Tevita Motulalo

MSc Geopolitics and International Relations

Next Gen Pacific Security Scholar 2015

Founding Fellow Royal Oceania Institute

Geopolitics, Politics, and the Search for a True Tongan Democracy

The modern debates on parliamentary and constitutional reform in Tonga are often framed as a struggle between “popular democracy” and “elite privilege”—between the People’s Representatives on one side, and the King and Nobles on the other. Yet this framing, repeated so casually in recent years, collapses under the weight of historical evidence. For more than a century, the struggle was not between Tongans at all. It was the struggle against external powers—their strategic agendas, their intrusive administrators, and their deliberate reshaping of Tongan political institutions for imperial convenience.

Today, as Tonga once again embarks on reform discussions, it is worth asking whether the nation is digging the same hole only to fill it up again: mistaking symptoms for causes, confusing colonial legacies for Tongan original design, and inadvertently reviving the very distortions imposed during the Protectorate period.

This article revisits that history, beginning with the most shocking episode of them all: the British Consul’s proposal to deport the King of Tonga himself!

When a Foreign Agent Tried to Deport the King

In the early 20th century, British officials in Tonga—especially Consul Basil Thomson, and later William Telfer Campbell and Hamilton Hunter—developed a habit of acting as if Tonga were a mere outpost of the Empire rather than a sovereign state under treaty. 

Their interventions escalated to a point where they successfully engineered the deportation of two Prime Ministers, Baker and Siosateki Veikune—moves conducted against popular expectation and in violation of the spirit of Tonga’s Constitution and Tongan sovereignty.

But the most audacious proposal came when the Consul, frustrated by the independence of the Tongan Crown, suggested the deportation of the Monarch himself—Tupou II!

This proposal—astonishing by any standard—was not the action of a lone rogue diplomat. It must be read within the geopolitical environment of the time: the Scramble for Africa, the partition of Oceania, and the fierce Anglo-German rivalry over strategic islands.

Fortunately, the British High Commissioner in Fiji—understanding the wider strategic consequences—declined the proposal. Britain was trying to maintain a stable balance of power in the Pacific while suppressing anti-colonial revolts elsewhere. Deporting a Pacific monarch, particularly one as respected as Queen Sālote’s predecessors, risked lighting a fuse across Britain’s colonial world.

And fortunately for Tonga, the King was no fool—the Consul who recommended deportation, William Telfer Campbell, was eventually expelled from Tonga, and not for the first time: he had already earned a reputation across the Empire’s protectorates, including Tuvalu and Kiribati, as “dictatorial” and autocratic “without tact”. Tonga had seen enough—he could pull off his stunts there, but not here!

Protectorate Politics: Geopolitics, Not Local Power Grabs

Much of what modern commentators describe as “traditional Tongan oppression” was in fact Protectorate engineering, driven by the imperial logic of the early 1900s. Under the 1900 Treaty, Britain took full control of Tonga’s foreign affairs and defense—effectively the heart of sovereignty.

Furthermore:

1905 Treaty Supplements granted the Consul veto power over fiscal and administrative policies—effectively making him “King in all but name.”

Further 1915 policies gutted Parliament: representation was slashed, the powers of the Fono reinterpreted, and Cabinet positions reserved for palangi members of Cabinet, officials aligned with British objectives.

Parliament and Cabinet were reduced to efficient rubber stamps for the Consul’s decisions.

This was not a product of Tongan tradition. It was imperial redesign by power-crazed individuals. Contrary to the modern narrative that blames the King and Nobles for holding on to disproportionate power, the actual historical record shows:

All 20 titled Nobles sat in Parliament from the beginning—according to Dr. Malakai Koloamatangi.

The Constitution established universal male suffrage in 1875, long before Britain introduced it in 1918.

The original Parliament had 40 members—20 Nobles and 20 People’s Representatives—making it one of the earliest democratic hybrid systems in the Pacific.

Its bicameral nature was implicit, evident in the House and While Committee of the House formats.

The Protectorate drastically shrank this system—reducing the Nobles and Representatives to 7 each—while increasing Cabinet’s presence inside Parliament, making it an obedient administrative arm.

The Cold War: Why Protectorate Structures Survived After 1970

Though the Protectorate officially ended in 1970, its political architecture persisted for two decades. Why? Because the Cold War between the Communist bloc led by the Soviet Union, changed the incentive structure of Western powers.

In a period where every local protest or social movement could be interpreted as a communist uprising, foreign powers encouraged Pacific states to prioritise stability over reform. 

Tonga’s internal composition, shaped under the Protectorate, seemed to offer predictable continuity.

Only in the 1990s—after the Cold War thawed—and the triumph of Liberal Democracy, were the old narratives revived.

However they were revived incorrectly—Reformers blamed the King and Nobles for the structure of Parliament, ignoring that those structures were colonial impositions, not Tongan inclinations.

Perhaps someone’s hair was ruffled when one of King Tupou IV’s first state visit was through Non-Aligned India to Moscow itself. It was time for payback!

This misdiagnosis—whether through ignorance or political expedience—prevented the nation from understanding the true origin of its parliamentary distortions.