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Re: Movie: The Nu Face of Rebellion (Tonga 2006)

05 May 2007

by Anonymous

Tongan Uprising

Canberra rapped for diplomatic stance
By Mark Forbes
Foreign Affairs Correspondent
Nukualofa, Tonga
December 18, 2003
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has been attacked for refusing to meet Tonga's most popular politician and leader of its democratic movement while paying court to a king who is censoring free speech and refusing to hand over power.
Australia was being hypocritical by demanding good governance in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, while refusing to intervene on behalf of democracy in Tonga, according to democracy leaders.
Opposition Leader Akilisi Pohiva commands 70 per cent popular support and would be prime minister in a conventional democracy.
In Tonga, King Taufa'aha Tupou IV appoints 21 of the nation's 30 MPs. Last election, seven of the nine popularly elected seats were won by the democracy movement.
Mr Pohiva said Mr Downer was arrogant in refusing requests to meet popularly elected MPs during a two-day visit to Tonga.
"Failing to meet the people's representatives, that's ridiculous, a sign of arrogance on behalf of your Foreign Minister," Mr Pohiva said.
Mr Downer did not understand the popular pressure for democracy in Tonga, he said
Mr Downer said he did not have time to meet everybody, and as a representative of an executive government it was appropriate he met Tongan Government representatives. Several backbench MPs accompanying him had met the opposition MPs, he said.
Tonga needed to evolve at its own pace, Mr Downer said. "A whole lot of lectures from me are not going to contribute to a positive outcome. We don't want to contribute in an aggressive way to internal debates here."
Controversial constitutional changes introduced this month give the Government power to ban critical media outlets.
The changes are aimed at the Times of Tonga and have been condemned by organisations, including Amnesty International.
Another opposition MP, Fred Sevele, attacked Australia.
We don't want to contribute in an aggressive way to internal debates here.
"You guys have been saying this to PNG, you got involved in the Solomon Islands, your PM has been tough on good governance. There are no boundaries on abolishing human rights.
"People of Tonga have the right to elect their government, these are basic human rights.
"I find it difficult to match with the statements Mr Howard has made in the last 12 months and your stand on PNG and the Solomon Islands," Dr Sevele said. The people's representatives yesterday gave a letter to Mr Downer's staff urging Australia to pressure Tonga to institute political reforms immediately.
The letter, signed by a member of the royal family, Prince Tu'ipelehake, said

that the Government was disregarding the will of the people, transparency, accountability and good governance.
Australian encouragement could persuade Tonga to introduce real democracy, which was being demanded by the people, the letter said.

“Public servants, including teachers and health workers, have been striking for higher wages for the past four weeks.
On Wednesday, students at Tonga College smashed school buildings and cars after their striking principal and head teacher were removed. Police arrested around 200 students.
The strike has expanded into a wider campaign for democratic reform, with large crowds gathering every day in a park in the capital in support of the strikers.
Public protest and violence are virtually unheard of in the small South Pacific kingdom where the royal family, headed by 87-year-old King Taufa'ahau Tupou, controls a semi-feudal political system and owns major businesses.”
In May, an estimated 10,000 marched demanding democracy and public ownership of key assets, after the country's sole power company, owned by the heir to the throne, increased prices.

02 November 2005
URGENT MEDIA RELEASE
There is great urgency to express our deep concern about Tonga’s accession negotiations at the World Trade Organisation. We understand that Tonga’s officials have been asked to file a final set of documents with the WTO by 7 November and that, if this happens, it is possible that the WTO will approve Tonga’s accession in December.
02 November 2005
Tonga is being asked to give up control of vital public services, including hospitals, schools and broadcasting. This could have far-reaching effects on Tongan society. New Zealand and the other countries which have participated in the negotiations have not made promises as broad as this, so why has Tonga come under pressure to do this. Louise Guttenbeil-Likiliki
Tongan Women’s Action for Change [TWAC]

Sam Buchanan:
Tongan government makes mad dash for the WTO
Sometime ago, I recall an anarchist commenting that if you are trying to judge the morality of a nominally democratic government, such as ours, check out its foreign policy.

His reasoning was that this is where you see the government with its gloves off. Largely unencumbered by the need to seek electoral support and working in an area few people follow closely, the state is able to pursue its agenda bluntly and unpleasantly as it chooses.

An example is our supposedly democratic government’s willingness to snuggle up with democratically-challenged governments such as Pakistan, China, Saudi Arabia and the Kingdom of Tonga.

