So the question on everyone’s mind is whether we are making the right decision to open up our border and receive repatriation flights…..
My issue (and I guess MY ANSWER) is based on recent events that show our level of ‘security’ and following the ‘rule of law’)
1. One day, under Police custody, a man asked to go to a funeral (his father went to the station and also asked the Police officer in charge at the station if he could take his son with him to the funeral and he would return him immediately) the Police agreed and the son was released temporarily to attend the funeral in the Western side of Tongatapu. The father ended up taking his son to the airport (his son had a multiple-visitors visa to Australia) putting him on the flight that afternoon and that was the end of that story….. (don’t ask me where the son is now or what happened to the case – focus on the security measures please)
2. One day, the Prisoners Van dropped off a prisoner at the Safe House to visit the victim whom he had sexually assaulted and said “ko ‘ene fie vakai pe ki he ki’i ta’ahine mo kole fakamolemole…” After a complaint was lodged it was found that the prisoner had paid the prison officers (by giving them phone credit or something like that) to stop at the Safe House.
ok so maybe a light-hearted example……
3. One day, when the Mate Ma’a Tonga (MMT) Boys were all accommodated at Tanoa and security were employed to stop random visits to the hotel or the vicinity near the entrances, a group of young women passed over a packet of cigarettes to one of the securities who then allowed them to pass.
So, my question is: have we paid the border-security enough (including TANOA HOTEL security) and trained them sufficiently not to fall for these types of “KOLE” because as you know we are all great storytellers and if the person at border security isn’t trained well enough to have the skills to handle these ‘faka’ofa’ (sympathy) stories – we’re pretty much stuffed!
And what about the husband who will turn up at the hotel who hasn’t seen his wife in 3 months or vice versa?
So the question should rather be: have our security at the boarders and Tanoa Hotel been given incentives (wages️) and good training?
‘Ofa Guttenbeil Likiliki.