It’s time to get serious and selective
Calling Parliament at the risk of a ‘vote of no confidence’ may well need to happen. Whether it does or not, it will most certainly help the nation decide who out of the 24 existing members of parliament are worthy of being re-voted.

As we get closer to a general election be it in July or September 2010, voters will begin to start thinking and acting upon the type of person they would like to see stand in their constituency. Recent media releases and general community feeling, strongly suggests that Cook Islanders are ready for a change and ready to look at an individual’s capabilities to bring about results, rather than political party affiliation.
If we reflect upon the existing 24 elected members of parliament and what they have done, for their constituencies as per their party manifesto’s, since being elected, we will see that for majority of the elected members of parliament, they have achieved very little to nothing. So should we be considering them for re-election?
As the audit office continues to expose more and more frequently ill informed decisions supported and made by certain members of parliament, the people of the Cook Islands may well make a more concerted effort, this general election, to not re-elect some of them back into government and have them replaced. The demand now placed on a Cook Islands Politician may well include that they not only be able to translate the needs of the people into lived realities but as a pre-requisite have a good understanding of how the present political system works, how to change it and ensure results are produced that keep our cultural uniqueness intact and preserved.
It is one thing to be in power but the ‘use of such power’ has not produced results that have brought about shared prosperity to the people of the Cook Islands, whilst maintaining our cultural uniqueness and environment. Instead such power has been unwisely used and in many instances encouraged many more Cook Islanders to depart; only to be replaced by non Cook Islanders.
As our Cook Islands people continue to leave our homeland, the need for Government, the House of Ariki, Koutu Nui and the Religious Advisory Council, to collaborate and make better informed decisions with urgency is required. The negative impact of departing Cook Islanders only accelerates further erosion of our Cook Islands’ identity and tourist image. We only need to look across the Pacific Ocean to see what has happened to Tonga, Samoa, Tahiti, and Hawaii.
If each of these key forms of leadership carried out their roles and responsibilities with dual excellence (meaning taking the best from Maori and Papa’a value systems for the benefit of all people residing in the Cook Islands) we would perhaps not be confronted with depopulation, increase in foreign workers, breakdown of cultural customs and traditional leadership structures, high failure rates of aid funded projects and the list goes on.
Preserving the identity of the Cook Islands balanced with the needs of our economy and environment has to be made a compulsory goal for future Cook Islands politicians. To not do so is to fast-track the Cook Islands into a future that continues to allow economic development to succeed at a price tag that is detrimental to our social and ecological environments. This can be seen by the various economic development projects that have failed us and left the people of Mangaia with pine trees that leave very little for human consumption and agricultural purposes, new water pipes laid around Rarotonga that have little to no water running through them and a Rarotonga landfill flawed in design that continues to bring toxic wastes via our water and air ways. It is these types of economic development decisions that successive politicians and administrators have produced. It is time for change. Time for a sense of refreshing the way politics is to operate in the Cook Islands.
The next couple of weeks or months will reveal to us just what political surprises are to be unleashed whether it be the Toagate, Aitutaki and Penrhyn recovery plan or simply who will be ‘Prime Minister’ and who will be in ‘Cabinet’.

Headlines : Times 290 02 March 2009
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