Governor Lemanu meets with Polynesian Leaders in Rarotonga

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Governor Lemanu Peleti Mauga is today attending the meeting of the Polynesian Leaders Group in the Cook islands, before the Pacific  Island Forum conference opens this evening.

He was one of the early arrivals in Rarotonga and has met individuals with connections to American Samoa living in the Cooks.

For example, a granddaughter of the late Falema’o Pili, former ASG Treasurer, as well as a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints couple who served the church in American Samoa and also contributed to the operations of the LBJ Hospital.

The Governor was among Pacific Island leaders who attended a church service yesterday at the oldest church in Rarotonga, Avarua Cook Island’s Christian Church or CICC.

Radio New Zealand quotes Forum chair and Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown saying  this year’s PIF meeting will be led by Pacific leaders, not superpowers like the United States and its allies like the United Kingdom, and China swooping in on the action.

In previous years, Brown said, all the political oxygen had been sucked out by the US, noting former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to the last meeting in Cook Islands in 2012.

“When Hillary [Clinton] turned up the whole focus, all of the oxygen that we had generated as a Pacific region was sucked up by the USA,” he said.

This year, it is another full agenda climate change, economic recovery, regional security and fisheries are some of the big ticket items for island leaders.

The theme of this years’ Forum is, ‘Our voices, our choices, our Pacific way.’

While tit for tats play out in the media and the focus zooms in on the region, “what they call geopolitical interests in our region and the perceived influence of the US to combat the influence of China,” the world missed the Pacific’s voice, Brown said.

“They’re not hearing what Pacific voices are saying,” he said.

“We are here trying to look at opportunities to lift the prosperity levels of our people to address serious concerns around financing to improve infrastructure around investment to provide opportunities for our people to participate in a growing economy.”

He said, “The assumption that maybe Pacific Island countries don’t know what they are doing is starting to sound very insulting and getting to the stage of being offensive in some cases.”

“So, when we talk about this theme of ours for this year, it is a very, very pertinent theme.

“It’s climate security. It is economic security. It is the security of our people who live under the threat of climate change.”

Photos: Lisa Leilani Williams/PIF