Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country – Te Kura O Te Au

Media Spokesperson for Te Kura O Te Au Steering Committee, Jancy Trego told the Times on Friday morning the movement will announce Electorate Representatives for Rarotonga next week. She said they will hold policy details and maintain a register of members, so those who wish to join the movement can register as members and subscription is one dollar.
She said representatives will also hold application forms for those who wish to stand as candidates at the upcoming election and aspiring candidates will need ten paid up members to nominate them, adding that applications for candidacy will cost ten dollars.
She said a point of difference between the movement and the other parties is the electorates will elect their candidates without interference from the Steering Committee, so as to avoid the public spectacle of infighting and power mongering of other parties that is now damaging politics in our country. She said the movement recognizes that the electorate knows best who should represent them.
She said the movement expect its candidates to know they stand to serve their people and not dominate them as practiced by some current members of parliament, and they are not to engage in character assassination and make spectacles of themselves like some politicians are currently doing, as such practices not only shame them it shames their families and country. Mrs Trego said a great president of the US once said “ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country”, adding that the movement expects that from its candidates!
Candidate selection will take place after the other parties finish their selection process, as the movement does not want to add to the spectacle of the other parties selection process, adding that many fellow Cook Islanders have already expressed willingness to stand and fight for the policies of Te Kura O Te Au, not only on Rarotonga but also the outer islands.
She said the chosen candidates will elect the Party Leader and members will elect the Central Committee on candidate election being completed. She confirmed the present Steering Committee, an advisory group of concerned Cook Islanders will be dissolved and replaced by the Central Committee when elected.
She said the movement’s strategy has always been to wait and see how other parties plan to arrest the depopulation that threatens to collapse the nation’s economy and make Cook Islanders minority in their own country and would only enter politics if other parties fail to raise confidence they can rescue the economy and people. She said fair to say the current parties are preoccupied in power struggles of their own and positioning themselves to political advantage and have forgotten the people and little wonder more independents are standing.
She said unlike other parties who are bound by policies that have driven the Cook Islands economy to the wall and Cook Islanders offshore, stripped of their dignity because they can’t survive the economy of their country and have lost their job, their land and their home to banks and foreigners, Kura O Te Au is a movement willing to reinvent the economy like governments around the world are doing to save their economy and people. She said its time Cook Islanders stand and fight for their economic survival and survival of their nation, and effect reform that Cook Islanders have wanted and denied. Mrs Trego invited independents to join Te Kura O Te Au in the fight for survival.

Headlines : Times 290 02 March 2009
- Lucky $1,000 winner
- Century old palm trees and the French connection
- Koutu Nui takes part in Raui meeting in Moorea
- WOM Award Dinner for Ake Hosea-Winterflood
- Island of Atiu to host Koutu Nui AGM in June 2009