In an extraordinary series of events, one of the most senior officers in the RFMF, Brigadier General Manoa Gadai, has broken ranks and demanded action on allegations of police involvement in the drug trade, prompting a very public reprimand from the Minister for Defence, the NFP’s Pio Tikoduadua.
The Brigadier General’s intervention was prompted by an email sent by the Sydney-based keyboard warrior, Alexandra Forwood, to the Police Commissioner, Rusiate Tudravu – copied to 21 others – in which she suggested that Tudravu was being less than resolute in weeding out police officers involved in the drug trade.
The email recipients ranged from the Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, across the political spectrum, along with a host of other figures in the establishment, including the RFMF Commander, Major General Ro Jone Kalouniwai, and members of the media, including Grubsheet.
Alex Forwood provided Viber exchanges between certain police officers allegedly involved in the drug trade and asked the Police Commissioner why he hadn’t suspended them. Here’s an extract of that correspondence with the names redacted.
There was no response from the Police Commissioner but a resounding and almost immediate response from Brigadier General Gadai – the Commander of the Joint Task Force Command at the Blackrock camp in Nadi.
It is quite simply astonishing.
Let’s just dissect this email (the caps are his):
As well as expressing shock at what he has read, the Brigadier General offers “to lead the Inter-Agency JOINT COUNTER DRUGS OPERATION from Blackrock Camp”.
This suggests strongly that he has lost confidence in the ability of the security hierarchy in Suva to deal with the gravity of the drug threat. So much so that he is suggesting it be transferred to his command in the West.
“After all, there is a WAR against DRUGS in Fiji, as highlighted by our Parliamentarians in Suva late last year????” The question marks clearly raise doubt about whether there is actually a war against drugs and certainly whether it is sufficiently resolute to tackle the extent of the problem.
“Provided there is a CLEAR & UNAMBIGUOUS AMENDED DRUG LAW is passed in Parliament”. Here is a senior military officer suggesting that the nation’s politicians have yet to produce proper legislation to deal with the gravity of the drugs crisis.
Remember:
- The Commander of Blackrock is saying all of this to an audience across the political, security and media establishment.
- He clearly did not consult his own superior – the RFMF Commander, Major General Kalouniwai – before he did so.
- Manoa Gadai is a seasoned and highly respected figure in the military. He would have known what he was doing.
- So is there any other explanation than the most senior Commander in the West – and perhaps others in the RFMF – are unhappy with the collective response by politicians and the nation’s security establishment to the drug threat?
Not surprisingly, this email is now big news. (In the Fiji Sun so far). And the response by the Minister for Defence has been a major slap-down.
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Will Manoa Gadai be disciplined? We will all be watching very closely.
But this is no rogue. The Commander of Blackrock is a big man in every way – in stature and reputation. And there is no other plausible way than to see this as a challenge to the political leadership and his own Commander that not enough is being done to deal with the drug threat.
Pio Tikoduadua has been humiliated less than a week after he gave a ministerial statement to parliament in which he specifically claimed that the RFMF was united in its determination to stay out of politics.
That is clearly not the case. Yet there will be many Fijians siding with Manoa Gadai given the gravity of the drugs crisis and the seeming inability of the authorities to get on top of it, especially in the corrupt ranks of the police.
So what will be the response of Manoa Gadai’s immediate boss – the RFMF Commander?
What’s the bet there isn’t one and that Tikoduadua has taken it upon himself to save Major General Kalouniwai from having to take on his Commander in the West. Because the outcome of that may not be as certain as the establishment would like to have us think.
Far out, when you see reactions like this, you wonder what is going on?
Instead of agreeing and doing something about it, Pio just defers from the actual problem.
Pretty much a classic move to shift focus. Why shouldn’t the RFMF get involved as they have resources to do so and you would have to say that more than a few Police figures must be a little concerned.
Many other small nations with a low paid police force have been infiltrated by big money cartels and Fiji is well exposed to this as can be seen by the size of the busts we are getting.
By also paying off locals with meth and not cash, they are then growing the local dependency on it…..and you can see this happening among the youth and lower earners. Middle class with take on meth because in the short term, production rockets…and they will find the money to pay for it…..until they run out and blue collar crime then escalates…..
This problem needs to be smacked hard now (in fact it should have been smacked 10 years ago) and if the Police are involved then why shouldn’t the RFMF get involved…….
Fiji Police statement/s were just as confusing. First they said it was 8 officers and later said 7 officers. Also it appears that they want to discredit Alex Forwood.
I thought it was police job to investigate and validate evidence when given a smell. But not this commissioner of police.
It is nigh past time for another mataganisau to settle nerves.
The difference is that Gadai understands the seriousness of the situation and the danger to indigenous Fijian society. Gadai cares for his people, especially young indigenous Fijians, as the figures indicate that they are the ones most at risk.
Meanwhile, for Pio, Kalouniwai and Rolex Rabuka, the chiefs come first. They care more themselves and the Chiefs, then about the people.
Pio is still jet lagged from his Middle East and Europe junket, Rabuka is busy traveling overseas on invitations from private friends and wealthy individuals like the Fiji water boss, and Kalouniwai is still busy apologizing.
