As a Tongan and member of parliament, ‘Akilisi Pohiva took part in the funeral of the late King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV. But with the accent to the throne of King Siaosi Tupou V, Pohiva says the fight for democracy will continue unabated.

Here’s what he told the magazine in an interview conducted over the telephone late last month.

Do you expect changes to continue under the new king?

“I think Tonga will continue to work on the process of political reforms and now we are coming to the end of that process.

“The Committee for Political Reforms chaired by the late Prince Tu’ipelehake, nephew of the king, submitted their report to the king last month, and it is expected to be submitted to parliament next month. We are looking forward to the prospect of seeing positive recommendations from that particular committee.

“But I hope the new king will do a lot of changes to our structure of government. The first thing he did last week, he issued a statement where he said he would surrender his business. I think that was a good and positive step forward to begin with. However, it still remains to be seen whether he would do it.”

He may be a stranger to his own people, but he’s the one who appointed Fred Sevele as the first commoner prime minister. Doesn’t that show he knows what the people want?

“Not really. You know Sevele is one of his closest friends, and it could be seen that his appointment to cabinet as well as PM is a step forward.

“But the problem was before he was appointed as minister and now as PM, he was forced I would say to give up his allegiance to the people. His election by the people had to be annulled. He was required to completely cut off his allegiance to the people who elected him before he could be appointed.

“Now he’s not accountable to the people, he’s still accountable to the king, so the main basic fundamental requirement we would like to see injected into our constitution is the right of the people to have a say in the running of the government.

“So our proposal is clear, our recommendation is for the people to elect all members of parliament, and all the elected MPs appoint the PM, and the PM appoints all the ministers. That is our proposal and we still hold on to that proposal.”

How far will the people of Tonga push to see that proposal become a reality?

“The rumour mill says that most part of our proposal has been accepted, has been taken into account by the Committee (for Political Reform). We are waiting to see whether that rumour is true or not. But if not, we will push for a referendum, which was one of the conditions put forward to the Committee in New Zealand and Australia.”

Do you think the king will accept that?

“This is what we want to see happen. We want our king to continue to remain as king but under a new structure. He will continue to remain as king but in a ceremonial capacity like the British monarchy.

“This is what we want to see happen. The proposal is a matter for him to consider but we will push, we will try hard to persuade him that it’s about time for him, at this point in time to surrender his power to the people. You see what happened to the prime minister of Thailand when the military took over? The people of Thailand had been pushing for change like we do here in Tonga.”

Under the late King, your newspaper was a big critic. Will it continue to do that under the new king?

“Of course, Kele’a will continue to play the role of opposition to the government. Under the present constitution, there’s no check and balance, so there’s no way Kele’a will give up its role.

“It will continue to play the role of the opposition to government which is something that has to be an integral part of the process until we set up a democratic government.”