Tonga’s Chief Secretary said “Tonga has paid off its debts to the United Nations, a day after it was stripped of its voting rights.”
Edgar Cocker told PMN News the government failed to pay the money after “a mix-up.”
The report came after Prime Minister Pōhiva Tu’i’onetoa said his government was working urgently to pay Tonga’s outstanding dues it owes the international body after it lost voting privileges because it was behind on payments, TBC reported yesterday.
As Kaniva news reported last night, Tonga needs to find US$16,444 to regain its right to vote at the United Nations.
The amount, equivalent to TP$ 37,751.60, is needed to reduce the
amount Tonga owes to the international body to an acceptable level.
Tonga is one of seven countries that have lost their voting
rights.
The others are Venezuela, Lebanon, Central African Republic,
Gambia, Lesotho and Yemen.
Comoros, Sao Tome and Principe, and Somalia are also in
arrears but UN said it will keep their voting rights until September.
Details of the kingdom’s full debt have not been released.
Countries whose debt to the UN equals or exceeds the amount of the
contributions due from it for the preceding two full years lose their vote.
Only 146 of the 193 member states paid their dues in full for the
2019 budget.
Last October UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the
organisation was facing a serious financial crisis.
King Tupou VI addressed the UN General Assembly last year and said
the kingdom looked to the Security Council to provide protection from threats
to international peace and security.
Papua New Guinea’s governor General Sir Bob Dadae, 58, married his Tongan fiancée Emeline Tufi Folau in Port Moresby in a private ceremony on Saturday.
It was attended by dignitaries, state officials and the couple’s families and friends.
EMTV Online uploaded a video of the wedding to Youtube which showed Folau was escorted inside a church to the sanctuary by her mother and another woman, whom EMTV described as the maid of honour.
PNG media have reported the governor’s acting secretary Bill Toraso as saying “Sir Bob had completed all customary and church (Evangelical Lutheran Church of PNG) obligations in honour of the late Lady Hannah Dadae and was given clearance by the church to re-marry.”
“ I, on behalf of the Office of the Governor-General, express my congratulations and warm wishes to Grand Chief Sir Bob Dadae on this joyous occasion as he embarks on this new chapter in his life,” Toraso said.
The governor general lost his former wife last year after Lady Hannah suffered a short illness. She was survived by the governor and their children, reports said.
Sir Bob Dadae is the tenth Governor-General of Papua New Guinea.
Tonga needs to find US$16,444 to regain its right to vote at the United Nations.
The amount, equivalent to TP$
37,751.60, is needed to reduce the amount Tonga owes to the international body
to an acceptable level.
Tonga is one of seven countries that
have lost their voting rights.
The others are Venezuela, Lebanon,
Central African Republic, Gambia, Lesotho and Yemen.
Comoros, Sao Tome and Principe, and Somalia are also in arrears but UN said it will keep their voting rights until September.
Details of the kingdom’s full debt
have not been released.
Countries whose debt to the UN equals
or exceeds the amount of the contributions due from it for the preceding two
full years lose their vote.
Only 146 of the 193 member states
paid their dues in full for the 2019 budget.
Last October UN Secretary-General
Antonio Guterres said the organisation was facing a serious financial crisis.
King Tupou VI addressed the UN
General Assembly last year and said the kingdom looked to the Security Council
to provide protection from threats to international peace and security.
A 21-month-old Tongan toddler was killed at a carpark in Papakura on Saturday afternoon.
Odeliah Tonga was described as always full of energy and will be sorely missed, Stuff reported.
Police said in a statement the child has died after being struck by a vehicle in a driveway in Smiths Avenue.
Emergency
services were called to the scene at 5.10pm, it said.
Police also said they were still investigating the fatality.
Odeliah’s grandmother Wilhemina Laulu told media the Calvary Pentecostal Fellowship, of which her son-in-law Daniel Tonga was the pastor, had been using the hall for the past two years.
She
reportedly said “her daughter, Sarah Eden-Tonga, had gone to move her car
after a meeting at the hall and her granddaughter, Odeliah, had rushed out
to follow her.”
“My
daughter was driving the car and she didn’t know she’d run over her.”
She said the family was still trying to come to terms with the event, Stuff reported.
“It’s
such a tragic loss for us. But we’re overwhelmed by how the community has come
together to show its support.”
Laulu said
the family had held Odeliah’s first birthday at the hall with the
church group in 2019.
And
despite her tragic death, they were planning to continue to use the centre.
“It’s
times like this that we join forces. We don’t want this to stop the
group.”
Laulu said
the family was waiting for the Coroner to release Odeliah’s body so they could
hold a service.
