We Say 2

The interesting Kingdom of Tonga has on the whole been a happy country. But it is becoming less so.

A battle between the ruling elite, personified by the monarchy and its accompanying nobility, and the country's pro-democracy movement, is beginning to turn ugly. It could possibly eventually become violent. This is a sad conclusion to reach about Tonga, which is a treasure, not just in the Pacific but in the whole wide world, an anachronistic one given that democracy flourishes with varying success in other parts of the region. Yet Tonga has unique eccentricities entirely worthy of being preserved. Secretly, many republicans enjoy kings, queens, princes, princesses, nobles and palaces; look at the way British royalty is lapped up by a lot of Americans.

For a century Tonga's monarchy was fundamental to the country's domestic stability. Unrest that deteriorating economic and social circumstances has aroused in other countries has thus been kept at bay. This is no longer the case.

While the mass of Tongans undisputedly support the continuation of the monarchy as an institution, whole-hearted support for it is now eroding. It will continue to do so at an accelerating rate unless it changes with the times. Change, ultimately, can mean nothing else but a fully elected parliament from which a democratic government can be appointed by the monarch.

Unfortunately, Tonga's rulers are attempting to reverse from the inevitable. To quote Matangi Tonga, one of Tonga's few independent media assets: "On February 6, Tonga set its clock back 20 years to the early 1980s, when the only newspapers available were the government newspaper, the Tonga Chronicle and church newspapers." From February 7, only the government newspaper, three church newspapers, a chamber of commerce newsletter and what can be described as a pro-government newspaper, the Tonga Star, have been able to publish conditional to a licence that new press control laws require them to hold.

Up until this edition of Islands Business went to press, other publications were effectively banned from Tonga, including foreign newspapers and magazines, Islands Business included, since applications for licences had not been decided.

Matangi Tonga's application was rejected because 49% of its shares were owned by Mary Fonua, a New Zealander, whose Tongan husband, Pesi, has 51%. The new law requires publications to be at least 80% owned. If the Fonuas shuffles their shares around, they presumably would be able to obtain a publishing licence. But at the time Islands Business went to press, Matangi Tonga, Tonga's only credible independently locally-produced news publication, an accurate and reliable reporter of Tonga's affairs, lay gagged.

Tonga, later in February, no longer had a credible free press. In a spate of utterances in reply to domestic and international criticisms, the government is denying this. But the fact is that news and other publications that are required to publish only under government licence, and which are licensed only if the government considers that what they print is fit, fair and accurate material, are not free.

The government says it is prepared to accept fair and balanced reports critical of it. But ultimately it is the government which decides what is fair and balanced.

There is no doubt that Tonga's press controls are pointed particularly at two publications it loathes. One is Kele'a, which is not so much a newspaper as a political pamphlet. It publishes leaks about official blunders and misdoings. It is produced by a thorn in the government's side, ŒAkilisi Pohiva, one of the pro-democracy members of parliament. The other is the Times of Tonga, published in New Zealand by Kalafi Moala, a Tongan and naturalised United States citizen. Its contents are a constant serious embarrassment to the government and occasionally a cruel personal embarrassment for some members of Tonga's royal family.

Tonga's press control laws will have serious repercussions for it. The flow of international aid to it, which it needs badly, will dwindle. Few aid donors are now prepared to help what they regard as repressive regimes. A free press, or the lack of it, is a critical indicator used by donors in assessing what help, if any, can be expected from them.

There could be other bad repercussions. Tonga's pro-democracy movement will be made all the more angry by being made to feel that supportive publications have been gagged.

Opposition to Tonga's form of government will grow, not diminish. Outsiders will perceive Tonga as having become a politically unstable country and one destined to become more unstable. Investors will shy away. Tonga has pitifully a few of those.