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Kaniva News commentary
The Democratic Party must restructure its governing body to reflect transparency, good governance and accountability, something its founder, the late ‘Akilisi Pohiva campaigned for during his 30-year political struggle to reform Tonga’s political system.
The redesign must include reforming the Party’s Core Team to become a platform that is immune to accusations of nepotism, favoritism and corruption.
The Core Team and its members, which is currently made up entirely of Party MPs, must be seen as a government model in which the public can scrutinise their performance from time to time even if they are not running the government.
The restructuring must include assigning the Party’s offices and administrative roles to its activists who are not MPs, something that is already happening in New Zealand.
The Party must be regulated, registered properly and have a manifesto and guidelines for how to investigate and punish members who have broken the rules. There must also be clear guidelines on how the MPs and candidates are chosen.
The Core Team has recently been criticised for its lack of transparency and accountability in its decision to forgive MP Mateni Tapueluelu after claims were made that he and his brother-in-law Siaosi Pohiva had engaged in a power struggle that may have lost the Party the government in 2019.
Siaosi and Tapueluelu’s presence at the meeting and participation in the discussion to decide the fate of Tapueluelu will be seen by many as improper and may undermine the public’s confidence in the Core Team’s impartiality.
They should not have been allowed to attend or participate in deciding what should be done to them because that gave them the opportunity to influence the decision makers.
It is a principle of natural justice that no person can judge a case in which they have an interest.
It is always good to forgive, but when it comes to politics, forgiveness has to go hand in hand with justice and fairness. We have seen the benefits of this approach in democratic judicial systems.
Justice systems treat forgiveness as a process that must include punishment, restoration and deterrence.
Those who do break the rules must be punished and the severity of their punishment must be handed down according to the seriousness of the offence. This should be followed by a restorative process where the offence including the offender, the victim, and the communities of each collectively resolve how to deal with the aftermath of the act with an emphasis on repairing the harm.
Tapueluelu’s accusation about why the Party lost the government, allegations against Dr Tu’i Uata and Dr Uata’s counter-claims were serious matters. Tapueluelu also reportedly accused the Core Team’s leadership of being corrupt.
The Core Team should have selected an independent committee to investigate and to find out whether the accusations and the counter claims were true or not before any decision was made. The outcome of such investigation should have been made public.
The Core Team owes it to the public and its supporters to hold those who were responsible for the government’s loss in 2019 to account.
There has been a strong feeling in the public that because the Core Team did not do enough to fix a serious accusation against some of its key members the issue will erupt again. This does not look good for the Party’s campaign for next year’s general election.
Siaosi was ‘Akilisi’s eldest son and Tapueluelu’s wife is Siaosi’s young sister. The Tongan practice of veitapui in which the brother must treat the sister with utmost respect and admiration was still strong amongst ‘Akilisi’s children, who were well educated and disciplined.
Some may question whether the Tongan tradition of foha lahi taha’s (eldest son) entitlement to all the family possession and land, which is also coupled with the cultural responsibility to forgive whatever shortfalls his young siblings may have, might have been a factor in the Core Team’s decision in favour of Tapueluelu.
This also begs the question of whether the Party was established as a political tool for ‘Akilisi’s family to assist them in their political campaign. Does this mean anybody who opposes them has to be dismissed? There were similar instances in the past where former Party MPs were being sacked without giving them a chance to defend their cases.
The arguments, accusations and counter accusations that have flown backwards and forwards between senior members of the PTOA are matters of public interest and concern for all Tongans and those interested in the future of the late ‘Akilisi Pohiva’s vision of democracy for Tonga.
Reform and regulating of the Core Team are essential if the PTOA is to win the next election. Similarly, as a party representing both the kingdom’s culture and its democratic future, every effort must be made to ensure that the country’s traditions are seen by the party’s supporters as a symbol of strength and not as an excuse for what some might think was questionable decision making.
1 Thessalonians 5:22 enjoins the faithful to “abstain from all appearance of evil.” We do not suggest that any evil has been committed in this instance, but it might be well for the PTOA Core Team to consider very strongly about the need to abstain from any appearance of favouritism, unseemly quarreling and too hasty decision making.
If the PTOA wants to win back the gains made by the late ‘Akiliksi Pohiva it must appear at all times to be disciplined, transparent, honest and united.