They are all about useless about pomp and ceremony that is costing tax a huge amount of money, and showing off tradition and culture, and feeling noble. They keep telling their people that indigenous Fijians are special among all other peoples; that they can do no wrong because they are Christians.
These pathetic like to give the impression that nothing is wrong with their society; that it’s everyone else’s fault. This is part of the problem, the superiority complex and ethnic supremacism, so you refuse to believe the reality; that indigenous Fijians are also human like the rest of us, with the same weakness no matter how loudly you claim and sing from the rooftops that you are the best Christians in the world and to make Fiji a Christian country.
The bigotry against the detested Kai India, who is to be hated looked down on and told to go back to India at every opportunity,
Rabuka is so busy massaging the Great Council of Chiefs’ balls that he doesn’t have time for anything else except being traditionally welcomed and garlanded with the Chiefs sitting at his feet. A commoner who is a wannabe chief. Who has totally forgotten ordinary voters as too busy arse licking the chiefs.
They are quite pathetic, the whole bunch of them. running the country to the ground and letting the people down.
All they care about is their own wallets, pay increases, overseas trips, and hobnobbing with the elite while misleading the ordinary people.
The media too have fallen in line as Linda Tabuya, after telling one voter, who questioned her, to f**k off with her vote, is now busy courting the media and buying them off.
Under the guise of civilian government and democracy, Pio, who had gone on the longest junket in Fiji’s history is busy shooting the messenger in Gadai, instead of tackling the problem head on.
This anecdote is just one example of how Fiji and leaders like Prime Minister Rabuka are failing their people every day, while robbing them dry.
And then, when things go really wrong, they will once again blame the Kai India.
The problem with the indigenous Fijians is that they are so blinded by racism and their hate for Kai India that they will likely vote this damn lot in again.
As the saying goes, you vote the government that you get so enjoy the ride!
This man looks dangerous. There is definitely a rift in the army which they are desperately trying to hide but one can see the differences arising. Is this man trying to shift power to the west? Whatever it is , it’s dangerous and treachery of the itaukei at its finest. Fiji is sailing deeper into their own qoliqoli waters.
Don’t be ridiculous. He is alarmed about the police being involved in drugs. If it was a power grab, he would have surely done it by now.
Maybe God hasn’t spoken to him yet. Anyway let’s wait and see what happens.
Pio has been babysitting a powder keg in the RFMF since he became Minister, so much so that his former other Ministerial positions of Immigration and Police were pushed to the back seat.
If not for Pio, Bai and Kai would have successfully regained control of the country within a month after the election through the RFMF.
The country is in a far worse state now, with the Coalition totally unable or unwilling to address the gravity of the drugs crisis. It’s no exaggeration to say that the integrity of the state is now under direct threat from these drug barons, whoever they are.
Brigadier General Manoa Gadai should lead the RFMF rather than the Narcotics Bureau. The government should restructure the Narcotics Bureau so it operates under the RFMF, which would allow him to manage both the Government’s interests and the Bureau more effectively. He is the strongest candidate for the role.
If that does not eventuate, he should remain at Blackrock for the time being, as his presence there is equally effective and allows others the space to make necessary reforms. He has the capacity to transform Blackrock into a third arm of governance. The existing three arms have become corrupt, and Blackrock under his leadership could serve as a peer oversight body for both the RFMF and the Commissioner of Police.
How on bloody earth does Alex Forwood get her hands on these delicious bits of information? If people are supplying these sensitive conversations to her, it shows the growing dissent within the ranks of the military and the police.
It also shows these people have absolutely no faith in the government of Fiji who have been entrusted to sort out these major drug related issues but are busy engaging in drug use and selling it themselves.
Either way, this information is a clear indictment that the Comm. Pol (Tudravu was only hired to deflect and suppress anything related to investigating people in government) and the Comm. RFMF no longer command respect from their people and it’s time they moved aside.
Thank God for Alex F then. I don’t care how the heck she gets it. But she does. Can’t trust a soul in Fiji right now.
Wonder if the new Acting Comm of Prisons has any skeletons in the closet. Who is he related to? Which province is he from etc etc? Are the videos of him from the past?
You can understand Brig Gen Manoa Gadai’s frustration and also the response for him speaking out of line. But this is not a simple matter to just whack with force.
Yes there needs to be zero tolerance and the criminal element dealt with in no uncertain terms, but what we are left with is another major health issue lining up with cardiovascular diseases, HIV, diabetes and so on.
The big problem with meth is that it takes 12 months of being off it to break the addiction. So Fiji needs a large number of well-equipped rehab facilities to deal with this.
Time to get serious on the criminals and the corrupt, but also to provide a major program for recovery.
A rehab faculty could be included in the planned big beautiful hospital at valelevu as announced this morning.
It’ll only be a ten-year wait.
In the meantime, don’t share needles and try not to die from HIV/AIDS.
Until evidence is provided to the contrary I believe the leaked conversation is an Ai generated fake, a set up, a false flag operation, some people are being framed.
