Grubsheet continues to be amazed that the Fijian media is overlooking easily the most significant political story now that the campaign period for the coming election has commenced – that Frank Bainimarama is back in a fight to the death against Sitiveni Rabuka for the hearts and minds of the Fijian people and the future direction of the nation.
Bainimarama himself, of course, can’t stand in the election because of the ban on anyone who has been convicted of a criminal offence that carries a maximum jail term of 12 months or more. (His one year jail sentence in 2024 for perverting the course of justice carried a maximum sentence of five years, though he was released after six months). Yet rest assured that he will be leading the fight against his old nemesis from behind the scenes of a new party. Make that “proposed party”, for the moment, pending the official registration.
That grouping was called FijiansFirst until the Supervisor of Elections, Ana Mataiciwa, rejected the name because it was too close to that of FijiFirst – the party which Bainimarama led to victory in two elections – in 2014 and 2018 – and that fell just short to the Coalition in 2022 even though it secured more votes than anyone else.
So now, Bainimarama and the man who continues to be his closest associate, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, have chosen a new name – One Nation – which also happens to be the name of the ultra conservative party in Australia led by the maverick former fish-and-chip shop owner and longtime Senator, Pauline “Please Explain” Hanson.
Bainimarama and Khaiyum have developed a habit of purloining the names of other parties in the neighbourhood. FijiFirst was a direct copy of New Zealand First – the Kiwi equivalent of Australia’s One Nation, though with its leader, Winston Peters – unlike Pauline Hanson, so far at least – able to secure the balance of power that has made him the country’s long-serving Foreign Minister.
Now Bainimarama and Khaiyum have shamelessly copied Pauline Hanson and taken her party’s name, One Nation. At first, Grubsheet’s reaction was to emit a long, slow groan at yet another burst of unoriginality on Bai-Kai’s part. Yet on reflection, it makes a great deal of sense in the local context in which most Fijians won’t be aware that it is a direct steal, just as they accepted FijiFirst as home-grown.
Think about it.
- One nation is what Frank and Aiyaz have always stood for – equal opportunity for all Fijians through the common and equal citizenry, common identity and secular state they enshrined in the 2013 Constitution. It is a clear point of difference with Sitiveni Rabuka’s agenda to re-establish indigenous paramountcy and turn Fiji’s minorities into second class citizens. And it will make the coming election the mother of all contests that will determine the nation’s future for years to come.
- One Nation in Australia used to be regarded as something of a national joke – the shrill Pauline Hanson and her stunt of appearing in the Senate dressed in a burqa ridiculed and vilified. Yet off the back of Donald Trump‘s success in the United States and the defection to One Nation of the former deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, it has begun to pose a direct threat to the Liberal-National Coalition, with record polling figures, a $A6-million war chest and a big by-election win in a seat (Farrer) that the Coalition had held for 70 years.
- Put simply, One Nation has momentum in Australia and Frank and Aiyaz will be hoping that One Nation also gains momentum in Fiji – enough to emerge in the coming weeks and months as the principal threat to Sitiveni Rabuka and his dysfunctional, corrupt and incompetent Coalition with the NFP and SODELPA. This includes two deputy prime ministers, Biman Prasad and Manoa Kamikamica, sidelined and facing trial for corruption – the spectacle of “walks of shame” to the courts dominating media coverage just when Rabuka needs clear air and a bout of collective amnesia on the part of the electorate about four years of “do nothing government” and a conga line of snouts at the trough.
One Nation senses the weakness of the Coalition even without the active participation of the two men behind it. Though if Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum is finally acquitted by the Chief Justice, Salesi Temo, in the judgment that he, and we, have been awaiting for seven months, nothing will prevent Khaiyum from standing in the election. Which would then pose the following question:
- Can Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum win at the head of One Nation with the active campaigning of Frank Bainimarama by his side? Once the notion would have been unthinkable. But four years of Rolex Rabuka’s rabble has left many Fijians pining for even a semblance of Khaiyum’s ability and intellect.
Then another question:
- Could Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum then do a deal with Inia Seruiratu for a One Nation-People First Coalition to govern together in a reprise of the “old gang” but different? (Assuming they can both get over the existing five per cent threshold). The very same people who got the biggest share of the vote in 2022 but fell short by just one vote on the floor of the parliament?
Right now, Frank and Aiyaz don’t want media coverage of any of this. One prominent journalist has told Grubsheet that when he asked whether Frank was the “main man” behind the new grouping, he was told he would be sued if he said so. Nice. Though it’s a threat so empty that it clearly should have been ignored.
