the purchase of a boat unfit for the seas, this tragedy cannot be blamed solely on poor-decision making of a few individuals."

What Ms. Mallaney meant :- Ms. Mallaney again stand her ground. Ms. Mallaney is reinforcing her original point of view in section 1); that is, to stop blaming the individuals. Stop trying to put the blame on the individuals. Why can the Government bite the bullet and go on with life? There is no way out of this one folks! The party is over! And some people probably would end up in Hu'atolitoli doing some weeding. Enough is enough!

3) The final repetition of Ms. Mallaney's statement by Mr. Senituli is ". . . porous legal and regulatory framework. . ."

What Ms. Mallaney meant :- Oh, Mr. Sentuli you are now trying to mislead us. You did not give us the full statement of Ms. Mallaney. The full statement is "The porous legal and regulatory framework is the real culprit." This statement is very true. This is the real problem in Tonga. Ms. Mallaney is absolutely right Mr. Senituli. Poor laws will breed poor results. No wonder why there are poor performances of duties, lack of honest enforcements of the laws and regulations, and corruptions; the ". . . legal and regulatory framework. . ." in the Government simply is " porous." Too many loopholes facilitate wrongdoings. Too bad!

With all due respects to you, Mr. Lopeti Senituli, I frankly didn't find any contradictions committed by Ms. Mallaney as you have stated in your letter of March 5, 2010. From the beginning to the end, I tried to figure out how did Ms. Mallaney contradict the Procure System of the Government of Tonga. Frankly, I found nothing. Nothing really made sense. I am sorry about that! All I can read in Ms. Mallaney her letter, was her fear that the Government was starting to lodge a campaign to push the blame for the Princess Ashika's tragedy on these poor individuals. The underdogs? A great move! Sorry guys! It won't work! Try another one! Other people are smart too. Remember! Different people see different things.

Anyway, I very much would appreciate if you, Mr. Senituli, would write me or us another letter to justify your accusations of Ms. Mallaney. I think this is only fair to Ms. Mallaney who simply wanted to exercise her constitutional rights to freedom of speech and expression. She did not do any wrong to you. It also is only fair for the Government to be truthful to her people. Not to be misled by deliberate misrepresentations. There may be some truths in what the Prime Minister did by blaming the individuals, but it doesn't appear to be appropriate and professionally ethical for leaders of nations to blame their people. To desert the sinking ship! Only cowards would mistreat the underdogs and the helpless.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Yours truly,

Siosaia Fatani.