After all efforts had failed to find a solution to a three week old strike by Tonga's civil service, King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV joined over 5,000 people at the Teufaiva Stadium on Sunday evening to pray for a solution.

Organised by Tonga's church leaders the gathering, which filled the stadium seating and spilled over into the sports field, was the largest since the strike began on July 22.

While the king's government remains at loggerheads with the strikers, the new image of the king's nephew Prince Tu'ipelehake as the People's Prince was further confirmed at Teufaiva yesterday. When he walked onto the stage to read a verse from the bible, the crowd spontaneously started clapping and some were whistling, almost forgetting that it was a Sunday service.

The Teufaiva service was the first direct involvement by church leaders in this national crisis, which has seen the strike close down government schools and paralyse government ministries, including the hospitals.

It followed Friday's defiant show down between strikers and police after the Cabinet ordered the Police to stop the strikers from entering Pangai Si'i, a mala'e in the middle of Nuku'alofa where they had been meeting daily since July 25.

The Cabinet order was overturned by the Land Court on Saturday August 13, when Chief Justice Webster ordered the Government of Tonga to refrain from removing the public from Pangai Si'i.

The atmosphere as hundreds of people gathered on the road outside Pangai Si'i on Saturday was hot with the sun and from a number of fiery speeches that were made as they anxiously awaited the Chief Justice's decision. But Prince Tu'ipelehake arrived and took the microphone, appealing for the crowd to remain calm saying that if the Chief Justice's decision was unacceptable to them, then they should please give him one more chance to try and let them use Pangai Si'i and not to defy the police cordon again, as they had on Friday. Prince Tu'iplehake a Noble's Representative to the Legislature, had earlier led a march of strikers to hand a petition outlining their grievances and demands to the king.

He also appealed for the strikers to attend the Sunday service at Teufaiva Stadium.

Counter proposal

Meanwhile, at Pangai Si'i today, Monday August 15, the Public Service Association strikers were waiting for a response from Cabinet to a counter proposal they made on Friday in answer to the King's response to their petition for government to bring in an independent auditor to assess the situation.

The complex counter proposal from the PSA, contained 12 points, including a proposal to bring in an "umpire" who could judge an arbitration from two arbitrators to be mutually appointed - one to assess the government and one to assess the PSA positions.