| Sumario: | His Majesty King George Tupou V, who reigned as the king of Tonga from 2008 to 2012, inherited near-absolute political power from his predecessors, yet two days before his coronation he announced that he would relinquish that power and granted amendments to the Tongan constitution, thereby making Tonga democratic. Innovative additions to the conventional speech made by the chief Ata at his <italic>taumafa kava</italic> installation ceremony as the 23rd Tu‘i Kanokupolu, on 30 July 2008 in Nuku‘alofa, suggest that the speech was composed by, or at the behest of, Tupou V himself to express his view of the contemporary ideology of his dynasty. The speech consists of 92 lines of traditionally styled Tongan poetry that rehearse the origins, history and achievements of the Tu‘i Kanokupolu dynasty, frequently employing pre-existing phraseology. Twenty-five anomalies of rhyme indicate that the speech was composed on the basis of a pre-existing composition and redacted to remind Tongans of particular aspects of the past and present character of the Tu‘i Kanokupolu dynasty.
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