HM King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV: A Tribute

He was born Jiaoji Taufa’ahau, the eldest son of the great Queen Salote Tupou III and Queen’s Consort Tungi Malefihi. Taufa’ahau became the blood zenith of the three main lines of Tongan monarchies; the Tu’i Tonga, Tu’i Ha’atakalaua and the Tu’i Kanokupolu. He was the 22nd Tu’i Kanokupolu.

His reign began when he succeeded Queen Salote on 16 December 1965 and ended on 10 September 2006. At the time of succession, he was 47 years old but his professional career started when he was appointed as the Minister of Education in 1943. That marked the beginning of Tonga’s renaissance in their quest for knowledge and information. He appeared to have pursued the fulfillment of his great grand father George Tupou I’s dream of bringing education to the people of Tonga. That dream led to the establishment of Tupou College in Nuku’alofa on 14 February 1866, the first ever high school level education established anywhere in the South Pacific Islands. The continuity of that dream saw the then Minister of Education, Jiaoji Taufa’ahau, establish Tonga High School in 1948. Although controversial in nature, the success of that program led to its duplication in other islands in the kingdom.

He graduated from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Law (BA LLB), the first ever Pacific Islander to graduate from any university. Prior to that, he attended school at Tupou College in Nafualu (aka Sia’atoutai) and Newington College in Sydney, a brother school of Tupou College.

As a leader of the smallest kingdom in the world, the development of his people had been his life long endeavour. He wasn’t afraid to try out new ideas and things even though sometimes they seemed too good to be true or at the expense of ridicule from overseas media and his critics. He was a strong leader who totally believed that what he had been doing for Tonga ‘he did what he needed to do’. To that I admire the man for his courage and commitment to his people. Today, he’s at rest and the people of Tonga are just starting to realize the contributions and fatherly care he had for his people. The irony of the controversies that dominated the last 20 years of his reign is that education had been the major contribution.

During his mother’s reign, the telegraph and AM radio broadcasting were introduced to the kingdom. In Tupou IV’s reign, he took Tonga to the world through education, telecommunications, trade, sport, music, culture, cash crops, satellite communications and entrepreneurship. Tonga’s greatest export remains her people. Over 56% of Tonga’s GDP has been remittances from overseas Tongans. There are hundreds of Tongans who play professional sports around the world today. Tonga greatly influenced the decisions of the International Telecommunication Union over the past 15 years and therefore has played a significant part in the commercialization of the satellite communications industry world wide. In a nutshell, there has never been any other time in the history of this tiny of kingdom, that its profile and that of its people have been ever so widely spread. Whilst Queen Salote kept her people closely to her chest, Tupou IV sent them to every corner of the globe. At present there are over 100, 000 Tongans living overseas.

Perhaps the greatest challenge Tupou IV encountered during his reign had been the pro-democracy movement’s demands for constitutional change. Over the past 20 years, he had somewhat maintained control but at the same time there had been evidence of power relinquishing. The latest of which has been Dr Sevele’s appointment as the first commoner Prime Minister in the history of Tonga. Tupou IV persevered and he managed to inject some balance to politics in the new political landscape in the kingdom. I’d say he succeeded in that area as well. But to carry the flag to the end, it wasn’t to be. It was to be his son Tupouto’a to carry the new baton.

Whereas his late father succeeded in the gradual chaperoning of Tonga to democracy, Siaosi Tupou V seems to be just the man to finish the job. He is well educated, has proven business and commercial flare and is a modern king as far technology and development are concerned. Of course time will tell but most if not all Tongans are optimistic to see positive changes. The questions are; “Is Tonga ready for democracy?” and “Which version of democracy?”

Tupou IV’s legacy as the king who instituted the greatest renaissance in the history of this tiny kingdom has been continuing to follow in the path of the great Renaissance era. With the power of today’s communication networks, the commercial and business acumen of the new king Siaosi Tupou V and the support of hopefully level headed leaders in the government, we as Tongans are optimistic that Tonga’s legacy as a stable and clever country will prevail the inevitable wind of change currently sweeping over her.

Long live the King!


-------------------
Tonga_coa.gif‎ (14KB, MIME type: image/gif)

Description: Coat of arms of Tonga
Source: from Vector-Images.com