Dear Editor, I too have been dismayed and concerned about Thomas Wynne’s scurrilous article “The last of the pooh-bahs” in the Cook Islands News (Saturday, November 18) attacking Sir Gavin Donne and others of the Albert Henry saga.

What concerned me most is that he was employed by contract with Government no doubt to promote Government. Instead, he has become a self-appointed critique of the past which he demonstrated he has no intelligent knowledge of. 

In his article he attacked our Courts, the former Chief Justice Sir Gaven Donne and Sir Tom Davies and others. The Courts and its Judges are important institutions of Government and a necessary part of a civilised country and any attempt to denigrate or attack it must be supported by facts – in this case not only did he not produce any facts to support his attack but showed an arrogant disregard of the facts in an endeavour to rewrite our history. So where is the Minister of Justice and the Secretary of Justice? Are you not going to defend your courts and Judges and do you know what happens when people disregard these important institutions of Government? Yes, that is what Idi Armin did in Africa – and anarchy followed. 

Let us be clear with some facts:

1. Albert Henry when he was Premier of Government devised a plan to take over Government unlawfully. Most of his Cabinet colleagues protested and resigned – Dr Joe Williams, William Estall, Mann Browne, Papa Raui Pokoati and others.

• By this time many of our good people has already left the country and indeed some of them were hounded out of the country by Albert’s Government. I defended many of these people who were unjustifiably sacked by Government and when they won their cases in court, they all left for NZ. 

• Because of mounting opposition to his Government, Albert decided to call a snap election. In the process he stole over $350,000 of Government monies to charter Ansett Airlines to fly in voters from New Zealand to ensure his victory at the election which he has called. 

• He won the elections but most if not all fly in votes were disallowed because they were all bribed – free flight to Rarotonga and return plus a big feast at the airport.  

• Albert pleaded guilty at the Court hearing for bribery and a host of other charges. He was sentenced by Mr Justice Beattie, not by Sir Gaven Donne.

• Sir Gaven Donne was awarded a Knighthood (KBE) which was normal as the first Queen’s Representative for the Cook Islands – his KBE was initiated by New Zealand which still had strong influence in the running of our government. Prior to that the New Zealand Representative was the Head of State for the Cook Islands and constitutionally the New Zealand Governor General was still the legal head of state for the Cook Islands. It was after we the Democratic Government under Dr Tom Davis brought in a wholesale review and changes to our constitution that we arranged to have our own separate Head of State and no longer under the New Zealand Representative as he was known at the time. We renamed the new Head of State as the Queen’s Representative as we could not use the term Governor General because constitutionally we were still part of the Realm of New Zealand and New Zealand cannot have two Governor Generals. That is why since then we always had the Queen’s Representative.

• Albert Henry pleaded guilty to all the charges laid against him when all the facts were before the courts – we saw how he stole around $350,000 of Government monies and then tried to launder it (in cover up) by banking it in three different bank accounts before paying it to Ansett Airlines to fly in his voters from Auckland.  

• Albert was not sentenced by Sir Gaven Donne – he was sentenced by Mr Justice Beattie, a High Court Judge from Auckland.

Many of us who lived through this awful and horrible period of the life of our nation do not want to go back to it – like a dog eating its own vomit. If Government agrees to pardon him – why not – the damage is done and Papa Arapati paid the price for his misdemeanours. Many of our people left the country for New Zealand during that time. For many of us who lived through that hellish period of our nations life we would prefer to move on – but we need also to keep an eye that present and future governments do not embark in this type of evil because there may not be any citizens – lawyers – who are prepared to stand up and challenge the evil and stop the rot. Especially when you have Johnny-come-latelies like Thomas Wynne who needs to learn some history first before pontificating without knowledge.

Iaveta Short