“We’re
also waiting for some family members to arrive from Tonga and Australia and
from around New Zealand.”
The Ministry of Education and Training is concerned by falling enrolment in high school science, mathematics and commerce classes.
The Ministry is also concerned at the 10% drop in the pass rate for the Form Six certificate.
Announcing the 2019 results for the Tonga National Form Seven Certificate, the Ministry said enrolment trends showed a decreasing number of candidates opting for these subject areas.
The
Ministry said these subjects were highly
significant for universities abroad.
The
Ministry was concerned about the trend and encouraged students to consider
their subjects carefully.
A
total of 11 schools in the kingdom (six
in Tongatapu and five in the outer-islands) offered the certificate.
The
number of students sitting for the certificate rose from 489 in 2018 to 656,
the highest number so far.
The
overall pass rate was 68%., based on results for English and the students’ best
three subjects.
Tonga
High was the best performing school, with an 89% pass rate.
The
most improved school was Beulah College.
The
pass rate for the Tonga Form Six Certificate dropped from 48% to 38%.
The
Ministry also noted a similar decrease in the number of candidates’ opting for
the Sciences and Computing was noted for Form six students.
A
total of 23 schools (12 schools in Tongatapu and 11 from the outer-islands)
offered the examinations.
As
with the Form Seven certificate, a record number of students were registered,
with numbers rising from 1248 in 2018 to 1377 in 2019.
Tonga
High was the best performing school in the 2019 TFSC Examinations with a 61%
pass rate. The most improved school was Tailulu College (Vava‘u) with a 56%
pass rate, a 20% improvement from 2018.
The
school with the most candidates enrolled in the TFSC was Liahona High School
with a total of 192 candidates.
Prime Minister Pōhiva Tu’i’onetoa’s Talking Points’ audio (above) in Tongan Language. Te ke lava fanongo ki he Polokalama ‘a e ‘Eiki Palēmia’ ‘i he halangaope ko ‘ena ‘i ‘olunga’ ‘i he lea fakaTonga’.
Prime Minister Pōhiva Tu’i’onetoa was interviewed by FM87.5. An audio copy was provided by the Prime Minister’s office and transcribed and translated into English by Kaniva News.
The Tongatapu 10 roadworks should be completed by December 2019, according to the Prime Minister.
On his Talking Points programme last week, the Prime Minister said the original December deadline for completion of the beginning of the project at Tongatapu 10 had been missed.
“Too much work remained to be completed.”
But the good news is, according to the Prime Minister, the government undertook to finish its new roads project plan within the next two years rather than within the next four years it previously announced.
Hon Tu’i’onetoa said the government had made dramatic changes to its Ministry of Infrastructure’s work practices and has outsourced rock supplies for its road construction project.
The Ministry
had contracted two private quarry companies to help with transporting rocks to
Tongatapu 10 after the shortfall.
On his Talking Points programme, the Prime Minister saidthe Ministry was short of road construction machinery, staff and labourers and normal working procedures had been proved ineffective.
Under the
old procedure in which Infrastructure workers processed the rocks in the
quarries before they were moved to the road construction sites, only 30 truck
loads could be sent a day, he said.
The Ministry
only had 42 staff and labourers. The Prime Minister said that was too small a
number for the project.
If the
government had continued with the Ministry’s current procedures and number of
staff, it could take 10 years for the government to complete its new road
construction project, Hon Tu’i’onetoa said.
He said the government would buy new heavy machinery and equipment and were expected to arrive in Tonga within the next couple of weeks.
These included four bulldozers for each quarry, crushers, loaders, road rollers, craters and 10 heavy trucks. The Prime Minister said it was important to buy the right equipment for the work.
New road machinery and equipment from China were expected to start arriving in Tonga in July to be used on normal road repairs and maintenance, he said.
After the changes were confirmed the government would spend TP$78 million to construct and complete new roadworks for the whole of Tonga within the next two years, Hon Tu’i’onetoa said.
The $78 million costs for the rocks would save taxpayers $165 million after a previous estimate showed the project could cost taxpayers $223 million for the rocks alone.
He said this new estimate came after the government struck a new deal with four private quarries to buy their rocks at $70 a truck load. This was cheaper compared to $200 per truck load in the previous deal, the Prime Minister said.
This $78 million would be doubled when tar for sealing of the roads were included. The Prime Minister said if the total estimate for the rocks and the tar reached $200 million that’s still a cheaper deal.
The government had hired three quarries in Tongatapu and one in Vava’u for the project. He said two quarries belonging to two ministers were among the three in Tongatapu. He previously told Kaniva news the ministers were Lord Ma’afu and Lord Nuku. He did not identify the owner of the third quarry and the owner of the one in Vava’u.
