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PM Tu‘i‘onetoa talks with IRL, optimistic about Tonga League’s progress after Covid-19 crisis

By
Kalino Latu
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The government had been drafting Bills in a bid to settle down the long-running dispute within Tonga Rugby League and the International Rugby League (IRL) was made aware of what the government had been doing, Prime Minister Pōhiva Tu’i’onetoa told Kaniva News during an exclusive interview on Friday.

“I hope after Covid-19 we have a good talk about the Sport. And we have contacted IRL on that and IRL understands the government’s intention,” the Prime Minister said.

In Tongan he said: “Ka oku mau lolotonga ngaue pe kimautolu ‘i he Pule’anga ki he Lao Sipoti oku mau tui te ne fakasi’isi’i a e ngaahi fakavaha’avaha’a i he Sipoti a Tonga, o kau ai a e Rugby League… Ko u tui ko e osi a e Covid-19, kuo tau talanoa lelei he Sipoti. Pea na’a mau fetu’utaki pe ki he IRL ‘i he ‘uhinga koia, pea oku mahino pe ki he IRL a e taumu’a a e Pule’anga.”

Meanwhile, the Minister of Internal Affairs Vatau Hui has vehemently denied allegations on Facebook that he has announced the government has set up another new Rugby League Board of its own and proposed it to the IRL.

Hon Hui echoed what the Prime Minister has said saying the government had been working to resolve the issues which have affected the sport for years.

The IRL has expelled the Tonga National Rugby League – which was suspended last October – from membership.

However, IRL later supported processing a new application to reinstate Tonga’s membership.

“As a part of the organisation’s proposed new governance structure, player representation on the board has been introduced and current international player Will Hopoate and former Tonga captain Sika Manu have been elected by the national team squad to take up those positions,” RIF reports.

Will Hopoate stating “I am excited and grateful to be a part of the new Tonga Rugby League board and striving to help the Tongan National team progress as well as building Rugby League in Tonga.”

Sika Manu added “I’m very honoured to be part of the new Tongan Rugby League board and excited to help with the progression of the Tongan Rugby League team and also the development of Rugby League in Tonga.”

IRL Global Operations Manager Danny Kazandjian has welcomed the progress saying;

“The Implementation Committee (IC) has worked diligently and continues to support TMTRL to develop their organisation and to complete their application.

“IRL CEO Nigel Wood has also been in contact with Prime Minister, Hon Pohiva Tu’ionetoa, and IRL would like to thank him and his government for their support and encouragement of this process. The government has committed to working closely with IRL to see the restoration of Tonga to the international rugby league community.

“Despite the world-wide constraints due to COVID-19 we are confident that the implementation committee will be able to conclude this process quickly and the new board representing the whole Tongan rugby League community will take up its position and submit their application for membership of International Rugby League.

“We look forward to seeing rugby league being played in the kingdom and the Tongan national team back in action as soon as circumstances permit.”

Seat belt, texting-while-driving laws proposed, overseas travellers can drive without Tongan driver license

By
Kalino Latu
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Public consultation has started on the Government’s proposed changes and laws to the traffic and land transport requirements.

Two Bills required all passengers wear seat belts while riding in the front seat, and making it an offense if drivers found texting and looking at their phone while operating a motor vehicle.

The Bills included one that would ban heavily tinted front window vehicles to operate on the road.

Although the seat belt Bills would not cover the back seats, it would be an offense if Police found somebody leaning or hanging out of the windows of a moving vehicles, according to the new Bills.

New Zealand, Australia and the United States driver license holders will be allowed to drive in Tonga without a Tongan driver license if they have a current and valid overseas license or driver permit, one of the Bills said.

It has been revealed the Ministry of Infrastructure is expected to install traffic lights for the first time.

The Bills also included one that will see heavy trucks being restricted from certain roads in Central Nuku’alofa.

Lawmakers also wanted control over road maintenance and upkeeps moved from the Ministry of Land and Survey to the Ministry of Infrastructure.

Mad and murderous or co-operative and alive? Tongan students’ story shows castaways can survive  by working together says Dutch author

By
Philip Cass
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What would happen if a group of poorly equipped, hungry, frightened and lost schoolboys washed up on a deserted tropical island?

