Tonga’s Sevele govt – not Fiji

A report in Islands Business says that Tonga is preparing for a general election, part of it under emergency rule, with political meetings being restricted, some unions agitating for a strike and the authorities facing allegations of human rights abuses, and it is not Fiji.

The similarities between these two South Pacific islands neighbours do not end there. Both are run by unelected governments, but the Kingdom of Tonga however, will argue that Prime Minister Dr Fred Sevele’s government is not unlawful as its mandate lies with the Tongan monarch, Polynesia’s only surviving political dynasty.

Sevele has already angered the kingdom’s pro-democracy movement with the announcement that wide-ranging political reforms suggested in Prince Tuipelehake’s report last year would not be implemented before the 2008 general election.

Confirmation of this by the Sevele Government last May angered Tonga’s Public Servants Association (TPSA) and it is threatening industrial action.

“I am quite sure it won’t be ready next year, but these are things we need to discuss, agree on in the House, but that is my personal assessment of the situation,” Dr Sevele told an overseas radio service last month. 

As if that is not worrying enough for a government that last November saw widespread looting and burning of Nuku’alofa by pro-democracy supporters, the association is also demanding the Sevele government rolled over huge wage increases ranging from 60 to 80% for government workers.

Refusal by government could force the union to go on strike, similar to the prolonged and devastating strikes that elicited the huge pay rises in the first place.

“That would be the last resort but we don’t want that to happen and that’s why we’ve been asking our Prime Minister for the past two months to meet with us. Our main purpose is to have a healthy dialogue with our employer,” warned Mele ‘Amanaki, TPSA’s general secretary.

Both Sevele and his finance minister Siosiua ‘Utoikamanu have warned the kingdom doesn’t have the reserves nor the capacity to sustain massive wage rises.

“The government’s reserves were used to fund the public service pay settlement last year and the planned privatisation to rebuild the reserves did not occur,” ‘Utoikamanu said in a media statement on April 28.

“We can not borrow domestically to fund a possible deficit because this will crowd out the private sector business recovery efforts, so we have limited options available.”

Emergency rules first imposed after a greater part of the kingdom’s capital was burnt down at the hands of protestors remained eight months after the event.

Although applied to only Nuku’alofa now, the emergency rules still ban political meetings unless sanctioned by the authorities.

With Tonga given the go ahead to host the leaders of the Pacific at their annual hobnob on October 16 and 17, critics like Dr Sitiveni Halapua, who was deputy to the late Prince Tuipelehake in their political reform committee, had questioned the need for such restrictive rules.

Like its western neighbour, such laws had justified the involvement of Tongan soldiers in doing police work. And like Fiji, it had prompted allegations of human rights abuses.

A group calling itself the Tongan Community Paralegal Taskforce had documented the alleged brutal tactics of members of Tonga’s Defence Force on men and boys detained after the November riots.

Some members of the taskforce had questioned the “silence” of Sevele’s allies of Helen Clark, of New Zealand, and John Howard, of Australia.

“Tonga also needs Australian and New Zealand assistance with regards to violations of human rights,” taskforce member Betty Blake told Trans Tasman newspapers.

“They need to help Tongans to make sure the rights of people are not violated or abused.

“I think there is a need for sanctions right now. We need international assistance in terms of protecting our people.”

The allegations come as Dr Sevele secured a US$55 million loan from China to help fund the rebuilding of Nuku’alofa as well as the Magistrate Court’s ruling that five of the people’s representatives in parliament must stand trial for sedition in the Supreme Court.

Report by The Mole