Editor,

THE parliament of Tonga has failed to learn anything from the Princess Ashika disaster. Underpinning the Ashika disaster are Government and Shipping Company not following the proper due diligence of both legal and good work practices. But most prominent are the rushed decision based on fabricated truth, and lack of professional know-how. The final moment in hour and minutes, portrayed a professional failure of conscience by the crew in not realizing that each of them has the responsibility for the safety of the passengers is paramount.

In preparation of the legal foundation for political reform, parliamentarians have rushed through the legislation to meet a November deadline they have set and locked themselves to. It is clear from the House minutes (19-20/4/10) that the Parliament rushed through passing motions without the due diligence or good practices in law making. They do away with proper debate of motions and bills for reason that there is not enough time. In the final phase of preparation, like the crew of the Ashika, our parliamentarians committed a professional failure of conscience, to realize that the safety of the Tonga and its people as an independent nation is paramount.

We have heard a lot about Road Map from government, without realizing that what is required is a Travel Plan. A case of the old adage that "Fail to plan is a plan for failure". We have also heard a lot of wishful thinking from the Pro Democracy led by the People Representatives (Pohiva, Pulu, Uata, Fili etc.) about the new Form of Government, but never any detail of how it's actual composition or how it will actually work to achieve what they have preached the people for many years such as a fairer distribution of the country's wealth, more accountability and less corruption to name a few.

But most alarming, is the near total silence about any detail of how the new form of government will function, and how democratic it would be. For it became obvious by day that the sole agenda is to drive for a November election under the proposed form of government at whatever cost. There seems to be a conspiracy among parliamentarians not to inform the people of the known fault to date of the proposed form of government. A parliament with a total number that varies in accordance with three built in variables, Firstly, the PM prerogative to appoint up to 4 ministers not elected by the people; secondly, the Nobles can replace it's representative elected to Cabinet or the Chair of the Assembly. And thirdly, a PM with the possibility of either a Noble or a People Representative. Any of these factors will change the composition and the total number of members of parliament.

Thus if we take only two of these possible form of governments as paradigm cases. Option 1: A 26 member parliament composed of 1 Prime Minister (PR), 1 Chair of the House (Noble), 10 cabinet ministers (if all cabinet members elected within parliament are PRs), 9 noble representatives and 6 people representatives. Let us take as Option 2: If the PM is a Noble, choose 4 Ministers from outside the elected members then the configuration change: One PM (Noble), Chair (Noble), Cabinet 10 (4 Appointed by PM + 6 Elected by Parliament), 9 Noble Representatives, and 11 PR. A parliament with 11 Nobles, 11 PR and 10 Cabinet Ministers; a total of 30 members. The fact is, that there are key variables that would alter the form of government without further input from the people. What they voted for in any election (every 4 years) is a misnomer for democratic form of government.

Thus, the reality of the new form of government beside the countless possible combination of known variables mentioned above will make us the laughing stock of the political world. For what our people will vote for, come November, is actually a political patchwork with so many shade of possible demo-crazy form of government with the following characteristics: A dictatorial PM that can alter the form government at his/her own volition; If the faint hope for unity is achieved in parliament what we will have is a “tyranny of the executives”, not a democratic form of government; A more divided parliament due to small geographically, economically and socially but diversely spread constituency; A reduced government of 10 ministers to ensure a minority in parliament. That will definitely lead to Ministers holding multiple portfolios. It seems that the ulterior motive is to offset the cost of having more PR and has nothing to do with efficiency of government; A parliament that form more like a duplication of local government infrastructure if established, in focus and composition.

Beside the above abnormality of the November form of government, parliamentarians take a simplistic view of the process of electing the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Are these processes to be completed before the opening of parliament or the first sitting of parliament? Either way is fraught with complications, taking the experience of other small island nations in our region with this form of government. What we end up with in November are few minority parties and independent representatives. And negotiations and deals for appointments of cabinet ministers will flow out of parliament to the "tu'afale" and "matatahi" of parliamentarians and constituencies respectively. One thing is certain; the interest of the people in such political situation will always be the victim.

If we have not seen the fault of the November form of government by now and the political plunder our parliamentarians have committed through the process of democratization, then God help us. This political reform will be nothing short of political paralytic chaos. Couple that with the economic difficulties Tonga currently experience and what we will end up with is a banana republic economically and a democrazy politically. The idea that is prevalent among the People Representatives is to implement the new form of government regardless of the faults and leave all their shortcomings for the new parliament to fix, is analogous to the government hoping the rust infested Princess Ashika can survive to the arrival of the new Olovaha.

Tu'a 'ofa atu,

Inoke Fotu Huakau

inokefotu [at] 2000fm [dot] com ( inokefotu [at] 2000fm [dot] com)