Would they manage to survive or would they revert to savagery?

In 1954 British author William Goldman published his first novel, Lord of the Flies, which has become one of the classics of 20th century literature.

Set during a future world war, it tells the story of a group of schoolboys who are evacuated from England are being flown to safety when their aeroplane crashes on an uninhabited island in the Pacific.

The boys make plans about helping each to survive and find food, but their society crumples as they become hungry, are driven mad by fear and isolation and become convinced the island is occupied  by a  monster they call The Beast. Eventually they begin to worship a rotting pig’s head and murder each other.

Now Dutch author Rutger Bregman has found a story which he says proves that Lord of The Flies’ grim  fiction needn’t be reality – and it all hinges on six Tongan boarding school students who tried to sail to Fiji.

Just over a decade later, in 1965, six schoolboys, fed up with life in a strict Catholic boarding school in Nuku’alofa, took a boat with a plan to head for Fiji or even all the way to New Zealand.

The boys packed very little – two sacks of bananas, a few coconuts and a small gas burner. They had no maps or compass. Author Rutger Bregman identifies the boys by their first names –  Sione, Stephen, Kolo, David, Luke and Mano.

On their first night at sea they fell asleep and woke to find a storm had blown up, with their sail in shreds and their rudder damaged they drifted for eight days, surviving on two sips of water a day until they reached ‘Ata, an island with a grim history.

Once populated, the island was raided by slave traders who kidnapped 140 local people and took them to Peru. It was believed that some eventually made their way back , but the remaining population of the island was moved to ‘Eua.

Once on the island the boys acted in a manner completely the opposite of the Lord of the Flies’ fictional students. Instead of quarreling and killing each other, they drew up a roster for garden, kitchen and guard duty. Each day began with a song and a prayer. Kolo fashioned a guitar from scarps and they tried building a raft, but it fell apart in the surf,

It barely rained that summer, leaving them dreadfully thirsty. They survived on fish, coconuts, and birds, drinking their blood as well as eating their meat and sucking seabird eggs dry. They eventually reached the top of the island which reaches hundreds of metres above sea level and there they found wild taro, bananas and chickens which had been reproducing  since the last Tongans left.

They stored rainwater in hollowed-out tree trunks, built a gymnasium and a badminton court, chicken pens and kept a permanent fire, all, Bregman writes, “from handiwork, an old knife blade and much determination.’

Eventually, on September 11, 1966, after a year on the island, a passing Australian ship skippered by Captain Peter Warner spotted their signal fire and rescued them. When he managed to contact Nuku’alofa by radio to say he had rescued the boys the radio operator exclaimed: “You found them! These boys have been given up for dead. Funerals have been held. If it’s them, this is a miracle!”

Once they were back in Tonga, things took  a turn for the worse when the owner of the boat they had ‘borrowed’ all those  months before pressed charges and had them jailed. Warner solved the problem by using his connections through his father’s electronics empire and arranged to have a film made about them. He paid off the owner and when the king asked what reward he would like he asked for lobster fishing rights, bought a new fishing boatrawler  and took on the boys as his crew.

The main points

  • What would happen if a group of poorly equipped, hungry and lost schoolboys washed up on a deserted tropical island?
  • Would they manage to survive or would they revert to savagery?

For more information

The real Lord of the Flies: what happened when six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months 

The strange story of Tonga’s lost island of ‘Ata

New book tells story of slave raiders who took Tongans to South America

Liahona High School student found guilty after Tonga College boy stabbed in head during fight

By
Philip Cass
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A Liahona High School student has been found guilty of causing serious bodily harm to a student from Tonga College during a fight in February last year.

The Supreme Court was told that on February 16 he stabbed a student during a fight at Kolofo’ou.

In his report on the case, Judge Niu, presiding, said the Liahona student stabbed Wesley in head, the blow penetrating his skull.

The injured student spent two weeks in hospital during which time the wound was drained and the scalp stitched together. He was then discharged and told he had to take care of his health for two years so the hole in his skull would close up.

