10th Prime Minister of the Cook Islands
Jim Marurai (9 July 1947 – November 2020) was a Cook Islands politician who served as Prime Minister of the Cook Islands. He was a member of the Democratic Party.
Personal life
Marurai was born in Ivirua, Mangaia.[1][2] He attended Ivirua and Oneroa Primary school and then Tereora College on Rarotonga and Napier Boys' High School in New Zealand. He later studied to be a teacher at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand.[2][3]
Marurai's wife, Tuaine Marurai, died on 14 September 2005 in Auckland, New Zealand at the age of 56 after suffering from cancer. She was buried on her home island of Mangaia.[4][5]
In March 2020 Marurai went missing from his home but was found after two days.[6] He died in the first week of November 2020 in his home in Ivirua.[1][7]
Political career
Marurai was first elected to Parliament in a by-election in 1994.[2] He served as an opposition backbencher for his first term, and joined Norman George in splitting from the Democrats to form the New Alliance Party.[8] Following the 1999 election he was appointed Minister of Education in the coalition Cabinets of Geoffrey Henry[9] and Joe Williams.[10] He retained the portfolio under both succeeding Prime Ministers, Terepai Maoate[11] and Robert Woonton.[12]
Prime Minister
Marurai was re-elected at the 2004 election. When Prime Minister Robert Woonton was expelled from the Democratic party for forming a coalition with the Cook Islands Party, Marurai joined him in the newly formed Demo Party Tumu (later known as Cook Islands First).[13] When an electoral petition found Woonton's seat was a dead tie, Woonton resigned, and Marurai was elected Prime Minister.[14] Initially he governed in coalition with the Cook Islands Party as part of a power-sharing deal which would see CIP leader Geoffrey Henry become Prime Minister after two years,[14] but in August 2005 the agreement broke down and Marurai formed a new coalition with the Democrats.[15] Terepai Maoate became Deputy Prime Minister again, and a month later the remaining CIP Cabinet Ministers were sacked and replaced by Democrats.[16][17]
In October 2005 Marurai suspended Police Minister Peri Vaevae Pare from Cabinet over an allegation of wrongful use of public funds;[18] Pare was subsequently asked to resign after he was convicted in January 2006.[19] In March 2006 two government MP's crossed the floor and sided with the opposition in an unsuccessful plot to bring down the government.[20] The High Commissioner to New Zealand, former Prime Minister Rober Woonton, was sacked for his involvement in the plot.[21] The resulting deadlock in Parliament was broken when Environment Minister Teina Bishop resigned and joined the opposition[22] and the Cook Islands Party won the 2006 Matavera by-election.[23] To avoid a confidence vote, Marurai dissolved Parliament and called a snap election.[24]
The Democratic Party won the resulting 2006 election[25] and agreed to back Marurai as Prime Minister again.[26] Shortly after the election his government pushed a controversial Media Standards Bill to regulate the media.[27] In May 2007 Marurai attended the 8th Pacific Islands Conference of Leaders in Washington, D.C., and expressed disappointment with the lack of commitments by the United States.[28] In August 2007 he hosted New Zealand Governor-General Anand Satyanand,[29] and in October he made a state visit to China.[30]
Marurai's coalition came under strain in early 2008, with an outbreak of bickering and calls for Ministers to be sacked.[31][32] In late 2008 Foreign Minister Wilkie Rasmussen publicly called for both Marurai and his deputy Maoate to step down.[33] In July 2009 Rasmussen was sacked for plotting with the opposition.[34][35] In December, a million dollar legal settlement from a failed bid to buy the Toa fuel tank farm led to the sacking of Maoate and a walkout of Democrats from Cabinet.[36][37][38] Marurai was subsequently expelled from the Democratic Party.[39] In January 2010, with both the Democrats and the Cook Islands Party opposed to his premiership,[40] Marurai announced that he would not be "calling parliament for at least several months" as no sitting was required until it was necessary to pass a budget.[41] He later announced that he had no intention of calling Parliament until September.[42]
Marurai was readmitted to the Democratic party at a party conference in June 2010.[43] He subsequently announced that he would not continue as Prime Minister if the Democratic Party won the 2010 election.[44] Marurai was re-elected to his Ivirua seat in the 2010 elections, but his party was ousted.[45] He resigned as Prime Minister on 29 November 2010,[46] but continued to serve as a backbench MP.
Despite saying that the 2010 term would be his last, Marurai stood again for Ivirua in the 2014 election and was elected unopposed.[47] He resigned for health reasons in 2017.[48] The subsequent 2017 Ivirua by-election was won by Tony Armstrong.[49]
