Dear Editor

Although once touted as the country having the most PhD graduates/tertiary graduates per capita in the world, it remains puzzling how the Kingdom of Tonga has been lagging behind in so many aspects of government, society, law, business, religion and economics etc., for so long now.

It is puzzling why those in authority still...are ignoring our most plentiful and precious natural

resource staring us in the face every day, i.e. our graduates and their educational skills and talents.

It is criminal, having so many educated people sitting around, not utilizing their talents and expertise, while the government is constantly plagued by problems in the very same areas we already have an abundance of graduates in.

These graduates...eventually pack up their bags, shattered ambitions and tattered egos and head off overseas to find a real career, joining the brain drain.

Over the years, there has been a noticeable unwillingness by those in authority to acknowledge and utilize especially the highly trained graduates that have returned back to Tonga.

Why educate so many people through scholarships schemes etc., yet fail and blatantly refuse to change the governmental system into one that accommodates those graduates when they return home to stem the brain drain that is happening?

Athough there have been some very valuable candidates voted into Parliament (e.g. Akilisi, Fred Sevele and Isileli Pulu), also coming through have been many clowns as well who continue to dismantle any progress forward that is made, with their childish antics. It is impossible to move forward in any system (or achieve anything worthwhile) as a dismantled pack of self-serving candidates with their own mini-agenda list. I do not agree with people being against candidates voted in that are also in business. We need more such people who have proven their worth and success in their own lives first before coming into parliament.

What the country needs are visionary leaders, with a good moral base, brains and an unselfish passion to help formulate such a system of government.

Tonga has a wealth of graduates and business people (within and abroad) to choose from. The government needs to go do some home-work and researching since all things precious are always well hidden from common awareness, if it really is serious about changing the current system into a better one that accommodates its most valuable resources -its highly skilled graduates. Not maintain and perpetuate an archaic system of government that numbs any mental capability out of those highly skilled graduates.

Yours sincerely

Kitione Fale

Ed.: Abridged for length