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| From Bible-smoker to a preaching politician - George Maggie's transformation couldn't be greater. Photo Credit: CI News. |
It’s the story known widely throughout Rarotonga, but almost nowhere else.
The story is one of intrigue, sadness and the ability to turn everything around.
This is the remarkable story of George Maggie.
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The year 1960 brought around many memorable moments, some fond, some bad. The Flintstones was screened on television for the first time, Hugh Hefner opened his first Playboy club in Chicago and some boxer by the name of Cassius Clay was only just breaking into the spotlight.It was also the year George ‘Maggie’ Angene was born.
Having lived with 60-year-old mama Maggie Brown from day one, the young boy knew in the deepest of his hearts that she was his mother. It took 12 years for the young man to find out the truth, before finding out about his six siblings – three brothers and three sisters – who all worked in New Zealand to support him and his non-working grandmother.
Maggie went to school at six-years-old and didn’t learn a thing. Instead he helped his grandmother bottle some home-brewed magic, and was also involved tasting the concoction to ensure the taste was correct.
“Between 14 and 15 I started to drink and show off – I used to get cheeky and all that. I thought, ‘I’m strong, let’s start to see if this works’.
“I damaged a lot of people,” Maggie said, illustrating an element of pride more commonly found in his younger days.
The 1970s were a time of strict enforcement from the police in the Cook Islands. A curfew of eight-o-clock at night was issued to all children to ensure they weren’t out creating mischief.
Maggie didn’t miss the memo, he simply threw it in the bin. While other children were inside, no doubt having family time with mum and dad, Maggie roamed the streets.
Maggie’s maiden pilgrimage to prison came when he was just 15. The legal system of the time did not allow minors under the age of 16 to enter prison, but in an effort to avoid any further dealings with Maggie, they threw him in jail.
It was at the Arorangi Prison where he began to roll pages of the Bible to use as cigarette papers and start to get a grip on what it was like to live in-and-out of jail.
It looked as if sport would be his avenue, his way out of jail. His physical prowess as a result of the many sports he trained in saw 19-year-old halfback represent the Cook Islands.
But it wasn’t to be and his check-ins at the local prison continued.
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Further hope for settling down was fuelled when, after living with his girlfriend for three years previously, Maggie welcomed a set of twins to the world.
“When the firstborns were born I was a heavy drinker. I had no hope, no steady job, no income to feed the kids.
“I would break in and get food. I would bef people to get food for the boys.”
Maggie’s life spiralled out of control. He would wake up at 2am and start drinking and finish at 11pm at night while looking for ways to get food or money, legally or illegally.
“I thought about killing myself through drinking, not through hanging or crashing.”
The evil genie in the bottle would not grant him his last wish, instead living through more torture and the torment of not being able to be the father his kids wanted. By 1984, the break-ins – and prison terms - became more frequent as he struggled to put food on the table for his family.
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It was eight years later when two events would transform his life forever. The year was 1992 when Maggie’s thoughts and perspectives began to change.
“My head was starting to know what’s happening in life around the corruption of the government, so I thought about something.
“I went on the radio and said that the government needs to change or I would burn down the government building. The secretary of justice said ‘Oh, he’s only joking,’ but I wasn’t joking.”
It was Mother’s Day 1982 and after the usual prison stints, Maggie and a friend wandered down to the court house, his friend unaware of what would happen next.
“I told my friend just to wait for me while I got some papers in the justice department. I heaped the paper on a table, lit the fire and then just walked out.”
That fearlessness that had become second nature to Maggie remained as he confidently strolled out aware of what would be happening to the building in an hour’s time.
“Some people are saying the reason why I did it was to burn my criminal record. I told them if it was my criminal record then I would have had to have burned down the police department, law firms, prison, probation and the justice departments.
“It’s not because of my criminal record - it was just because of the corruption of the government in those days.”
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Maggie was sentenced to prison for 13 years for arson, and he knew something had to change instantly. He woke up on June 18 and said his first prayer asking for one more chance.
“God, if you’re there, can you please help me because I’m scared I’m going to die in prison,” he pleaded.
“I feel sorry for my wife, my kids, can you give me one more chance to straighten up my life.”
Usual help for a Bible initially fell on deaf ears from prison wardens – they knew of his initial use and weren’t ready to supply – but he convinced the warden this was no joke.
At 32-years-old, Maggie learned to read for the first time from one of the other inmates. He also began to write as a result of things he learned from the Bible. Everything – even building – was studied by the Bible.
In 1999, the man who had burned down the courthouse, the man whose gang-leader persona had him feared among many and the outlaw who would smoke cigarettes using pages fromt he Bible, was released from prison.
Reformed, he set about working and helping the people from as early as he could. He helped at churches, with community groups and ended up in the Cook Islands Party (CIP) committee.
His biggest job was looking for a candidate for the Tupapa area in the 2010 election. Having met with 10 people who declined the offer, three pastors on one day – 16 Novermber 2008 - convinced the man himself to run.
Those same 10 people who had declined the offer only weeks earlier came up against him. “I told them, ‘it’s too late – people want me, Tupapa are going to elect me’.
He won the seat with a very good majority and continues to hold that position to this day. Maggie still hasn’t met his birthnmother or father and isn’t really too fussed about it.
While a member of the CIP, he remains very independent and for the people. In fact, he has a phrase he once said to his colleagues in parliament.
“No matter where you go today, I can go there. Where I come from, you can’t get there.”
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The power to change, the greatest power of them all.
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