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Maohi President Oscar Temaru Calls Upon Youths to Continue Independence Struggle |
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Wednesday, 19 July 2006 |
Te Ao Maohi (French Polynesia) President Oscar Temaru for Pacific called youths to include the right of the peoples to self-determination in their meeting agenda and decries as foul the exclusion of the Tahitian language in the Legislative Assembly.
Speaking at the opening of the Pacific Youth Festival on (Tuesday July 18) President Oscar Temaru urged the Pacific youths representative to include in their agenda, as part of the discussions, an item on the right of the peoples to self-determination and more specifically the freedom of the Maohi (Tahitian) people.
Maybe one thing, the most important to us, the right of the Maohi people to self-determination, is not in your agenda. May I ask you to include this item in one of your workshops, President Temaru said in welcoming the delegation to Te Ao Maohi.
PCRCs Director Tupou Vere has welcomed the call by encouraging Pacific youths to take a vested interest in issues that matter to the region and address them.
No longer can Pacific peoples - let alone the youths - afford to be complacent. Now more than ever, Pacific minds - young and experienced alike - must unite to address the complex issues of self determination facing the region today, Ms Vere said.
To date the Pacific has the largest number of territories still being administered by colonial powers.
In supporting President Temarus statement, Ms Vere called on Pacific youths to take bold steps in life and not be intimidated by the might of the status quo.
If there is an injustice that needs redress then act on it. Do not be afraid nor shy away from your duty to assist those whom injustices have been inflicted, she said.
President Temaru also shared with Pacific youths a particularly disturbing issue in direct reference to a recent French State Council ruling saying that the only authorised working language within the French Pacific countrys Legislative Assembly (Parliament) was the French language and not the Tahitian indigenous language.
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