The local papers this week, 4-8 April 2005, were dominated by the death of Pope John Paul II. A few corruption stories were also prominent.

The Taimi, Talaki, and the Kalonikali all featured Pope John Paul II on their front pages, the Kalonikali with the Pope resting at the Clementine Hall, Vatican, while the Talaki presented a picture of a younger Pope John Paul II.

Taimi

The Taimi ‘‘o Tonga Tuesday April 5 edition featured a photograph of John Paul II waving for the last time, on Wednesday March 30, from his famous window at the Vatican over looking St Peter's Square.

There was also a story of the suspension of the Collector of Customs, Sione Likiliki, for not following the proper procedure in releasing goods from the wharf.

Professor Futa Helu was also on the news again. Futa hosted a meeting at ‘‘Atenisi on Wednesday March 30 with the objective of establishing a political party to "“revamp Democracy"” in the country. The meeting was attended by a number of people including some of the candidates for the previous Parliamentary Election such as Clive Edwards, Masao Paasi, Semisi Tapueluelu, Kamipeli Tofa, and ‘‘Alani Taione. Also attending were Teisina Fuko, Brother Seluini ‘Akau‘ola and others.

The meeting established two three-member Task Forces, one was made up of Semisi Tapueluelu, Teisina Fuko and Kamipeli Tofa, this TF was to think up a name for the Party, and to produce a working agenda for the Party by Friday, April 8. The other three-members Task Forces were made up of Futa Helu, Clive Edwards and Seluini 'Akau'ola and they were responsible for finalising the proposals presented by the other TF.

Kele'a

The Kele'a front page story for the week was a corruption allegation against the General Manager of FIMCO Ma'u Havea who was said to have borrowed from FIMCO over $300,000 between 2001-2005. Because Ma'u failed to repay his loan to FIMCO, FIMCO's loan from the Tonga Development Bank, fell behind in repayment. To find a solution to the problem an officer of the TDB, Simione Sefanaia, was appointed to be a member of the Executive Committee of FIMCO. The members of the committee were Simione Sefanaia, Sione Tangi, Penisimani Latu, Viliami Foketi and Ma'u Havea.

There are a number of claims for the misusing of authority by the General Manager and members of the Committee to benefit themselves, while pretending that they were conducting business for FIMCO. There were alleged shady deals on squash, handicrafts and easy loans from TDB for FIMCO's squash growers.

On the political front a meeting was held at the Pasilika on Friday April 1 where people expressed their wishes for political change to take place. There was a picture on the front page of people waving their hands as the gathering was blessed with a prayer by Rev. Lopeti Taufa.

Piveni Piukala made a contribution with few pages of Shoreline Expenditure accounts. He said that he was still digging up some more Shoreline accounts, and that there would be another interview with him soon.

The Kele'a's other main story for the week was a response by a Tongan-New Zealand lawyer, Nalesoni Tupou, to claim made by Clive Edwards on the TV OBN on Wednesday night March 3, 2005.

[Clive hit at Nalesoni who said in an earlier OBN TV program that Clive would fail in his attempt to sue Shoreline, and that he was using the case as part of his campaign for election.]

Clive retaliated that Nalesoni's law degree was an honorary award, and that he could not predict that he was going to fail. In defending the validity of his university degree Nalesoni explained that he was awarded with a BA in Political Science from the University of Auckland in May 1982, and an LLB, again from Auckland University in May 1987. He said that one of his tutors was Helen Clarke, the Prime Minister of New Zealand.

With regards to claim by Clive that he helped the Tupou family to get New Zealand citizenship. Nalesoni said it was a lie because his father Leonard Philip Vea, also known as Philip Tupou was born in New Zealand and he was a British subject with a New Zealand citizenship. When his parents and the family migrated to New Zealand in 1967, they already had New Zealand passports, so Clive had nothing at all to do with their New Zealand citizenship.

Nalesoni said that there had been professional feud between him and Clive over the years. Nalesoni was one of the legal counsel for a father and son who punched Clive in Auckland. Nalesoni represented the father who was dismissed by the court. In a more recent case he represented the fish canning factory in American Samoa while Clive represented Peter Warner, and Clive and Peter Warner lost their case.

Taimi

The Taimi ‘‘o Tonga, Friday April 8 edition, came out with another revelation of how Sosefo and Soane Ramanlal allegedly abused their relationship with the Crown Prince Tupouto‘a.

The story claimed that a container of construction material address to the Crown Prince Tupouto'a, Shoreline Communication, belonged to Sosefo Ramanlal (there was a photo of the container besides a house at 'Anana). The container was sent from New Zealand by Vai ko Likisia Services Ltd, on the Golden Trader V183 from Millenium Tech, Auckland, NZ. There was no Millenium Tech, in Auckland, but there was a Millenium Technology Ltd in Hamilton that sold computers.

The story concluded that the Crown Prince was not constructing anything, but Joseph and Soane Ramanlal had a number of construction projects in progress.