So for the moment, the leaders of One Nation evidently appear to be those who were publicly identified as the leaders of FijiansFirst before it was disallowed – Faiyaz Koya, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum’s closest lieutenant in FijiFirst, and Tupou Draunidalo, the former NFP President and serial party switcher.
As Grubsheet has already observed, both aren’t obvious foreman material. Could either of them knock off Sitiveni Rabuka? “Tell them they’re dreaming”, as the small-guy hero, Darryl Kerrigan, said in the movie The Castle. Which means that One Nation is either waiting to see if Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum can lead it ( yes, that’s the power Salesi Temo is wielding with his unconscionable delay in producing a verdict in Khaiyum’s case) or it will have to find someone charismatic from outside.
We will know a lot more when One Nation finally gets the green light from the Elections Office (assuming it gets the green light ) but Tupou Draunidalo is already flexing her political muscle by going after the hapless Lynda Tabuya over the debacle of the Coalition’s failed attempt to silence Alexandra Forwood and others on Facebook.
After all, the election campaign has officially begun even if One Nation is still awaiting the starter’s pistol itself.
Background stories from Grubsheet on Frank’s new party…
Go Frank!
Get these sex fiends out of office.
Lynda and Biman are two peas in the same pod. Their actions have proven how selfish, self-serving and dishonest they are. Outright liars.
The more they open their mouths the more we realize how stupid and dumb they are. To imagine that we voters aentrusted the running of this country to these jokers.
Biman gave us 15% vat that and he gave Fiji Water a seven year tax holiday in connivance with that bastard? Richard Naidu, and his side squeeze, Kirti Patel.
Let’s never forget Lynda was behind the ministers’ pay increase bill after contradicting two promises in the election campaign. She is both shallow and hollow. She has achieved nothing substantial, yet she fancies herself as Prime Minister material. What a joke. She Just knows how to dress up and give hollow speeches.
It’s good that we were rid of Biman. He’s finished, destroyed by his own greed and selfishness.
Now we need to get rid of Lynda as well as Rolex Rabuka. The PM is simply too old, senile and stupid to the country. Lynda is giving him the runaround.
Let’s kick the bastards out in the next election.
I just want to know how tax holidays are dished out. The first decision that the finance minister made and it still troubles me. Once we understand that we will understand what went wrong and why.
Naidu had a conflict of interest.
Should have never been part of the economic reform committee.
The reform never happened but his rich client got richer.
And Stanley and crew got a free ride to USA.
Media freedom. lol
As for Tabuya, she is a burnt toast.
Nothing but a filth on society.
She can go back to real time scamming.
Gone this election.
Lindah is not toast. Kadavu will vote en mass for the weed queen. 2000 votes will be plenty. Mortuary or no mortuary. Ice chests work fine.
Fiji relies on overseas aid, overseas tourists, remittances from overseas.
Only overseas based journalists and investigative bloggers and Superwoman like Alex provide any decent news and critique. Victor Lal, Charlie Charters and Graham Davis.
Not to mention rugby players playing in overseas teams has lifted the game in Fiji.
Only decent kava is grown in Fiji, to get inebriated on and let everyone overseas do the work.
One Nation couldn’t hold a piss up in a brewery…stale bunch….stale agenda….
It’s important you continue to take your medication on time. Failure to do so will lead to such deluded and intellectually devoid comments. Thank you for your attention to this matter!!
@DT— Couldn’t agree more! Morons say things just so they feel smart about themselves.
With unleaded at $15.72 and diesel $18.32 per gallon — a big bula vinaka to all you war mongers with ‘I stand by Isireli’ bumper stickers! Bula!
We want Frank and Aiyaz back.
Biman is going down for sure.
The interesting thing will be who he is going to take down with him.
This is so much fun.
Richard Naidu, you still representing Biman now? Kaila.
Where will One Nation have its appeal? Certainly not within the iTaukei community which make up around 65% of voters.
One Nation will end up largely splitting the Indofijian votes which have firmly consolidated behind Chaudhry, and thus end up Rabuka winning an absolute majority – which is the worst possible outcome that can happen, if the interests of the country are considered.
So, all these People First and One Nation parties are going to end up helping Rambo. ASK has been making one miscalculation after another- whether it was overestimating his chances at the 2022 elections, or giving away FijiFirst’s 26 seats to Rabuka by allowing the party to be deregistered, and now further splitting the opposition to help Rambo again.
