Te Kura O Te Au – E ara, E tu, E toa koe!

Te Kura O Te Au people’s movement spokesperson Jancey Trego told the Herald on Wednesday morning that the movement is getting ready for the upcoming election and is setting up office in town and printing policies and promotion material. She said the movement is printing polar shirts with the words “e ara, e tu, e toa koe” with the aim of reviving national pride and empowering Cook Islanders to stand and fight for their political freedom and survival of their nation. She said the current political parties making spectacles of themselves in their quest for power while the nation’s band aid economy is teetering on deficit in the face of global recession likely to be around for some time is no longer tenable.
Trego said for too long now our people have endured party politics founded on intimidation and fear with many of our public servants living in fear of losing their jobs and counting on political favors to hold on to them, and those out of political favor forced out of job, off island and stripped of their dignity. Asked to define “political freedom” she said freedom is just another word for nothing else to lose and when you have nothing to lose, you stand and fight for your survival.
She told the Herald Cook Islanders should never live in fear in the land of their forefathers and the time to fight the political bondage style of current parties and reinvent peaceful politics has arrived. She said the movement’s policies of outlawing personal attacks on candidates, public servants standing politically without fear of losing their jobs and limiting political interference by ministers in their ministries are a good start.
Trego also said for too long now our people have suffered the indignity of losing their home and land to banks when they lose their jobs, forcing them to leave our shores never to return because they can’t survive the cash economy forced on us by a brand of private enterprise that crashed along with global recession. She said it’s time to reinvent and develop an economy that suits our people instead of hanging on to an economy driven by investments that are no longer available, adding that the movement’s “sovereign partnership” driven economy is the only way out.
She told the Herald raising Cook Islanders wages to align with New Zealand rates of pay remains the number one driver for Te Kura O Te Au, as it is not right that we employ New Zealand’s currency and our interest rates are twice that of New Zealand and not affordable and our wages are half that of New Zealand and forcing our people to look for their survival in far away places. She said official statistics show at least 1,000 Cook Islanders leave each year and are being replaced by immigrant workers. As predicted by an ADB report published in 2008, Cook Islanders could soon be foreigners in their own country, and this was an indictment of the current political parties that had governed our people since 1965.
The spokeswoman for Te Kura O Te Au said E ara, E tu, E toa koe!

By Charles Pitt

Herald Issue 463 10 June
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