From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 17, no. 3, November 2002.

The walk-out by all of the nine People’s Representatives from the Tongan Legislative Assembly on October 21 had to be the highlight of the 2002 parliamentary session, but it was not all what it seemed to be.

At first, the walkout was ostensibly over the rejection of several Private Member’s Bills, but later it appeared to be another protest over the structure of the parliament itself, whereby Cabinet Ministers with the help of the Nobles can outvote the People’s Representatives whenever they want to.

Really, there was no other logical reason for the walk out, excepting the fact that the People’s Representatives were angered because all eight Private Member’s Bills that were presented to the House that morning did not survive their first readings, and were rejected by a majority vote in the House. The PRs were furious, because for some of them, it was the very first time that they had drafted Bills, and they thought the passage of the Bills was going to be the highlight of the 2002 parliamentary session. Four of the Bills were tabled by the Vava‘u no. 2 PR ‘Etuate Lavulavu, three were a combined effort by the Ha‘apai no. 2 PR , ‘Uliti Uata and the Tongatapu no. 2 PR Dr Feleti Sevele, and one came from the ‘Eua PR, Sunia Fili.

The Bills included a bill to abolish the death penalty; a bill to allow controlled whaling; a bill to remove defamation from criminal law; a bill to extend time for parliamentary terms from three years to five years; a bill to allow consumption of alcohol in public places; and a bill to amend the Criminal Act to restrict the police ability to question suspects.

The PRs called a Press Conference on October 22 and expressed their anger with the Cabinet Ministers, whom they felt did not want to hear their views after the Bills had been rejected by the House.

Faults

The Acting Speaker of the House, the Ha‘apai no. 1 Noble’s Representative, Prince Tu‘ipelehake, a member of the Parliamentary Law Committee that processed the Private Members Bills, had reminded the PRs to draft their bills properly, and to providing supporting facts.

However, after the Bills were rejected, the PRs were adamant that drafting Bills was not such a difficult task, and that some technical faults required only minor amendments. They said that they had recruited a local lawyer, Laki Niu, to draft some of the Bills.

‘Uliti Uata, the Ha‘apai no. 2 PR, said that the normal procedure was that a Bill which survived its first reading, would be read for the second time before it was tabled into the Whole House Committee for debate. After it had been debated by the House, it would be returned to the House for its second and third readings before it went to the King for his consent.

No respect

In this case, the Bills did not survive their first reading and, according to normal parliamentary procedure, ended there. The PRs, however, believed that they had been hard done by.

‘Akilisi Pohiva the Tongatapu no. 1 PR, who led the walk out, said that the rejection of the Private Members Bills played a small role in their walk out, “the real reason was because the People’s Representatives felt that the Cabinet Ministers have all the power in the House and they [can] just please themselves in whatever they want to do, and therefore have little respect for the PRs.”

Some Members felt that the Ministers had their own bills to put through and did not want to spend time debating the private bills.

Sunia Fili, the ‘Eua PR, said that they would return to the House on October 23, and they had a Motion to present to the House to amend the regulations of the House, so that a Bill may be presented to the whole House Committee for debate after its first reading.

After nine PRs walked out on Monday October 21, the Vava‘u no. 2 PR ‘Etuate Lavulavu returned to the House the following morning. The remaining eight PRs had decided to return on October 23.