In the run-up to New Year’s Eve, Kaniva News looks back on the good news from 2016 and the achievements of Tongans around the world.
In this series of reports, we contniue to bring you the highlights of the best stories from each month so you can follow them through the year. You can read the first and the second parts here.
- April
Recruiting centenary
This year ANZAC Day commemorated the centenary of two important events during the First World War – the Battle of the Somme and the arrival of a New Zealand army recruiting team in Tonga.
The Tongans were among many Pacific islanders who served in the New Zealand, Australian, or French armed forces during the First World War.
Most of the initial volunteers from Tonga were Europeans or part-Europeans who joined the British, New Zealand or Australian armies.
In 1916, a recruiting team visited Tonga and persuaded a number of men to sign up.
Many volunteers from Tonga served with Maori or Cook Islands units.
Hardship give hope
A Tongan graduate from the Martin Hautus Institute in Auckland said growing up in poverty and the lessons she learned at the ʻUnuaki ʻo Tonga Institute were the forces that drove her to graduate.
Keylani Lisa Marie Hale Savieti, 27, graduated with a Diploma in Information Technology and will continue her studies at the Whitireia New Zealand Institute in May.
She hopes to graduate with a BA in 2018.
Savieti said her success was driven by coping with the huge challenges she faced from the moment she arrived in New Zealand in January last year.
“It was difficult, but I know that’s how life is and I have to bear in my mind our little island and how people are brought up there in poverty,” Savieti said.
Court restores land
The Land Court has overturned an attempt by the Minister of Lands to take away a block of land that was given to a New Zealand-based Tongan 18 years ago and give it to another man.
In February 1997 Havea Folau was allocated land belonging to the estate of Noble Ma’afu, the father of the present title holder and Minister of Lands.
In his decision, the president of the Land Court, O.G.Paulsen, said he was satisfied that the land was allocated to Mr Folau, based on the evidence of the procedures followed at the time.
Mr Paulsen said the Minister had no power to cancel the grant or to make a grant of the land to somebody else.
PM turns 75
The man who led the fight to bring democracy to Tonga has turned 75.
Born on April 7, 1941, Samuela ʻAkilisi Pōhiva has dedicated much of his life to politics and his endeavor to allow the people to have their say and run the government.
A look at his family and political life shows a fearless man with great courage, bravery and determination.
In his political campaigns Pōhiva has maintained that the king and the royals would be more loved and respected if they gave up their powers as rulers and became only honorary figures.
Pōhiva’s political career can be traced back into 1976 when he attended the University of the South Pacific in Fiji.
He became Tonga’s first commoner Prime Minister in December, 2014.
Pope calls for tolerance
Pope Francis has called for more tolerance of gays in a groundbreaking document.
While he made clear that the Catholic Church’s official line on homosexuality had not changed, he said the Church should be more open to gay people and deal with them respectfully.
Quite how his comments will be received by the Catholic community in Tonga is yet to be seen.
Last year Radio New Zealand International reported that Cardinal Mafi had said he would not support the government signing the United Nations’ Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) because he thought it conflicted with the Church’s beliefs on same sex marriage and abortion.
Issues of women clergy and homosexuality have already threatened to split the Anglican Communion and the acceptance of gay clergy caused many Tongans to leave the Methodist Church in New Zealand.
Press freedom
Journalists working in Tonga enjoy more press freedom than their counterparts in the United Kingdom or the United States, according to a new report from Reporters Sans Frontiers.
And the rise in press freedom has coincided with the country’s introduction of democratic elections, according to RSF.
The World Press Freedom Index, placed Tonga 37th out of 180 countries. That represented a seven point rise over the RSF’s 2015 survey.
Last year Tonga rose 19 places to 44th on the global listing
- May
Prayer and picking berries
Prayer, determination and five years of picking berries led young Tongan barrister Elleanor Manu to graduate from the University of Waikato and to be admitted to the High Court of New Zealand.
Manu graduated with a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) and a BA in Social Science, majoring in Political Science.
Because she failed her earlier course in Health Science she had to fund her law studies and with the help of her family, paid her way through university by picking berries.
“We have done this as a family annually and it has been a blessing in disguise for me seeing the hand of God move in our life,” her mother Nanuma said..
The last and final picking season was just before Elleanor’s admission to the High Courts.
College anniversary
Preparations for Tupou College’s 150th anniversary, which began in Nuku’alofa on June 17 united ex-students from various schools and members of different churches.
The Secretary of the Tupou College Alumni in New Zealand, Moi Kaufononga, told Kaniva News it was a blessing for them to see the celebration will be celebrated not just by the Tupou College alumni and the Free Wesleyans.
Kaufononga described the unification as “warming” and “congenial.”-
- June
Chinese tourists
Chinese tourists will no longer need a visa to visit Tonga.
China joined a long list of countries whose citizens do not require a visa to visit the island kingdom if they are staying for less than 30 days.
A visa is not required for most bona-fide visitors to enter Tonga for stays of one month or less, providing that the visitor holds a valid passport and an onward air or sea ticket and the immigration authorities are satisfied that the visitor has adequate funds for the visit.
Economic growth
Tonga could look forward to economic growth of three percent a year for the next three years, according to the kingdom’s 2016-17 budget.
The government said preparations for the 2019 Pacific Games, along with number of other large projects, would support further growth.
According to the Budget Statement 2016-17, growth would be supported in the short term by a number of major events and building projects, including the Tupou College 150th anniversary and the Mormon church’s centenary.
Boxer remembers Ali
World heavyweight boxing champion Mohammed Ali, who died this month, gave Tongan boxer Paea Wolfgramme some advice he never forgot.
Following the news of Ali’s death Wolfgramme, who became the first Tongan to win an Olympic medal, recalled how he met Ali, the greatest boxer of the 20th century.
“That boyish, handsome face I had grown up was now a still, unmoving, mask,” Wolfgramme said.
“His mouth famous for never stopping, now hardly moved. He said: “Get yourself a jab…you can’t fight without it.”
— to be continued
