King George chucks it in

His Majesty's coronation programme.

The sudden move of the King (right before his coronation) to yield more power to parliament has come as a surprise. The Prime Minister's speech "His Majesty King George Tupou V, A Monarch for a time of change"

The Sovereign of the only Polynesian Kingdom, whose official coronation takes place on August 1st, is voluntarily surrendering his powers to meet the democratic aspirations of many of his people. They see Tonga’s royal heritage as integral to the country’s culture and identity, but favour a more representative, elected Parliament. The King agrees with them.

This statement is on the Tongan government website from the office of the Prime Minister and authorised by the office of the Lord Chamberlain (which must be the King's advisor?). If this is for real, this is the end of the centuries old model of executive monarchy and the establishment of a Westminister style parliamentary democracy. An achievement the King was working towards apparently:

King Taufa’ahau, therefore, accepted the advice of the Crown Prince that appointment of ministers should in future be made on the recommendations of an elected Prime Minister. It was an important voluntary transfer of authority.

To King George, this was a binding precedent. He has gone further and given an undertaking that he will be guided by the recommendations of the Prime Minister of the day in all matters of governance, with the exception of the Monarch’s judicial powers. These relate to the appointment of judges and king’s counsel, clemency and commuting prison sentences. King George is strongly of the view that they should never be subject to political considerations. He has appointed a Judicial Committee of the Privy Council consisting of four Law-Lords-in-Waiting to advise him on the exercise of these powers.

Consistent with his new definition of monarchial duty and conduct, the King is strictly impartial when he has to meet with Ministers and Members of Parliament. He does not now make personal statements on political issues and usually refuses requests for media interviews.

King George is committed to further devolution of more royal prerogatives to Parliament. There will be a ceding to Cabinet of some of the functions of the Privy Council, over which the King is constitutionally required to preside.

His Majesty wishes to ensure that the Monarchy is fully prepared for elections in 2010 under a revised voting system granting the majority voice in Parliament to the people.

On paper he still has unchecked powers - and judicial appointments and so on in NZ will always be dealt with via Ministers and the relevant ministries and signed off by the Queen's representative - and so it isn't quite the model we have. But that is how things evolve. The dimunition of executive power will continue to flow away from the Monarch.

I thought the guy was stark raving bonkers, that he had molded himself into a mad English aristocrat and would take his Kingdom down in flames to stay in power. The rioting in the capital a few years ago seemed proof that the people had had a gutsful of him and his cronies. He was, after all, posing as a businessman and deriding the Tongan peasants as unworthy and uncouth while he (and his sister) looted the state treasury and used his father to transfer companies into their ownership which they promptly ran into the ground, eg. Royal Tongan Airlines. So people have been very skeptical towards the King's democratic instincts.

Has he been strong-armed by the PM, by the MPs, by the international community? Is it genuine? Note the defensive tone later on:

King George, the progeny of an ancient dynasty of sacred rulers, is known for his individuality, formidable intellect and learning. His hopes and aims for Tonga, his abilities, erudition and foresight, are often overlooked by overseas news media. Many articles about him tend to be trivialized, sensationalised or stereotyped and marked by misinformation and error.

He's regarded as a total muppet, actually; "formidible intellect" if I may trivialise for a second, has never been associated with the ruler. And as for "foresight":

But the King has said he has no talent for farming. He decided therefore, when he was Crown Prince, to invest in other areas of the economy, with the attendant commercial risk. He has previously made the point that royalty in other countries have investments and business interests.

Soon after he was proclaimed Monarch in September 2006, the Office of the Lord Chamberlain announced that His Majesty would dispose of all his commercial interests. This was in compliance with the demands and obligations of his high office. The divestment is virtually complete.

The "divestment" was, as I understand it, because he has ruined the companies he tried to manage and in the case of Royal Tongan - nothing was left.

Then there was the riots. They need overseas (Chinese) money now more than ever.