Ratu Tevita Mara, the victim of a repressive dictator [1]
Thursday, May 26, 2011 - 11:15. Updated on Monday, January 6, 2014 - 15:08.
I have a suggestion for Lt. Ratu Tevita Mara: He should file for a Tongan political asylum status (Fiji Files an Extradition . . . 24 May 2011).
Tonga's Constitution guarantees freedom to "...the people of Tonga and all who sojourn or may sojourn in this Kingdom be free for ever . . ." Clause One.
Lt. Ratu Tevita Mara is a victim of a repressive dictatorship under Dictator Bainimarama who usurped power in Fiji's 2006 coup de' tat from a democratically elected government.
Bainimarama also had questionable involvement in the 2000 military coup, and was affiliated with forcing former Prime Minsiter Ratu Kamasese Mara to resign as president. Recently, he told a media interviewer that he does not trust the people, the judges, and politicians to grant a democratic general election.
A leader who distrusts the people thinks he knows better than all of the people whom he/she imposes his dictatorial will upon, and who suppresses the process of egalitarian and democratic rule from the barrel of a gun.
Lt. Tevita Mara should petition the Tongan Government to grant him political asylum status. And under the protection of the Tongan Constitution, he shall be free in Tonga "for ever."
Sione Akemeihakau Mokofisi
samokofisi [at] email [dot] phoenix [dot] edu