Warning for Tonga over control of key appointments

Transcript

MALAKAI KOLOAMATANGI: There are reasons why these appointments are not made directly by government. These positions, very senior ones of course and they shouldn't be controlled by political expediency or the political process. They are important enough for them to be decided by what is essentially a permanent body, in this case the Privy Council and there is the expertise within the council to decide on these appointments, whether it is the attorney general, the police commissioner and so on and so forth. And that is why the Privy Council has been given the responsibility. What the current government in Tonga is trying to do of course is to have more say, more control, over its appointments. The trouble is, from a political perspective, the government might be accused of making these appointments inappropriately or to curry political favour, or favouritism, and so on and so on. So to ensure these charges are not made against the government, it's better [the appointments] are made by a body that's pretty independent of the current government or the governmental system, so yeah I think it makes sense to have those appointments made by the Privy Council, unless the government can come up with more considered reasons why it should take over the appointment process..

DON WISEMAN: This comes at a time when the government seems to be grabbing for control in a number of different directions. It has been railing about state media for ages and accusing the Tonga Broadcasting Corporation of failing to support the government, as if that's its role, not,, it would seem, understanding the nature of what they are meant to be doing. There seems to be this increasing desire to control everything and it's a long way from this democracy that was welcomed in a few short years ago.

MK: Yeah well it is a question of balance. It is a question of the balance of power and it is also a question of accountability, of transparency. All these things are considerations that were previously voiced by the Prime Minister and his party, so one would expect that that is carried out presently. So to want to control a number of these things or not to be accountable is problematic, democratically. So in a democratic set up it is better that there's balance of power and other issues, that separation of powers is maintained because otherwise the line between political power and judicial power is blurred. And that is unhealthy for a democracy.