Pacific Islands Monthly

15-Year-Old Schoolgirl Speaks,

And Shakes Some Tongan Nobles

Prom a Nukualofa correspondent

; winds of change, which blew ial governments out of the i Pacific Islands, didn’t even le dust in Tonga, but a Tongan Igirl has created a storm in the om with a speech on “Tonga d be more democratic”, e speech won the first prize for a High School sixth-former Lata li in a school English speaking st, upset some of the nobles nembers of parliament, who had ill-fledged debate on it, and rht the wrath of the MPs on the a Chronicle for printing the h. ta’s speech, judged the winner tie sole judge, Mr Futa Helu, ler and principal of the ’Atenisi emy, put into sharp focus the tdedness of a parliament in which nobility of 33 has seven re latives, the same number as est of the population of about 10. ta said “. . . The distribution of g power is surely prejudiced in ir of the nobles, unbalanced, r and simply undemocratic.” She i for a greater opportunity for r citizen to have a say in running :ountry. the past, she said, the educated le of Tonga were mainly from nobility. They had the respon ty of running the people, and the ucated mass accepted that. But y, the situation was changing more and more common people ming educated. ita referred to the downfall of ties in Russia in 1917 and China [949 when the people became rated with their overlords and undemocratic systems of govern t. They rebelled and seized power themselves. She would not say i would be such an extreme ition in Tonga, but unless the :m of government was modified, intent, disillusionment and per even rebellion on a smaller ; would happen. That rebellion d be a “brain drain” with :ated people leaving the country

because of dissatisfaction with an undemocratic form of government.

At least one of the nobility was sufficiently upset to raise the matter in the Legislative Assembly. However, majority opinion seemed to be that it was only a speech contest and, any way, the constitution of Tonga guaranteed free speech.

The Hon Vaha’i, representative of the Tongatapu nobles, said he was very concerned at the criticism, which implied the government was not democratic. But King Tupou I had given the people their emancipa tion.

Hon Vaha’i said the Legislative Assembly was a Christian assembly for a Christian government.

“I am saddened by this recent manifestation of criticism of His Majesty and the government, and what, may I ask, is undemocratic in His Majesty’s government,” he said.

He said the Minister of Police should

assign investigators “to investigate this foreign element that is in to induce these criticisms”.

The Speaker, Hon Ma’afu, said the incident was only a speech contest, and teachers encouraged people to take part. The Acting Prime Minister, Hon Tuita, reminded the assembly there was a clause in the constitution which provided for freedom of ex pression, and there was no way of forbidding it.

Mr Tu’ilatai Mataele, Tongatapu No 1 People’s Representative, took the newspaper to task. He felt it should consider carefully what it pub lished.

“There was a lot of controversy when the paper was established and a lot of people advocated that the paper should be both for government and the people,” he said. “Anyway, the paper got off to a good start, but just lately has deteriorated. 1 have also noticed that when the palagi (European) editor was here, nothing of this nature happened, but this time with the present editor, this incident has cropped up”.

However, he agreed with the Speaker, that it was only an exercise, and he could assure his many kava party companions that Tonga was still democratic.

The Minister of Health, the Hon Tapa, said it was important to openly express one’s opinions rather than suppress them, and have them emerge later, which would be more dangerous. .

The Hon Malupo said the article was well within the constitution, and no matter how much discontent there was in the kingdom, the people were still patriotic. Some good might come out of the issue.

The Speaker, summing up, con cluded: “Whatever is the will of God, that is what will take place. We are still human and it is also possible that the nobles’ estates are too big and should be re-divided, and I ask you not to be too concerned, as the issue might be bigger than we realise”.

"Tonga should be more democratic," said Lata Soakai, aged 15 and almost ready for university. If her plans to study law or economics mature, she'll be one of the youngest students to leave Tonga for university.