A partial victory in the Court of Appeal that has set aside the penalties against him for contempt of court has paved the way for Rajendra Chaudhry – the exiled lawyer and son of the former prime minister, Mahendra Chaudhry – to return to Fiji without being arrested on arrival.
It is a major boost for the Labour Party’s campaign for the coming election as Rajen joins his 84-year old father on the hustings after four years in which Chaudhry senior has effectively been the principal opposition leader – not in the parliament but consistently holding the Coalition government to account from outside.
Mahendra Chaudhry has effectively filled a void created by the implosion of FijiFirst, the departure of Frank Bainimarama and Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum from the parliament and a feeble performance by the formal Opposition leader, Inia Seruiratu.
Coupled with a woeful performance by the NFP and its leader, Biman Prasad, as Sitiveni Rabuka‘s coalition partner – especially in defending the interests of the minorities – many observers are predicting a strong performance for the Labour Party whenever election day arrives.
While it has failed thus far to reach the five per cent threshold to gain any seats in the parliament under the current d’Hondt system, that is almost certain to change as Indo-Fijians, in particular, reward Mahendra Chaudhry for his strong performance in defending their interests from outside the parliament.
Rajendra Chaudhry’s return is bound to boost the party’s chances as he joins Labour’s campaign team. He has been a sometimes controversial figure in the past, including when his father was the nation’s first Indo-Fijian prime minister from May 1999 until he was removed at gunpoint in the George Speight rebellion precisely a year later.
But he is charismatic, an excellent communicator and notably fearless – having endured 56 days in captivity by his father’s side with the rest of the Labour government in the parliamentary complex and been beaten so badly – along with his father – that he required subsequent medical treatment in Australia.
Rajen will have to curb his habit of posting incendiary comments on Facebook, which got him into trouble in the first place when Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum referred him to the courts for scandalising the judiciary and he received a 15 months jail sentence after a trial in absentia. (He has lived in New Zealand since 2012). Yet he has inherited his father’s political nous and is bound to be highly effective in helping him to craft and communicate Labour’s campaign messaging.
His legal travails are far from over. He still faces a substantive High Court hearing on the charge of contempt but the Court of Appeal has set aside the original penalties imposed on him and with it his status as a fugitive. So he can now return to Fiji safely without the threat of arrest.
That High Court hearing is highly unlikely to take place before the election. All of which means Fiji will soon have a fresh political face in the form of Chaudhry Junior as part of his father’s election team, though not as a candidate, in this election at least.
While the Court of Appeal outcome might not be the big win Rajen was hoping for, it is certainly a big win for Labour just to be able to have him back in the country to exploit his expertise and undoubted electoral appeal.
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Background to the case:
It hasn’t prevented Rajendra Chaudhry from building a successful legal practice in New Zealand, which now includes the exiled former acting deputy FICAC Commissioner, Francis Puleiwai.
The Court of Appeal judgment in full:
Haha GD writing tongue in cheek. With Rajen at his side Mahen doesn’t need enemies. I can already picture Biman choking, then smiling over his cornflakes.
I doubt Captain Kellogg will be doing much smiling as he is tried for corruption. Whether or not he is convicted, he is for the political high-jump at the upcoming Breakfast of Champions.
I fear he will hurt his father’s chances more than anything. He is anything but loved by the i-Taukei and his father doesn’t really need his help with attracting Indo-Fijian votes as well. So, if anything, Chaudhry junior will have a net negative impact on his father’s campaign. Indo-Fijian votes are not a given anymore for MPC with One Nation in the picture.
Look at the social media response that one video of Frank on One Nation’s Facebook page got in 1 day. It’ll reach 10k likes and 200k views in 24 hours. And most of the likes are from Indo-Fijians who will flock to whoever will lead the FijiFirst redux party which is still mysteriously or suspiciously without a leader less than 6 months from the last possible day for elections.
He is not going to come and face multiple defamation suits lol.
Thank you, Grubsheet. I don’t think Chaudhry Senior will welcome Chaudhry Junior, as he will be a liability. Otherwise, excellent political analysis on this blog. You will read nothing like this in the Fiji news media.
There are so many momentous developments taking place at this juncture but the journalists seem to be in Savusavu posting pictures about eating, drinking and having a party. They are reporting government press releases and propaganda by Rabuka.
The Fiji media is just as bad, if not worse, than this government when it comes to letting the country down. Not an ounce of knowledge or intelligence.
NOTE:
Any reference to the 2013 Constitution being “illegal” is being excised.
That Constitution is the supreme law or Fiji and was declared as such a year ago by the Supreme Court – Fiji’s highest.
