Auckland academic Dr Teena Brown Pulu has published a book called "Shoot the Messenger" in which she claims that the Tonga Prime Minister's office suppressed her report into the reconstruction of the Nuku'alofa central business district in Tonga following the 2006 riots. Her book was launched at AUT University in Auckland on February 29.

The author, Dr Teena Brown Pulu, is a lecturer at AUT and launched the book, 'Shoot the Messenger'  at the Manukau Campus.

In a statement, Dr Brown Pulu said she was authorised to write a report by the Tongan Prime Minister, Lord Tui'vakano, on the reconstruction project in April 2011. But its release was later blocked with the report considered "inadequate and unreliable".

However, Dr Brown Pulu said she did not agree.  She believed the report's findings not being made public were "politically motivated".

"There was a set of assumptions made by the Prime Minister's advisers that the Nuku'alofa reconstruction project had missing funds and overpriced and substandard buildings.

"After I had completed the research, the evidence gathered was to the contrary. The allegations made by government against the former administration and the construction companies working on the project were simply that - unsubstantiated allegations."

Riots

Arson during the November 16, 2006, riots in Nuku'alofa, the central business district and capital of Tonga destroyed about 80 percent of Tonga's CBD.  A year later the Tongan government signed a multi-million pa'anga loan from China and reconstruction began.

In the statement Dr Brown Pulu said that her book publishes the actual report she wrote and sets the research in the political context of Tonga's democratic reform, and that it analyses why the Prime Minister's Office felt it should be hidden from the public.