Tonga faces the future as it remembers its King
The fifty-year reign of much loved Tongan Monarch King, Taufa’ahau Tapou the 4th, came to an end last night when he died, at the age of 88, in Auckland’s sister of Mercy hospital. The King had been physically unwell over the last few years and the government within the Constitutional were preparing for this event for quite a while. But the monarch’s death comes at a time when the island nation is reassessing its form of democracy and its relationship with the rest of the world. The Wire spoke with Honourary Consulate General of tonga in Australia, William Stanley Waterhouse, a close friend of Tupo’s as well as Savi-Nata Maola Minister of the Tongan Parish Uniting church in Australia, who says all people will pay their respects to the king. Gaufav Sodhi, a policy analyst from the Center of Independent study also spoke on the transition of power to the new King.