I think you are forgetting Frank Bainimarama’s continuing popularity and the blow-back against Rabuka and his ministers for their incompetence and corruption. The standard of governance under the Coalition has been woeful and as the state of the economy worsens, even diehard iTaukei nationalists can see that cost-of-living pressures were less onerous under FijiFirst.
Chaudhry’s continuing problem is the lack of depth in Labour. It is all very well to have a vigorous octogenarian as leader but where is the talent around him? It is a one-man show to all intents and purposes and always has been.
The main priority for all of them is to get over the 5 per cent threshold. The notion of changing the electoral laws in the next seven months is a fantasy. So the big man/big woman factor under the d’Hondt system will be just as applicable this time.
Is Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum enough of a “big man” to carry One Nation over the line on his own? Almost certainly not. But Aiyaz with Frank by his side actively campaigning for him and their One Nation agenda? That might be different. The tragedy is that if they hadn’t had a hissy fit over losing last time and gone home with their bats and balls, they would have been a shoe-in this time from the opposition benches, assuming they could have kept FijiFirst intact. And they would have been far less vulnerable to prosecution because that would have been cast as being politically motivated against a sitting opposition.
Yes, it has been “one miscalculation after another”. The question is whether nostalgia for the relative stability and prosperity under Frank (They successfully steered the country through COVID, after all) is going to be enough for people to forgive their “miscalculations”. Because the Coalition’s record under Rabuka has been disastrous – one scandal after another and gross economic mismanagement that has placed Fiji in a far worse position than it was even at the time of COVID.
Rambo is vulnerable even over his gold Rolex. His refusal to disclose the source is going to haunt him all the way to election day. And Lynda Tabuya is a ticking time bomb who is an albatross around the government, with a record of lurid scandal that won’t survive the blowtorch of an election campaign. And then there is Manoa and Biman, whose trials for corruption are going to be emblematic of the Coalition’s record in government.
In summary, I think your analysis is premature. There has never been a threat to the iTaukei, the restoration of the GCC is showing little or no benefit and the position of most iTaukei is no better now than under FijiFirst and in fact, a lot worse, with the lease money from iTaukei land going not to them but the chiefs.
Rabuka is also labouring under the perception that the people of Cakaudrove are the principal beneficiaries of his rule and resentment in the West, in particular, is acute. We don’t know enough about the relative strength of the various parties because there is simply no opinion polling being done. But I think the notion that Rabuka is a shoe-in – which I once believed – is just plain wrong. He is highly vulnerable and if a week is a long time in politics – as the old saying goes – seven months is an eternity.
Rambo put Lynda into the information portfolio to transform the government’s messaging. Instead it is all over the place and we are currently witnessing some of the seething resentment against the Coalition on Facebook in relation to the failed attempt to silence Alex Forwood. The “fact of the matter” – as One Nation is bound to press home – is that they are both self-serving, incompetent, crooked duds who deserve to be shown the door come election day. And it doesn’t matter if you are iTaukei or a Bangladeshi import, the Coalition is one big fail.
GD, it’s your analysis that is not only premature, but wrong!
Do not rule out Biman, the people’s leader.
Do not rule out NFP, the people’s party.
Our great leader Biman has spoken.
Read the following and eat your heart out, GD.
As great leader Biman said, NFP is unbreakable.
NFP will be the leading party both in Parliament and in government in the next election — that’s from leader Biman.
Your smear campaign won’t work, GD. Prepare to be shocked, GD!
“NFP to play the leading role in Weaving Fiji Together
A meeting of the NFP Nadi Branch Annual General Meeting expressed confidence that the party will play the leading role in uniting the people of Fiji because of strong, honest and dedicated leadership.
At the branch AGM at Nadi Civic Centre, party leader Hon Professor Biman Prasad said the NFP had a long and proud history of 63 years and this was the unbreakable foundation of achievements on which the party would build Fiji into a unified land of hope and opportunity.
He said NFP will be a leading a party both in parliament and in government after the next general elections. The party leader said despite a tidal wave of attacks on both the NFP and him, the party has proven it remains a highly credible and unified to tackle and conquer all challenges before it.
He said as a party in government after the December 2022 general elections, NFP had proven its critics wrong after the announcement and implementation of several achievements like:
* Increasing rate of social welfare
* Making several food items nor only VAT free but duty free
* Making prescribed medicine VAT free
* $200 per child from Early childhood to Year 13 Back to School assistance for over 200,000 students worth over $120m in the last 3 years
* Writing off $650million in TELS loans and removing the burden of payment from the shoulders of more than. 53,000 tertiary students and their families
* Record sugarcane price of as much as $105 per tonne and well over the guaranteed price of $85 per tonne in the last 3 years
* Raising the minimum wage to $5 an hour
* Raising the wages and salaries of civil servants between 10-23 percent
* Removing contract based employment and 55 years retirement age for civil servants
* Millions of dollars provided for community development
* Restoring freedom of speech and association thus allowing Fijians and everyone else to comment and criticise freely
Professor Prasad said a future built on these achievements will greatly strengthen the social and economic livelihood of all Fijians.