The Prime Minister said the terms and conditions for the lease included agreeing for the quarries to operate only to supply rocks solely for the government’s road project.
The quarries also agreed to work at night when required. They also agreed to continue to provide rocks for the project even if the government no longer have money to pay for their services, the Prime Minister said.
480 truck loads were expected to be sent to the roadwork sites a day after the new deal was hit, the Prime Minister said. As a result, the project could be completed within the next two years with one quarry was estimated to deliver 120 truck loads a day.
Hon Tu’i’onetoa said it was estimated that 1,117,250 truck loads required to complete the government’s road project.
He said new roads need for new residential development areas is urgent. He said people had been waiting for years for the government to build roads in these areas so they could move in and start building.
These residential areas included 508 tax allotments in Tongatapu which had been divided into new town allotments and they required 206 km of new roads., the Prime Minister said.
In Vava’u 116 tax allotments had been divided into new town allotments and they required 51 km of roads. In Ha’apai, 24 tax allotments had been divided into town allotments requiring 55 km of new roads. Thirteen tax allotments in ‘Eua were divided into town allotments and they required 49.89 km of new roads
The Prime Minister said for about 50 years the people had complained about the condition of the roads and nothing had been seriously done to address it.
He said he had the courage to do this for the people although the government faced lack of funding.
The Prime Minister said when the project was completed it would be beautiful and future generations would appreciate that there were people who made sacrifices to build these roads for them.
‘Akilisi Pōhiva saved Tonga even before he became Prime Minister, veteran Pacific affairs journalist Michael Field said today.
But he warned that Pōhiva’s democratic reforms could unravel and that dangerous times lay ahead for the kingdom.
In 2010 Field, who is writing a book on the late Tongan leader, said it would be unwise for Pōhiva to become Prime Minister because he was more revolutionary than leader.
In
his book Swimming with Sharks he
said: “Sadly, I’ve been proven right; at 76 he has proven to be a mess. He was
performed in much the same way that the inept and hopeless royal governments
before him did. My sense is that many Tongans – nobles and commoners – have
realised this too. “
However,
when he died, Field described him as “remarkable.”
Speaking
to Kaniva News, Field said he saw “no
problem between the mess and his remarkableness.”
“When
my book came out in 2010 ‘Akilisi took me on over the remarks I had made. I was
impressed, at the time, to think he had even read it, but in the last couple of
years I realise he was a well-read person with a wide range of interests.
“I
stand by my original claim in 2010 that the premiership ended up as a mess.
What I did not know, but know now extensively, is how disruptive the
anti-democratic forces have been on Tongan governance.
“‘Akilisi’s
inability to get audiences with the king, and the subsequent refusal by the
king to sign the six bills has been enormously disruptive. That said, I
strongly believe that ‘Akilisi’s finest and most useful work was as the leader
of a movement which happened to be in opposition for much of his political
life.
“In
many ways, even before he had become Prime Minister, he had saved Tonga. I will
leave the argument for why until the book’s publication.
“As
for calling him ‘remarkable,’ I totally stand by that: I’ve known most of the
Pacific leadership since 1975, and there was no one quite like him.
“In
chatting with ‘Akilisi I learnt a great deal about him and how unusual he was.
I also realised that in all the years covering him as a journalist (and I went
right back to the beginning, that first poll) I had only got to know that one
side of him.
“Sadly
I don’t speak Tongan, but I came to appreciate that the ‘Akilisi in Tongan was
different to the ‘Akilisi in English. It was something of a revelation for me”.
Reforms in danger
Field
said he feared that Tonga’s democratic reforms would stall under this current
king.
“I
think Tonga is entering dangerous times and people should be paying careful
attention.
“It
should be noted that the causes and reasons for the Nuku’alofa riots are still
only partially understood. What that means is, I believe, that they could
happen again.”
While Pōhiva was a champion of democracy he was accused by his enemies of corruption and sometimes seemed to have laid himself open to charges of behaving in erratic and not entirely democratic ways.
However,
Field said many leaders could be accused of being erratic for a variety of
reasons.
“The
first Prime Minister I worked for used to go to events without shoes and could
not use a phone, but he was brilliant all the same,” the veteran journalist
said.
“People
who go into politics full-time are different to the rest of us.”
Field said he did not think Pōhiva was anti-democratic, but said Tonga had the unique problem that for most of its modern life been it had been ruled by non-democratic forces.
“I
didn’t see corruption in him and I must say the various accusations, when
details are provided, seem, if not trivial, then rather vague,” he said.
