Fri, Jun 13, 2003 page9

• Pacific kingdom takes a turn toward dictatorship

  • DPA
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  Tonga, a nation of 170 palm-covered islands set in the South Pacific halfway between New Zealand and South America, sits just east of the international dateline and likes to call itself "The land where time begins."

  More accurately, it might be "The land where time stands still," according to a New Zealand diplomat whose confidential report giving a blistering account of life in one of the world's last feudal kingdoms was published on Tuesday.

  The report, printed in the New Zealand Herald, was written by Brian Smythe in 2001 as he ended his term as New Zealand's High Commissioner in Tonga, but little has changed in a country where "democracy" is a dirty word.

  After 38 years of autocratic rule over his 100,700 subjects, the King of Tonga -- once immortalized in The Guinness Book of Records as the world's heaviest monarch -- is moving to adopt all the powers of a supreme dictator.

  About to turn 85 next month, and slimmed down from the 209.5kg he weighed when he made the 1976 record book, King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV wants to quash freedom of the press and free speech and deny the courts any right to review his orders and laws passed by the parliament he controls.

  New Zealand Foreign Minister Phil Goff has sent his current envoy in the Tongan capital Nuku'alofa to urge second thoughts, but as Smythe reported two-years ago, "Tongans do not like others telling them how they should change.

  "When we talk of the need for democratization, they rally in defense of their monarchy," he said.

  The larger-than-life king was once described by the Times of London as resembling a "highly varnished grand piano with a bemedalled chest the size of a small billiard table."

  But he is no Pacific beachcomber.

  The whole royal family is cultured, intelligent and perfect hosts, Smythe wrote. "It is a pleasure to spend time in their company and partake of their champagne and caviar."

  It is a different life, however, for his people, who live under a privileged class system Smythe describes as anathema from a socialist perspective and involving "redistribution from the poor to the rich.

  "The poor are under heavy obligation to contribute, in particular, through the provision of food for frequent feasts, to the nobles of the estates from whom they lease their land," he said. "The members of the royal family receive much more than they can possibly consume and they redistribute the spoils to others among the privileged classes."

  Commenting on "high level corruption," Smythe said most Tongans lived "under an obligation to give away their wealth whenever asked and they have no choice in their leaders."

  As head of state, the king presides over the Privy Council and appoints a Cabinet of 12 ministers who combine with nine hereditary nobles beholden to him to dominate the 30-member Legislative Assembly.

  The other nine assembly members are people's representatives elected by popular franchise, but their calls over the past few years for more democracy and greater governmental accountability have fallen on deaf royal ears.

  Noting that many of the nobles, who were meant to represent the interests of their villagers, were unscrupulous and milked the system for all they can get, Smythe wrote, "The puzzle is why the public let them get away with it -- particularly in this day and age, with experience of overseas liberties and with such clear evidence of corruption and mismanagement. I guess it comes down to societal conditioning."

  King Tupou's proposed clampdown on the press and the judges follows a battle by Tongan newspaper publisher Kalafi Moala who produces his Times of Tonga in Auckland after being forced out of the country because of his independent and questioning stance.

  The king banned the newspaper in February, but that was ruled unconstitutional last month by Tonga's Chief Justice Gordon Ward, who is British.

  The king ignored that and issued a new order banning the paper, which Ward immediately declared illegal, but the 2,000 copies of his latest edition Moala sent to Tonga were seized by customs officers who refused to release them.

  As to the future, the king is due to be succeeded by his son, Crown Prince Tupouto'a, who is known as a bit of a playboy and, according to Smythe, is "not at heart a true democrat.

  "He wants power and would prefer it undiluted," the diplomat wrote, warning the prince's antipathy to the Free Wesleyan Church, which dominates Tongan life, could be his downfall.
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