Results for Politics

After two days of camping at Pangai Si'’i in central Nuku'alofa, without receiving a response from Cabinet, Tonga's Constitutional change campaigner, Laki Niu, stepped up his call for democratic changes to the Tongan Constitution today by marching with 30 supporters to the parliament house.

The Tongan people must be set free from a 1,000-year-old bondage, says Laki Niu, a Tongan lawyer, who will camp at Pangai Si'i with a loud speaker tomorrow morning demanding that the Tongan government agree to a new proposal for constitutional change.

Tonga's king is not likely to dismiss his ministers on the basis of a three pages petition, says the Speaker of the Tongan Legislature, Noble Veikune, who believes that Parliament is the place where any impeachment or restructuring of Tonga's political system has to take place.

A call to give the people of Tonga the right to elect a Prime Minister and Government Ministers, was delivered to the Palace Office in Nuku'alofa today by a small group of political activists.

For quite sometimes now, the Democratic Movement (Temos) has made their stand on issues very clear, and so was the Monarchy. The Temos screamed louder and seems to be louder each year. Ten years? Ten years after its formation, the Temos are as ineffective as they were at the beginning. Yet, they are claiming victory. - TamaFoa

After reading the "Tongan Constitution", I cannot hold myself back from speculating on the state of affairs of our kingdom. A few things are now becoming clear from that reading.

The Consumption Tax that government will introduce on April 1, is intended to distract the public attention from the corruption that is going on at the wharf, said Dr Feleti Sevele, the incumbent Tongatapu No. 2 People's Representative to the Tongan parliament and a candidate for Thursday's General Election.

The Tonga Human Rights and Democracy Movement THRDM is counting on winning all nine People Representatives seats in the March 17 Tongan Parliamentary Election. 'Akilisi Pohiva, the Secretary of the THRDM and the incumbent Tongatapu No. 1 People's Representative, was optimistic that the THRDM or "Temos" would be able to take the two seats for Vava'u this year.

Only months ago Clive Edwards, as Tonga's Minister of Police and sometimes Acting Prime Minister, was seen by many as the most bull-headed man in the Tongan parliament. Ruthlessly defending and implementing the King's and Royal Family's wishes, and employing his Special Branch Police to spy on the community to isolate dissent, few would doubt that he has been a formidable opponent of Tonga's pro-democracy campaigners ever since he was appointed by the King as a minister in 1996. Interview with Clive Edwards. Part Two. By Pesi Fonua