Opinion
Reform the electoral rules first
Wednesday 27 January 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, It seems we are departing from the original ideas in the report of the 1998 Political Reform Commission. The political change now proposed is that there shall be no change in the number of Rarotonga seats but only in the number of seats in the outer islands. Justification for this appears to be […]
Speed limit changes draw criticism
Wednesday 27 January 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, I returned to Raro after a few years overseas and was pleasantly surprised to see the speed limit had been changed to 50kph, much more realistic than 40kph (which very few followed anyway). I was even more surprised when I got a speeding ticket doing 50kph in a 50 zone! Apparently you can […]
He's not the only expert
Wednesday 27 January 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, This cabinet seems to think that Tata Crocombe is the only expert on the island and he will deliver this country out of the mess that we are in. Personally, I don’t trust this man. I was told that Tata got the old Rarotongan Hotel from government for a very low price. All […]
Tata the 'new messiah'
Wednesday 27 January 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, Why on earth is this government allowing businessman Tata Crocombe to dictate and dominate more and more on the future affairs of this country? For some unknown reason it seems as if Tata is the country’s new mover and shaker. A man on a crusade. The person lurking behind the PM pulling all […]
Don't fear change – it's good for us
Wednesday 27 January 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, Tupui Ariki Henry, your letter to the editor made you sound like a scared little child. “If we make political changes like reform, mummy (NZ) and daddy (UK) might not like us.” The fact is the NZ government members have stated many times that they don’t think our current political system is beneficial […]
Where's my backup parachute?
Tuesday 26 January 2010 | Published in Smoke Signals
One person says he finds the current political situation of the five MPs (four of them Demos) and the others as funny. “The 10 Demos probably expected that when they jumped out of power, the other four to jump with them. That didn’t happen and where does that leave them now?” After reading the article […]
Lazy litterbugs spoil it
Tuesday 26 January 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, I am consistently amazed at the amount of rubbish thrown out on to the sides of the roads. I do a little bit of walking and have been taking a shopping bag and picking up the rubbish as I go. It does not take very long at all to fill one bag up […]
Reform changes more like 'communism'
Tuesday 26 January 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, National seats have been tried and they failed. At the general elections in March 1965 there were 22 candidates for the newly formed Cook Islands Party (CIP) and 22 individuals to be nationally elected. The result was 15 seats to the CIP Party and 7 National seats. A by-election followed in July, to […]
Reduce MPs to 15
Monday 25 January 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, The political reform proposal is headed in a positive direction but still fails to address the need to reduce the number of MPs which most people want. We had a population of 24,000 with 24 MPs, now (due in a large part to their mismanagement), we have a population of 14,000. We simply […]
Jobs for the boys?
Monday 25 January 2010 | Published in Smoke Signals
A signaller writes: “The DPM’s defence of the Seabed Minerals Commissioner’s qualifications required conveniently doesn’t extend to explaining why the applicant must have held appointed positions on local boards, held an elected office at some time (??), be a recognized leader (??), and have a background in commercial fishing or diving. Could there be a […]
What if it's wrong?
Monday 25 January 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, The comments by Iaveta Short in response to those of Guy Fawkes raises a couple of interesting points. First he says that government is a higher authority than parliament. Fair enough if that is his view. But I wonder, as a lawyer, what interpretation Mr Short would place on Article 13(1) of the […]
Time for a third party?
Monday 25 January 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, You can already see from their first reactions the gang of 19 are going to squabble, whine and protest against any change to their personal status through political reform and certain elements are still only interested in overturning the present cabinet. We can only wonder what they have to hide that pushes them […]
It's taken 4 years to 'embrace the future'
Monday 25 January 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, It’s about time Jim Marurai was actually leading the country. Good on you Mr Prime Minister, it should have happened a long time ago. Welcome into the new year also is Smiley Heather, Apii Piho, Wilkie Rasmussen and the new deputy prime minister Robert Wigmore. We can see all the changes in only […]
Political paranoia
Monday 25 January 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, I loved Kata’s cartoon Saturday of the public pulling a stubborn donkey-like parliament towards reform. It makes me wonder why politicians fear reform. One obvious reason is because several outer islanders fear losing their seats because several constituencies will be combined into one under any rational plan. It takes a true patriot to […]
Direct election of PM is dumb
Saturday 23 January 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, Like a great majority of the people of this country, I believe that some political reform is long overdue and good for the country. I suppose any changes to old structures and processes and how people do things so as to better reflect the rapidly changing times is healthy. However, I strongly oppose […]
It's treason!
Saturday 23 January 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, Despite all the advice from our constitutional lawyers, it still doesn’t take away the fact that what Marurai and his cronies have done in wrestling power from a democratically-elected government, is to commit a constitutional crisis and treason against Her Majesty the Queen’s government. The office of the Queen’s Representative has also been […]
Give the figures
Saturday 23 January 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, Over the past few months there has been much public debate and political controversy surrounding the Toagate scandal. And rightly so. However, seeing that the country’s national financial situation is looking very grim, the finger of blame should not just point at those who pushed for the nationalisation of the country’s fuel. Some […]
Beware of seabed opportunism
Saturday 23 January 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, It is a real worry to all of us that are thinking clearly that one of the criteria for the job of commissioner to the Seabed Mining Authority requires the person to have held “elected office”. That can only mean one thing – a former MP. The Kata cartoon of former MPs Sir […]
Mou Piri is nonpolitical
Friday 22 January 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, Mou Piri would like to clarify the position of our group. First we repeat we are nonpolitical. We especially did not form to support the aims of the Economic Task Force. We are a group of citizens concerned with our elected politicians continually refusing to act on what was clearly the people’s wishes […]
Tepuka road the same as in 1999
Friday 22 January 2010 | Published in Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor, I fully support the writer of ‘Open letter to the new minister’ dated January 18 regarding the state of Tepuka’s road. I was very saddened when I turned into Tepuka on the morning of Tuesday December 1 after just arriving from Auckland to see that the road situation had not improved a bit […]
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