King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV

In remembering the late king as the “great visionary who took Tonga into the modern era,” Prime Minister Dr Fred Sevele singled out five of his outstanding legacies. These included his drive to “give all Tongans access to both a basic and higher education,” and his endeavours to “improve his people’s wealth and standards of living.
“Thirdly, his majesty’s tireless efforts to facilitate his people’s emigration overseas to countries such as the USA, New Zealand and Australia,” the prime minister said.

“Fourthly, would be his majesty’s refusal to grant royal assent to a Legislative Assembly bill that would have dispossessed Tongans living abroad of their land allotments in the 1970s.”

His fifth legacy, the Prime Minister said, was his decision to set a precedent on appointments of his cabinet ministers “based on the recommendations of a Prime Minister elected by the people.”

Much as the late king is credited for Tonga’s success in the field of education where the country’s literacy rate now stands at 98 percent, King Taufa’ahau did grapple with the clamour for greater freedom and power from his people.

He clearly had great difficulty with it as shown in an interview he gave Matangi Tonga in 1990 that was reprinted by this magazine in its March 1990 edition.

On democracy, the late king said: “It is difficult for anybody to know what will happen in the future but there are problems because it is difficult to control democratic governments.

“Like the revolution in Russia, the Russian revolution was a democratic uprising against the Tsar.

Prime Minister Fred Sevele

“Then the communists changed a democratic government into communism.

“Therefore, a democratic government will not do very much but it could make it possible for communism and a dictatorship to come into power.”

Perhaps in a genuine attempt to uplift the lives of his subjects, the late king delved in a number of overly ambitious but mostly money-draining initiatives that left many a red face.

From storing spent nuclear fuel to turning seawater into gas, the late king had his name and government burnt by international con artists.

In writing about such a scam in December of 1997, retired Pacific correspondent for the French news agency AFP, Mike Field, did make the observation that “it is astonishing the king’s advisers could let such people near their king.”

For those who have met or worked with the late king, most however spoke and wrote about a monarch driven by a deep desire to help his people.

“I was very impressed with him,” said Clive Edwards, who was his cabinet minister for eight years.

“He was a very kind person and had the interest of his people in his heart.

“He was the modern reformer of Tonga, a very fair man and a man that I have a very high regard and opinion of.”