Delays in confirming the appointments of Cabinet Ministers have raised questions in media whether the King and the Prime Minister are in a strained relationship or whether there needs to be further reforms on the king’s role in having to confirm ministerial appointments.
The delays have gone on for several months since appointments were submitted for royal consent. As one media outlet commented, “the delay in the appointments has the potential to disrupt the smooth functioning of Government.”
One Cabinet post is alleged to have been vacant for a year.
The law does not give a timeframe for the king to respond to nominations from the Prime Minister of Cabinet Ministers. The law only stipulates that the appointments of Ministers must be approved by the King.
Without any clear communication from the Government or the Palace Office as to why there are delays, the public are therefore left to guess as to why there are delays. Rumours coming in from the corridors of Government or from the Palace Office may not be reliable at all.
But the issue is that the Prime Minister fills in as Police Minister as well as Minister of Education. There is also no Minister of Fisheries since former Minister Semisi Fakahau died in October 2022. MEIDECC is also another ministry that has a fill-in for a Minister.
But whether the lack of action reflects the Monarch’s uneasy relationship with previous Governments or not, the fact is that the absence of Ministerial positions in Cabinet is because of delayed royal response to the appointments submitted by the Prime Minister.
One media operator who does not want to be named says that if the King is uneasy about the appointments, why does not he and the Prime Minister meet on it? Why is there no fluid communication between the two highest offices in the nation? A response from the King one way or the other will certainly move things forward, he says.
The King dissolved Parliament in 2017, yet the Government continued to function. It became apparent that by law the King has the power to dissolve the Legislative Assembly but not to oust the Prime Minister and his Cabinet. Commentators at the time claimed the dissolution of Parliament was an attempt to oust ‘Akilisi Pohiva as Prime Minister.
The subsequent election for a new Parliament however returned ‘Akilisi Pohiva not only into Parliament but also into power as Prime Minister until his death in 2019.
King Tupou VI in some of his public addresses questioned the performance of members of Parliament as well as Government. He was referring to the Parliament of 2021 and the government of Pohiva Tu’i’onetoa in one of his addresses.
He reprimanded Government for late reporting from various departments, as well as its involvement in businesses. No monarch previously has been more vocal about his displeasure than King Tupou VI. The public in general was very supportive of the King’s expressions about the Parliament and Government.
Whatever are the actual reasons for the long delays in the royal confirmation of ministerial appointments, there is one fact for sure, His Majesty would not delay approval for months if he was happy with those appointments or at least the way they were made.