The Winning Speech in a School Competition, published in the Tonga Chronicle on August 9, 1973.

As we all know, Tonga is one of the last remaining Kingdoms on earth. Its system of government is based on a monarchy. There is a Parliament, a Privy Council and ultimately the king or reigning monarch. All this, my friends, is under the suspices of democracy.

Let me speak of the Parliament. There are seven representatives of the group of 33 titled men or nobles in the land. On the other hand there are only seven representatives from the population of 90,000. The various Ministers of the Crown who are His Majestry's Cabinet complement the Parliament.

A democracy, my friends, is rule by the people where every man has equal rights under the law. I hereby state emphatically that the present system of government is not democratic. The representation in the Parliament is clearly biased in favour of the nobility. There is a representative for roughly every five nobles. However, it is very worthwhile to note that there is only one representative for approximately every 13,100 Tongan citizens. The distribution of voting power in our Parliament is surely prejudiced in favour of the nobles, imbalanced, unfair, and simply undemocratic.

This situation needs to be remedied. There must be a greater opportunity for every Tongan citizen to have his say in the running of the country. You may scoff at me and say that every man has this right because he is allowed to elect a representative to Parliament. However, this facade of democracy crumbles when his representative enters Parliament because of the unbalanced voting power which I have already mentioned. It would be appropriate here to state again that one nobles’ representative stands for five nobles while one people's representative comes from roughly 13,100 Tongan nationals.

In the past, the educated people of Tonga were mostly from the nobility. These educated people had the running of the people as their responsibility. The uneducated masses, which included my great-grandfather and your great-grandmother, looked upon this group of educated people with the faith that they would govern the country well.

Today, however, this situation is changing. More and more of the Tongan people are becoming educated. With this education, my fellow students, a creeping but uneasy awareness of the lack of democracy will come to exist in every educated person's mind. This uneasy awareness of the present lack of democracy will have its harmful effects if something is not done to correct the present system.

What, exactly, do I mean by harmful effects? My firends, let us cast our minds back to the China that existed before 1949. After a long period of frustration with their overlords and undemocratic system of government the people rebelled and seized power for themselves. Think of Russia before 1917. The same thing happened. I am not saying that Tonga will come to such an extreme situation as that of Russia in 1917 or China in 1949. What I am saying is that unless the present system of government is modified to become more democratic, discontent, disillusionment and perhaps even rebellion on a smaller scale will occur.

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Perhaps this rebellion could be expressed in the form of a ‘brain drain’, where our educated people would leave the country because of dissatisfaction with the undemocratic system of government. This happened in Germany when Hitler established his totalitarian system of government.

If and when the existing system of government is changed, to become more democratic of course, the country will benefit. You will inevitably ask, why? The answer is this: because each and every man will be able to contribute something worthwhile to the welfare of the country through his Parliament representative. Only when every man has equal representation in Parliament will there be truly rule by the people and for the people.

However, if our system of government does not become more democratic then the tranquil way of life that you and I are accustomed to may be disrupted. It is no longer safe or even reasonable to ignore the increasing number of educated voices and minds in the kingdom.

My fellow students, this is my plea to you. Let us join together with fervent hope that our form of government will become more democratic in the future. You and I will become members of that imposing force of educated Tongan people and it is our responsibility to see that today's oligarchy is tomorrow's democracy.

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House Discusses Controversial Speech

Tonga Chronicle, 23.9.1973.

The case of the Chronicle and its contents have again been a subject of discussion in the Legislative Assembly. This time, the subject was the publication of the winning speech in the recent Tonga High School speech contest, some weeks ago. The speech was rendered by sixth former, Lata Soakai and titled, ‘Tonga should be more democratic’.

The Tongatapu Nobles representative Hon. Vaha'i raised the issue and said, ‘I am very much concerned at the criticism published by the Chronicle which implies that we are not a democratic government. But His Majestry Tupou I had installed the national motto, God and Tonga are my inheritance, given the Constitution and emancipation of the people, and this is 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 Mr Speaker, is undemocratic in His Majestry's Government.

Hon. Vaha'i went on to say that the Minister of Police should assign investigators, ‘to investigate this foreign element that is creeping in to induce these criticisms.’

The Speaker, Hon. Ma'afu, pointed out that the incident was only a speech contest which teachers encourage their pupils to participate in.