“It has to be recalled that most of Pōhiva’s political life was played out, endlessly, in court rooms where specific and explicit claims could have been made”
Field said what he termed the ‘feisty’ relationship between Pōhiva and the Tongan media was far from unique.
“Of
course his whole political career began as a TBC broadcaster – and then a fired
one,” Field said.
“The
relationship with the media is a curious one, because ‘Akilisi really thought
of himself, via Kele’a newspaper, as
part of the media.
“He
was always quite proud of getting scoops and he got a few.”
Intense struggle
Field said Pōhiva’s entire life was one of intense struggle.
“I
was quite struck by the enormous amount of work he took on, even in primary
school,” he said.
“My sadness, as an observer and writer, is that he was among the many Pacific leaders who died in office I never said it to ‘Akilisi, but I did on other occasions to other politicians, point out the merits of retiring to enjoy life with the grandchildren, at the beach or somewhere, but Pōhiva and all the others, seem driven by their politics.”
Michael Field
Field’s
previous books include Speight of
Violence on Fiji’s 2000 coup and Swimming
with Sharks, a collection of tales of the Pacific. His book The Catch investigated the scandal of
the global and New Zealand fishing fleets.
He was banned from Tonga for exposing corruption in the Tongan royal family, implicating King Taufa’āhau Tupou IV who died in 2006, his successor, King George V who died in 2012 and Princess Pilolevu who was the subject of an intense legal battle with Pōhiva.
As
reported in Kaniva News, in August
2018, Lord Chief Justice Paulsen of Tonga’s Supreme Court described the legal
battle over the transfer of millions of dollars of Chinese money to Princess Pilolevu’s Tongasat company
as a case of “national importance.” He said the Chinese money should never have
gone to Tongasat.
Editor’s note: This story has been significantly edited at the request of the soldier’s mother saying the content appeared to have provided sensitive information and it poses a risk to her daughter and her family.
A Tongan couple whose daughter is joining the US military mission in Iraq said they struggled every day with the feeling that someone would knock on their door to say something bad had happened to their daughter.
“We are extremely anxious and living in fear. Every day we were of a view that a soldier would knock on our door to inform us of a bad news,” her father said in Tongan.
He said a series of attacks had been launched by Iranian activists against US military campsites including their daughter’s before the US murdered Iranian General Qassem Soleimani on January 3.
The US murdered Iran’s most powerful military
commander by firing rockets from a US drone as he left Baghdad airport in an
armoured convoy.
Following the assassination of Soleimani, there have been
fears of imminent war between Iran and the United States.
In retaliation, Iran fired more than a dozen missiles
at two Iraqi military bases hosting United States troops. No casualties were reported
and US decribed the damages as minimal.
“The missiles targeted the Ain al-Assad air base in
Anbar Province and a facility near Erbil’s airport in northern Iraq early on
Wednesday morning,” Aljazeera reported.
Following the missiles attacks analysts said Tehran did
not want to provoke an actual war with the US, despite it calls for vengeance.
Yesterday President Trump said Iran appeared “to be
standing down, which is a good thing for all parties concerned and a very good
thing for the world.”
He also had “previously offered to hold talks with Iran
without preconditions – and to meet President Hassan Rouhani.”
In September,
Ayatollah Khamenei said Iran would never engage in bilateral talks, saying it
was part of America’s policy “to put pressure on Iran”.
In a letter to the UN, the US justified the killing of
“Soleimani as an act of self-defence.”
The patient with kidney failure the New Zealand Immigration and Protection Tribunal ordered to be deported has had his permanent visa application finally approved.
Treatment
for kidney failure, which mostly involves dialysis, is not available in Tonga.
Sōsefo Lakalaka, 54, who is also known as Siliva Lakalaka, and his 13-year-old son were ordered to leave New Zealand no later than May 2019.
Lakalaka never gave up and last month his visa application was granted.
Lakalaka flew to the kingdom this week to meet his wife and the rest of their children after being apart for 13 years.
“I am over the moon,” he told Kaniva News from Tonga.
He said he felt that while he was an overstayer in New Zealand he was travelling in a journey that has no destination.
“I do not know whether or not I will again come
across a situation like that in which I experienced a huge desperation,
especially the fact I have been missing my family in Tonga for about 13 years,”
Lakalaka said.
“Today my desperation has gone away.”
Pacific Legal Immigration Lawyers director Richard Small (Left) with the Lakalakas, after informing them of their visa approval. ‘Anaise Small (Right) . Photo/Supplied
Lakalaka,
who is Catholic, revealed what he described as a secret he kept while fighting
to stay in New Zealand.
