Mary Anne Thompson and Pacific Fallout

I have deliberately held off on commenting more on the Mary Anne Thompson saga. One because of the links she had with building Pacific public service professionalism and secondly because I know some of the personalities involved in what appears to be even bigger than the media reports of Taito's alleged immigration 'wheeling & dealing' for some in his community. Strangely, I remember when underground murmurings in the migrant community were popularly rumoured with Taito as the man who helped 'the illegal underdog". I often listened to friends and family refer to Taito as a "good man" to fear stricken over-staying illegal residents. Now as Taito heads off to face the allegations against him in court, he is now one who many believe ought to be shunned. Human compassion can be so expensive. In his case the issues are far more complex.
Similar issues occur again in the Mary Anne Thompson affair. Yes her dishonesty around the non existence of a PHD qualification she claimed as an achievement, deserves the current attention she is getting - but the real losers here are the Pacific community. Once again Pacific people are portrayed as incapable of dealing with great responsibility because of all sorts of pressures - not only internally within the public service but also from friends and family who may perceive some Pacific high risers as all powerful. Unless we are trained to focus on codes of conduct and ethics above the strong arm of our personal cultural environments we will succumb to pressure and take the broad hopes of our communities down with us. That to me is the fallout upon Pacific communities when Pacific leaders do not abide by the rules.
Technorati Profile

CONGRATULATIONS - JOSEPHINE BARTLEY

Labour has another Pacific candidate added to their lineup and standing in Tamaki. Anyone who has met Josephine knows that she is hard working, committed and really cares about improving the negative statistics for the Pacific community. While I am surprised that Josephine's calling is in this direction, she nonetheless deserves to be elected. And when that happens I will miss her dedicated emails (over the last five years) from the PACIFICA news desk advising all active and inactive members of important events in the Pacific community. All the best to Josephine Bartley as she steps out into campaigning territory for the 2008 election.

CONGRATULATIONS - MAGILA ANNANDALE

Good news- Magila Annandale is confirmed as the new Director of Communications and Relationships at the Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs (MPIA). A changing of the guard at the helm appears to have resulted in new blood being appointed to a number of positions at the MPIA. Magila has a fine track record in delivering a number of government related projects. I remember her well in my university days at Victoria as one who was always meticulously groomed and who was never short on delivering her opinions. Congratulations to Magila and to MPIA for appointing a Pacific 'fire starter'.

Pacific Family Obligations & Public Service Rules of Conduct

MP Philip Field faces trial on counts of bribery and corruption and all the while another prominent public servant Dr Thompson along with others in the Immigration Service are facing an investigation over their roles in the processing of residency applications of some of Dr Thompson's family members. Sadly I think MP Philip Field's days are numbered - he was left out in the cold a long time ago and his recovery rate before the 2008 election will be zilch. But it does little better for the members of the Immigration Service who must now answer questions about why some applications that were processed were given priority over others. Mr Field's court room drama's will now overshadow any other dodgy questions that might embarrass the Service.

I have been wondering why Pacific people continually face problems with divided loyalty issues to family demands / cultural obligations and public service codes of conduct. But a days thinking has brought me to the realisation that these issues plague us all. I have heard of old school boy associations giving special treatment to children of associates and so on, we do it all the time, we try to influence others to give us special treatment. The difference however is that when in public service - it probably is better to tell all concerned of your connections and leave it at that. Human nature is a funny thing. Without being asked to do so, we usually give special priority to those who may pull at our heart strings, because of some narrow connection or because a person reminds one of another close link. In Dr Thompson's case she ought to have publicly revealed her special relationship to the applicants and left it to others in the Department to deal with it through the normal channels.

As more Pacific people move into the upper echelons of public service - there is the realisation that codes of conduct are culturally neutral because the obligation of Pacific public servants is first and foremost to the state and the public it serves.

1st Maori PHD in Art History Reinstated

At a time when the history and heritage of Aotearoa is being preserved, the reinstatement of New Zealand's first Maori PHD graduate in Art History at the University of Auckland is of course a triumph in that field of scholarship but also highlights unfair dealings led to his redundancy. The NZ Herald reports on Dr Rangihiroa Panoho.