This incident, the leak conversation, Gadai’s leaked comments and Pio’s response is reminiscent of the famous deliberately orchestrated Reichstag fire in Germany on February 27, 1933, to fabricate a national emergency and justify their power grab, the Nazi regime under Adolf Hitler—motivated by the urgent need to eliminate communist and socialist opposition ahead of March elections—issued the “Decree for the Protection of People and State” (Reichstag Fire Decree) just one day later on February 28. This decree suspended essential civil liberties, including freedom of the press, speech, assembly, and postal privacy, while authorizing indefinite detention without trial and mass arrests of over 4,000 political opponents, primarily from the Communist Party (KPD). These draconian measures not only crippled organized resistance but paved the way for the Enabling Act passed on March 23, 1933, which granted Hitler dictatorial powers, banned other parties by July, and enabled the unchecked one-party Nazi state that propelled Germany toward totalitarianism and World War II.
Gadai should learn to keep his trap shut and trust in Tudravu and his senior officers, with the aid of the Australian and NZ Police to carry out investigations. For the consequences of Gadai taking over would be a disaster for civil liberties in Fiji and possibly lead to as in Germany the setting up of a Hitler-like dictatorship.
Crikey. What a fertile imagination you’ve got. AI generated texts? Manoa Gadai as Hitler? I’m sorry but I don’t buy it.
There is clear evidence that senior police are involved in the drug trade. Ergo, Manoa Gadai and other senior military officers have every right to be concerned. They also have a legal obligation under Section 131 of the Constitution to act if the integrity of the state and the well-being of the Fijian people is being threatened.
It is blindingly obvious that enough lives are being destroyed by the drug trade and enough people in official positions have been corrupted by the drug barons for a much more concerted effort than we have seen thus far.
https://www.fijitimes.com.fj/editorial-comment-rebuilding-trust-in-the-force/
Looks like @Gorbels is on the stuff too.
Investigators are being flown to Australia to verify the Viber messages in the presence of high level Aussie police officials. This will be hard to pass off as AI or “fake news.”
You clearly have no idea how AI works. That level of sustained specificity that stands up to forensic triangulation cannot be AI generated. Not at Dec 2025 levels. Nice try, but your logic is found wanting.
Gorbels Junior should stop smoking weed! Yif not you’re gonna end up with no functioning brains cells.
BTW, illicit drugs infiltrated and subsequently spilled over into Fijian society only because of New Zealand and particularly Australia’s insatiable market and use of illicit drugs.
Fiji started out as a transit point to the Australasian market before local greed and corruption went into high gear.
Gorbles Junior is likely to have developed a habit and could well on the way to developing an addiction.
People need to realize this drug scourge is currently sweeping the nation fast and developing into a national security concern.
The government, ODPP, police and yes, even the military have not been able to get a handle on the dire and daily deteriorating situation.
The resulting breakdown in law and order is evidenced daily with more and more brazen violent robberies – often in broad daylight, home invasions, road rage assaults, rapes, stabbings, and murders.
The police are facing internal corruption, ineptitude, outmatched, and out muscled by thugs high on drugs.
In typical Fijian malua fever style, we all choose to cast aspersions to shoot the messenger as we continue to bury our heads in qoliqoli sand.
All this is happening as emperor zero plays fiddle wewaring a gold rolex while the country is burning.
Just you wait until kailoma kaiindia Stan, fat Veeejay from radio poo poo, and rats tail Wesley butt wake up and start investigative journalism.
The chickens are indeed coming home to roost.
Corruption and moral decay started before 87 and was accelerated after God mandated Rabuka to rid Fiji of the much-maligned Indo Fijian (perceived) challenge to Itaukei supremacy
Rule of law, fair play and governance has frankly eluded Indo Fijians apart from the Bainimarama years when there was a sense of belonging
Surely those who are not Ethno Racists can see the imbalance in representation in the Civil Service, Military, Police , Scholarships, access to medical care etc.
Yet no one dares or sees it fit to articulate these injustices.
Where is the media ?
Pray tell how Itaukei supremacy was ever threatened by Indo Fijians ?
The Indo Fijian plight has been accentuated by the Uncle Tom NFP and Turncoats in FijiFirst.
Lawlessness, drug abuse and a breakdown in values and total disregard for authority among the youth of Fiji should be of concern to the powers that be as they will indeed damn the country to the backwaters of time.
The youth have seen that those who usurp the law get away with it and have immunity.
It started in 87 and the price will be paid for many a generation to come.
Those who can are moving on with life, which means another country benefits.
Was this the intended consequence of the 87 Pogrom? Or will Fiji continue to live in denial
Even the Itaukei for whom Mr Rabuka upended so many lives, are leaving. Why?
Welcome to Feudal and Tribal Fiji.
Manoa gonna mow the Lawn.
Maybe he knows or he does not know but during Covid his men were involved in transporting drugs from Nadi Airport as they were the only ones allowed to come close to the aircraft and escort people and goods from the plane to the destinations. How some of his men were couriers for the Chinese Mafia in Fiji in exchange for top $$$$.
The louder he shouts the more he wants to silence his own shit. Better he STFU.