Dear Editor,

Re: Tongan language a political tool [2]

Dr. Mahina's discussion on the Tongan language was clear and logical. However, the discussion on the link between Tongan language and culture is a paradigm shift from common beliefs and even traditionally accepted theories in academia. This is the first social theory of its kind that I have come across. It turns Marxian school of thought on its head and even the work of Latukefu. Although this theory of "horizontal approach" is philosophically appealing, I do not see how this approach can explain the complexity of our society and culture.

This discussion will first look at change driven forces for the recent industrial dispute followed by a non-historian scrutiny of Mahina's discussion. I describe herein areas I hope Prof. Mahina can help clarify so we can gain a deeper understanding of our Tongan culture.

My background is economics so I am familiar with the work of Karl Marx and have had the pleasure to study Latukefu's work on Church and State in Tonga (1974). However, I have always been eager to gain a deeper understanding of our culture, not so much the mechanics of it, but the forces that drive changes in our culture.

Socio-Political Change

If there is any hope for changes in our current socio-political situation, these changes will be initiated by these social forces that I seek to understand. Latukefu's work had convinced me that political changes would have to come within the King's own household because it had been this case many times over in our history and more recently with Taufa'ahau's uniting Tonga under the rule of the Ha'akanokupolu. His revolution was a war conducted on his own relatives, who ruled Vava'u and Tongatapu separately at that time, but came under the Taufa'ahau dynasty after his bloody war campaigns. Every major change in our history had always come within the royal ranks. The nature of history, unfortunately, is that it always repeats itself. Understanding our history and forces that made history will help us understand how future changes will occur.

The involvement of Tu'i Pelehake in the government workers dispute had convinced me at the initial stage of the dispute that the PSA was going to win. His involvement also brought the support of the nobles. In addition, the forces of a new social class that Latufeku described as a new elite class of educated commoners was a major factor that gained the support of the people. These two forces combined were sufficient to convince those in real power they must make changes.

The children of the late Tu'i Pelehake had been alienated by the King to a point that they are rising up against the monarch. This maybe to some degree a taboo topic, but I discuss it here only to prove a point that revolutionary changes in Tonga are bound to come from within the royal household, supported by new elements in our society. Studying these change trigger elements can help us see how changes will occur and perhaps even predict when it will occur, subject to knowing when these elements have come together to necessarily warrant change.

Hopefully a public forum discussion of this kind will bring broader understanding to more people. These are discussions that would have only been restricted to academia, but the wonder of technology can bring that knowledge to more people. I hope Mr. Mahina will indulge us.

Problems with Horizontal Plane Approach

If we project the Tongan socio-political situation on this "imaginary" horizontal plane without regard to a vertical plane, then we must necessarily be all created equal as Tongans and exist equally? Contrary to what we have come to accept as the reality of our Tongan social system, there is no hierarchical element? Which itself means the non-existence of social ranks, as in the Tu'i Kanokupolu (recently merged thru marriage to combine all three Tu'i Tonga and Tu'i Takalaua lineages), Ha'a Moheofo, Ha'a Hou...‚eiki, Ha'ame'avale, and at the bottom the popula class. How then do these Tongan social classes exist in a horizontal plane?

While it can not be denied that we do exist horizontally; it is only God himself that would have that luxury to view our situation in this regard since only he truly has an aerial view of our human existence that a socially elevated person here or there would be equal to any other human being. King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV would be equal to any other Tongan commoner, since God does not see a King or a commoner, he sees two human beings existing on this horizontal plane.

Vertical and Perhaps third Dimensions?

For our purpose as Tongans within our society, we do not have that luxury to view our existence as God would and we must therefore utilize a second vertical dimension and even a third dimension to help us understand our human existence. If the Tongan socio-culture truly exists on a horizontal plane, then by natural extension, a second vertical plane and even third plane can not be denied as natural dimensions of our society and culture. This would more fully capture the existence of a monarchy at the very top of our social pyramid, followed by the aristocrat class, and the general populous. All of which exist not only in a two dimension plane, but a third dimension to create this social like pyramid? Does this not fully describe our three dimension world?

Political and Economical Power

Political power to economic resources has been a differentiating social class in Tongan society, as in the case of royalty and nobility, but economical power by way of education is a fairly modern phenomenon as described by Latufeku. Most of our crown ministers are prime examples of this and even white collar workers who have created wealth for themselves. This social class has economic power. How then do these fit in a horizontal plane?

Thank you in advance for any feedback and perhaps reference to some of your work for later reading on this topic.

Sincerely,

Thomas Monson Uata, PhD Candidate

Capella University

uatas [at] juno [dot] com ">uatas [at] juno [dot] com [3]