Pressure on Tongan monarchy as Friendly Islands go to polls

King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV

NUKU'ALOFA - They are known as the Friendly Islands, but there is nothing benign about the simmering political tensions threatening to engulf Tonga, one of the world's last absolutist monarchies.

Tongans vote in a general election today against a backdrop of growing dissatisfaction with the monarchy. Polls close at 4pm with final results expected tonight.

Better education, and the experience of 100,000 expatriate Tongans who have tasted democracy in Australia, New Zealand and the United States, are fuelling demands for a fully representative Government.

Until now Tonga's elections, held once every three years, have been a largely pointless exercise.

Two-thirds of Tonga's 30 MPs were hand-picked by King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV and nobility and given jobs for life, with the rest elected by the country's 106,000 commoners but shut out of the decision-making process.

In the first sign of political change since the country drew up its constitution in 1875, the King has this time offered to elevate two of the "commoner" MPs to his Cabinet, a move which pro-democracy activists hope will herald sweeping change.

"I think its a good start," said Akilisi Pohiva, the leader of the pro-democracy movement, who has been jailed twice by the royal family for defamation. "It's a success for us. Tongans have lost all confidence and trust in the Crown Prince. Ultimately we want a constitutional monarchy, like the British model."

But others dismiss the offer as a way of co-opting the democracy movement and stifling reform.

Tonga, they believe, is heading for civil unrest unless real change is initiated.

"It's a way for the royals to prop up their power without making any real concessions," said Futa Helu, an academic and long-time critic of the regime.

"People hate their guts. The King is decrepit and the Crown Prince has no other interests but his own businesses. If the Prince continues to abuse his power, there will be a popular revolt, maybe bloodshed.

"Look at Marcos, look at Suharto. In the past, if we had an unpopular monarch, we cut his head off. Tongans are a warlike people; we conquered the Pacific."

The backlash against the monarchy began five years ago, when the King appointed an American former magnet salesman as his official court jester and entrusted him with a US$26 million trust fund ($35 million). The money was lost on bad investments.

The sense of crisis deepened last year with the collapse of the national carrier, Royal Tongan Airlines, and the unprecedented sacking of three Cabinet ministers.

The King is increasingly frail and Tongans insist the real power lies in the hands of his Sandhurst-educated son, Crown Prince Tupouto'a, 56.

The Prince, who has a penchant for military uniforms and drives a black London taxi on special occasions, is increasingly unpopular, earning the royals a degree of public criticism unthinkable just a few years ago.

Ordinary Tongans accuse the Crown Prince of abusing his position to carve out a business empire which includes a telecommunications company, an airline and the national electricity provider.

During a rare interview yesterday, the Crown Prince admitted that recent scandals had hurt the royal family's image, but blamed the tension in the kingdom on his subjects having "greater access to the media".

The collapse of the national airline and the court jester fiasco was the fault of "bureaucratic incompetence". Draconian laws restricting the freedom of the press were drawn up by a former police minister who had a grudge against a Tongan newspaper. "I am very happy to say they were thrown out by the courts."

Beneath Tonga's holiday brochure image lie sharp disparities in wealth.

While the Crown Prince lives in a sprawling neo-classical villa on a hill outside Nuku'alofa, on the other side of town hundreds of people scavenge on a huge, smoking rubbish tip.

"The King drives down this road every Sunday but he never stops," said Teu Semaema, 20, as her two barefoot, dirt-smeared children played in a wasteland of mud, plastic bottles and copper wire. "He doesn't talk to us."

"Tonga represents the worst of two worlds - medieval absolutist monarchy grafted on to the worst aspects of Polynesian nepotism," said Act MP Ken Shirley.

Shirley, who sits on a parliamentary committee reviewing New Zealand's relations with Tonga, said it had all the ingredients that existed before the French Revolution.

Tongan kingdom

* 170 islands spread over an area of the South Pacific roughly the size of Japan

* A former British protectorate, it became independent in 1970

* Economy: dependent on fishing, agriculture and remittances from Tongans living abroad

* Population: 106,000

* Capital: Nuku'alofa

* Languages: Tongan, English

* Religion: staunchly Christian

* Currency: paanga