Tonga King's move to control foreign affairs 'a step backwards'

RNZ News

2 days ago

Tonga's King Tupou VI and Queen Nanasipau'u at their coronation in 2015.
Photo:
Supplied / PMN
There are growing concerns in Tonga about the King's plan to remove oversight of a critical ministry from democratic control and place it under the Palace Office.
King Tupou VI has never made any secret of his desire to maintain authority over the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. His son, Crown Prince Tupouto'a 'Ulukalala, is the current Foreign Affairs Minister.
Last week, the Tongan Legislative Assembly passed laws to transfer the Ministry, now known as His Majesty's Diplomatic Service, to the administration of the Palace Office.
However, on Thursday, Tonga's Democratic Party presented a petition to the Palace Office calling on the King to reconsider his decision.
Teisa Pohiva Cokanasiga, the youngest daughter of the Tongan democracy campaigner and late Prime Minister Akilisi Pohiva, is now leader of the Friendly Islands Democratic Party (PTOA).
(This transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity.)
Teisa Pohiva Cokanasiga:
First of all, the change was made by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the bill was submitted by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, who is His Royal Highness Crown Prince Tupouto'a 'Ulukalala, both from Cabinet to the Legislative Assembly to parliament, and it was passed through parliament.
So what I understand, is that it is now on its way to the Privy Council, which is chaired by His Majesty, of course, for the completion of the process, which is to obtain his royal assent.
Now in terms of the position of the pro-democracy Friendly Islands Democracy Party, we are completely against it. This is a major step backwards from the democratic reform that we have started in the 2000 to 2010 constitutional amendments.
In my opinion, we are already well on our way towards a fully democratic government for Tonga, but this bill is a step backwards. Simply put, for our democracy, it is a fundamental change to the structure of this ministry and the structure of government.
We are going back to how it was before the change in 2010.
King Tupou VI (L) officially appoints 'Aisake Eke as Tonga's prime minister
Photo:
Prime Minister's Office
Don Wiseman: How do you operate a government when a key ministry, and Foreign Affairs is one of the most important ministries, how do you operate that from a different location, different management, all of that?
TPC:
That is a good question, and I think this act is not effective yet, so the current position is still maintained.
There is a Ministry of Foreign Affairs under the leadership of a Minister appointed by the people and nobles elected PM. Now there's also a secretary for foreign affairs, appointed by the King. The legal basis for that, I am not sure of.
Now we have two masters, if I may say, there is the secretary playing the role of a CEO appointed by the King, and there is a minister appointed by the Prime Minister. So there is a tug of war going on within this ministry.
For me, the step forward would have been for the Ministry to be governed the same as other ministries in government - to have a minister and a CEO appointed through the Public Service Commission Act.
Instead of letting the ministry operate fully under the control of the Minister and the Prime Minister in Cabinet. We are going backwards, taking everything back to the King instead of Cabinet.
DW: The King, of course, has made it very clear from back when your dad was prime minister, he wanted more control over Foreign Affairs. He did it again with the last government, and then this government just rolled over, and the legislation's now there. So what do you think is going to happen following the election later this year.
TPC:
If we just take it one step at a time, we are hopeful that this petition would have some sort of effect.
We are hoping that the King would reconsider giving his royal assent to this Act, and for government to restart the process on this Act...basically get public consultation on this, because the fear on the ground is that there is a lot of people who are not happy with this act.
We are also not happy with our representatives in parliament. So there may be some impact of this on how people see our current representatives in parliament and how they perform.
I am hoping that this would send a clear message to the voters of Tonga on the need for voting for people who can oppose bad acts, in my opinion, such as this.