However, a year later the injured student said he could still feel the hole in his skull . He said that he could still feel his head throbbing when he ran or exercised, and that if he rubbed the spot on his head where the hole was, he could hear it in his ears like the rubbing of a microphone with one’s finger.

The court was told that the accused would not give evidence and would not call any witness.

Counsel for the defence argued that eyewitness testimony only established that the Liahona student chose to be involved in the fighting and was injured when he collided with the accused.

He said it did not prove beyond reasonable doubt that the accused wilfully and without lawful justification stabbed the complainant in the head with a sharp object.

The Tonga College student said he was standing with the witness and another friend under the south mango tree on Digicel Square at the north-eastern corner of Wellington Road and Taufa’ahau Road when the fight broke out on the road between Narottam store and the Chinese restaurant on Wellington Road.

He said that he saw Tonga College boys in the fight and he ran to where the vehicle he had come on was parked. As he ran between those vehicles, the accused was coming from the east side and they crashed into each other. When they parted from each other, he felt blood spurting from his head and flowing down his face. He said he fell down and another boy led him away to the market from where the police took him to hospital,

While he was at the hospital,  the accused also arrived at the hospital to treat a cut which he had sustained to his hand. He said that he told the police the accused was the one who had injured him.

The police then arrested the accused and asked him what he had done to him. He said the accused did not speak, just held up his hand above his head and moved it from the back to the front and then downwards in a stabbing manner. He said that the accused was also mumbling something unintelligible. He said that the police then took the accused away.

He said that he was still wearing the cap and that it had a hole in it where the injury to his head was. The police took the cap with them as evidence.

“Considering all those evidence, I am satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the complainant received the injury which he sustained when he came into collision with the accused

“Defence counsel did not  question or challenge the complainant about that evidence.

“I must accept it as an admission by the accused that he had caused the injury.

“Accordingly, I find the accused guilty.”

Homicide Investigation launched after Ngele‘ia man dies

By
Kalino Latu
-

A homicide investigation is underway after a 27-year-old Ngele’ia man died in Vaiola hospital yesterday.

Police was called to a residence at Haveluloto on Saturday morning 9 May, where a man was found critically injured.

Police rushed him to hospital, and he passed away on Sunday, 10 May 2020.

A 37-year-old man was arrested from the scene on Saturday and have been charged with murder and is currently under police custody.

This is the first homicide for the year.

Police investigation continues.

Will a domestic airline ever fly again – and how long before it is bankrupt asks Prime Minister

By
Kalino Latu and Philip Cass
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Prime Minister Pōhiva Tu’i’onetoa said asking whether the government was going to start its own airline was the wrong question.

“It should be asked whether a domestic aircraft will fly again in the kingdom or not,” Hon. Tu’i’onetoa said.

“And if it flies how long before it is bankrupt just like the airlines in the past?”

The Prime Minister’s statement came after Real Tonga CEO Tevita Palu told Kaniva News the government had confirmed it would operate its own domestic airline.

During his interview with Kaniva News, the Prime Minister did not explicitly deny Palu’s statement.

Hon. Tu’i’onetoa said Real Tonga’s 33-seat Saab 340 had been damaged in a bird strike. He said Palu had told him replacing the damaged engine would cost US$3 million. It would take three months for it to reach Tonga. Palu had asked for the government to guarantee a US$3 million loan from Tonga Development Bank.

The  Y12 and MA60, which were given to Tonga  by China in 2013,  will be returned to the government. Lord Tu’ivakano’s government leased them to Real Tonga which caused Chatham Pacific to withdrew from Tonga.

“At the time it was preached that domestic airfares would be cheaper because of the free aircraft from China,” the Prime Minister said.

“After seven years more problems emerged, worse than before Chatham Pacific left.

“There were no cheap seats and Real Tonga still owes huge debts to government. “

He said there was one aircraft that could fly to ‘Eua, but not  Ha’apai and Vava’u.

“The MA60 cannot be operated because it has been stationary for a long time and Real Tonga cannot afford to pay for its Certificate of Airworthiness to allow it to fly,” the Prime Minister said.

