EDITOR'S COMMENT

By Pesi Fonua

The Tonga government's official response to the public uproar over the high cost of electricity and salaries of the top executives of Shoreline Power appears to be insincere and doubtful.

There were two petitions presented to the Palace Office, one on March 14 from the People's Democratic Party, and the other on May 26 from the "Demo" People's Representatives to parliament, both expressing dissatisfaction with Shoreline, the company that has a monopoly control over Tonga's electric power supply

An official response to the issue of the high cost of electricity, raised in the first petition, came in a Press Release from the Prime Minister's Office, entitled: "His Majesty wants relief for electricity consumers". Strangely, the press release was dated "Monday 16th May," but it was not made public until May 25.

The Prime Minister's Office May 16 Press Release begins with a statement that a Cabinet decision was reached after having several meetings "yesterday", which must, therefore, have been on Sunday. Doubt creeps in from the first sentence. For Cabinet to meet on a Sunday is unheard of, unless, perhaps, government had intelligence that the country was on the verge of a civil war.

If the date of the Cabinet Meeting was doubtful, the Cabinet Decision was even less convincing in terms of bringing relief to the pockets of the agitated consumers.

According to the press release, the Sunday decision of the Cabinet was for the Chairman of the Tonga Electric Power Board, Ramsay Dalgety QC, "to urgently request Shoreline Power Ltd. for emergency assistance to their domestic consumers of Vava‘u and Tongatapu", affected by an 11 cents surcharge that Shoreline Power had added to the price of electricity.

It continued with a promise, "In the event that Shoreline does not absorb these fuel surcharges immediately, His Majesty's Cabinet has directed that Government, as an emergency assistance, to relieve the people of Tonga, funds the surcharge on a monthly basis up to three months." The government assistance to begin in June will exempt consumers for the first 200 units of electricity consumed per month from fuel surcharge.

But in real terms there is no deal, because surely the tax payers, the people, are still paying the 11 seniti, if Shoreline rejects the government's request. All this decision really shows is that government can't tell Shoreline what to do.

The other intriguing thing about the May 16 Press Release was that despite the apparent urgency of the Cabinet meeting to reach this decision, the public did not know anything about it until the Chief Secretary to Cabinet, 'Eseta Fusitu'a, appeared on Television Tonga on the evening of May 25. She made an official announcement of the decision by Cabinet to request Shoreline for a subsidy, and failing that for government to step in and pay the 11 seniti surcharge.

Obviously, the timing of the announcement was intended to try and stop the public demonstration scheduled for the following day, May 26.

But the most outrageous thing about the Chief Secretary's announcement was that it ignored an important offer made in the morning of the same day, by the Chief Executive of Shoreline, Soane Ramanlal.

At a press conference on May 25, Soane had announced that the Chairman of Shoreline, the Crown Prince Tupouto'a, had made a unilateral offer that morning to the Prime Minister. Shoreline was offering to hand the power generation back to government if government was able to pay for the investment that Shoreline had made.

But when 'Eseta made her announcement based on the May 16 Press Release, nothing was said about the Crown Prince's significant offer to the Prime Minister that morning.

Considering that the May 16 Press Release was so important that Cabinet met for hours on Sunday, and the intention was to quell public discontent, it failed to reach the press. We did not get our copy until May 27, and the local newspapers did not come out with the Press Release until after the march.

This and the government's other efforts to stop the May 26 march failed. Public opinion won the day with the demonstration becoming a physical success, attracting large numbers. Because of the involvement of church leaders, professional people, public servants and academics the people achieved their objective, for their voice to be heard.

But what happens next?

Shoreline is still studying the request from government to absorb the 11 seniti surcharge, and government has not responded to Shoreline's offer for government to pay for their investment to hand the power generation back.

Meanwhile, the public seemed to have found a way of easing their frustrations, by Protest Marching, by waving racist and rude banners, and then praying with church leaders. It is very clear that these marches are drawing in public support and are getting bigger and better organised - and more emotional.

See also Prime Minister's Office regrets of June 2: (in the Comments section below)