PM Pohiva says all MPs should go to jail, including himself [1]
Friday, September 21, 2018 - 23:10. Updated on Tuesday, March 5, 2019 - 21:20.
From the House by Pesi Fonua.
Tonga's Prime Minister told parliament yesterday, Thursday September 20, that he wanted to send all members to prison, including himself, because they did not take action on an Auditor General's annual report from 2012-13 that had been previously presented to parliament.
He said the report had revealed that it was illegal for government to pay a $90 million pa'anga grant from China to Tongasat.
However, he said that they would only do their prison time at the weekends in the morning, and members would take turns — two at a time. First on the list were himself, the Prime Minister, and the Acting Speaker Lord Tu‘ilakepa.
Hon. Pohiva Tu‘i‘onetoa (the former AG) told the House how excited he was to tell the PM of his report. He also related that it was a long journey for him to be elected into parliament, but he said it was all worth it, even though now he was walking on three legs, with the help of a walking stick.
The Acting Speaker, Lord Tu‘ilakepa reminded the member that he would still have to serve his sentence, and being handicapped with three legs would not set him free.
Lord Tui‘ilakepa asked the Prime Minister to conclude the discussion so they could start on the House agenda.
Investigation
Parliament is waiting to debate an Auditor General's report but not the one that the PM was referring to.
The new Auditor General's report on the House agenda, looks into alleged claims of misuse of public funds by the Prime Minister and six other cabinet ministers, including the former Auditor General Hon. Pohiva Tui‘i‘onetoa, who is now the Minister of Finance.
A petition [2] was filed with parliament in May calling for the dismissal of these seven cabinet members. But the House needs to look at the new auditor's report before it can deal with the petition.
When the Prime Minister raised the Tongasat case at the start of yesterday's sitting, Lord Nuku told the House that it was not right to debate over the Tongasat case which had been decided by the court, because there was a period of 42 days following the hearing for an appeal to be made against the decision. The court on August 17 had decided in favour of the two plaintiffs, Hon. ‘Akilisi Pohiva, Mele ‘Amanaki and the Public Service Association.
Lord Nuku also stressed that there was an appeal pending against the court decision on that case.
Lord Fusitu‘a who arrived late to the session, queried what the Prime Minister was going on about, “is he talking about the burning of Nuku’alofa, or what is he talking about?”
The PM said that they should all go to jail and to apologize to the public for what they did, and because the government lost $90 million pa’anga.
The debate on the issue raised by the Prime Minister came to an abrupt end.
Ombudsman Act
The House was supposed to be debating bills that were urgent for amending the Constitution and the Ombudsman's Act 2018, relating to the appointment of an acting ombudsman and a new ombudsman.
The Legislature dissolved into the Whole House Committee and the members debated over the Bill.
In the end the amendment was passed with votes of 19-0.
The House closed for the day and will resume at 10:00 am on Monday, 24 September.