Results for Opinion

It is nearly one year since November 2003 when Tongans lost their right to Freedom of Speech as a defence. After last year's Constitutional amendment, Tonga went back 128 years to the days when people were allowed to speak or to express an opinion only if it was in line with that of their superiors or chiefs. Editor's Comment, by Pesi Fonua

I saw a story in the May 31 edition of the Tacoma News Tribune. The story was headlined "Violent death, no justice for Peace Corps volunteer". The story written by TNT reporter Les Blumenthal revisits the stabbing death of Peace Corps Volunteer Deborah Gardner in 1976 in Tonga. The case has resurfaced in a book "American Taboo,'' written by Philip Weiss. - Mike Lane

It is very interesting how the US Ambassador elaborates the uniqueness of Tonga in his previous ABC radio interview.- A. Tu'i

What is a true Tongan? What have we inherited? I was born overseas and I was led to believe that the true Tongan was either the monarchy or persons born in Tonga, bred Tongan and lived the Tongan way of life, culturally, socially and traditionally. The motto on the Tongan coat of arms says: "God and Tonga are my inheritance". For many young Tongans the question is, an inheritance to what? - Andrew Fifita J.P.

The controversy over the proposal by government to amend Clause 7 of the Tongan Constitution, giving government the right to make laws to control Freedom of Speech and the media, is dividing the country. Government is not going to win respect by changing the laws, simply because it has been losing its court cases against its critics. We are at the cross roads, in an unfamiliar Twilight Zone. Editor's Comment, by Pesi Fonua (From our Archives 2003).

When the Tonga government’s ban on the Taimi ‘o Tonga newspaper came unstuck in March, it proceeded to draft bills to amend the Constitution and to introduce new legislation to try to regulate the media. From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 18, no. 2, August 2003.

Government has adopted a two-edged approach to its economic reform program. Editor's Comment. From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 17, no. 2, August 2002.

While Tonga’s economy is under pressure from the Reserve Bank, because of a steep dive in the Foreign Reserve; and while the Private Sector and the government are preoccupied with far-sighted new projects in telecommunications, power generation and the marketing of Tongan produce overseas—projects that could secure a place for Tonga in the global economy of the 21st century—Parliament, somehow, has been looking inwards, and preoccupying itself with its internal affairs. From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 15, no. 3, September 2000.

Tonga will be the first country in the world to welcome the Year 2000, at the stroke of midnight on December 31, an hour ahead of any one else.