Let's take a short break from our holiday celebrations to take a look at how our government institutions are doing and if there is anything that they should improve upon.

THE CABINET SEEMS TO BE ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL

Farengeto's resignation as Minister of Media marks the first clear casualty in a Cabinet that has failed to deliver the clear change that the region needs. It's true enough that some things have been done, but overall the Cabinet has not been as active as it should've been, and ministers have not held themselves properly accountable to voters. Where are the weekly progress updates promised? Or the regular news publications? Or the mission reports that were so welcome last term? While ministers have done some amount of works, it's far from the transformational leadership that is sorely needed, particularly given the fact that we have three new ministries that are setting precedents on a daily basis. Is the precedent that we want to set the fact that the MoRA split was for naught? That would be a regrettable legacy indeed.

IT'S TIME FOR THE COURT TO TRAIN TALENT

Recently Justice Nat announced their intent to resign by the end of January 2021, prompting Prime Minister Penguin to announce the opening of applications for Associate Justice. There are bound to be applicants, but one would be remiss to ignore the fact that the Court has failed to adopt a policy of actively training judicial talent, instead leaving individual legislators to get involved in the judicial process. This has worked decently so far, but there is no guarantee of that. Chief Justice Kringle should take the new year as an opportunity to reach out to legislators, hire clerks, perhaps even run mock cases, all in the interest of ensuring that there are always people who have an interest in judicial matters and who have the skills and experience to toss their hat in the ring, either as regular contributors in cases or as future Associate Justices.

HYACINTH IS BUILDING A POSITIVE LEGACY AS CHAIR

If there is one thing for which Purple Hyacinth will be remembered as Chair of the Assembly, it'll be their relentless effort to bring the laws to orthographic and grammatical uniformity, and what a worthy cause that is. Our laws, while quite good, are still the result of years of amendments by various amateur lawmakers, which means that they do not always follow common standards. Here enters Hyacinth, who has spent much of their term fixing typos, spelling mistakes and other errors that, while seemingly minor, are sure to make regional law easier to understand and definitely better altogether. Perhaps Hyacinth's term hasn't faced any major reforms or overhauls thus far, but then a Chair doesn't necessarily need those to leave a positive legacy. In the absence of any bills that address major issues, it's remarkable and much welcome that Hyacinth has found a way to keep improving the law.

The South Pacific Independent News Network (SPINN) is an independent news organisation established in 2003 with the goal of providing good, insightful and timely commentary on regional events for the citizens of the South Pacific. Opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board. Content is published via pseudonyms. The SPINN is not associated with the Government of the South Pacific.