Democracy a lifetime away says Tongan minister

By THERESA GARNER in NUKU'ALOFA

A senior Tongan Government minister has not ruled out greater democracy for the kingdom but not for many years.

Minister of Police Clive Edwards, a former Auckland lawyer, told the Herald: "Whether the people overseas like it or not this is a monarchy and it has its own rules.

"You can't judge this country on what you accept overseas as democratic system.

"We have our own democratic way of doing things but it's mingled with monarchy and it's a way that's been able to hold this place together."

Mr Edwards was speaking following the uproar over a Tongan Government move that could limit freedom of the press and expression, and quash the right for citizens to seek a review of Government legislation in the courts.

Tonga, a constitutional monarchy headed by King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV with a Parliament dominated by nobles, is set to change its 128-year-old constitution.

But critics say the changes are in conflict with basic rights to freedom of the press and of speech, set up in the Tongan constitution by the first King in 1875.

Much of the controversy has been sparked by the Auckland-based newspaper the Times of Tonga, which has applied for an interim injunction to lift a ban imposed by the king on its paper in Tonga.

Yesterday the New Zealand High Commissioner to Tonga, Warwick Hawker, delivered a message that the New Zealand Government was concerned about any move that would reduce freedoms in the island nation.

Mr Edwards said: "Look at Africa, look at Solomons, we don't want to live in an unstable climate, an unstable country where you are not protected and you don't know where you are.

"Look at Fiji ... Nothing but disturbance and problems."

He said he believed Tonga would one day move away from a system dominated by a monarch, to embrace more democracy.

"I don't think it will come in my lifetime," he said.