It is mischief-making of the first order to claim otherwise and just plain wrong.
And to the anonymous person who submitted a lengthy comment on the relative economic performance of the Bainimarama and Rabuka governments, your claims are nonsense.
Why not put your name to such a comment? It would be much more convincing than crude propaganda – disinformation from an anonymous source.
The one thing I know about small Chaudhry is, he prioritises safety and sprinting ahead of everything else. Given he knows there is unfair application of law and order in Fiji with him being a marked man from many sectors, given his past behaviour, he will pass the opportunity to return.
In any case what will be the value to the country with his return. Hasn’t learned any lessons with a history of indecent verbal and written attacks against anybody and everybody. Troubles with law, with cases some unresolved against him. Children with multiple wives. Teamed up with his father in 1999 and armed with an ego, completely enraged the itaukei that partly contributed to the 2000 coup. If they had the smarts, they would have been able to make things work then. What will be different now. Is this the type of role model the country needs?
Mahendra Chaudhry has every right to stand for election and put his case forward to return to parliament. He has been consistent with that aim. His son was a liability in the past and will be in the future. Maybe both father and son will understand that. If they don’t, they haven’t learned anything.
He is far better than many so called leaders we currently have. He is fearless, well educated and has vast knowledge in politics which he learnt from his dad and could lead FLP in future after retirement of his dad. Leaders are made and not pulled out of thin air.
This will dent Labour’s very good chances, like nothing else! Is Grubsheet out to hurt Labour by heralding this?
I am doing nothing of the sort. I have consistently praised Mahendra Chaudhry for the hard work he has put in to give the nation a proper opposition after Frank and Aiyaz took home their bat and ball. He is in remarkable physical and mental shape for a man of 84 but would obviously benefit from his son returning to his side in the election lead-up.
Is it a good thing for the party as a whole? That is for others to judge. But from a purely human perspective, I’m sure I’m not the only one to think that a reunion of father and son will be a positive thing for the former prime minister, who deserves respect for making a difference when most men of his age would have retired.
There’s few issues here.
1. Rajen received thousands of “LIKES” from anti FFP supporters on his Facebook Page Posts swearing at Bai & Kai
2. Those comments resulted in retaliation from FFP supporters against Mahen Chaudhry and these Indo Fijians are unlikely to support Mahen Chaudhry
3. Now when he criticises Coalition he hardly receives 10 or 15 likes at all.
Rajend is clever, ambitious and knows a lot politically but too volatile and impulsive. His dad doesn’t need him, his doing well on his own and is in a class of his own with politics, whereas rajend doesn’t have any (I think). He’d be a clog in the political chain… Not to mention lots of people back home don’t like him and he knows that. I’d be surprised if he returns, he’d be brave to.
Known him personally for years and from having worked with him…
Forgive this ..err.whine…but WHY? Why is this, at many times execrable, foreigner better placed to arrest Fiji’s (and it seems, its Indians’) steady but increasingly fast slide into a shithole state (apologies to Mr Trump)? What gives him an insight into the drivers for the people who have lived in the country whilst he has enjoyed the comforts and successes of stable democracies like Australia and NZ? Unless he has not, and this is a cry for relevance. Fiji for the Fijians (the FijiFirst kind; not the racist Coalition version). Auslander raus! I am wearing my “Anti-Fascist Running” t-shirt.
I doubt he’ll do much for his father’s election campaign. I recall a few months ago I challenged a comment of his in pure constructive debate on the issue. Unfortunately, he very quickly resorted to a racist attack on me as an itaukei and itaukei in general. I politely tried bringing his attack back into constructive debate but he seemed to have taken offense and got even more aggressively racist. Rajendra Chod-ry is no friend of the itaukei. In the upcoming campaign I will be lobbying against both Chaudhry and the gerontocracy in general. Fiji needs younger and more dynamic leaders. Fiji needs real change. That can only come once the old politicians and their petty political wars are put aside. The current lot have proven that they are incapable of doing so.
I disagree with you that Rajendra Chaudhry is “no friend of theTaukei”. Among other things, he has assisted Francis Puleiwai by giving her a job in his Auckland law practice and I gather he has also helped Kuluniasi Saumi, the former FICAC investigator who also fell foul of Barbara Malimali and has been forced to take refuge in New Zealand.
So a more accurate observation would be that Rajen is no friend of those iTaukei pressing for indigenous supremacy and who are persecuting their fellow iTaukei like Puleiwai and Saumi who are courageous enough to take a stand for the integrity of the nation’s institutions.