“I
have prayed so sincerely day and night,” he said.
“I knew for sure my immigration application would not be easily approved as there was no reasonable ground.
“There
appeared to be no hope at all, but I did not give up going to the church.
“Whenever
I got the chance to pray, I recited various prayers of the church and all of a
sudden Jesus answered my prayer.”
He
thanked Kaniva News for helping him,
referring to a story on his case we published in January 2019 saying that his
application for a resident visa had been declined.
He
said he would return to New Zealand shortly and his family would apply for
visas to come to the country.
Lakalaka
was being treated for end-stage kidney failure secondary to polycystic kidney
disease.
He
had a successful kidney transplant in September 2009, but the kidney has
developed progressive structural damage which means its function has reduced
over time. He now has stage four kidney disease and requires regular
supervision from a renal physician in New Zealand.
The extent to which this could be managed from Tonga, with changes to medication being facilitated through a blood-testing regime, was uncertain, the Tribunal said when it previously declined Lakalaka’s visa application.
The approval came after he appealed against the deportation order. Included in the appeal was his 13-year-old son.
Lakalaka
and his wife have six children whom they have raised by customary
adoption. His wife, two daughters
and a son remain in Tonga.
The main points
The patient with kidney failure the New Zealand
Immigration and Protection Tribunal ordered to be deported has had his
permanent visa application finally approved.
Sōsefo Lakalaka never gave up and last month his visa
application was granted.
The Supreme Court has ordered the Tonga Communications Corporation to pay former CEO Rizvi Jurangpathy TOP$165,000 compensation for wrongful dismissal.
Lord Chief Justice Whitten said Jurangpathy
had established that the TCC was liable for its behaviour in removing him from
his position.
The
judgement followed years of legal wrangling over accusations that Jurangpathy
had provided inaccurate figures for the 2014-15 financial year which caused the
TCC to pay a larger dividend than was warranted.
These
figures related to a contract with telecommunications company Huawei.
The
TCC board eventually accused him of gross misconduct and at various stages
threatened him with allegations of a range of other complaints.
His
contract was terminated in 2017. He had been CEO since 2008.
Jurangpathy argued that the TCC’s conduct of an investigation into and reporting on complaints against the plaintiff, failed to accord the plaintiff natural justice, failed to give him a fair hearing.
In evidence presented to the court Jurangpathy said his problems with the TCC followed an incident in 2015 after he terminated the employment of Mr Tonga Fifita with the company.
Soon after, he received a visit from Mr ‘Ofa Vatikani of Kele’a newspaper asking about the dismissal and about other allegations. Later that day, he received a telephone call from MP Māteni Tapueluelu, questioning him again about certain matters and Mr Fifita’s dismissal.
On 19 June 2015, he received a letter from Hon Tapueluelu which referred to the “Unfair Dismissal of Mr Tonga Fifita” and contained damaging allegations. In his letter Tapueluelu said:
“I
will now take all possible means to have your decision fully investigated and
if warranted, push for the TCC Board to be replaced and your contract
terminated.”
On
June 29, 2015 Kele’a published material
from Tapueluelu’s letter.
Jurangpathy said it was no coincidence that the publisher of the newspaper was Hon Tapueluelu’s wife.
As a result of the newspaper article, the then Prime Minister, ‘Akilisi Pōhiva, wrote to Jurangpathy and recommended he resign.
The TCC formed a subcommittee chaired by ‘Ahongalu Fusimālohi to investigate allegations against Jurangpathy.
Lord Chief Justice Whitten said a record of the interview between the sub-committee and Jurangpathy, showed Fusimālohi variously saying that he did not want to hear, or, did not care, what the former CEO had to say.
At
times during the interview, there were heated exchanges between the Chair and
Jurangpathy, which culminated in the Chair and another subcommittee member
threatening him with violence.
In his summing up of the case, Lord Chief Justice Whitten said that in conducting the investigation in the manner it did, and by purporting to rely on inaccurate and inadequate information in determining the Plaintiff’s employment for gross misconduct, the TCC breached its obligations to the plaintiff of trust, confidence and good faith, and failed to act fairly or reasonably.
“The
TCC did not have reasonable grounds for forming the belief that the Plaintiff
was guilty of gross misconduct,” the judge said.
“At
the stage it formed that belief, the TCC failed to carry out as much
investigation into the matter as was reasonable in all the circumstances.
“Thereby
the Defendant wrongfully dismissed the Plaintiff from his employment.”
The judge ordered that Jurangpathy be paid compensation of TOP$25,000 for loss of salary; TOP$20,000 for relocation expenses and TOP$120,000 for reputational harm.
