Parliament struggles with palpable frustration [1]
Wednesday, February 3, 2016 - 23:06
From the House
By Pesi Fonua
The Tongan Parliament today was struggling with a multitude of problems: reporting five cases of the Zika virus; worrying about an over-weight population with a shorter life expectancy; realising that education was not making people smarter; and noting a palpable frustration among the people that had even led to threats on the life of the Prime Minister.
Firstly, the Minister of Health, Hon. Saia Piukala told the House that the Zika Virus had arrived in Tonga with five Tongans known to be affected by the virus. He said that the Zika virus arrived in Tonga last month and as of today, 3 February, a total of 259 people with symptoms of the Zika virus had been checked by the Ministry of Health, and 35 specimens were still away overseas for analysis.
Dr Piukala advised the parliament and the public that if you feel feverish, and suspect that you may have got the Zika virus, you should stay home, “have a rest and drink a lot of water.”
The virus is spread by the same type of mosquitoes that carry Dengue Fever. The Minister also told of a program to destroy breeding places for mosquitoes and to keep Tonga clean.
The arrival of the Zika virus is not the only health threat that is facing the country.
Most over-weight
The Prime Minister Hon. ‘Akilisi Pohiva expressed his concern over Tonga’s rating as the most over-weight country in the world. He raised the issue that our life expectancy had also dropped.
The PM believed that if these things were happening while we were boasting to have a high literacy rate and had produced a high rate of PhDs, masters and professors, then “we can’t be that smart.”
The thought that our life expectancy has dropped and now our intelligence is declining, opened the door for members to voice their conviction that the situation had worsened since ‘Akilisi and his government came into power more than a year ago.
Confusion
Lord Nuku told of public concerns over the exam marks that the Ministry of Education had introduced. The PM, who is also the Minister of Education, had introduced what was referred to as Raw Marks, against a system that the Ministry had been trying to introduce called Standardised Marks.
The examination marks issue was confusing to most parents and he said that parents had to pay extra to recount the marks of their children.
Lord Nuku believed that if being overweight was one problem, then stress and confusion had become another major problem because of how the PM and his government were running the affairs of the country.
He pointed to a number of obvious problems, for example there is a building code, but no one to inspect new constructions to determine if they meet the requirements of the building code. He told of roads that were built recently and were already in need of major repair work.
Lord Nuku believed that government had caused much confusion when they voted to stop the impeachment of ‘Etuate Lavulavu.
He alluded that because of the confusing state that the country is in, there is a desire to change the Prime Minister, saying that it is a wish of the people for the sake of the country and he was just “relating the wish of the people.”
Frustration
Also commenting on the confusion, Lord Tu’ilakepa raised a number of issues about government money that had been paid out without following the proper procurement procedure. He stressed that some of the decisions/actions taken by government without following the proper procedure had caused confusion and frustration among the people.
Lord Tu’ilakepa admitted that the frustration had reached a situation where a member of the public had called and said that “he would shoot the PM.”
The PM replied that he knew the person that the member was referring to. He reminded the House that he has no bodyguard or a security service.