Editor,

TO say Tonga is an absolute monarchy is blatantly false; Tonga is a Constitutional Monarchy. To claim that Tonga's judiciary is not independent is also not true. Mr. Mokofisi's claims are unfounded because he contradicts and does not take into account the proven history of Tonga's judiciary independence and integrity demonstrated on a number of levels and issues.

I have previously discussed many issues that are involved when discussing Tonga's judiciary in more than one letter to this forum. One of the best ways to measure and have an indication of the future behaviour of a person or organization is to consider how they or it has behaved in the past. The proven history of Tonga's Judiciary being entirely independent in the past makes it quite likely that it will continue to do so in the future. When judges are proven to be inadequate in any way, shape, or form the parliament does have methods of addressing such an issue.

Overall, Tonga's judiciary has been a success story and has proven to be independent and an effective check and balance in Tonga's government as a whole. There have been many cases in which the Chief Justices gave judgments not in favour of a King/Queen of Tonga in the past and even in recent memory (I have given an example of this in a previous letter and naysayers are invited to go back and read it in the archives, and it is not the only example in which a current Monarch of Tonga had lost a court case in Tonga's independent judiciary) and in contrast to all the accusations given in this forum, all these judicial decisions were upheld and respected. All this has occurred in the current set-up for the entire past century. I will repeat that idea for those who might find it hard to understand, . . . Tonga's Judicial success is rooted in the fact that it has been independent, and this has occurred under the current set-up for the entire past century.

Also to be considered, is that Tonga continues to develop at the moment and there is a lack in the understanding in the actual changes that are to take place. The current proposals for governmental changes in Tonga will include the handing over of the executive power to run government to the Prime Minister and cabinet, and the King and Privy Council will be diverging from the Cabinet and will become a more distinct and separate entity not involved with the executive functioning of government. This is a big change, and I believe that now, perhaps more than at any other time, it will be wise to continue to allow the royal appointment of those serving in our Judiciary, as to leave it to the PM and Cabinet would mean to greatly increase political motives for appointing judges to the Judiciary. At the same time, when considering the King and Privy Council's soon-to-be new found independence from the executive authority and therefore more distant from being involved with political considerations, I believe that it would remain a pragmatic practice to leave this appointing responsibility with the King as the King will no longer be choosing the Prime Minister and Cabinet. The independence of the King and Privy Council as a separate entity is a good check-and-balance to the Prime Minister and Cabinet, an example which is best portrayed in the establishing of the Ashika Commission. The King and Privy Council was the source of the Ashika's commission's authority and power and is the perfect example of how successful this model would be in balancing the executive authority of cabinet in the future and ensuring transparency.

In short, the arguments so far expressed about judicial independence and integrity neglect to consider the best evidence available which is the past success and history of the Judiciary that has lasted over 100 years under the current set-up, and at the same time the arguments also neglect to fully consider the developments that are currently taking place in Tonga that must be given time and will not happen overnight, which brings me the to the conclusion that both Mr. Mokofisi and Mr. Cauchi has jumped the gun on a number of issues.

Faka'apa'apa atu,

Daniel K Fale

mauitekelangi [at] gmail [dot] com ( mauitekelangi [at] gmail [dot] com)