Tonga’s new Prime Minister Prince ‘Ulukālala Lavaka Ata, at the end of his first 12 months in office, appears to be taking a tight control of everything from economics to controlling the pigs in the villages.

The 41-year-old  Prime Minister , the youngest in the South Pacific, was appointed on 3 January 2001 by King Taufa‘ahau Tupou IV, taking over from the 78-year-old Hon. Baron Vaea.

Looking at events of the past 12 months gives an idea of where the new Prime Minister is taking Tonga.

The buying of the Cable and Wireless plc plant in Tonga in July 2000 for about $6.5 million was a strong move by Tonga to take over foreign-owned enterprises, particularly enterprises that were actually making a profit. The Prime Minister is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Tonga Telecommunications.

The Prime Minister’s speech at the United Nations in September, during the UN Millennium Summit, attended by more than 150 heads of State, further consolidated Tonga’s position as a member of the United Nations.

The Prime Minister’s signing of the Cotonou Convention ascertained financial assistance from the European Union.

The Fiji coup in May was probably a more difficult situation to deal with, taking into account the close blood connections between the Tongan Royal Family and the leadership in Fiji. The Tonga government never made an official statement on the Fijian political crisis. The Pacific Forum, of which Fiji is a member, instead presented the united views of its members on the Fijian crisis.

An interesting development in the Tongan Cabinet, which is chaired by the Prime Minister, was the retirement of Deputy Prime Minister, and Minister of Education, Dr Langi Kavaliku, in November.

The most difficult problem for the Prime Minister to deal with remained to be the state of the economy, particularly the state of Tonga’s foreign reserve and the declining value of the Tongan Pa‘anga. The Prime Minister is also the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the National Reserve Bank of Tonga.

His Majesty’s Cabinet on August 24 approved, and confirmed with the signature of the Prime Minister, new Regulations to the Government Act, controlling pigs in the Hihifo District, Tongatapu, Niuatoputapu and the island of Tafahi, with the addition that that the owner of tax allotment have to plant a certain number of crops at certain months of the year.

The Prime Minister in endorsing these regulations in Cabinet was leading the way in trying to deal with Tonga’s pig problem. The cultivating of tax allotments was also a positive move for people to cultivate land that has been left idle for years.