Opinion: When the Law Is Tested, the Government Is Too
The case of Pita Hopoate’s unauthorised departure raises deeper questions about authority, loyalty and the rule of law in Tonga.
A single flight out of Tonga has become a test of its democracy. According to reporting by Kakalu News, Pita Hopoate left Tonga for the United States despite a court order forbidding him to do so. It is more than a courtroom scandal. It cuts to the heart of Tonga’s democratic credibility and to whether the law in this country still speaks louder than the government’s friends.
A magistrate had ordered Hopoate to remain in Tonga while a civil case over leadership of the Liahona Alumni Association continued. The next day, he was on a plane. Witnesses saw him leave. The court’s order remained on paper. The man charged with upholding that order, the Minister of Police, Paula Piveni Piukala, now stands accused of helping him evade it.
If those claims prove true, they mark not just a breach of protocol but a breach of public trust. A minister acting as surety for someone restricted by the courts shows an extraordinary level of familiarity. It blurs the separation between government and the judiciary. In any system built on the rule of law, that line must be protected.
It is not only the courts that are being tested here. The Cabinet is being tested too. The Prime Minister must decide whether loyalty to a colleague outweighs loyalty to the law. Every government faces this choice at some point, to protect one of its own or to protect its integrity.
The Customs Minister, Mateni Tapueluelu, has at least acknowledged that an internal lapse occurred at the border. The officer who cleared Hopoate’s departure has been suspended. But the public’s question is simpler: who gave the order?
In a country where ministers often move within the same circles of privilege they regulate, the perception of favouritism can be as corrosive as the act itself. When the rule of law bends once, it can bend again, and soon it becomes a habit rather than an exception.
This incident unfolded as Tonga celebrated its Constitution and Independence Day. At the very moment the nation marked its freedom, a court order was defied, reportedly with ministerial involvement. It is a bitter irony that freedom without accountability is freedom in name only.
There may be attempts to explain this away as a procedural misunderstanding or an administrative error. That would miss the point. The strength of a nation’s institutions is not measured by how well they perform when everything is easy. It is measured by how firmly they stand when it is not.
In this case, the judiciary stood firm. The question now is whether the government will do the same.
Tu’ifua Vailena
