Yearbook 2010
Tonga is a country located in Oceania according to Digopaul. In February, the captain was charged with the
Princess Ashika ferry, which sank off Tonga in August 2009
with 74 deaths as a result. Captain Maka Tuputupu was
charged with driving the ferry even though he knew it was
not seaworthy, which he acknowledged after the accident.
Many witnesses had testified before a commission of inquiry,
appointed by the king, that the ship had been decayed and
the rust attack. New Zealander John Jonesse, dismissed head
of Shipping Company of Polynesia, was indicted for forgery
in connection with the purchase of the ship. It also emerged
that the ship had been purchased in July 2009 with aid money
from China that would have gone to telecommunications.
The Commission of Inquiry also learned that neither the
shipping company nor the Ministry of Transport had properly
examined the vessel before it was put into ferry traffic
between different islands in Tonga. At the end of February,
Prime Minister Feleti Sevele apologized for the government's
mistake, which allowed a non-seaworthy vessel to be taken
into service.
The inquiry commission's report was sent to the king at
the end of March. There was no date for the report to be
published, but parts of the content leaked onto the
Internet. It stated that the Commission criticized the
ship's crew for its actions and found that the government
committed systematic errors at all levels when approving the
purchase of the vessel.
On April 30, Justice Chancellor John Cauchi resigned,
partly as a result of the government's actions during the
judicial process following the ferry accident. Cauchi
accused the government of political interference in the
independent judiciary. One of the examples he cited was that
the government did not support the appointment of
independent prosecutors to investigate possible crimes
committed by the government in connection with the ferry
accident.
At the end of July, the trial of the ferry disaster
began. The defendant was the captain and first officer of
Princess Ashika, the shipowner and a civil servant. They
were accused of using a seaworthy vessel and of killing a
21-year-old woman whose body was the only one that could be
recovered after the accident. The defendants risked a
sentence of up to 25 years in prison. According to the
police, more people were expected to be tried later.
In April, Parliament approved some of the constitutional
amendments proposed by the Royal Constitutional Committee in
November 2009. The government would take over the executive
power previously held by the King and Crown Council. Another
important constitutional change was the increase in the
number of elected members of parliament to 17 out of a total
of 26. These would be elected by the people in general
elections every three years, starting with the November 2010
elections.. The nobles were allowed to retain the post of
Vice-President and Vice-President. The Speaker is appointed
by the nobility and the Vice-President of the King. The king
would continue as commander-in-chief. He had to retain the
right to dissolve Parliament and veto legislative proposals.
He also had to continue to appoint high-ranking people in
the judiciary.
Finance Minister Afu'alo Matoto announced in April that
the government would be forced to cut its spending by 11
percent during the year. The reason was that the referrals,
the money that Tongans abroad send home to their family and
relatives in Tonga, had decreased by close to one-fifth
because of the international recession. In October, it
became clear that the World Bank will provide Tonga with up
to $ 50 million over four years to reduce the effects of the
recession.
In October, Tonga sent 55 soldiers to Afghanistan. They
were sent on a request from the United Kingdom to support
the NATO-led ISAF International Security Force. In total,
Tonga promised to send 275 soldiers to Afghanistan over a
two-year period. Previously, Tongan military had served in
Iraq.
Tonga's first democratic elections on November 25 became
a victory for the newly formed Friendship Islands Democratic
Party, although the party did not get its own majority in
parliament. Voting was high, with 89 per cent of the
approximately 42,000 voters going to the polling stations to
vote for candidates for a parliament that from now on would
have a majority of elected representatives. The historic
election marked the end of the 165-year-old monarchy. King
George Tupou V described the event as "the most important
and historic day for our kingdom".
The Democratic Party of the Friendship Islands got 12 of
the 17 parliamentary seats that the people could choose. The
other five seats went to independent candidates. The
Democratic Party of the Friendship Islands lacked its own
majority, but the nobility's nine newly elected members
announced that they wanted a people's election as prime
minister. The post of prime minister was expected to go to
Akilisi Pohiva, leader of the Friendship Islands Democratic
Party. Pohiva had formed the new party in September. He was
formerly leader of the democracy movement Human Rights and
Democracy Movement and has occasionally been imprisoned for
his work on democracy. However, in spite of the nobility's
wishes, the nobleman Tu'ivakano was elected prime minister
on December 21. He was supported by all nine nobles in
Parliament and by the five independent members. That gave
him 14 votes, against 12 for Pohiva. The choice of
Tu'ivakano.
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