Dear Editor, I am deeply moved by a letter to the editor and an opinion column by two brothers, Te Tuhi Kelly in the CI News on 9 September and Steve Boggs in the Cook Islands Herald on 4 September.

Te Tuhi highlighted the curse and damage caused by open shameless vote buying practices of modern day Cook Islands election malpractices. The method is firm, solid, resolute and unshakeable. Bribery at election time is so frequent it seems to be the rule rather than the exception. Lavish barbecues, booze parties, umukai, free and available kaiou (charge down purchases) by candidates who own businesses, job offers by government MPs, free funded travels overseas, funeral charter flights to the outer islands and so on. Dependency on government favours reduce initiatives for hard work, leading to the decline of productivity and the hardworking young people not favoured by government leaving for overseas, leading to the growing decline in our population.

It is no longer an advantage for those with high qualifications and good ethical standards and respectability to be elected to Parliament. It is quite easy for illiterate uneducated candidates with criminal convictions who mow your lawns and cut down your trees to be preferred. In a time where we have about 50 qualified men and women lawyers in the country and many others with university degrees, there seems to be no invitations for them from government and other political parties for brain injections into their parties. The answer is quite simple, no leader with limited brain power wants to be outsmarted and overwhelmed by someone smarter.

Steve Boggs highlighted the plague of nepotism, friends, mates, flatterers and crawlers dominating the government of the day. The deterioration and free fall continues … Economic setbacks and population decline alarm bells are getting louder and louder.

I risk my professional position by saying that we need our High Court to pay closer attention to election petitions alleging bribery, corruption and fraud during general elections. I recall handling nine electoral petition cases during a 12-year period, when not a single case was upheld, despite overwhelming evidence. The same Judge did the same thing in Rakahanga, but Tina Browne appealed and won. I cannot emphasise enough about the critical role our High Court will play in future elections, to wipe out corrupt practices.

As Steve Bogg suggests, our country cannot be left in the hands of those who live to enjoy and plunder our resources to total destruction. Those in power live in a comfort zone from one good time to the next. No pause, no reservation, no thought and no fear about what happens when the good times end…We need to think about the next 50 to 100 years ahead. Can we guarantee that the indigenous Cook Islands Maori people will still be around to rule, govern and protect our people?

With a depleted population of Cook Islands Maori people, can we protect and defend ourselves against being overwhelmed and ruled by another race? No, I am not being racial! It is not a racial slur … it is a realistic slap in the face for those of us to wake up and look at what is happening around us.

May I ask those in power to study the rise and fall of the Roman Empire some 1000 years ago. The Romans partied and participated in orgies while Rome burnt!

Our version is the constant travel by the PM and his Ministers for the weakest excuse possible, the parties and celebrations that go on, while we lose our young people to Aotearoa and Australia.

Remember when the future generation ask, what happened? Why did our foreparents allow our beautiful paradise to fall in the wrong hands? Why are strangers occupying our lands, government offices, Parliament, churches, schools, new culture, new language and the unthinkable continues…

Now a suggested solution and cure. Remember the saying … Prevention is better than cure! Create a Futures Institution. Appoint experienced people with no further interest in politics or careers. In other words, proven successful people who has been there and done it! Patriotic people who love their people and country above all else. 

E ara! E ara! Kia kite koe I nga ina potea! Wake up! Wake up! To see the light of day.  Amen.

Yours sincerely,

Norman George  

Former MP and lawyer