The Acting Prime Minister, Hon. Tuita, reminded the House of the provision in the Constitution, Clause 7 which provides for freedom of expression, and in his Acting capacity there is no way of forbidding it.

Tongatapu No. 1 People's Representative Mr Tu'ilatai Mataele said, ‘I feel this Department (the Chronicle) should consider carefully what goes into the Chronicle. There was a lot of controversy when the paper was established and a lot of people advocated that the paper should be both for the Government and the people. Anyway, the paper got off to a good start but just lately it had deteriorated. ‘I have also noticed that when the European (palangi) editor was here, nothing of this nature happened, but this time with the present editor, this incident has cropped up. Mr Mataele, however, agreed with the Speaker that this was only an exercise, and he has assured his many kava party companions that Tonga is still democratic.

There was a lot of opinion expressed on the issue by the Minister of Health, Hon. Tapa, Tongatapu Representative, Mr Tomiteau Finau, the Hon. Malupo and Mr Taniela Mafua. Hon. Dr Tapa emphasised the importance of openly expressing one's opinions which is better than suppressing it to emerge at a later date which would be more dangerous. Hon. Malupo endorsed the Acting Prime Minister's statement that the article in
question was well within the provision of the Constitution and no matter how much dis-
content there prevalis in the Kingdom the people are still patriotic and who knows but
there might be some good out of the whole issue.

The Speaker summed up the discussion by saying, ‘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 an should be redivided, and I ask you not to be concerned, as the issue might be bigger than we realise.’

I wish to offer this letter, written on behalf of the Women's Langafonua Assoc- page 28 iation, for publication in your ‘Letters to the Editor’ page.

The Winning Speech

It is a matter for concern when High School students are taught and made to write and/or speak critically against their country's Constitutional laws. Besides the topic that won, - ‘Tonga should be more Democratic’ three others claimed that ‘There would be no loss if Tonga culture died’ or that ‘Tonga culture is a thing of the past’. If this is Education, to sow the seeds of Rebellion to Law and Order and to teach our youth to denouce their country's culture, then we should take heed. In actual truth it is the practice of nurturing revolutionary doctrines, so disguised in the name of Education, or in other words, ‘A wolf in lamb's clothing’.

Only in June of last year, two Auckland men, Mr Anthony Butler and Sefo Afeaki, did their utmost to slander Tonga and her monarch through the Press. Some of their articles which the NZ Truth published in bold headlines consisted of such headlines as ‘In an Island of Fear’, ‘An Iron King’, ‘Driven to Drink’, and so on and so forth to fill almost two pages that I did wonder what could have caused such hate and maticiousness.

It does appear strange but this so-called Winning Speech seems to have picked up where those two gentlemen left off. The same ideas, anyhow, have now been publicly advertised, camouflaged perhaps in a School's Speech Contest, but they are all there for the present ‘uneducated masses’-for the ‘educated’ Tongan and wherever the ‘Tonge Chronicle’ may go.

Tonga's leaders should give earnest consideration to its country's aims in the educations of its future generations. We cannot afford to continue letting teachers who mock at Tongan law and culture to so influence young and immature minds who ‘swallow’ but cannot ‘digest’ biased history and politics. The Apostle Paul symbolised such ‘feeding’ when he wrote: ‘Strong meat belongs to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.’

Tonga's Constitution specifies, as one of the foremost qualifications of an elector for people's representatives for Parliament that a Tongan must be 21 years of age, which means that our young politicia still needs another five years or more to ‘live and learn’ before she is privileged to air her views. As a famous poet wrote, ‘A little understanding is dangerous’, but the Prophet Hosea had cried out, ages before, ‘My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge’, for they had rejected God's excellent gift of which is written in the Book of Job, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding.’

Tongan history tells us that no people's representative had any part when Tupou I gave us our Emancipation, now were we allowed to elect any when and after he handed our Constitution to our ancestors. Our representatives for Parliament then were our landlords, the nobles. I understand that Western Samoa's Constitution allows no chosen representatives of the people for Parliament, and in Fiji? Only the chiefs, of couse, represent for the people.

The last census for Tonga, in 1966, gave the number as 77,585. The next census is still three years ahead and so the 92,000, on which Lata has proportioned her one representative for 13,100 nations, is questionable. We must also bear in mind that about 66% of the total population are under 21 and are not electors so the number 92,000 drops to 30,000. It can still drop by a few thousands owing to sickness, in- page 29 ablity to attend at polling plces and disqualifications. But wait, can someone enlighten us as to the representation to Congress of America's 215 millions?

