Transcript
MALAKAI KOLOAMATANGI: Partly, but the issues that triggered the need to have the dialogue before the November elections, you know we were thinking of doing this next year in time for the 2018 election. And now of course with the election moved forward a year so we have had to rush to try and hold this - it will be three weeks from this week until the election, so we are pushing for time, but I think it is more important to have it now, rather than not having it at all.
DON WISEMAN: Why do Tongans need to talk about democracy? Why is it so important for them?
MK: I think it is important for Tonga because in many ways Tonga is still searching for the right kind of democracy if you like, to work towards. There is a general perception in Tonga of some sort of idea, a vague idea in many ways, of what a democracy would look like for Tonga. For example an elected parliament, more power to the people, transparency, accountability, the usual elements to create a government. But in terms of what a Tonga democracy looks like there is no consensus. So I think it is very very important to keep the dialogue going because in many ways there hasn't been much talk at the national level about democratic government and what that government would look like for Tonga. So I think it needs some sort of consensus, it needs some sort of clarification of the issues and a need to talk to each other about what people think, about what people's values are in terms of this progression to democracy. So hopefully through the dialogue people are educated and issues are clarified.
DW: There's an ongoing desire in Tonga, is there not, to ensure that the King and the nobility still have a significant place in the government?
MK: I think that is a fair comment. There is a kind of desire to be included in this discussion. That's why we have invited members of the Royal Family to the dialogue, and the government and also the nobles. So I am guessing that Tongan democracy will have, for example, the monarch, nobility, religion - Christianity, and so on and so forth, as elements in that Tonga democracy. But just what shape that will take I think is the issue here, and the kind of democracy but the degree to which these institutions are included is important to discuss.
DW: I think from 2010, [caretaker Prime Minister] 'Akilisi Pohiva was concerned at the inability of the government to appoint people to key positions. That these decisions were made by the Privy Council and this was something that has really come to a head, hasn't it? Is this something that you think over time is going to disappear?
MK: There are two issues here. One is the appointments being made, for example attorney general made by the Privy Council and the commissioner of police and so on. So there need to be some decisions on where the authority lies in terms of making these appointments, but one would think that the decision needs to be made by an independent body, apart from government, particularly for example, the attorney general, and perhaps the ombudsman. Those are important, independent institutions that need to be also appointed by an independent institution. The second thing is the question of the Privy Council in Tonga's political system. There is no problem, I think, in having a Privy Council in a democracy, because for example, you look at the UK system it is working fine there. And that's where Tonga inherited the Privy Council idea from. So it is a matter of making sure that the Privy Council operates in a way that contributes to the enhancement of democracy. And I think that can be done. It is a way of tweaking and arranging, particularly out of the 2010 political reform, to make sure that institutions work in a way to make democracy better in Tonga.