A small, but icky, little example involving New Zealand’s relationship with the latter surfaced recently. Tonga has been pursuing membership of the WTO and expected to sign up at the Hong Kong ministerial in December. The New Zealand government has been supporting the process. Amongst many other things forming part of its accession to the WTO, Tonga is offering to open up much of its service sector to foreign competition. This includes sectors such as air transport, hospitals, broadcasting, all forms of education, sewage and sanitation, financial services, construction, as well as business and professional services such as lawyers and accountants. This goes way beyond the commitments other WTO members, such as New Zealand, have made.

A member of the Tongan Anglican church, the Reverend Tevita Koloamatangi described opening up Tonga’s economy to foreign competition as “A bit like asking the All Blacks to play a village team in Tonga”.

Tongans feel they’ve been left completely in the dark about these plans. There’s been no public debate and very little information available. Churches and civil society groups, along with representatives of development agency Oxfam, met recently and asked that the process be put on hold until people had time to become informed and debate these proposals.

Koloamatangi took this decision to a meeting with officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade recently and asked that New Zealand stop supporting the accession process. The response was blunt – New Zealand has committed to supporting Tonga’s accession to the WTO and isn’t going to change that. According to MFAT, to do so would be interfering in Tonga’s affairs.
This raises lots of questions – why did the New Zealand government commit itself to supporting an undemocratic process? Why is backing the Tongan government OK, but backing the Tongan people “interference”?

At very least, the New Zealand government has been incompetent in promising support for a decision without requiring it to be made with some transparency and democracy. More cynically, it looks as if the government has used Tonga’s lack of democracy to lever open Tonga’s economy to competition, regardless of the wishes of its people.

“I am sad to say that for the first time in the history of the Pacific, we now see the destabilization of the Kingdom of Tonga. Tonga was the only, the only, Pacific nation that was not taken over by foreigners during the time of colonization. But yesterday, as a result of the legislature concluding its deliberation without addressing the problem of economic disparity caused by globalization, riots broke out in Tonga. Two were killed yesterday, thirteen more today. “Mililani Trask (Kanaka Maoli)
Chris Trotter-A text book start to a revolution.

Another week, another Pacific nation in trouble. While the eyes of our diplomatic service were fixed upon the expensive illusions of Apec and the more chimerical notion of global free trade, Tonga was blazing.
Estimates of the monetary cost of last week's conflagration in downtown Nuku'alofa range upward of $100 million. The damage caused to the tiny island's social fabric is incalculable.
Why didn't our Government see this coming, or try to prevent it?
A monarchy grown decadent and dangerously distant from its people. The blurring of governmental and commercial roles on the part of the royal family and its court favourites. Severe economic hardship caused by eccentric policy-making and endemic corruption. The unwelcome presence of foreign adventurers and entrepreneurs. Persistent and articulate voices raised in favour of fundamental political reform.
Mass demonstrations and strikes demanding constitutional change. Insincerity and incompetence from those entrusted with the task of defusing the crisis. An explosion of popular anger. The intervention of foreign troops.
Here's what happens next.
Popular feeling against the Tongan "establishment" intensifies. Its government's determination to identify and punish those responsible for the destruction of downtown Nuku'alofa is interpreted as an attack on the entire pro-democracy movement.
The participation of the New Zealand defence and police forces in the government investigation persuades a large number of pro- democracy activists that Helen Clark is siding with the king against the people. Protests against the New Zealand and Australian intervention forces become increasingly aggressive. Kiwi soldiers and/or police officers are attacked and unleash deadly force in their own defence. A number of Tongans are killed.
Tragedy in Tonga translates to crisis in South Auckland and a major threat to New Zealand's national security. In Manukau city, home to tens of thousands of Tongan immigrants, massive protests erupt. The protesters are joined by Solomon Islanders, Fijians and other Pacific peoples.
Government property is attacked, cars are overturned, and the Manukau city centre is set ablaze. There are pitched battles in the streets between Pacific Island youths and the police. Scores are injured, and an 18-year-old Tongan student dies of head injuries inflicted by a police baton.
One hundred thousand South Aucklanders, many of them young Maori carrying tino rangatiratanga banners, march in this martyr for democracy's funeral procession. Pacific Island and Maori school students start occupying their classrooms. Spontaneous strikes break out in South and West Auckland factories.
The Government declares a state of emergency. Troops are recalled from Afghanistan, East Timor and the Solomons. The western Pacific's "Arc of Instability" now includes Aotearoa. Suddenly, our security environment no longer seems so "benign".#paraALL right, this is a worst-case scenario. But that in no way lets MFAT and the SIS off the hook. Isn't it their job to prevent such a dire sequence of events from taking place?
Did they miss the population explosion in the western Pacific? Are they not aware how demographically skewed the island societies have become with more than half their populations now under age 25? Without jobs, did it not occur to MFAT that these youngsters might turn to political agitation? Has the SIS never wondered what might happen if New Zealand soldiers attached to Ramsi ever started shooting at Pacific Islanders with relatives back in Otara and Mangere? Has nobody ever considered the possibility that with so many Pacific Islanders now living in New Zealand, a major political upheaval back in their homeland might end up sparking one in ours?
In the end, it all boils down to one word: racism. Ever since New Zealand forces shot and killed the leader of the Samoan independence movement back in 1929, our government has never really considered Pacific Island peoples, or their politics, to be serious subjects of diplomatic interest.
A corrupt, feudal-style monarchy thwarting the political, economic and cultural development of the Tongan people? Of what concern is that to us? It's just the "Pacific way".
Well, here's a news-flash: It's 2006 and Tonga's "commoners" just ran out of patience.
There's a revolution coming.