As for the world's many forms of government, today's students are most fortunate for they stand almost at the end of Time and look back and examine from the beginning of Time. The facts are all there and a true student or writer of history should not be biased or be influenced by hearsy. After all the propaganda and table-talk of the ‘rule of the majority’ and/or peasants in Russia and China, we might discover that both forms crumble down to the ‘rule of the few’.

Lastly and conclusively I wish to remind students that ‘ignorance of the law is no excuse’ With all our grumbles and complaints against our government policies, of which there are legal ways of making, we must be aware that only a fine line can come between criticisms and sedition, a very serious criminal offence of which the first definition is to ‘excite disaffection against the King of Tonga or against the Parliament or Government of Tonga…’ It seems that some parts of this so-called Winning Speech could be interpreted as of a seditious nature.

Teachers may laugh and say ‘What utter nonsense! This was nothing else but a Speech Contest. If they had any education they would understand that students are taught to be critical - that is the chief element of democracy opposition - and students begin from criticising their own work.’ Right, and I think that criticism is safest and best directed against oneself.

To quote again from the conclusion of this Winning Speech - “My fellow students, this is my plea to you. Let us join together … and become members of that imposing force of educated Tongan people whose responsibility is to see that today's oligarchy is tomorrow;s democracy.”

The truth of what is conveyed here is that it was such an ‘imposing force of educated people’ who was responsible for the ultimate power seizure of Communism over Russia's and China's millions. It is this same force who are causing protest marches, rebellion and riots in many of the democratic nations of today.

For the Langafonua Womens Association,

SIU M. TU'UHETOKA.

Editorial, Tonga Chronicle, 30.8.73.

Once again, the EDitor and the Chronicle wavers under a barrage of tongue lashing in the Legislative ASsembly. Fortunately, there was only one really outspoken personal attack on the Editor and his discretion.

What started it all was the publication of Lata Soakai's winning speech, titled ‘Tonga Should Be More Democratic’. Tongatapu No. 1 People's Representative, Mr Tu'ilatai Mataele went on to make an uncalled for comparison between the present editor of the Chronicle and his predecessor.

As I see it, and interpret it, Mr Mataele has questioned the discretion, diligence and suitability of the editor, along with a tacit attack on the Government's wisdom in appointing such a person. Quite frankly, I'm utterly disappointed in my so-called representative in the Legislative ASsembly, and the No. 1 People's Representative at that. What has become of our representatives in the House today? Let us see what's irresponsible about the publication of Lata's speech.

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Grammatically, this speech is faultless, and for a 15 year old sixth former, to whom English is a second language, I consider her speech a tremendous achievement. Subject-
wise, I'm amazed at how ‘au fait’ Lata is with Tonga's political situations and her awareness of recent developments. Lata is a potential crator with lots of promise and I admire
her courage. If the manifestations of this young lady's tremendous achievements is considered irresponsible on the part of the editor, then I am perhaps wallowing in deep water!

What then is the benefit of advocating better education, only to find that learning or knowing too much can be dangerous.

M.P. Claims System In Tonga As ‘Tonga Democracy’

Tonga Chronicle, 21 March, 1974.

The speech by Lata Soakai headed ‘Tonga Should Be More Democratic’ and published by the chronicle was probably what sparked off the controversies, criticisms and eventual prosecution involving the Chronicle.

In the cross examination of the plaintiff regarding the plaintiff's comprehension of page 31 democracy, the court was informed that there exists in Tonga a system known as Tongan democracy.

Crown Solicitor raised the question of why plaintiff saw fit to apologise to the noble who first criticised Lata's speech in the House, and attempted to find out whether plaintiff did not agree with the contents of the schoolgirl's speech. Plaintiff, however, stated that he was not concerned about the contents of Lata's speech, what he was concerned about was the fact that the nobility had criticised in the House a member of the constituency he represents. He saw it his duty therefore to apologise on behalf of Lata and pointed out that the noble concerned should blame the editor for allowing the speech to be published.

The questioning then led to democracy and Mr Tupou asked the plaintiff whether he was familiar with the conditions of democracy as practiced in overseas countries. Plaintiff said he was and counsel asked whether this is not what is happening in Tonga. Plaintiff then said that although Tonga is a Constitutional Monarchy, there is also democracy involved in the system which is just a “Tongan democracy”.