* He is a bachelor.
* He is the heriditary monarch of a one of the world's poorest countries. (GDP per capita: US$1287.)
* He owns the national electricity supply company.
* He owns the only brewery in the country.
* He owns the only mobile phone company.
* He owns the national airline.
* He owns a London taxicab, which he uses as his official conveyance.
* And he likes to wear bizarre military uniforms.
Who is he? He is George Tupou V, the King of Tonga.
Eight people have already died because he directed the Parliament which he controls to attempt to evade the issue of political reform. (Eight people were killed in riots in Nuku'alofa when the news emerged that Parliament had gone into recess before dealing with reform proposals.)
The King and his cronies should, of course, go. But that is a problem for Tonga, not New Zealand.
What is a problem for New Zealand is the $9.8m per annum which the Clark Government has been spending propping up the Tongan monarchy and its corrupt and anti-democratic government. What we buy for this $9.8m, to put it in the most cynical terms possible, is the right to export $48m worth of meat, wood, butter, petroleum, furniture and plywood to Tonga. (Imports from Tonga are negligible: less than $2m worth of beans, root vegetables, scrap iron, fruit and plants.)
This is a poor investment. It should cease immediately and the savings spent on reconstruction, once the King and his cronies have been removed.
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