Manitasi Leger says he was the first Tongan representative to attend the Commonwealth Youth Parliament when it was held in Brisbane, Australia in 2005.

Manitasi, the Secretary of the Tonga National Leadership Development Forum, wrote to Matangi Tonga advising that Tongan youths had represented Tonga at CYP in the past, and that the first Tongan representative was not Elizabeth Kite, as reported by Matangi Tonga on 18 November: Elizabeth Kite, Tonga's First Commonwealth Youth Parliamentarian [2]

“I represented Tonga at the CYP when, at the time, the Speaker of Tonga Parliament was Lord Tu’ivakano and the Clerk of the House was the late Fatai Pale. From memory, it was the 3^rd  CYP,” Manitasi said.

"I and Kerry Lepa have been representing Tonga to the CYP," he said on November 28.

"FYI Elizabeth Kite stop by at my office trying to get more information and I did made myself clear that we need to correct the article. I will be seeing Mr Manase Foukimoana tomorrow to discuss the matter with him and to correct his claim that keep Elizabeth hanging to the title  - 'The First Tonga to Attend the Commonwealth Youth Parliament' ," stated Manitasi.

Nominated by parliament

Elizabeth Kite, who believed she was the first person to be nominated by the Tonga Parliament, attended CYP last month in British Columbia, Canada, where she was welcomed by the Secretary General of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA), Mr Akbar Khan, who was under the impression she was Tonga’s first representative. CPA also filmed a clip of Elizabeth as Tonga’s first representative to attend the Commonwealth Youth Parliament. 

Elizabeth was also not aware of the earlier representatives because there had been gaps of several years in Tonga's attendance.

Misunderstanding

So Matangi Tonga made contact with the CPA to clarify the previous Tongan attendees at the Commonwealth Youth Parliament.

CPA’s Editor of The Parliamentarian, Mr Jeffrey Hyland advised that according to their records, two previous Tongan participants had in fact attended CYP.

“I think that there may have been some confusion regarding the Tonga representatives to the Commonwealth Youth Parliament. According to our records - two previous Tonga participants are listed for the Commonwealth Youth Parliament - although they may have been nominated by other parliaments in the Pacific and Australia Regions,” he said.

• 2005 – Tonga – Manitasi Leger
• 2012 – Tonga – Kerry Lepa

“It may be therefore that this year’s participant from Tonga, Elizabeth was the first to be nominated directly by the Tonga Parliament to the Commonwealth Youth Parliament – however, she isn’t the first from Tonga to attend the event. We apologise for any misunderstanding and thank you for covering the Commonwealth Youth Parliament,” said Mr Hyland.

Tongan parliament

Manase Foukimoana, Education Officer of the Legislative Assembly of Tonga, said that normally Tongan representatives are nominated through the Tonga National Youth Congress and endorsed by the Speaker of Parliament.

However, he said this year the application to attend CYP closed in May but an exception was made for Tonga to put in a late application for a candidate to take part.

“Therefore to move things forward and quicker, this is the first time parliament nominated a candidate upon merit, work and involvement with the youth.” 

The Commonwealth Youth Parliament is a core program of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) which rotates alphabetically through the Commonwealth regions. 

Related article: Elizabeth Kite, Tonga's First Commonwealth Youth Parliamentarian [2]