Pacific Islands Development Program, East-West Center With Support From Center for Pacific Islands Studies, University of Hawai‘i
Commentary
By Pesi Fonua
NUKU‘ALOFA, Tonga (Matangi Tonga, Oct. 14, 2013) – Tonga needs leadership to develop its economy - leadership with a vision to free itself from relying on aid donors to prop-up its struggling economy.
Tonga's efforts to merge its economy with the outside world entered a new phase in 2010 when it embarked on a political reform to make its system more democratic and introduced a new system of government.
The rush to change the political system and to introduce a new system of government in 2010 was an effort to weather the waves of globalization – bringing capitalism, privatization, digital technology and the free flow of information, western democratization, Free Trade, and the harmonization of custom tariffs to Tonga – the rapid changes affecting our lives and challenging our way of looking at...