It was estimated it would cost millions before it could fly again. It could not fly in the next 12 months. The Y12 had 18 or 19 seats, but only 11 seats could be used. It needed some parts from Australia  before it can fly. It needed two to three weeks for parts to arrive.

“You asked me what is the government’s plan for its airline?” the Prime Minister said.

“After you look at the conditions I have stated above, do you think someone would be willing to be involved in operating an airline if he had a sensible mind?

“There have been a lot of accusations on the internet, but the fact is this is not a simple issue.

“No one wanted to invest in this operation.

“The government does not want to take away an opportunity that should have been given to someone else. The government has heaps of duties to do.

“From the government’s point of view the domestic service is required for the people, but it has still drowned in troubles since the beginning and it was not just Tevita Palu.

“The government did it before with its Royal Tongan Airline. I was the Auditor General at the time. The first time I saw its balance sheet it was really, really, bad.”

Real Tonga

As Kaniva News reported last week, Real Tonga has asked the Tongan government for financial support after being crippled by the Covid-19 lockdown.

The Prime Minister said a Cabinet committee had been set up to look at the  best option for the future.

The committee had offered two options; one for the government to keep operating Real Tonga either on its own or in partnership with the existing management; or to hand over air operations to somebody else.

Real Tonga is the last in a long line of airlines in Tonga to face financial difficulties.

People are now using ferries to travel between the islands.

Tonga government reportedly “approved to set up national airline,” says Real Tonga CEO Tēvita Palu

By
Kalino Latu
-

The government has reportedly decided to set up its own new domestic airline, Real Tonga CEO Tevita Palu told Kaniva News this morning.

“Cabinet approved to set up national airline as per PM and Ministers,” he said.

The decision comes after senior staff and pilots at Real Tonga had been laid off following a dramatic drop in revenue amid the Covid-19 crisis and its subsequent restrictions.

It also comes after a Cabinet select committee reviewed a proposal by these pilots for the government  to set up an airline so they could have jobs to do.

Palu said Real Tonga’s lease of the government Chinese MA60 is being processed to be terminated.

Real Tonga also leased government’s Y12 and that lease is being terminated, Palu said.

“Both aircraft returning to government,” he said.

He said Real Tonga will  continue to operate the SAA340 and BN2 aircraft.

He also confirmed his engineers were currently fixing one of its aircraft which was forced to return to Vava’u airport Wednesday morning after striking a bird shortly after take-off.

The Prime Minister’s office had been contacted for comment.

As Kaniva News reported last week, the Prime Minister said the government was still reviewing a proposal to set up its airline.

“It is important for the nation to know that the government does not take this lightly,” the Prime Minister said.

“The expense for operating an airline is huge and none of the previous airline operators in Tonga made any profit whatsoever.

“However, the service is required for the people.”

He said after seven years in business Real Tonga still faced problems and had approached the government for help.

Tongan father in US fighting for his life in ICU after testing positive for COVID-19; wife asking for prayers

By
Kalino Latu
-

A Tongan family in Salt Lake City, United States, was asking for prayers for a loved one who is hospitalised after contracting COVID-19.

Lotomo’ua Tu’akalau said her husband, Lelea Tu’akalau, was on a ventilator to help him breathe at the hospital’s intensive care unit. She did not name the hospital.

“While we are terrified, we are hopeful for healing. I am pleading for your prayers at this time. I am thankful for friends in times like this,” Lotomo’ua told Kaniva News.

“I love you so much Lelea Kivailahi keep fighting Lelea,” she wrote on Facebook.

“This is a hardest time for me and my family, my husband Lelea Tuakalau tested Positive for the Coronavirus he is in the hospital ICU.”

She said she took her kids to get tested too and they were still waiting for the results.

“Please family pray for us.”

The Tu’akalaus’ case comes after another  US-Tongan based mother Sloane Tai Finau has called for people to take the Covid-19 virus seriously after family members in the United States were diagnosed positive.

Finau’s daughter and partner are ill.

“If any of you are feeling unwell, go and get tested,” she said.

