PSA campaigns for a fitter, healthier public service

The Public Service Association is to be commended for its campaign to reduce Non-Communicable Diseases in Tonga. It is laudable that the Association is working with Government, NGO’s and the private sector. There is no doubt about the need for us to do something serious to reduce the incidence of non-communicable diseases in Tonga.

However, regarding the PSA’s campaign to reduce ‘Violence towards Women’, I would like to remind readers that in our society it is not just women who suffer. Children and men also suffer from the high incidence of violence in our society. Violence is used as a means of discipline within the family, and further in the community. It also occurs between groups of people.

I have heard women (in public) tell their children to "stop crying or I will hit you". I have also heard of women hitting their husbands, a woman told me herself she had done that. There have been incidents of women in certain churches hitting other women after verbal arguments.

I have witnessed violent public fights between groups of schoolboys from different schools. Recently there were media reports of inter-village fights. We are well aware of how there are cases of people in authority, e.g. policemen, using violence in their dealings with members of the general public. Teachers are known to hit students who ‘misbehave’ in class.

So perhaps it would better to rename the campaign: ‘Let us work together to reduce violence in our community'.
Malo ‘aupito -Tala’eva Siutaka