Tongan PM, climate activist dies
WELLINGTON: Tongan Prime Minister ’Akilisi Pohiva, a prodemocracy and climate change campaigner in the South Pacific, died in a New Zealand hospital yesterday, the information ministry and media reports said.
Pohiva (78) had been diagnosed this year with a liver complication and was admitted to a hospital in Tonga two weeks ago for pneumonia, the prime minister’s office said on Wednesday.
Medical experts decided he should be medically evacuated to New Zealand, it said.
Parliament had been deferred indefinitely, Tongan media said.
Known as a champion for democracy, Pohiva had a political career marked with constant battles against the monarchy of Tonga. He was charged with sedition in wake of prodemocracy riots in the capital Nuku’alofa in 2006.
Pohiva, Tonga’s longestserving member of parliament since he was first elected in 1987, was outspoken about climate change and called for world leaders to help island nations.
Pohiva also raised concerns about mounting Chinese debt in the South Pacific.
Tonga is heavily indebted to China, with more than 60% of its external debt owed to Beijing through bilateral loans, according to its 201920 budget.
The small Pacific nation received a reprieve from China last year on the timing of debt repayments after it signed up to China’s Belt and Road initiative.
Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama said on Twitter that the world must continue Pohiva’s fight for climate action. — Reuters