The Nadi branch meeting is the 5th successful branch meeting in the last 6 weeks since 18th April. The National AGM and Convention is likely to be held towards the end of September.
The party’s powerful Working Committee will meet in Rakiraki on Saturday 6th June and amongst other matters will decide on date and venue for the AGM and Convention.
The Nadi branch President is Mr Anish Krishna, an energetic, vibrant young person well known by the community.”
You don’t deserve a lengthy response to this boastful self-delusion other than to point out that your leader is on trial for corruption in an election year and faces further charges.
He is also widely regarded as having betrayed the minority cause by failing to stand up to the indigenous extremists pressing for non-indigenous Fijians to lose our right to equality.
It is not a prescription for victory. On the contrary, it is a fast-track to defeat.
You are assuming that the people of Fiji are smart and can see what’s happening. Incorrect assumption!
From the President and PM to the government ministers, politicians, prominent lawyers , civil servants to the village heads and the persons on the street, everyone in Fiji is an idiot. I know. Just like the people on this forum who all seem to have voted and supported change, all idiots. They all seem to be able to write a lot of shit.
In Fiji, it is a prerequisite, you must be an idiot to be a proud Fijian. It has to do with tradition and culture. That is just the way it is. You simply cannot change tradition and culture. So Fiji will remain an idiot country.
By the time the election comes around, they will be smart enough to realise one thing – that they are worse off financially under Rabuka than they were under Bainimarama. Even idiots can count the money left in their pockets and purses.
All the hollow words about iTaukei empowerment amount to nothing when there isn’t enough to put food on the table or mat. And especially when they see Californian multi-billionaires who are exploiting the nation’s natural resources get seven-year tax holidays while they get increases in VAT.
The backlash against this government hasn’t even begun to bite. As soon as a credible alternative emerges, they are doomed.
Looks like your great leader has pucked up big time.
You have been puckering up to his chocolate starfish too long.
Lamb Chops?
You forgot to add a promise for Lamb Chops.
It is better to have donkeys, dogs and whores in government than Indians. That is the mentality in Fiji and that will never change.
As for the economy, cost of living, drugs, HIV etc, well they can always go back to their villages and live off the land and sea – with the help of their vulagi god. That is the mentality.
There was a Lomaiviti Provincial Council meeting last week with a lot of suits and ties with bare feet and sitting on the floor. Very traditional and cultural. What the f**k did they achieve? Ever? All ‘yes’ men with absolutely no idea. They probably got paid to attend with transportation and expenses all paid. More glory for the PM and nothing to show at the end, just like it has been for the last century.
Hallelujah.
Fiji cannot afford to be absent from global climate negotiations if it wants climate funding and international support, Minister for Environment and Climate Change Lynda Tabuya says.
Ms Tabuya stressed the importance of Fiji participating in both the Pre-COP meeting in Nadi and the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP31) in Türkiye later this year.
#FijiSun #Fiji #FijiNews
As someone who went to successive COPs when I was assisting with Fiji’s climate fight, as well as multiple associated meetings, I can tell you that there is no need for per diems because there are so many free events – breakfasts, lunches, dinner and copious alcohol.
That doesn’t stop the participants claiming them and Lynda Tabuya has form in this area – having had free accommodation and food when she was visiting the Fijian community in South Australia only to claim per diems on her return to Suva
This “double dipping” is called fraud and is expressly prohibited under the regulations that cover politicians and civil servants. But guess what? Lynda doesn’t think those regulations apply to her and has her snout firmly in the trough.
This time – if she indeed goes to COP and we will be doing everything possible to prevent that from happening – she will be doing the same fraudulent rip-off of the Fijian taxpayer, just as the Prime Minister does, along with everyone else from the top down. The difference is that the whole nation will be watching.
Stand by for a Grubsheet article on this whole sorry episode – corrupt conduct on an industrial scale while the rest of the nation struggles to survive.
People forget that the imbeciles inn government have entitlements, as do those in the GCC. Entitlements are more important than serving the people.
It is not just entitlement to per diems, there are entitlements just because it is their country. Because it is “their land’, they are entitled to free money. Because it is their land, they are entitled to be arrogant. Because it is their land they are entitled to be prejudiced. Because it is their land, they can make the law as they go.
