How Deep is the Split in Fiji's SODELPA Party?

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UPDATE. "SODELPA Split Widens." Click here.
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The Fiji Sun's strong pro-government bias may have influenced the article that follows but its findings on what appears to be a split in SODELPA, the main opposition party, ring true.  

In an earlier article pn345 I commented that its has proved difficult for true political parties to form in the Solomon Island because, unlike Western democracies where left and right-leaning parties reflected wide policy alternatives, those in the Solomons represented personal and parochial loyalties. 

Fiji shares some similarities with the Solomon Islands, particularly with regards to SODELPA whose prime purpose and policy is to promote ethnic Taukei paramountcy, its traditional institutions and leaders. 


 Such concerns have resulted in the emergence of a Taukei elite, more concerned with protecting their own positions than helping "Jone Taukei", the man in the street, and the formation of groups  within the party based on traditional territorial divisions. Inevitably, in much a situation, each group jostles for ascendancy at the expense of others — and the unity of the party starts to come apart at the seams.  Only very strong leadership, as in the past under Ratu Mara, and the fear of their opponents, currently the government Fiji First party, holds them together. Parties need to be based on more than ethnicity and personal and parochial loyalties. The Sun argues that this is the current  situation. Read more