Transcript
'AKILISI POHIVA: The current government has been trying to uphold principles of good governance. That is top priority in our government. His behaviour in the eyes of the public was unacceptable so to me, being a minister demands the highest standard of behaviour. That's what the public expects from us as ministers.
KORO VAKA'UTA: You are commenting on these reports that a complaint was laid for throwing a wine glass at a senior civil servant right?
AP: Oh yes. That's what happened. One of his senior officers attended a meeting and something happened which made him upset and it came to a point where he could no longer control his anger. Then he did something which physically harmed his officer.
KV: So who is going to be fulfilling the role of Minister of Internal Affairs and Minister of Sports in the government?
AP: I am still in the process of trying to get someone. At the moment, [I'll] just leave it, I will go to New York for one week and come back. I hope that by the time I arrive back in Tonga that I would be in a better position to do it.
KV: How is your relationship with Mr Vakata, given this move?
AP: Well I talked to him while I was in Honolulu. I informed him, he was in Australia at the time. I waited for a response from him and then he responded to my letter. I made it clear to him that ministers have a great deal of power to make decisions. That's what I said to him and I said, as I said earlier, being a minister demands [the] highest standard of accountability, highest standard of honesty, diligence, but he failed. He completely failed to uphold all these principles. There was no other option but to exercise my constitution power and the way I look at it, he had gone beyond what was expected of him.
KV: Are you and Mr Vakata still on good terms though?
AP: Oh yes of course. That's how I felt. We had a Cabinet [meeting] and he attended in Cabinet and he came up to me and I made it clear, I confirmed to him that I already informed His Majesty and then he came up and presented to me his letter of resignation.
KV: Although not a Cabinet Minister, will he still have a role to play?
AP: No, no, no. He goes back to his seat as People's Representative of the Niua islands. He's still a Member of Parliament but he no longer players any role in Cabinet.
KV: How does this affect the government, or your government's strength, given the past talk of no-confidence motions and that sort of thing? Mr Vakata has been one of your most vocal supporters but now he is not in Cabinet, how will that affect the government?
AP: The first thing is that we are still waiting. There has been no paper or no vote of [no] confidence being submitted to Parliament. We are still waiting for that but they still haven't done it. So to continue to remain loyal to our party is a different issue altogether but that is not my concern. My role as a Prime Minister is to make sure that, ministers we have to make sure that, our conduct as ministers will not damage the image and the integrity of Cabinet and also the integrity of His Majesty's government. That is my concern. The issue of the vote of no-confidence is a different issue. He still has his right to do what he feels. The best thing or the most appropriate thing for him to do.
KV: So you don't think this necessarily weakens your government?
AP: I don't think so. I still feel that I still have the support of all the ministers and also the members of the public.
