Family Planning
pp. 73-74 · Read in the full issue
Man Behind Tonga's
By Sio Magisi
Land shortage and overpopulation are undoubtedly the primary causes of the discontent one finds in Tonga today. One man who might hold the key to its eventual solution is Dr. Mumui Tatola, chief of the kingdom’s government-backed family planning pro gramme, headquartered in Nukualofa.
I asked him how his birth-control programme was faring. He told me: “The situation we have got into is frightful, almost unthinkable. A lot of people oppose our programme.
They say it’s against the will of God, some even say it’s a form of Communism, just how, I don’t know.
“Tonga has a higher poulation density than India. By the turn of the century, regardless of how productive our agriculture will be, the land will not support our projected population.
“There are already 88,000 in Tonga,” said Dr. Mumui. “A population of 160,000 is the maximum we can hold for survival. Beyond that we will have to starve.”
He said that an expert from
Hawaii considered the government, Tonga’s biggest and most powerful employer, could only give 70 more jobs between now and 1976. Other employers, such as stores, could add only a few more, “There should only be 80 high school graduates a year if we are t 0 maintain our level of living now, low as !t 18 ” said Dr - Mumui. “But we are already faced with 2,000 secondary school graduates a year who are out after jobs. Where will they all work?” ,Mumui sa y s . onl y half * he 20,000 Tongan males eligible for Au d ,he ° ,tS ha ™ ‘hem. the land a .‘ ea ln the K 25 ? ? q “ ar ® ™‘ es > ~c an b , e dlvlded only into 20,175 allotments or apis of Si acres, and that includes road
space, town areas, uninhabited islands and all tofia’s (royal and nobility estates) . . . and you know who will be against that.
“Family planning here started in 1958 virtually on the quiet. I became involved personally two years ago, and I have been blowing the whistle everywhere since. It’s been a definite success.”
There were now at least 2,000 Tongan couples practising birth con trol, “but a lot of the records have been lost because of frequent staff changes since the programme was started”.
Aged 42, Dr. Mumui is a dynamic man who pulls no punches when he gives radio talks on the need for birth control in Tonga.
He warns listeners why Tongans today seem to have less respect for human life; why supplies of fish and shellfish in the coastal areas have markedly diminished in recent years; why local food prices have soared; why children suffer from insufficient nutrition; why there are so many heated rows over land ownership; why crimes increase yearly; why there is begging in the streets; why classrooms are overcrowded and why Nukualofa has “drifters” sleeping on the cold hard floors of shops at night.
Dr. Mumui sticks to his belief in birth control despite concerted op position—declared and undeclared.
Some of the opposition is religious.
From their pulpits, Catholic priests have turgidly denounced any inter ference with “God’s plan”.
The irony of it all is that Dr.
Mumui himself is a Catholic, “but I haven’t bothered to go to any services after my work was tom apart, even by lay members.
“You know some people poke fun at me every time they see me coming.
They say, ‘Now, here’s the birth control doctor’ and so on. But this is good because it shows they’re aware of what my staff and I and the government are trying to do.
“We will continue to spread the gospel at kava parties, by talking to people, through our radio talks, through educational films and posters.”
Award film to sell Fiji A copy of the prize-winning film Fiji, Fiji might be a boost for poten tial Fiji investors busily 'seeking finance overseas. Made by Cine sound, the film presents Fiji “at its best”—and the Fiji Visitors Bureau is looking for buyers for an extra 25 copies costing SFISO. The film won first prize in the Pacific Area Travel Association film festival in 1969.