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Mr Lopeti Senituli must know that the present system of which he speaks (The King appoints the judges . . . 03 May 2010) makes King George Tupou V an "Absolute Monarch" instead of Tonga being a "Constitutional Monarchy." Inquiring minds are asking: With the King appointing judges, doesn't it subject the Judiciary to the will of the King and Cabinet? With due respect, Mr. Senituli knows very well that the days of the status quo are numbered - six months. This is why the "democratic transformation" is taking place: to follow the mandate of the Constitution. - Sione Akemeihakau Mokofisi.

Decades of deregulation, greed and free-market speculation have plunged the world into deep economic recession, with appalling impacts on working people and their families across the planet. 34 million jobs have been lost, and the end is not in sight. With a further 64 million people pushed into extreme poverty, the quest to end global poverty is yet further out of reach.

The right to know is central for upholding other basic rights, for furthering transparency, justice and development. Hand-in-hand with the complementary notion of freedom of expression, it underpins democracy.

With only months to go to the election, the people's representatives as a power bloc are divided and incoherent. It lacks the cohesion that is required of a serious contender for the whip hand the new system has on offer. It is unlikely that they will be able to address these divisions in time for November and it is reasonable to expect the next PM and Cabinet to be mandated primarily by the nobles' united influence. - Sefita Hao'uli.

I have had difficulty having that independent role accepted to the point where the Government has removed most if not all of my responsibilities. These have been allocated to either the Cabinet or the Minister of Justice. This is not the independence the Government said it wanted to achieve when it created the new Attorney General's position. The Minister of Justice is not the Attorney- General. - Office of Attorney General

Our culture and traditions has strong ties to the "Land" and our history is defined by this. We can not simply say - let's mix things up in order to come up with equal number of constituents. The votes of the nobles on this bill was a good indication, even themselves know that we can't simply mix up people of Vava'u and Ha'apai like that or worse yet, mix up with Tongatapu. - Thomas M. (Soni) Uata.

Eempowering women in business by giving them the opportunities through training to start, grow and develop their businesses was the aim of a two day "Women in Business" Financial Management workshop in Nuku'alofa on April 27-28.

Through the democratic changes, commoners' interests should now be better represented because of the increased number of people's representatives. Giving voice to those least heard in Parliament for generations was what the democratic changes were about and it would be a shame if the interests of commoner women were set aside once more for the sake of social propriety. - Sefita Hao'uli.

Tonga's Political Reform and its November election is in a state of limbo because parliament, after spending two weeks of a special session to assess the Royal Constituency Boundaries Commission Report on proposed constituency boundaries, failed to legally confirm the boundaries of a proposed 17 Constituencies, before the House closed on Thursday, April 22. ... Both 'Akilisi Pohiva and 'Isileli Pulu did not think there was any need to debate over the Bills, they expressed their whole hearted trust on the Minister of Justice to draft good bills. The Speaker called for votes and the two Bills to Amend the Constitution of Tonga and to establish a Boundary Commission were passed. The vote for a Bill to Amend the Constitution was carried 25-0 in its second reading and 23-0 in its third reading. The Bill for the establishment of the Boundary Commission was carried with 23-0 in its second reading and 22-0 in its third reading. From the House. By Pesi Fonua.