By Pesi Fonua

In a marathon press conference lasting nearly four hours yesterday, Tonga’s Prime Minister Hon. ‘Akilisi Pohiva tried to defend his decision to retain a self-confessed corrupted Cabinet Minister, ‘Etuate Lavulavu, as his Minister of Tourism.

The PM called the December 4 Press Conference at noon at the Fa’onelua Convention Centre, but his agenda was a mystery until it began. Then the Prime Minister told the gathered media he wanted to correct some errors in the Prime Minister’s Office official statements.

He clarified that his decision to retain Lavulavu as a Cabinet Minister referred to Clause 51 of Constitution (Executive authority of Cabinet) and not Clause 41 (King’s Powers). The PM also reaffirmed his conviction that he, himself, had made a fairer decision than if the impeachment of Lavulavu had proceeded as stipulated under Clause 75 of the Constitution (Impeachment trial –Chief Justice shall preside).

The Press Conference, however, turned into a four hour session when we were joined by the Minister of Finance, Hon. ‘Aisake Eke who had been listening to the radio broadcast from the Fa’onelua Centre.

‘Aisake heard on the radio a claim that shortfalls by his ministry had also contributed to the Prime Minister’s decision to suspend Lavulavu as the Minister of Infrastructure for five months, while retaining him as a Minister of Tourism.

Members of the Press were eager for the Minister of Finance to join the Prime Minister at the front, but the Prime Minister preferred to finish his presentation before the Minister of Finance was allowed to speak.

Issues

On top of the PM’s Press Conference agenda was a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and a Code of Conduct for members of a Cabinet that members of his political party, the Democratic Party of the Friendly Islands had to sign to become a member.

Next on his agenda was a correction on (the constitutional reference to) his decision to retain Hon. ‘Etuate Lavulavu after the accused Minister had cried and pleaded guilty in Parliament for corruption as a Cabinet Minister.

With regards to Lalvulavu’s case the PM insisted that he could make a fairer decision using his power as Prime Minister rather than following what is stipulated under Clause 75 of the Constitution – in spite of the facts that Lavulavu had pleaded guilty, the Standing Committee of the House had concluded that there was a case for impeachment, and there was evidence of the mishandling of government funds.

Using metaphors to downplay Lavulavu’s offence, he said that the penalty for a person who is found guilty for “trespassing” should not be the same as that for a person who is guilty for “assault”.

He also raised the fact that the Ministry of Finance had paid for some of the disputed vouchers that were presented to them by the contractors that were contracted by the Ministry of Infrastructure under Lavulavu.

He claimed that the petition for impeachment was very destructive, and that it was based on “anger, hatred, and malice” and for all those reasons he claimed that he passed a fairer decision, than if Lavulavu was allowed to be impeached as stipulated under Clause 75 of the Constitution in a trial presided by the Chief Justice.

Climate change

The rest of the PM’s agenda involved more corrections on misleading information that had been released by the Prime Minister’s Office, relating to why he did not attend the COP21 conference in France and the Commonwealth CHOGM meeting in Malta in November.

The PM got out of control when he was repeatedly asked why he did not attend COP21, where world leaders met to address the impacts of climate change.

Sione Tupouniua from the Niuvakai newspaper, proposed for the Prime Minister to resign as the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The Prime Minister said in fact, he was asked to present a paper on Climate Change, an opportunity which he turned down. He said that if he went to COP21 he would not talk about Climate Change, he would talk about world conflicts, “and would probably annoy them by telling them off!”

He said that he had been to two international meetings, including the UN, and he believed that some of these meetings are a waste of time. He had a lot of work to do here. Other Ministers had gone to the meetings.

Minister of Finance

After the Prime Minister left, the press conference continued with the Minister of Finance, Hon. ‘Aisake Eke.

The one issue that he clarified was that he had not signed the MOU and Cabinet Code of Conduct that the Prime Minister was talking about.

With regards to his vote against the impeachment - coming after he had told the House that there was a case on which to try Lavulavu, Hon. ‘Aisake admitted that he had made a mistake. He said he was thinking that since Lavulavu had pleaded guilty it would have concluded the proceedings in the House, and therefore the Prime Minister had to make a decision.

On the claim by the Prime Minister that he, the Minister of Finance, was also responsible for misuse of government funds by approving the payment of vouchers, ‘Aisake said that a number of projects were going on in Vava’u, some by the World Bank and others with government funds. Because some of the work had been done, they tended to trust on information given to them by the Ministry concerned.

However, he was thankful to a whistle-blower who leaked the information that led to a petition for the impeachment of the Minister. He said that since then, they had been checking on vouchers from government ministries.