Bureaucracy seen as an obstacle by some reformers

Transcript

A prominent publisher in Tonga says Pacific governments find it difficult to implement reforms because of bureaucracy within the civil service.

Kalafi Moala, who has served as an adviser to the current government, says institutional bureaucracy and cultural traditions often mean change is not as fast as new governments may want.

Mr Moala told Koro Vaka'uta about the battle between reformists and bureaucracy.   

KALAFI MOALA: I believe that the existence of any bureaucracy is to really serve the vision for any organisation, the vision for a country for a government. And that vision is actually provided by the leadership. The leadership knows how to implement or bring about that vision. The right things to do, the kind of things that needs to be done in order to bring about that vision or make the vision a reality. Whereby in a bureaucracy what they are most concerned about is basically to keep the status quo to keep doing things the right way. They care much less about doing the right things as much as they care that whatever they are doing that it is done the right way. There is nothing wrong with it that its done legally that there are legislations that there are policies that they follow. The only problem with that is that a lot of the policies that they follow are established by previous governments. And those previous governments may not be favorable to reform.

KORO VAKAUTA: This is such a problem in the Pacific because there is kind of a institutional bureaucracy because of the cultural elements. Can you describe or that touch on that?

KM: You take in the case of Tonga for example, we do have a government in place that have only been in government for seven months. Part of the difficulty from the Prime Minister and some of the people that he has brought into leadership with his government is that they were in opposition for 25 or more years. So the only thing they have known is being in opposition so they have come in to run a government without much experience at all and of course you have a bureaucracy that sits there with all the years of experience and tradition the way things are being run and immediately there is a bit of discomfort. The other thing too is that like every bureaucracy I think in every nations, it is very much embedded in in the culture of that particular place. In the Pacific where we are very much stooped in culture, where we respect our, we live our culture out on a daily basis. And part of the problem with this culture is that you have got a whole leadership structure that is based on entitlements. Like in a situation Tonga we have got royal family, we have got nobility and the aristocracy and we are very much a stratified society. And you carry on those kind of elements in the culture into a bureaucracy or into a government and often you find some very difficult situations.

KV: Wholesale changes in the bureaucracy as well as the government, sweeping changes in the civil service is that something that maybe could happen in the Pacific or that is not the answer?

KM: If you talk to bureaucrats in the Pacific they tell you, people that work in government, that they are apolitical. Their commitment and their task is to serve whoever and whatever it is that is in government. I think it will be a difficult thing, definitely there are some changes in personnel that you have got to bring about, particularly at the CEO level or at the director level. What is needed is wholesale training that needs to have that bureaucracy or the civil service be retrained to be able to carry out the kind of task that will help fulfill the vision. Because often in the Pacific you have leaders that come in with all kinds of excitement and vision to reform and then they end up they themselves are being changed by the bureaucracy. The bureaucracy becomes the ones that is in control and then that is why so often in many island nations you have politicians that are coming into power and they preach and they herald a particular vision and after four years or five years of being in power, they end up doing the exact same things that previous governments have done.

KV: Is there hope in Tonga's case? Is there an alignment happening?

KM: There is an alignment happening, it is pretty slow of course but I think we've identified the main stumbling blocks to reform and the stumbling blocks is not outside it is actually within the spheres of power. But there is hope here, yes I think there is a slow movement, what I am afraid of is that by the time the term of this government finishes they are basically just learning how to drive the vehicle, how to drive the ship. This is the advantage that you see like the government that has been in Samoa whereby the leader or the party they have been in government now for some time and in many ways the longevity of the time that they have been in government allows them to bring about the changes.