From the House, by Pesi Fonua

Minute no. 18, July 26, 2011.

The Tongan parliament continues to have procedural problems, with members not following the Rules of Procedure of the Tonga Legislative Assembly.

This time, out of the blue on July 26, a veteran People's Representative, 'Akilisi Pohiva called for the resignation of the Speaker without giving a reason. He further compounded the confusion by saying that it was the responsibility of the Nobles' Representatives and Cabinet Ministers to force the Speaker, Lord Lasike, to resign.

Lord Lasike, who was attending an overseas meeting, was not present.

'Akilisi confessed that he is not a righteous man himself to pass such a decision on the Speaker, but because he had been in the House longer than the others he said that he was very concerned with the integrity of the House and the new government, and so he felt forced to speak out and called for the resignation of the Speaker. But at the same time he did not want to reveal why he wanted the Speaker to resign, other than saying, "that members of parliament know why the Speaker should resign."

If the call by the veteran PR for the Speaker to resign without giving a good reason was very odd, his outburst that it was the responsibility of either the Nobles' Representatives or the Cabinet Ministers to fire the Speaker, showed a lack of understanding of the new system.

Lord Tu'ilakepa reminded the PR that he should read the Rules of Proceeding of the House to know that in the new government all members of parliament are responsible for the affairs of the House, not just the Nobles or the Cabinet Ministers.

The Prime Minister Lord Tu'ivakano, however, said that he appreciated the concern of the PR but the Speaker should be present when they discussed such an issue concerning him.

The Speaker, Lord Lasike was away in London, representing the Tongan parliament to the centennial celebration of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Conference. He was expected back in the country in early August.

The Acting Speaker, the Deputy Speaker of the House, Lord Tu'i'afitu told the House that he and his staff would look into the matter that was raised by 'Akilisi and he would introduce the matter back to the House for further discussion later.

If the intention of the PR was to spare the integrity of the Tongan Parliament, his approach did a lot more damage to the House.
The PR tried to avoid taking the responsibility for his call for the resignation of the Speaker by saying that it was the Nobles and the Cabinet Ministers who should to force the Speaker to resign.

Worse still, there was no objection from anyone, apart from that of the Prime Minister.

The public is left wondering what is happening to our supposedly democratically-elected parliament?

In the new parliament on 21 December 2010, Lord Lasike was nominated by People's Representative Sione Taione as the Speaker of the House. The Deputy Speaker Lord Tu'i'afitu was nominated by Dr Viliami Latu, and both the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker were unanimously voted for by the 26 members of the House in a secret ballot in parliament on that day.