By Pesi Fonua

A former Prime Minister, Lord Sevele has hit back at "very serious" allegations made last week by Prime Minister 'Akilisi Pohiva that reforms were made in 2010 without the approval of parliament.

A claim made by Hon. ‘Akilisi Pohiva that Lord Sevele and his government in 2010 had transferred executive power to the King in Privy Council without the approval of parliament, was described by Lord Sevele as "a very serious allegation".

 “We (Tonga) should have a better understanding of where we are right now.” he said at a press conference on 13 April that he called to respond to the PM’s allegation.

Lord Sevele, while recognising that the PM had been corrected by his adviser, Lopeti Senituli, said he still believed that it was a serious allegation for a leader of a country to publicly claim that the Constitution was amended illegally.

“If a Member of Parliament, the Prime Minister makes such a claim – it puts us [Lord Sevele and his former government] in a very serious situation. It stirred up public concern that needs to be corrected.”

Lord Sevele did not say whether or not he would be taking any action on the allegations.

Finger-pointing

An interesting aspect of the current finger-pointing between the former political rivals, is that Lopeti Senituli was an adviser to Lord Sevele when he was Prime Minister, and during the confrontations with Pohiva toward the end of 2006. But now Lopeti has become an adviser to Hon. Pohiva.

Lord Sevele explained that all political changes that took place when he was Prime Minister had followed along the process that is outlined by the law and the Constitution, and were finalised by the House.

He countered the claim by the Prime Minister that the executive powers to appoint the Attorney General, Police Commissioner, and the selection of judges were executive powers that should be with the Cabinet, but were illegally transferred to the Privy Council.

Also present at the Press Conference were two current members of Parliament, who were Cabinet Ministers when Lord Sevele was Prime Minister from 2006 to 2010. Lord Nuku, former Minister of Police, and Samiu Vaipulu, former Attorney General and Minister of Justice.

Samiu Vaipulu, as the Attorney General and the Minister of Justice, was a member of the National Committee for Political Reform (NCPR), and a member of the Parliamentary Tripartite Committee that were working on the proposals for the reforms.

Also present was Sione Fonua, a lawyer a former member of the Constitutional and Electoral Commission.

The Constitutional and Electoral Commission was established on 23 July 2008 and tasked to make interim and final reports and recommendations on constitutional and electoral reform to the Privy Council and the Legislative Assembly.

Executive power

Lord Sevele was asked if the authority to appoint a Police Commissioner, an Attorney General and judges was in fact an executive power?

Lord Sevele explained that there is confusion over what is referred to as "executive power".

He said that executive power is the authority to manage an operation, and in the past the executive power was with the Privy Council, but now it was with Cabinet.

He said that going to another level, where there is policy and the appointment of judges - these were with the King since the beginning.

“I am surprised with this misunderstanding by a person, who is the Prime Minister,” Lord Sevele said. He pointed out that the PM has been in parliament for 31 years, “and if he doesn’t understand that, then something has gone wrong!”

Lord Sevele stressed that for Hon. Pohiva to say that he and his government took away this right - was wrong. “All these Bills were presented to Parliament and they voted for them.

“The Police Act was presented to the House and they voted for it.”

Non-interference

Samiu Vaipulu pointed out that the Police Act clearly defined for the Minister of Police not to interfere with the daily operation of the Police. If the Police Commissioner decided to investigate somebody, but the Minister disagreed, he had no legal right to stop the investigation.

Sione Fonua explained that the Minister of Police could not order the Police Commissioner to do things, “but he can submit a policy. The law enables the Minister to implement his policy, but it also discourages the Minister from misusing his authority.”

Attorney General

Lord Nuku explained that in 2006 he was among four elected members of Parliament who were appointed by the King as Cabinet Ministers. He was the Minister of Police. The other three were Lord Sevele, Peau Haukinima, and Lord Tu'ivakano.

He said that at the time the Minister of Justice was also the Attorney General.

Lord Nuku was convinced that the appointment of an Attorney General and moving that person from the Cabinet to the Privy Council was the right decision so that the position of the Attorney General could not be politicized.

More questions

But at the end of the press conference there remained more questions than answers.

Lord Sevele’s government was in office when Tonga embarked on its political reform at the end of 2010 - and to date it has not been a smooth ride, so specifically, at this point of time what did Lord Sevele think urgently needed to be addressed?

 “We should have a better understanding of where we are right now,” he replied.