Calls for Tonga to rethink Sabbath observance laws

Photo: 123rf/ Don Mammoser

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.