East West Center Tongan academic no longer honest broker

The role of Tongan academic, Dr. Sitiveni Halapua of the Pacific Islands Development Program, PIDP, at the East West Center, Hawaii, as an honest broker of the Talanoa process between the various groups
in Tonga, is in serious jeopardy after Halapua's recent grief laden tirade against the Prime Minister of Tonga, the Hon. Dr. Feleti Sevele.

After months of carefully cultivating an image of the unbiased, honest go-between in search of  a “balancing of the wills” between the different groups in Tonga's emerging political framework, Dr. Halapua has relinquished any pretense to the position of the fair observer, by blaming the Prime Minister of Tonga for crimes committed by the supporters of the Prime Minister’s critics. 

As chairperson of the National Committee for Political reform, NCPR, the continued participation of Dr. Halapua in the process is now in serious doubt, after he took sides and condemned the Prime Minister for daring to suggest a variation on the NCPR's model for political reform.

Dr. Halapua is a regional expert on conflict and political change resolution, but his latest unjustified outburst in Tonga raises grave concerns on the suitability of his temperament to solving the more serious problems of the Pacific.