Tonga awaits king’s next move after prime minister flies to remote island to make apology

Tonga awaits king’s next move after prime minister flies to remote island to make apology
  • PublishedMarch 24, 2024

On a remote island known for its whales and white sand beaches, the future of Tonga’s government rests in the hands of its king.

The eyes of the Tongan public will settle this week on Vava’u, a tourist hotspot in the Pacific nation’s north, where King Tupou VI will make the next move in a tense political stand-off.

He will meet there on Thursday with his advisers, known as the Privy Council — their first meeting since a recent traditional apology from Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni, who drew the anger of the nobility for defying the king’s wish that he resign one of his ministries.

A whale flips its tale out of the water while people in a nearby boat watch.
Vava’u is a popular destination for its whale watching, but this week it will be the venue of a crucial meeting between Tonga’s king and his advisers.(Supplied: clr_flickr/Flickr)

While the prime minister’s gesture brought visible relief to the public, it remains anyone’s guess what agreement he and his ministers reached with the palace.

Tongans hope the meeting on Vava’u will shed light on the country’s way out of its political impasse.

But for some in the kingdom, the rupture shows a need to clarify the king’s role in its politics, nearly 15 years after democratic reforms that dramatically shrank the power of the monarch.

And some experts say the nation’s leaders should turn to tradition — not the courts — to end the stand-off.

An uneasy relationship

It was a tearful Mr Sovaleni who defended himself while under pressure from furious nobles to follow the king’s wishes in Tonga’s parliament last month.

“I am truly sorry if my actions say otherwise. It’s all my fault,” he said.

“But by all means there is no intention to stand against the king.

“I not only speak my respect to his majesty. I live it.”

Mr Sovaleni had drawn rebuke from nobles sitting in the parliament, after he pushed back against a Privy Council letter advising he no longer had the confidence and consent of King Tupou VI to be Tonga’s defence minister.

Tongan prime minister Siaosi Sovaleni, wearing a yellow, black and orange island shirt speaks at a microphone.
Tongan Prime Minister Siaosi Sovaleni has been under pressure from the country’s king and nobles to resign as defence minister.(Supplied: Department of Defence)

The government had also defied the king’s wish for the foreign minister, Fekita ‘Utoikamanu, to resign and argued the letter was violating the constitution.

Tensions spilled over in parliament in late February. Nobles, who hold nine of its 26 seats, demanded the prime minister respect the monarch’s wishes.

Pacific politics expert Malakai Koloamatangi said the falling out reflected an ongoing tension between Tonga’s monarchy and government.

“It has not been an easy relationship to say the least,” he said.

“Particularly when you consider that the monarch … holds pre-eminence in the political system on two platforms: one as the constitutional monarch, but secondly, also as the head of state with his cultural powers as the father figure, if you like, for the nation.

“So the tension between that, and the actual government process has not been easy to resolve.”

Before 2010, the monarch was both head of government and head of state.

They appointed prime ministers and ministers. Privy councillors, who are advisers to the monarch, were members of the cabinet and of the legislative assembly.

A white and red palace
The royal palace in Tonga’s capital Nuku’alofa.(ABC News: Nick Sas)

Reforms adopted under the king’s predecessor and brother, King Tupou V, changed that by allowing democratically elected MPs and giving them power to choose the prime minister.

But the king holds onto some powers.

Among them, he can dissolve parliament, heads the armed forces, and retains a role in Tonga’s foreign affairs.

Nuku’alofa resident ‘Ungatea Fonua Kata said the recent tensions were a sign of the “grey areas” left by the 2010 reforms when it came to executive power.

“Those are now the issues that we must address, 14 years later.”

‘Blunting the sharp edges’

Of the many unanswered questions for the public is King Tupou VI’s reasons for withdrawing his confidence in Mr Sovaleni and Ms ‘Utoikamanu as ministers.

While it’s still unknown what brought on the king and Privy Council’s actions, Dr Koloamatangi believes a traditional approach is a better way to resolve the impasse, rather than a legal stoush over constitutional law.

He said the best course of action was to seek an audience with the king and to talk about his concerns, using traditional forms of dialogue.

“The beauty of any culture is that culture tends to blunt the sharp edges of tension,” Dr Koloamatangi said.

“It looks to me like, maybe it’s not a constitutional issue in the black and white sense, I think it’s more probably a political issue.

“And we don’t know what the interests are, that are involved in this.”

In the northern-most stretches of Tonga, on the volcanic island of Niuafo’ou, Mr Sovaleni and a group of ministers made such a bid to clear the air this month.

It was a month after they received the letter expressing the king’s lack of confidence.

The ministers arrived to make a traditional apology — known as Hu Louifi, a part of Tongan custom letting people say sorry and show respect to the monarch.

They sat on the ground, and to the public’s surprise, the king joined them there instead of taking a chair. Later, he put on lunch for them.

To make the traditional apology, people wear leaves from the ifi tree and offer something to sacrifice.

The Tongan public was relieved to see photos of the apology on social media, but they could only speculate about what was sacrificed — including whether it was the prime minister’s grip on the defence portfolio.

Tonga's prime minister Siaosi Sovaleni and ministers wearing black and having lunch at a table.
Tonga’s prime minister Siaosi Sovaleni and ministers have lunch after making a traditional apology to King Tupou VI on Niuafo’ou island.(Supplied: Penisimani Tonga)

Some Tongans had also disapproved of the way the government expressed its defiance of the king publicly.

Tevita Motulalo, a Nuku’alofa resident, said the government should have kept its reply to the Privy Council’s letter private.

“To take a grandstanding position … rather than communicating directly with the Privy Council and his majesty was to me the first mistake,” he said.

Pacific Security College deputy director and expert in Tonga politics Henry Ivarature said that judging by reaction on social media, there was wide approval of the apology.

“That could have probably solved the problem sooner rather than later,” he said.

All eyes on the king

If some Tongans disapproved of the government’s handling of the crisis, there are others who believe the episode raises questions about the role of the monarch.

At the height of the tensions, members of the public expressed concerns that the king’s actions threatened to unwind democratic reforms.

Opposition MP Mateni Tapueluelu said the episode had one silver lining.

“People are thinking about the constitution and its true implication,” he said.

“The majority of the people are really just talking about the need to really define the role of the king and the role of cabinet in order to bring about a more stable government.”

He has proposed a parliamentary committee to discuss political issues, including the form of elections in Tonga.

“It appears that there is a general concern about political reform in Tonga in 2010, and its suitability for Tonga in this modern era,” Mr Tapueluelu said.

Dr Ivarature said the recent crisis showed King Tupou VI would take an interest in the affairs of state, and be willing to express his displeasure.

“I think he will continue to play a bigger role in the affairs of the modern state,” he said.

“And I think the process of reforms will have to continue, to really help clarify where the monarch’s role is.”

The ABC contacted the prime minister and the Privy Council for comment.

No matter what happens in the Privy Council meeting on Vava’u this Thursday, people like ‘Ungatea Fonua Kata remain hopeful about Tonga’s political future.

She believes Tonga will grow more democratic, and that more measures to hold power to account will emerge.

“We are quite relatively new to democracy,” she said.

She likened episodes like this to labour pains for Tonga.

“These are the things that we will have to go through, because they don’t just happen overnight — changes to political systems and attitudes and beliefs, they will have to go through a process,” she said.

“Tonga is going through that process.

“Whether it is a well thought-out process is something that is to be questioned.”

SOURCE: ABCNEWS

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