Anderton banned from Tonga

The leader of New Zealand's NewLabour Party, Jim Anderton, has been banned from delivering a keynote address to a pro-democracy conference in Tonga after intervention by the rulers of the Pacific kingdom.

In a letter from Tonga's minister of police, Akau'ola, a noble who is appointed for life, told Anderton: “Immigration officers have ... been instructed not to admit into the Kingdom any non-Tongan participating or wishing to participate in any capacity whatever in the conference”.

Initially the Tongan government indicated it would be involved in the conference but subsequently told organisers that it would run its own convention on the constitution and political parties.

A message to Anderton from Tonga's Pro-Democracy Movement said the government's convention would be confined to the absolute monarch, King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV, and church advisers.

The president of the Pro-Democracy Movement, Catholic priest Father Seluini 'Akau'ola, said the minister's decision will also bar from the conference many distinguished Tongans abroad who hold the passports of other countries.

The king and the royal-dominated parliament have been resisting calls from commoner MPs and church leaders for greater democracy.

The parliament recently defeated a motion by five commoner MPs to make the house an all-elected body. The parliament consists of 12 ministers appointed by the king, nine representatives of the kingdom's 33 noble families and nine members elected by the rest of the 100,000 population.

Members of the cabinet and nobles said there was no need to adopt “foreign ideas” from countries which have multiparty systems because there are no political parties in Tonga. They said foreign systems and forms of democracy were not consistent with the kingdom's way of life.

The motion was defeated by the combined vote of nobles and royal- appointed cabinet ministers after three days of heated debate.
[From Pacnews/Pegasus.]

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