Honour dedicated to father

Dr. Malakai Koloamatagi's background says a lot about where he is now. One can almost say his journey was earmarked to reach the academic pinnacle it has the moment his father gave him some fatherly advice.

“I don't want you to succeed so I can reap the rewards,” the young Malakai was told. “I want you to succeed so you can enjoy the fruits of your success for I am happy and content of what I have, and what I had achieved.”

Which is precisely what has happened. Unfortunately, for Dr. Malakai Koloamatangi, his father died six months before he graduated with a PhD from Auckland University.

But his father’s words will never leave him.

Dr. Koloamatangi left Tonga at the age of ten to come to NZ with his parents. He had no say about leaving Tonga and his biggest regret of doing so was not attending Tonga High School, one of the highest ranked schools in Tonga at the time.

“Going to Tonga High School was like going to heaven, so I missed an opportunity to go heaven,” he said.

He had just sat an exam to determine what class he would be in high school after intermediate. And before the results were announced about what class he would attend 'in heaven' his parents left Tonga and the comfortable lifestyle they had.

His parents bought a house in the Grey Lynn suburb in central Auckland, an area many Pacifi c immigrants congregated at when they got to New Zealand. He attended St Pauls College and decades later, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts and a PhD from the university of Auckland.

The PhD that got him anointed a Professor was achieved after his thesis, titled –Constitutionalism, Culture and Democracy; Tongan Politics was completed in 1996, six months after his father passed away in 1998. He achieved his PhD while teaching at the university “I was called into the hospital to see him,” says Dr. Koloamatangi. “The doctor told me he may not last through the night but his defi ance about the doctor's prognosis was typical him, saying, “The doctor can't tell when I'm going to die. He is not my doctor, the one up there (pointing to the sky) is my doctor.”

“Then we talked about the pact that we made years before about him seeing me through to my PhD graduation. He told me, "You know that island when you sail into Nukualofa?

You can see Nukualofa from that island. That island is where I am now, I can see your graduation and I am happy about that, it's like seeing Nukualofa. Six months after he passed away, I got my PhD.”

Dr Koloamatangi's vast knowledge about politics had afforded him the opportunity to commentate in the media in New Zealand and Australia about Tongan issues. Prior to his move to the Canterbury University, he spent two years working as an election strategist for the Alliance Party at their out of Parliament offi ce in Auckland. He left Auckland for the Canterbury University in 2003 to join their National Centre for Research on Europe in 2003 as a Post-Doctoral Fellow on a two-year term.

The ten years he spent in the Canterbury University he was also the Acting Director of the Macmillian Brown Centre for Research in Europe where he taught European Union politics. Then in 2010 he became the inaugural director of the Pacific Excellence and took over the centre for Pacific study at the university.

In 2013, Dr Koloamatangi applied and got a job as a Pasifika Director at Massey University at Albany, Auckland.

It meant a return to Auckland for his family who by now have had enough of the arctic weather they've endured in the south island for a decade. The move was made easier because they have a house in the Grey Lynn suburb that they moved straight into. They rented it out while they were in Christchurch.

Dr Malakai Koloamatangi found his old stomping ground in Auckland much different to the place he left. The demographic had changed and there were more people and 'definitely much more brown faces'. “And around the Herne Bay area had become more exclusive with limited access to the beaches,” he lamented.

His role at the Massey University is to support and nurture the Pacific islands students at the campus, encourage them to participate in the academic life of the university as well as promote research based on Pacific island values, ethics and priorities.

It's a strategy that he had been working on with the support of other Pasifika staff at the campus. They have set themselves a challenge of churning out a lot more PhD graduates by the year 2020. It's a target they believe in for the Pasifika students and are on course to achieve. So far, they have over 20 PhD graduates since the concept started and three of them, a Tongan and two Samoans are graduating on the 22nd April 2013.

“We will continue to push for more of our Pasifika students attending Massey University and a lot more graduating.

We are on target with our strategy. We'll continue to lift the bar for them, some of whom travelled all the way from south Auckland. There has been an increase in student numbers from 300 a few years ago to about 1000 now and that is good for our community. The more graduates we have the better their chances of getting goodpaying jobs and that is good for our Pasifika people.”

Dr Malakai Koloamatangi says it's an honour to be at the forefront of the University that supports the development and the care of the Pasifika staff, students and research.

The skills he had accumulated into his bag of wealth about the academic nuances and experience in international and national Pasifi ka development, and an extensive political nous in a role that includes finding ways to forge academic pathways and to champion the strategies that will enable the students to thrive at the campus are the right tools that can realise the potential of the Pasifika students.

He has also a Mafua-'ae-Lukutai title that was bestowed onto his father by the late King Tupou IV. It was the last title King Tupou during his reign before he passed away.

Dr Malakai Koloamatangi may have missed out on the opportunity to 'go to heaven' that is the Tonga High School.

But he had accomplished what his father envisaged was to be his destiny – to reward himself with his own accomplishments.