Comments

Caroline you have a very valid question. one that needs to be answered. not by bureaucrats or so called stats. People who are in the areas that pick up the pieces of the seasonal workers, they know. The workers have been lied to, work in slave like conditions, are told who they can talk to, where than go, local people aren't allowed to enter living places. one set of bed linen for their stay. Henry Sherrell " here is the world bank paper" yes tell us the total amount in fees they the seasonal workers are charged to send money back to their country? let us remember the facts Quote the seasonal worker will be treated & have all the same privileges as the Australian worker. the first untruth & the list will be endless. Truth the seasonal worker would not have one idea of the privileges the Australian workers have. Truth are these workers not FIFO workers. Truth are majority of workers on piece work rates, Yes, does workers understand piece work to casual rates of pay, to permanent rates of pay, does the worker know that a work agreement needs to be signed & approved each time they do different work on a farm, No.

The endless killing of innocent people accused of Sanguma need to be stopped. And every attempt must be made by concerned authorities Government, including Churches to eradicate this evil. Having said that I would like to offer the following thought for discussion. The practice of witchcraft and sorcery is deeply rooted in the belief systems of the people of Papua New Guinea. The expression of this belief is found in different types of practices across Papua New Guinea. The coastal practices greatly differ from the highlands which I would term as 'direct killing' whereas in the coast it could be termed as 'remote killing'. In many coastal areas people differentiate between Sanguma and Sorcery. Sanguma killing is considered as killing by human persons who may use supernatural powers. Sorcery killing is considered as death that has been brought about by supernatural powers of magic or sorcery. I suggest that this difference need to be understood in order to address the issue of what is now considered as Sanguma and Witchcraft practices in the Highlands.

This is indeed an interesting way forward. Id like to suggest Fr.Koru's expertise on spirituality from Kiribati. He got his phD in Rome and was once a dean for Pacific Regional Seminary in Fiji.

Thanks for the analysis. Interesting that it happened this way. It seems some recovery is underway now though and hopefully the government and more importantly the civil service that survives political change have taken on lessons from the past. To keep up to date I usually use the business council's website as well as www.resources.mn for specific mining in Mongolia news due the their quick coverage of legal and regulatory environment.

Thank you for your comments Philip, Thecla, John, Elizabeth and James. My apologies for the late response.

I salute your article Areti it depics a true picture of what has happened in our Paradise. Malo Lahi!

Thank you Tess. Very good points. We haven't met but I am one of Margaret Jolly's PhD stduents at ANU. Warm regards

Malo 'aupito Kalafi. I appreciate your comment very much. I know of your work and it is an honour to receive your feedback.

Thank you Areti for a great report. I live in Tonga and work as a journalist. Your report is probably the best I’ve read of any of the reports coming in from foreign journalists or scholars. You stated what happened without the biases often expressed in reports of people that don’t really know the reality of what’s happening here. Democracy has been put to the test in our country over the past 7 years, and its been proven wanting. Our democracy is neither complete or incomplete for that matter. Our problem here is not democracy, it is poor leadership. Democracy, as we are finding out, can only be driven effectively by good leadership. Good governance, so-called, can only work with good leadership. Pohiva failed in leadership, and that’s why democracy did not work over the past 3 years. The strength of our democracy is that there is a means by which we can disentangle a crisis by “pressing the restart button.” That’s what the king did. And it was Constitutional. Pretty much similar to what the Governor General did to the Whitlam Government in ’75 (?).

Thanks Areti for this summary of recent events in Tongan politics. They are illustrative of a structural issue about the incomplete form of democracy that operates in Tonga. The late Guy Powles wrote on this several times and presaged crises of this sort. I agree that overall the actions of the king have been accepted by the populace. Part of that seems to be about general discontent with Pohiva as PM but some of it reflects an ongoing acceptance of the role of the king to 'protect' the people (in this case from a parliament they elected themselves). Interestingly in Tonga we have not seen much use of the courts either to address the alleged abuses of the constitution/rule of law in the part of the PM or to challenge the decision to dissolve the parliament

Hi Erin, Thanks for your comment. Sorry for my slow reply; I missed it when it was posted. I agree with your views insomuch as that I do not believe that public opinion is the sole determinant of government positions on aid. However, there is reasonable evidence that public opinion plays some role in shaping some aspects of aid policy, alongside other factors. For this reason it shouldn't be ignored. By the same token, I agree with you that, public opinion it shouldn't be a sole focus of efforts for change. I also agree there's much more to be learnt. I've got a paper I want to write in which I work out a simple model of all this. Once I get time... One point of disagreement, I don't think there's anything to be gained from 'limiting dissent'. Dissent is an integral component of democracy. Thanks again for your comment. Terence

Yes, super interesting! Consensus certainly seems to be the goal. But i'm not sure agreement is always a good thing; particularly if it undermines the Forum as a site of ambitious collective diplomacy on climate change. James Batley puts it well <a href="https://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australianoutlook/prime-ministers-pacific-islands-forum/" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow">here</a>: "Given current policy settings it’s inevitable that there will be some daylight between the positions of Australia and New Zealand on the one hand and that of the island countries on the other. The forum has regularly been accused of producing lowest common denominator outcomes on the question of climate change and of failing to lead on the issue internationally."