Calls For Tonga To Rethink Sabbath Observance Laws

Don
Wiseman, RNZ Pacific Senior
Journalist

Concern is mounting in Tonga over the
Sabbath observance laws, which ban many activities on
Sundays.

Most recently, Police Minister Paula Piukala
stopped an air ambulance from coming in, saying there was no
emergency to justify the flight.

The kingdom’s tourism
industry – which is central to its economic recovery – has
long had concerns that many businesses are not allowed to
trade, and about the impact on tourism.

Meanwhile,
Chinese construction workers have had the right to work on
Sundays while completing various projects in the
country.

We asked our Tonga correspondent Kalafi Moala
what prompted the recent concern.

(The transcript
has been edited for brevity and
clarity.)

Kalalfi Moala: There
was a recent incident in which permission was sought from
the police for a medical airplane to land in Tonga,
apparently for some kind of emergency, and the Police
Minister did not allow that because he had made inquiries
with the Minister of Health, and they did not have any
record that there was an health emergency.

That has
become a public issue that had been discussed because the
Minister decided to really emphasise the fact that we do
have Sunday laws in Tonga. It forbids the air travel and
opening of businesses and trading and all that. But of
course, we have always made provision for airplanes to land
for emergencies.

The Minister’s explanation is that,
somehow we had received some kind of information, there were
people who were using that provision to come into Tonga,
whether it is through a yacht or through an airplane for
[illegal] drug delivery purposes. So. that is the excuse and
the discussion goes on.

But there have been calls that
we need to review the Sunday Laws in Tonga because some of
the issues concerning the ban on trading and all of it, is
just a little bit unreasonable, and there is a bit of
hypocrisy associated with that.

For example, stores
are not allowed to open. But you can pay extra money to open
a restaurant, and even bars allowed to open, and different
activities are open. But there is this public emphasis
coming from government leaders that we need to reinforce the
Sunday laws.

Don Wiseman: Well, one of the
critical things, I guess, is Tonga is trying to encourage
its tourism industry, and you need to be trading on a
Sunday, don’t you, for the
tourists?

KM: Correct. Even
the local people are beginning to feel a pinch. They are
feeling their freedom is being encroached upon in certain
things. You know that it needs to be allowed, because in
their thinking, why would an activity like that break the
spirit of the Sunday laws, where people are allowed to go to
church, but the normal operations of government offices and
trading is not allowed.

But it is just getting a
little bit too far, and you’re correct, you cannot have
planes landing in Tonga with tourists coming in, and on
Sunday, there is nothing that is open. They feel like kind
of lost. They have a day wasted in Tonga.

DW:
Well, the stopping of the medivac plane coming in does seem
particularly odd, doesn’t it? It’s coming in, presumably for
an emergency. Even if no one in the hospital seems to know
about it, certainly the police knew about
it?

KM: Yes, it was an odd
situation.

There are no detailed explanations given.
But then, of course, they point out the fact that there has
been a major construction carried out by a Chinese company
in Tonga, and they work on Sundays. They kind of work
secretly, apparently, on Sundays.

So there has been
kind of an uproar on that. Why are they allowed to work on
Sundays? The question has been: what is breaking the Sabbath
Law with these guys that are working away?

It doesn’t
disrupt anything going on in Tonga concerning the Sunday. I
think this discussion is very important for Tonga because
sooner or later we have got, or at least some lawyers or
parliamentarians and the leaders, to sit down and really
take a look at the Sunday laws.

Some reviews need to
be taken. Some adjustment needs to be
made.

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