despite mass and popular Tongan opposition to the privatisation & WTO agenda and calls for democracy the wheels of Globalisation roll on:

19/04/2007

Tonga's first ever national economic summit has ended, with agreement on seven key projects needed if the country's economy is to be turned around in the next two years. That's the target set by the Ministry of Labour, Commerce and Industry, as the Kingdom faces the expensive task of rebuilding the capital, Nuku'alofa after last years riot. The economic summit brought together government officials and business people in a bid to work out a coordinated strategy on investment, exports and national development.'NEW SEASONAL WORKER SCHEME FAVOURS NZ MORE'.....MELINO MAKA
Date: 19 April 2007
Auckland 6am: The chairman of the Tongan Advisory Council says the new seasonal worker scheme may not be as great for Pacific people as it's being made out to be.
Melino Maka says he's not convinced yet that the scheme will do a lot of good for the Pacific community.
Maka met with officials from the Department of Labour at a fono on Tuesday, which was organised to shed more light on the scheme.
Maka says he's not impressed with things like Pacific workers having to pay the ACC levy and tax but not being entitled to medical care.(listen)
Some four thousand, five hundred Tongans have applied to work here for seven months annually in the horticulture and viticulture industries.
Maka told Pacific Radio News that based on the information he's been given, the scheme looks to favour New Zealand more than the Pacific. (listen)
Officials launch the new scheme, which sees nations Tonga, Samoa, Kiribati, Tuvalu and Vanuatu taking part, this Friday

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Comments

30 Apr 2007

Sis has uploaded this to google video

video.google.ca/videoplay

I'll embed it in my blog this morning. uriohau.blogspot.com
Malo Aupito
Ana

Well said... Like the following excerpt below the url, this site Sure beats this crap:
groups.yahoo.com/group/tai-tokerau/message/6348

------ Message in Public Arena:

Tu'ipelehake An insult 13 Jul 2006, 06:00

Salt Lake City, Utah, USA:

Editor,

Ms Rosina Hauiti of N.Z. and David Lloyd of the U.S.A. are apparently not
knowledgable about the Kingdom of Tonga, her people, and her culture.

While echoing the politically-correct notion that a young girl 18 years of
age - accused of causing the death of three innocent people - could benefit
more and serve the people of Tonga better there, they are in fact insulting
my intelligence as a Tongan.

What can this young 18-year-old female bring to Tonga? No disrespect to Ms
Delgado and her family, but I'm guessing she's barely out of high school.

Does Ms Hauiti, and Mr Lloyd, propose that Ms Delgado will be serving as a
Peace Corps volunteer? Or, rather, would she become Tonga's first terrorist
prisoner?

Secondly, it's a sad situation for Ms Delgado who is facing the possibility
of losing eight years of her youth to a prison life. What positive
experience would she then bring back to the U.S. after serving time in a
prison in a foreign land with a foreign culture?

Thirdly, it's appalling to suggest that Ms Delgado would learn to appreciate
the law more if she is shipped off to Tonga. In contrast, she would have
been treated more humanely in the U.S. prison systems with education and
rehabilitation, etc.

Please note, Tonga is not a penal colony, mind both of you. It is a country
of law and order.

You painted a life of "hardship" in Tonga if Ms Delgado would be sent there.
Obviously, you've been listening often to "the sky is falling" rhetoric of
Tongan politicians trumpeted in the news media.

Does either of you know of any torture, killing of innocent people,
execution of political prisoners, deaths of homeless people recently in
Tonga?

Tonga may not be a Paradise for your liking, but N.Z. and the U.S. are
neither.

Sincerely,

Sione A. Mokofisi

s1mokofisi@... <mailto:s1mokofisi%40yahoo.com>

www.matangitonga.to/article/letterrosinahauiti120706.shtml

www.matangitonga.to/article/article_print_lettersioneamokofisi130706.
shtml

www.matangitonga.to/article/letterrosinahauiti100706.shtml

------ End of Message

by anarchafairy

Also on YouTube now:
www.youtube.com/watch