TONGA: Aid donors on a spending spree at Forum
Updated
A number of the more prominent regional organistions are the recipients of large sums of money from a number of the large donor bodies attending the post forum dialogue in Tonga.
Presenter: Campbell Cooney
Speakers: Akilisi Pohiva, Tongan pro-democracy leader
COONEY: Well it was very, very interesting last night Geraldine, the European Union announced and signed a deal where they're going to provide roundabout 400 million dollars US to 13 member nations, Australia, New Zealand and Fiji are missing out, and this money will over five years will be going to governance projects and also improving regional integration, money that's going to be very, very welcome. Now it's money then, it's just a little bit soft on detail on exactly what they mean by both projects. When they say governance, it's a very, very broad term, so is regional integration as well. So yeah the money is there, exactly what those projects will be not much detail on that as yet. As well as that around about 30, by my calculations, 34 million dollars US to Papua New Guinea, this is to help provide water supplies in regional area, and these are going to go to places where in towns and small villages around Papua New Guinea which have no water supply, and has bad sanitation problems, and they're hopefully going to go and help resolve those things as well. Very interesting thing that came out of that was that the EU's Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Development, Louis Michel, who was over here to sign these deals said that there should be a change in focus in how aid is handed out in the Pacific, and they should be relying and trusting more on the aid recipient nations than as we know Australia and New Zealand do provide a lot of the aid, the majority of the aid in the Pacific, but it's very much tied to their people being part of the projects and watching how they're run and ensuring that money isn't wasted. Mr Michel seems to be indicating that we should be providing the money to them and let them show that they can handle it themselves and with that as well be prepared for mistakes and problems to be made and problems to arise.
COUTTS: There's some like-minded approaches to aid I think going on at this meeting, and much of what you said about the EU has also been set down in the joint Taiwan forum dialogue, and money is going to agencies rather than anywhere else?
COONEY: Very smart move I think on behalf of Taiwan because as we know there is a major battle going on in the Pacific region. Cheque book diplomacy I think is a term that is often used here between Taiwan, the Republic of China, and the other China of course, mainland China, the People's Republic of China, and often if one gives money to a different country or to a different project the other will criticise and there will be a war of words and the other one will offer more money than the other. But then they'll say that they're going to give a certain amount of money to agencies, and that money will be available to manage projects in all member nations, not just one who are tied to Taiwan or tied to mainland China. I think it's a very, very smart move, and we're talking a fairly significant amount of money for these projects as well. They of course had their dialogue this afternoon and they've only just announced the funding that we're talking about, so I think a very smart move on their part.
COUTTS: Now we've been hearing all week how tight security is which has been making it difficult for the international media and local media to get access to the leaders to get information. It seems to me the winners in all of this are the pro-democracy activists who when journalists can't get what they want from the leaders have turned their attention to this protest movement, including yourself Campbell?
COONEY: Well most certainly, it's been very, very hard this week Geraldine to cover this leader's meeting, the access has been prohibitive, security has been paranoid, it's the only way I can think of describing it, and that has meant we've started looking around for other stories. The other big one when you come to Tonga of course is the pro-democracy movement. Now the pro-democracy activists weren't allowed into the centre of town, the security restrictions and emergency law restricted them from coming anywhere near the centre of town, or anywhere near where the leaders meeting venues were. So about two kilometres from the centre of Nuku'alofa they have had a protest meeting every day this week, and it's been quite effective. It's on the main road to the airport, it's pretty hard to miss and they've been getting a fair bit of support. So a little bit earlier today I went out and had a talk to the chairman of the pro-democracy movement, Akilisi Pohiva.
POHIVA: We have been pushed out of the restricted areas, because we plan to have our meeting in town, but they extended the restricted areas so that we had no other place to go to, but we came eventually to this venue. But I think this is the most appropriate convenient place for us to setup our tent, and for us to have our meeting. All the leaders of the forum came past here, even His Majesty himself he came here so many times and went back to his palace, and he was able to look at the banners and I think he's now having the messages that we all put up in our banners.
COONEY: He's a bit hard to avoid I'm sure?
POHIVA: He's very hard to avoid.
COONEY: Now I've been here a couple of times, there's been at least a minimum of 100 people, sometimes a few more on my trips here. How many people have you had joining you for the rally over the week?
POHIVA: Well ranging from 150 to 200, but as I said earlier in the past we could communicate the people, our messages could go into every household and all the people have turned up, but at this point in time we do not have access to radio and we always find it difficult to communicate with the people. But at the same time I think the most important thing is our banner. It is a demonstration but it is a peaceful demonstration.
COONEY: Do you think the fact that the forum proved very, very hard for journalists to cover, very restrictive in their movements and how much they could do meant that this became something that became more popular for them, it became easier for them to cover this than actually to cover the forum meeting?
POHIVA: Well I think it is the fault of government. I don't know the reason why the government does not allow real people to come close to them and in the view, also the things you want the media with when you go to a forum meeting in the past. But we have a very different situation here in Tonga. But we are fortunate because we are here and you have easy access to our meeting and all the banners. I think that is one good thing about our meeting today.
COONEY: Akilisi Pohiva thank you for your time.
POHIVA: Thank you very much.
COONEY: Well that was Akilisi Pohiva, the chairman of the pro-democracy movement, as we were saying earlier Geraldine probably one of the winners out of this leader's meeting because it was hard to talk to anybody else, you go to the people who you can get to and the pro-democracy activists were certainly one of them.
COUTTS: Well thank you very much Campbell Cooney, Pacific correspondent for speaking with Pacific Beat today, and until next time …
COONEY: My pleasure Geraldine, see you later.
