'Eseta Fusitu'a

Eseta Fuafolau Vakapuna a Ngu Fusitua, styled Dowager Lady Fusitua is a Tongan former teacher, government official and Cabinet Minister. She was the first Tongan woman to obtain a bachelor's degree.

Early life and education

Eseta Fusituan obtained an undergraduate degree from Auckland University in New Zealand in 1964. A year later she obtained a New Zealand teaching diploma. In 1967 she married Siaosi Alokuoulu Wycliffe Fusitua, a large landowner on Niuafoou island who would be made Lord Fusitua in 1981 and represented the Niuas Nobles' constituency in the Legislative Assembly of Tonga. They had two children. Her husband died in 2014 at the age of 87, from which time she became known as the Dowager Lady Fusitua.

Fusitua was an assistant teacher at Tonga High School from 1965 to 1967, before becoming a member of staff of St. Edmunds College in Canberra as a history teacher in 1973. She stayed there until 1981, in 1976 obtaining a master's degree in history from the Australian National University in Canberra, with a dissertation entitled ''King George Tupou II and the government of Tonga''.

Civil service

Returning to Tonga, Fusitua served in 1982 as deputy secretary to King Tāufaāhau Tupou IV, before being appointed as senior education officer in the Ministry of Education from 1983 to 1990. In 1990, she was appointed as deputy secretary in the Prime Minister's Office and promoted to Deputy Chief Secretary to the Cabinet in 1992. In 2001 she was appointed Chief Secretary to the Cabinet, a position she held until her retirement from the civil service in 2008.

Political career

In 2009, Fusitua served as Deputy Chair of the Constitutional and Electoral Commission. In April 2009, the Prime Minister, Fred Sevele, announced her appointment as Minister for Information and Communication. Under the Tongan government structure, this meant that she also became a member of the 2008 Legislative Assembly. Her term came to an end at the conclusion of the parliamentary term in November 2010.

Controversy

*In July 2010, while serving as minister, it was announced that Fusituan intended to clamp down on the printed media. This was widely seen as an infringement of press freedom and an attempt to manipulate the flow of information in favour of the government.
*In 2015, the government requested that she resign as chair of the Tonga Broadcasting Commission (TBC) because it intended to restructure the country's public enterprises in order to group the 15 enterprises under a smaller number of boards. The intention was that the TBC would be merged with the Tonga Communications Corporation, Tonga Post and Fast Print, which would all share a single board. Fusitua and one other board member, Lady Tunakaimanu Fielakepa, refused to resign, despite a settlement offer from the government, disrupting reform plans and starting a protracted legal battle.

Honours

;National honours
* Order of Queen Sālote Tupou III, Grand Cross (31 July 2008).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fusitua Eseta
Living people
21st-century Tongan women
Tongan nobility
Tongan schoolteachers
Women government ministers of Tonga
Members of the Legislative Assembly of Tonga
University of Auckland alumni
Date of birth missing (living people)
Year of birth missing (living people)
Dames Grand Cross of the Order of Queen Sālote Tupou III
Australian National University alumni