AUCKLAND (AUT University / Pacific Media Watch): A controversial book revealing a suppressed report into the reconstruction of the Nuku'alofa central business district in Tonga following the 2006 riots has been launched at AUT University.
The author, Dr Teena Brown Pulu, is a lecturer at AUT and launched the book, Shoot the Messenger , at the Manukau Campus.
Dr Brown Pulu was authorised to write a report by the Tongan Prime Minister, Lord Tui’vakano, on this reconstruction project in April 2011. But its release was later blocked with the report considered “inadequate and unreliable”.
However, Dr Brown Pulu says she does not agree. She believes the report’s findings not being made public were politically motivated.
“There was a set of assumptions made by the Prime Minister’s advisers that the Nuku’alofa reconstruction project had missing funds and overpriced and substandard buildings.
"After I had completed the research, the evidence gathered was to the contrary. The allegations made by government against the former administration and the construction companies working on the project were simply that - unsubstantiated allegations.”
The riots
Arson during the November 16, 2006, riots in Nuku'alofa, the central business district and capital of Tonga destroyed about 80 percent of Tonga’s CBD. A year later the Tongan government signed a multimillion pa'anga loan from China and reconstruction began.
Dr Brown Pulu’s book publishes the actual report she wrote and sets the research in the political context of Tonga’s democratic reform. It analyses why the Prime Minister's Office felt it should be hidden from the public.
Available through Dr Brown Pulu for $30 NZD at Te Ara Poutama / Faculty of Maori Development, AUT City Campus, Level 3 Reception, WB Building, Wellesley Street, Auckland.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 New Zealand Licence.
Pacific Media Watch
