Tuesday, December 19, 2017



Tonga's royal coup fails

Back in August, Tonga's king dissolved parliament and called new elections because the unelected inbred nobles didn't like the elected Prime Minister 'Akilisi Pohiva. The subsequent elections saw a landslide victory for Pohiva's Democratic party. And now, the Tongan parliament has finally met and re-confirmed Pohiva as Prime Minister. So, instead of getting a patsy who would look the other way on their schemes, the nobles and the king have succeeded in giving Pohiva four more years to reform Tonga.

...assuming, of course, that they respect the people's decision. They've already ignored it once, and there's no reason to believe they won't do so again. Which makes it all the more important to end Tonga's undemocratic noble gerrymander, which sees a third of parliament reserved for a mere thirty people. Instead, those seats should be abolished, and the parliament fully elected. If the nobles want to sit there, they should face the judgement of the people like anybody else.