Heading For Trouble?

Political unrest in Tonga could be about to end a century of calm under the reign of the last Pacific Islands monarchy.

Only one-third of the country's parliamentarians are elected. The others are appointed by Tonga's monarch, King Taufa'ahau Tupou and the small number of elite nobles.

Angered and embarrassed by the publication of criticisms and leaked information, the government has just legislated press licensing laws used by it to gag newspaper critics.

The King¹s Palace...in Nuku'alofa.

This ploy has advanced plans by Tonga's pro-democracy movement for a civil disobedience campaign against the government to be launched within a few months.

The press control laws are harming the heavily aid-dependent country's relations with important international aid donors.

The Royal rebel...Prince Tu'ipelehake calling for reforms. "I am not aware that as a member of the Royal Family I am to be deprived of my constitutional and human right to express my beliefs."

Setbacks for fishing and the crucial squash pumpkin export business, two key cogs of Tonga's weakening economy, and the slow growth of tourism leave the country of 100,000 people all the more dependent on the goodwill of the tens of thousands of expatriate Tongans who each year brace their homeland with remittances now approaching a total of $T100 million a year.

Tonga's financial worries are being compounded by the mounting cost, so far T$20 million, of running international airline flights with a leased Boeing 757 jet. The government believes the flights are essential for tourism's growth and for retaining the loyalties of Tongans who send all that money home.

In the United States, the government has decided to be content with recovering just under US$1 million of more than US$20 million lost by the management of a suspect investment adviser.

In February, Island Business' senior writer Samisoni Pareti visited Nuku'alofa to sound out some critical areas of Tonga's affairs. Critics of Tonga's conditions including Prince Tu'ipelehake were accessible, but Pareti had little luck obtaining the government side of the story.

Tonga's Prime Minister Prince Ulukalala Lavaka Ata was out of the country, its Finance Minister was too busy, and there was no response from acting Prime Minister and Police Minister Clive Edwards to requests for an interview.

Pareti's difficulty in reaching the government side was caused partly by the distraction in official circles caused by the sudden death, while he was in Tonga, of Noble Ma'atu, the second son of King Taufa'ahau Tupou.