pn636. Fiji: changing of the guard

Sitiveni Rabuka

Ratu Naiqama

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Many people will have mixed feeling on the resignation and retirement of Sitiveni Rabuka as leader of Fiji's main opposition party, SODELPA, and leader of the Opposition. Rightly condemned for instigating the 1987 Coup, the reformed older Rabuka has been a stabilising force in his party for some years, and had the support of the more moderate members of the party.

His resignation exposed SODELPA's internal divisions. 

The final decision on his successor came down to Viliami Gavoka, a relatively moderate member, son of former President Ratu Sir Penaia Ganilau (who, incidentally, is the father-in-law of Fiji First's Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum) and the more extreme Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu, Tui Cakau and paramount chief of Cakaudrove and the Tovata Confederacy.  The decision was not unanimous but Ratu Naiqama won.

Ratu Naiqama's long political career has not been without controversy. Ro Teimumu, paramount chief of the Burebasaga Confederacy and fellow SODELPA member,  accused him of having ordered the burning of the Matailakeba Cane Farm in Seaqaqa owned by her father Ratu Mara in 2000.  In 2011 was accused of making a 17-year old pregnant. He was jailed for unlawful assembly and his part in the Speight Coup while a minister under former PM Laisenia Qarese, and in 2015 he was suspended from parliament for two years for making derogatory remarks about the Speaker.  He had planned  to retire from politics but changed his mind and was re-elected in 2018.

It is hard to know what the Tui Cakau now thinks but in 2003 (three years before Bainimarama's coup) he wanted an overhaul of the country's constitutional institutions with full political authority returned to the chiefs and Senate abolished with its functions taken over by the Great Council of Chiefs.  

If he still holds these views any accommodation with government, or any idea of SODELPA working with government for a more united Fiji,  seems most unlikely.

I would expect more signs of internal division within SODELPA. Ratu Naiqama is now 67. Younger, very capable members such as Lynda Tabuya, a Rabuka supporter,  are far more liberal in their ideas.

There is an election in two years time. Unless Fiji First led by Bainimarama and  Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum adopt a more inclusive style of government, SODELPA could win in 2022. It came close in 2018.  

But not unless SODELPA also becomes more inclusive and the National Federation Party retains its present share of the Indo-Fijian vote.  The next few months should show whether Ratu Naiqama is the man for the job.

-- ACW