Teuila
Fuatai, RNZ Pacific senior journalist
The
head of Tonga’s Women and Children’s Crisis Centre (WCCC)
says too many important issues are being decided without
enough female representation in the country’s
parliament.
WCCC director Ofa Guttenbeil-Likiliki said
for the past 70 years, only seven women have been elected as
people’s MPs.
“To me, that’s not progress – that’s a
national concern.”
Tongans are due to cast their
ballots in the general election next Wednesday, 20 November.
Of the 71 candidates vying to be one of 17 people’s
representatives in parliament, just eight are
women.
The nobles have a separate election process,
which results in nine nobles’ representatives to
parliament.
Guttenbeil-Likiliki said the drop in
women’s participation in elections in the past 10 years was
concerning.
“After 2005, women’s participation in
elections has…never really truly stabilised. It’s gone up
and down, but overall, it’s trending downward.
“When
compared against the total number of registered candidates,
it’s quite alarming.”
She said the lack of progress on
two key issues showed why women were needed to champion
women’s rights in parliament.
“One of them is the
parliament have actually unanimously endorsed the
redefinition of rape in our legislation in terms of a
bill.
“The current definition of rape is limited to
penile penetration, which sees all other forms of rape as
indecent assault and has a much lesser penalty.”
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The
bill was now sitting with the Privy Council of Tonga, which
was the final step before it received Royal Assent from the
Monarch, currently King Tupou VI.
“But it’s been three
years now so it would be good to get government support to
see what Privy Council requires – whether it’s information
or peer-to-peer, high level dialogue to get that endorsed by
the King,” Guttenbeil-Likiliki said.
The second,
long-running issue was women’s land rights, she
said.
Currently, women cannot hold titles to property
in Tonga. Whereas males, according to the Land Act, are
entitled to two pieces of land – a tax and town allotment –
when they turn 16. A tax allotment is usually about eight
and one-quarter acres and used for growing crops. A town
allotment is a much smaller land parcel, intended for a
house.
A report from the Royal Land Commission,
completed in 2012, examined women’s land rights, alongside a
range of land law issues.
It recommended the law be
changed so that women be allowed to apply for a town
allotment when they turn 21. It also recommended the age for
land eligibility for Tongan males be raised to
21.
Guttenbeil-Likiliki suspected the report had been
“collecting dust” on a shelf somewhere.
“All the
governments leading up to the current one haven’t addressed
some of the key recommendations coming out of that
report.”
She added that the lack of land ownership
options for women had contributed to Tonga’s brain
drain.
“A lot of women choose to leave Tonga if they
do not have access to land through a husband who is the heir
of a piece of land and has a registered title. If they don’t
have access via that way, or via their father in terms of
leasing the land – because women can lease land – then they
opt to leave Tonga for further opportunities.
“And
that’s quite sad. This is an issue that we’re looking at
this new government to prioritise,” she said.
No women
were elected to parliament in the previous 2021 election.
However current health minister, Dr Ana Akau’ola, was
appointed to her position from outside parliament at the
beginning of the year by King Tupou
VI.
Guttenbeil-Likiliki said fair representation of
women in parliament was critical to Tonga’s overall
progress.
“We bring different lived experiences, but
that difference is not symbolic. It’s practical, it’s real,
and… it changes the kinds of questions we ask, the kind of
policies we prioritise and the human realities behind the
laws we pass.”
Young people
‘disengaged’
Meanwhile, the Civil Society Forum of
Tonga was hoping younger voters turn out at the
polls.
The NGO has recently finished a national,
six-week civic education drive that focused on increasing
awareness, particularly among younger community
members.
Interim executive director Sesimani Lokotui
said some as young as age 12 attended sessions, which were
part of a programme run with Balance of Power, Tupou
Tertiary Institute and Tonga Electoral Commission.
“A
lot of [younger people] were not interested because they
feel disengaged, disconnected,” Lokotui said.
“They
just feel very out of place because they don’t know where
and how their role leads international
development.
“But once you’ve once you’ve pointed it
out, it’s very easy for things to fall into
place.”
She believed the six-week programme showed how
civic education could increase voter engagement.
On
polling day, voting stations for the general public are due
to open at 9am and close at 4pm.
The nobles voting
process is due to take place at 10am to midday on the same
day.
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