Pohiva wants top post elected by the people

Samisoni Pareti
Election results in Tonga should be seen as a vote-of no-confidence in the King-appointed prime minister of the island kingdom and of the policies he advocates, says veteran pro-democracy campaigner and leading people’s representative in parliament, ‘Akilisi Pohiva.

“The prime minister (Dr Feleti Sevele) is far removed from the people of Tonga,” said Pohiva in an interview he gave this magazine  in Suva last month.

“He is very unpopular.”

Sevele together with most members of his cabinet did not contest the April 23 election in Tonga in which Pohiva and his team of pro-democracy supporters took a clean sweep of the nine people's reps seats in the kingdom’s legislature.

“The election results show that this government has not been listening to the people,” said Pohiva.

“They now have no choice but to listen and do what the people want.”

According to the former school teacher, the people’s demands are three-fold:
• King Siaosi Tupou V must make a declaration that political reforms should be implemented in the island kingdom no later than 2010.
• All members of parliament including the nine noble representatives to be elected by the people .
• The prime minister to be elected by parliament and not appointed by His Majesty as is the present convention.
Pohiva didn’t reveal the pro-democracy’s position on the composition of the new-look legislature.

Prior to the April election, a parliamentary committee on political reforms under the chairmanship of Noble Luani, of which Pohiva was also a member, had suggested the retention of the 30-seat parliament, but changes to its composition.

Seats for the people’s representatives should be boosted from the current nine to 17, the nobles’ seats to remain at nine and seats for the king’s nominees to be reduced from the current 12 to four.

“It [will be] the first time in our history that the majority [in the House] will now rest with the people,” Noble Luani had told this magazine last year.

“That is not only a historical move but a very radical move in itself. What helped the committee was this was all supported by His Majesty.”

Nuku’alofa, the capital, sits on the island of Tongatapu where the four seats reserved for the people of Tongatapu were scooped up by Pohiva and his three running mates; former police minister and now a leading pro-democracy campaigner Clive Edwards; ‘Isileli Pulu; and newcomer and former TV journalist and rugby administrator Sangstar Saulala.

Pohiva secured his eighth term in parliament hands down.

He said he hardly did any campaigning, only visiting five out of the 44 villages in the constituency of Tongatapu.

“The five villages I visited only came about because they specifically invited me to address them on issues they were interested in, mainly the proposed political reforms. Otherwise, I stayed home for most of the campaign weeks.

“I know I was going to win, because it was nothing new.”

Such a display of confidence came amidst a concerted attempt by Prime Minister Sevele and his supporters to sway voters away from pro-democracy politicians.

According to Pohiva, a leading media adviser of Sevele and publisher of the Taimi Tonga newspaper, Kalafi Moala, used his own media as well as the state-owned radio and television and the private FM88 radio to launch a vigorous campaign against him and his lineup of pro-democracy candidates.

Moala stressed the message that most of the peoples’ representatives including Pohiva have been charged with sedition for their alleged involvement in the deadly November 16, 2006 riots which left half of Nuku’lofa’s commercial business district destroyed.

“Three times I asked Moala to give me air time in order to respond to his allegations but he turned me down,” said Pohiva.

ISLANDS BUSINESS had invited Moala to respond to Pohiva’s claims but no response was received by press time.

Pohiva polled the highest number of votes; he got 11,290 votes out of the total 50,388 cast in Tongatapu.

His nearest rival collected 7048 votes and it was Pulu, a fellow pro-democracy supporter.

Edwards scored the third largest votes of 6697 and Saulala became the fourth people’s representative of Tongatapu with 5451 votes.

A government endorsed candidate Inoke came fifth after Saulala with 2802 votes.

Another government sponsored candidate Filimoni Fifita, a retired University of the South Pacific administrator, managed only 649 votes.

“’Akilisi Pohiva is an embodiment of the people’s hopes for survival in an archaic system of government and aspiration for good governance,” said Sione Tualau Mangisi, a retired senior civil servant, in a glowing commentary he wrote for Pohiva’s weekly newspaper, the ‘Kelea.

For pulling the most votes, Mangisi said the veteran people’s representative and voice for democracy in Tonga has earned the “darling of the people” label.

Pohiva is also a “national icon”, wrote the columnist.