History repeats itself

Locking up the politically prickly

is not new to the Kingdom of Tonga - it happened in 1883 under King George Tupou I and the one-time missionary Premier Shirley Baker.

The king and Baker devised the con stitution and in the process removed rights and privileges from chiefs and nobles and European traders, including one Robert Hanslip.

They drew up a petition to Britain’s Queen Victoria seeking Baker’s removal from Tonga.

Charges of causing unrest were

brought against Hanslip and the peti

tioners but British Governor Sir Arthur Gordon found the charges unproven.

Hanslip published a newspaper, Niu Vakai (Look-out Coconut), but was barred from reporting on the Legislative Assembly when they passed a libel law imposing imprisonment if the offence was “libel of anyone who holds a high

position”.

Then 14 petitioners were tried for the new crime and 12 were sentenced to five years’ imprisonment while two were given two years’ labour for the government.

Britain sent a man-of-war to Tonga to demand the release of the men.

Baker issued a full pardon - and had the wit to leave Tonga himself. ■