Tongan Parliament opens up for public education.

Transcript

The Tongan Parliament has been opened up to the public for the first time in an effort to help people understand how it works.

The Tongan Legislature has partnered with United Nations Development Programme to hold the first "Parliament Week".

The Speaker of the House Lord Fakafanua told Koro Vaka'uta the public have responded well to the initiative.

LORD FAKAFANUA: The reaction has been very positive.  We are trying to educate the public.  We have four functions and we are trying to educate them on the functions of parliament, the role of MPs and also the procedures in parliament.  We're appealing to the public and also to the students, using various surveys and games that they participate in.  It's all very educational.

KORO VAKA'UTA:  You said something new for parliament to be open.  This is all part of the opening up of the various arms of government?

LF: Yes. Well parliament in its nature is supposed to involve more people and members of the public elect people into parliament. That process of having elections and having a member of parliament represent you in the House, that's already been set in stone.  However it needs to be a two-way relationship where people feel like they're engaged by parliament.  We're trying to get people to be more involved and to actually understand how parliament works.  By opening up the parliament a lot of people are coming in this week and have never been into the house or seen what it's all about.  I think by having them more involved and actually feeling and touching and walking into the place they get a better understanding of how the system works and their role they have to play in democracy.  

KV:  Traditionally, what's the interest like in regards to parliament from the people in the community.

LF: Parliament is probably the most popular radio show in Tonga.  We have a massive amounts of interest from the public.  Generally when parliament is sitting you will find that we have total saturation.  You walk into a shop and the proceedings of the house will be playing in the background.  You walk into any area of work, the office is most likely listening to parliament so in terms of how popular parliament is and the level of engagement the people give parliament, it's very high.  It's pretty high and I think that's very common in the Pacific.  What we're trying to achieve is we're trying to educate people on the realities of the House and the constitutional fact behind parliament and it's proceedings so there's no misunderstandings about its procedures.

KV:  This could be the first of more to come?

LF:  I think we're very happy at the feedback that we're receiving so far.  Everyone that comes through the House is given an initial questioning at the start so that we can gauge their level of understanding before they go through the four stations and we survey them at the end and their level of understanding is greatly improved and it's pretty good to see that.

KV:  If there was, in a nutshell, one message you would like people to take away from this week, what would it be?

LF:  It's better to open your doors and be more transparent about how you work and I think it's about time that parliament's opened up to the public because it is a public institution and I think it's something that we will be repeating in the years to come.