During the Ming Dynasty (c. 1500-1582) Wu Chen-en, an elder statesman penned a wonderful story about a Monkey King.The story has many layers of meaning & involves parables about Monkey King's personal search for self-cultivation, and is a political/social satire.
The story is a pseudo-historical account of a monk (Xuanzang) who went to India in the 7th century to seek Buddhist scriptures to bring back to China.
The principle story consists of eighty-one calamities suffered by (Monkey) and his guardians (Tripitaka and Sandy, who are monks, and Pigsy, a pig). This interesting story is summarised here.
Some time ago in a blog article I ridiculed the need to have such a large military in our Fiji and made a comment in jest about whether it was Tonga or Tuvalu that we had to guard our borders against.
And on a cyber news article this morning which tells the story about Tonga's extravagant King, there are a few disturbing paragraphs as follows :
In an odd juxtaposition, China yesterday said it would increase its “pragmatic cooperation” between the China’s People’s Liberation Army and the Tonga Defence Force.
Yesterday the Chinese Government Xinhua news agency reported that Defence Minister Liang Guanglie had met his Tongan counterpart Sonatane Tupou.
Liang said the two armies had made “new progress in bilateral relations” and were involved in exchanges.
He said China would work with Tonga “to expand exchanges and increase pragmatic cooperation between the two armed forces.”
Chinese aid figures are not revealed by Beijing but it is believed to give Tonga around $NZ8 million in budget support. It is also giving a soft-loan to Tonga worth $NZ150 million to rebuild Nuku’alofa destroyed in riots in 2006. The money is tied to the use of Chinese construction companies and workers.
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With Choro and Bai eagerly selling our country down the tubes to China, and the Fiji Military with an identity crisis , we may well see the day that the Military is incorporated into the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army together with Tonga whether we like it or not, such maybe the price of their "free lunch".
Cheque book meddling is firmly entrenched in the Pacific making Monkey King's and coming to a village near you!
