Dear Editor, I must admit that I think this is a worthy gong for those who actually deserve it.

The ones who don’t deserve it are politicians, heads of ministries, businesspeople, and church leaders. After all, apart from business nominations and community nominations (only a few) the rest are paid from the public purse or their congregations to actually carry out the roles that they are being congratulated for no more no less.

Not only that, but there should also be a “Cook Islands Organisation of the Year”, not Cook Islander of the             Year, as without the resources, support and backing of their various teams these nominees would not be in the position that they are.

I wonder who it was that wrote their bios because they are self-praising themselves up to the hilt very much like a bunch of narcissists. (Editor: Bios were based on the nominations received). I had to look twice when I saw who had been nominated and then read what they said about themselves. What comes to mind is not far from an apparent history of bribery, audited incompetence, seeming corruption, unsportsmanlike behaviour, allegations of treating, propped up by inwards focusing self-praise and self-adulation and seemingly anti-competitiveness and allegations of rorting the government wage subsidy, whilst masquerading as paragons of the community.

Surely, as a nation we can do better than what is on offer. There are many in our villages and communities who carry out volunteer work for their fellow humankind. Toiling away with little or no recognition, labouring through arduous graft without glamour, asking for nothing in return but doing their very best to help in their communities. Instead, what do we get? A bunch of nominees (some not all) who are patting themselves on the back by taking one step forward and if you knew what their proper backgrounds and history in our communities, in our businesses and in the public service, you would see that they are actually taking two steps back and are not deserving of such an accolade or even being nominated or recognised for one. They either had themselves nominated, were persuaded to be nominated thus pandering to their sense of self-importance or were nominated by mistake, I prefer the last one because only right minded, morally honest, ethical people would have nominated some of these nominees, scraping the barrel comes to mind. I would venture to say that only three or four of the nominees would meet the criteria for recognition let alone nomination.

Te Tuhi Kelly, Leader, Progressive Party

Editor – Cook Islander of the Year award recognises people for exemplary service, commitment and contribution to community, and nation building. The award (nomination) was open to anyone in our community, from volunteers to politicians, and anyone in between. The Cook Islands News received 14 nominations – 12 Cook Islanders accepted the nominations for the award.