Tonga report betrays NZ's hatred of monarchy, says minister

By AUDREY YOUNG and THERESA GARNER

One of Tonga's most senior Cabinet ministers says a secret report on his country's royal family is "superficial" and an example of New Zealand's hatred of the system of monarchy.

Minister of Police Clive Edwards, who arrived in Auckland from Tonga last night, said the report was likely to deeply upset the Tongan king.

"He is just a normal human being affected by feelings and accusations," Mr Edwards said.

"There is a growing feeling in Tonga and elsewhere that New Zealand has intense hatred for the monarchy system, and everything is being judged in light of that attitude."

The nobility of Tonga and King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV were yesterday celebrating a royal wedding, oblivious to the scathing report by New Zealand's former high commissioner to Tonga, Brian Smythe.

And in a place where radio and television are controlled by the Government and newspapers appear weekly, news of what New Zealand's former diplomatic representative really thought of the country is expected to take a while to filter to the 100,000 commoners.

Mr Smythe, who reported enjoying the king's champagne and caviar, detailed concerns about corruption and the privileged class system, with money going from the poor to rich.

Mr Edwards, who formerly worked in Auckland as a lawyer, said the report was "a typical attack on our system.

"Why the hell don't they come up with something concrete?

"If you come with that type of attitude and judge us in the light of what your society accepts as the norm, and without taking into account our culture and way of life, it is natural you come to those scathing remarks."

He took particular issue with the comments on Tonga's defence service. Mr Smythe reported that the soldiers needed to be taught values, and that New Zealand should refrain from supplying weapons.

Mr Edwards said Tonga was fulfilling its obligations to the region.

"He doesn't know what he's talking about. There is an understanding between Australia, New Zealand and Tonga that Tonga would have a skeleton armed force as part of the defence network in the Pacific."

Foreign Minister Phil Goff said he regretted that the Herald had published the Smythe report.

Mr Goff said he had no plans to explain the letter to the Tongan Government or the royal family and had not received any feedback.

He referred to the dispatching last week of High Commissioner Warwick Hawker to tell the Tonga Government of concerns about curbs on media and constitutional freedoms.

Government MP Matt Robson compared New Zealand's tolerance of the "obscenity" of the Tongan system to its tolerance of Indonesia's occupation of East Timor.

"On the one hand we dole out some money and some goes to good things but on the other hand by our silence we prop up this obscenity called the Tongan system," said Mr Robson, Associate Foreign Minister responsible for aid in the last Government.

"Tonga shows up weaknesses in our approach overall," said Mr Robson. "It has got an element of the so-called quiet diplomacy that was practised with Indonesia [over East Timor].

"The concentration of power in very small hands, the existence of a well-armed military and police force is something that we need to give a great consideration to.

"And while they live in some luxury and privilege, the great majority of Tongans live in desperate straits, including for many of them abject poverty."

Mr Robson said New Zealand needed to review its relations with one question in mind: "What is actually meeting the development needs of the people rather than the foreign policy needs of New Zealand and propping up the system as it is within Tonga, which is largely responsible for the dire needs of the people."

Kalafi Moala, the editor of the Auckland-based Tongan newspaper Taimi o Tonga, banned in Tonga, welcomed the publication of the briefing paper as "wonderful".

"Quite a number of things in the report are things we have been saying for some years, and it is wonderful to have an official from an overseas Government who says it as it is."

He believed it would take a few days to have an effect in Tonga because the kingdom was distracted by the royal wedding.