Coronavirus: Social distancing measures breached as Parliamentarians sit and stand close together

By
Kalino Latu
-

While most of the world practises social-distancing measures to curb the spread of Covid-19, the Tongan parliamentarians have been spotted sitting and standing side by side.

A photo published by the government’s website gov.to yesterday, appears to show the Cabinet Ministers and Members of Parliament were not observing social-distancing measures.

The photo was likely taken after the Parliament’s 2020 / 2021 session opening ceremony.

Ironically, the king did not join the MPs in Parliament at yesterday’s opening ceremony because he wanted to keep the Covid-19 restrictions measures in place.

His Majesty delivered his opening speech through a livestreamed video from the palace.

The government repeatedly announced and reminded the public to observe social distancing by staying at least 1.5 metres apart.

A Ministry of Education statement released last week to announce the government’s students free bus fare package said:

“A high number of buses are being utilised for transportation to ensure that social distancing is reasonably practiced as per direction from the Ministry of Health.”

Last month, Tonga Police have arrested 568 people since a state of emergency was declared on 28 March to try and counter Covid-19.

357 of those arrested had allegedly breached the lockdown rules or obstructed officers.

There have been no confirmed Covid-19 cases in Tonga.

Parliament’s Chief Clerk had been contacted for comment.

Overloaded ship was carrying 356 passengers, Supreme Court told; judge concerned by ‘integrity and security’ of ferry service

By
Kalino Latu
-

The Supreme Court is considering seizing a vessel involved in a charge of overloading.

‘Evona ‘Akau, stood indicted on one count of permitting a ship to proceed to sea carrying excess passengers.

The court was told that on January 9  at ‘Ohonua, ‘Eua, ‘Akau acted as Master of MV ‘Onemato, and permitted the ship to put to sea carrying 365 passengers.

The ship was licensed to carry 150 passengers in daylight.

Mr Justice Cato, presiding, said he was concerned by the safety of ferry’s operation and the way it was managed.

The vessel is owned by Eua Sea Transportation Council Cooperative Society Ltd.

He described the case as an important public issue for the people of Eua who depended on the ferry.

The company’s business license was cancelled on April 1 2019. The company had  reapplied for a license in the name of Eua Ferry Service Management Board the previous year.

The judge said he was considering forfeiture of the vessel to the Crown and would seek submissions on whether forfeiture was a mandatory provision arguments for and against the procedure.

He invited the Director for Public Prosecutions to appear for sentencing.

‘Akau took over as captain from Sione Pateta who left the ship at Eua following a disagreement with the manager.

The ‘Onemato left at 9.30pm, several hours later than scheduled due to mechanical faults and the need to find a suitably qualified first mate.

The judge said there had been no complaint about the way the ship was sailed or any aspect aside from the fact that it was carrying a much greater number of passengers than its Certificate of Survey allowed.

When the ship arrived in Nuku’alofa the Ports authority Officer, Mr Senituli Lavaka, saw that the ship was overloaded. He counted the passengers as they came off and noted 356 passengers.

The court was presented with a timesheet made out by  Semisi Napa’a who was the officer employed by the Marine department to oversee departures from Eua.

The document falsely claimed the ship was carrying 150 passengers and that it left at 2.45pm. It was also signed with a false name. ’Akau did not counter-sign the document as Master of the vessel.

Mr Justice Cato aid that he inferred that ’Akau did not sign the document because he know it was false. He said it ‘Akau’s responsibility to make sure the correct number of passengers was carried and rejected his claims that he could not see into the passenger area.

“ I reject his evidence beyond any reasonable doubt that he did not know that an excess of passengers were being unlawfully carried on the ship,” the judge said.

“Accordingly I find being the Master of the ship he permitted it to proceed to sea carrying an excessive number of passengers. I find him guilty of this offence, and he is convicted.”

The judge said he was concerned that information about the company appeared to be missing from the public register.

“The excess of passengers was so great on this voyage in waters acknowledged to be dangerous at times and at night that I am very concerned at the safety of this operation, and the management of it,” the judge said.

“The fact I know so little about the ownership and the circumstances of this offending concerns me as to the integrity and security of this operation. I considering forfeiture of the vessel to the Crown.”

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