We want greater freedom [1]
Saturday, August 4, 2007 - 13:00. Updated on Sunday, April 13, 2014 - 19:17.
Editor,
I trust your professional journalism can let me offer a dissenting view to yours. For the sake of creating an open discussion and God willing give us all a road for reconciling to the tragic event of 16/11, for at the end, we are all victims.
From the teenage boy who picked up the rock that will undoubtedly spend time in jail; the person who sparked the match that will not see him families while in jail; those families who lost love ones; those families who lost everything and their livelihood; government officials and PR's that were caught up in the cross-fire and indeed the King himself. When all is said and done, we have all lost a part of Tonga and indeed a part of us that we have now to turned on each other.
First I wish to express my sincere apology to you sir, let me be forthcoming with your news coverage. Since that horrific night of 16/11, I have endured unimaginable humiliation to see the good name of my father lay blame for an event that he himself did not set in motion.
I have endured indescribable pains reading your hurtful editorials and news coverage, using headlines to draw implied fallacies that the average reader will necessarily fall victim to not think for himself. Take for example your much quoted article - Victory Speech in which the headline implied the PR's, including my father, gave a victory speech for the destruction of Nuku'alofa over the radio. Reading the content of the article separating facts from opinion quickly contradicts your headline that the PR's sincere plea to the people was mischaracterized in a so call Victory Speech.
Take for example the strategic positioning of photos to show Uata building not burnt in the mist of burnt rubble with sub-head lines - Uata building standing while his neighbors burnt. Your coverage of 16/11 was filled with such headliners to lead the reader towards your own conclusions, to blame the PR's for the destruction that since 'Uliti Uata's building was not burned, therefore he must be responsible for the destruction along with his fellow PR's. The event of 16/11 was not itself a spontaneous event that just occurred in isolation but part of a sequence of events that led up to that day, all of which had many contributors, including those in government from the highest level to the person that decided to pick up a rock or spark a match and do the unimaginable. Why would a person of Tongan heritage hurt the land he himself can not deny he loves and in so doing cause lives to be lost? Why would a people of rational minds rise up and demand change on that November 11th day?
Social Evolution
In the course of human history, every civilization whether it be great or small, comes to a defining moment for change that forever determines its future with yet more changes. Hence the phrase, the only certainty about the future is change itself, no civilization ever remains the same, it progressively evolves so is for Tonga today.
We are upon that defining moment in history - who and how will that future Tonga be shaped is up to a handful of powerful political hegemony.
Tonga Today
The foundation of the Tonga today was laid by Taufa'ahau after he fought the quasi-chiefdom system of government, a by-product of the Tu...i Tonga Empire. Taufa'ahau grew up in a Tonga rampaged by civil wars between powerful chiefs that sustained itself by feudalism enslavement of the ha...a-me...a-vale. Feudalism is a type of economic system as democracy sustained by capitalism economic system or communism sustained by socialism. He grew up in warring Tonga shaped by a defining event half a century earlier with the murder of Tuku'aho, the 14th Tu'i Kanokupolu, a title young Taufa'ahau later held. Rumors has it that young Taufa'ahau and his mother were abandoned to Hihifo, Ha'apai because of the political troublesome climate of his time.
'Otua mo Tonga - Pouono
Taufa'ahau fought to change the enslavement Tonga he grew up in, where the commoners were slaves, hence ha'a-me'a-vale. He sealed our fate for freedom in Pouono with his famous speech - 'Otua mo Tonga ko hoku tofi'a - with his symbolic reaching for dirt and tossed a handful to the heavens consecrating Tonga to God Almighty.
On June 4, 1863, speaking from the palace, he recalled: Today, the first anniversary, the first year of the freedom of Tonga, is passed. It is true we are a small government, a small nation, but I am thankful there are no slaves in the government. Thanks to the great God that I am alive today to see it a success. If I never accomplish anything else, I am grateful I have been able to give to the Tongan people their freedom from slavery. This freedom I give you all, will become the law of the government for ever and ever and it will not be possible for anyone to make slaves of you all again. And cursed be those who try to bind you up again in the bonds of slavery."
We have enjoyed that freedom from slavery to chiefs guaranteed by a constitutional Monarchy for over 100 years now. Just as social progression of every civilization, Tonga is at the brink of yet another change for greater change for greater freedom.
Freedom
Now the ha'a-me'a-vale has a learned mind of their own with greatest PhD per capita in the modern world and full of industrious minds. You cannot tell them to stop growing ever more free, it is in their God given nature to be free. Ha...a-me...a-vale has enjoyed economic prosperity. They want greater freedom, freedom for self-determination. They are given the heavy burdensome hand of government to pay taxes, they now want freedom to choose how to allocate the wealth of the nation. They want economic freedom. They want freedom of speech without suppression. We the people want freedom for self-determination.
O beloved Taufa'ahau, we call upon your warrior spirit from Pulote to once again rise up to give us greater freedom. We call upon Queen Salote from Mala'e Kula to give the love for Tonga to its leaders. We await eagerly a favorable decision from the Palace as Taufa'ahau did in 1863 to grant us this day greater freedom and seal this moment of change for Tonga forever more in centuries to come and thou shall forever cement your legacy the 5th ruler of the Kanokupolu lineage since Taufa'ahau the Unifier, who gave Tonga to God in Pouono.
Modern Future Tonga
It is in your blood to fight for your people, son of Taufa'ahau. You heard our cries once before to free us from bondage of slavery and you spilled blood to free us and once again we cry upon you to grant us this day our self-determination freedom with only a stroke of a pen, to which we shall forevermore grateful and your name shall be known the father of modern Tonga in history books for future generations to come.
Thomas Monson Uata
Editor's Note: I respect your right to draw your own conclusion from what you have seen and read. I don't know if you were in court when they played a cassette recording of the speeches that were made by the five PRs on the evening of 16/11, but I suggest that you get a copy from the Tonga Broadcasting Commission and have a good listen to it. I taped the speeches when they came live on the FM station that evening.
I also suggest that you have another good look at the many videos and photographs of central Nuku'alofa, taken by other photographers following 16/11. The Uata Building, because it is the tallest in central Nuku'alofa and was untouched by the fire, was the one that confronted every photographer who covered the destruction in Nuku'alofa after 16/11.
We can tell you confidently, without a doubt, that our average readers are intelligent and quite capable of thinking for themselves.