That is the mentality. Ask them.
A dead baby in an esky and the Kadavu Mortuary.
This is what we gave them a salary increase and duty free cars for, fellow Fijians. This happened in the mover of the salary increase bill Linda Tabuya’s island of Kadavu. Can’t even take care of things at home in Fiji and wants to fly overseas for COP.
She’s totally incapable to begin with, and on top of that, taking too many unnecessary overseas trips to be effective at home.
She is too busy raising money for the rugby team, which will get her more votes, and wasting time trying to control the Internet, including her failed attempt to get rid of critics like Alex Forwood but cannot fix even basic things for her people.
She should die in shame.
In fact, the whole government should die in shame and Rolex Rabuka should be the first to resign, not that he will.
To think that this government has the money to give itself a humongous pay increase and give Fiji Water a seven year tax holiday, but no money for mortuaries, and the people suffer.
As related by David Vasu Viniwai:
Bula vinaka Fiji,
It has taken me weeks to sit down and write this. Even now, it is not easy.
Early last year, my cousin lost his baby after a short illness. In the midst of grief, the family was told the baby would be held by police pending a post mortem.
The next day, another cousin went to Vunisea to see the baby. What he found shocked him. The baby had been placed inside an esky, packed to the brim with ice.
Just imagine that for a moment.
To lose your baby is painful enough. Then to learn that your child was being kept in an esky like fish on ice. No family should ever have to experience that. It is heartbreaking. It is undignified. And it should never happen in any hospital, anywhere in Fiji.
And that was not the only incident.
Around the same time, I was told of a church pastor whose body had to be transported by boat to Suva. During the journey, the body began leaking. Again undignified and again avoidable.
All because the morgue at Vunisea Hospital has not been working for years.
A few weeks ago, I returned to Fiji for my mother’s funeral.
My mother passed away on a Sunday evening. She was buried the following morning.
I did not make it in time.😭😭😭😭
Because there was no functioning morgue in Kadavu, my family had no choice but to bury her immediately. Three of her children could not be there to say goodbye.
The pain of losing my mother was already unbearable. Missing her funeral because there was nowhere to keep her until we arrived that pain is something I still carry every day.
I write this not just as someone grieving. I write this as someone pleading.I do not want another family in Kadavu to go through what mine went through.
While I was in Kadavu, I heard people say that some leaders may not want the mortuary fixed because immediate burial makes things easier. But with respect, that decision should never be made for grieving families.
No one is asking to force anyone to delay a burial.
What we are asking for is choice.
If a family wants to bury immediately, that is their right. If a family wants to wait for children, siblings, or loved ones travelling from Suva, New Zealand, Australia, or elsewhere to come home and say goodbye, that should also be their right. Families should not be robbed of that final moment because of a broken morgue.
This is about dignity.
Dignity for the baby who deserved better than an esky filled with ice.Dignity for the pastor whose body deserved proper care.
Dignity for mothers and fathers whose children deserve the chance to farewell them properly.And dignity for every family in Kadavu who will one day face the hardest day of their lives.
I have lost both of my parents. I know what grief feels like. I know what it feels like to carry regret. And I know what it feels like to be denied a proper goodbye.
Please I am begging the government fix the morgue at Vunisea Hospital.
No family should have to bury their loved one before everyone gets home because there is no other option.
No baby should ever be placed in an esky because basic facilities have been neglected.
Please do something.
Vinaka.
Sorry to hear of your grief and those in Kadavu.
I reckon you should vote for the iTaukei because only they have all the answers to Itaukei problems. The vulagi will never undertand iTaukei issues and problems. It is best you solve your own problems with the assistance from a vulagi God. Nothing else should be done by the vulagi. Perhaps there is a traditional and cultural way to preserves the dead until people arrive. We all know Fijians have the best traditional medicines in the world so there must be a way to preserve the deceased. Maybe you look to get some assistance from the Egyptians. What did they do in the old days in Fiji, before the vulagi came?
Just putting things in perspective. More importantly, who did you vote for at the last election?
It was fellow taukeis along with a significant number of dalit dogs that voted this government in.
The dalit dogs are barking again so the itaukei need to take a stand once and for all.
“The dalit dogs are barking again and theiTaukei need to take a stand once and for all”
Isn’t that waht they did in 1987, in 2000 and to some extent in 2006?
And look where you all are now.
You must be blind, dumb and deaf. But you are not alone, because most in Fiji suffer from those conditions.
Unless there is another explanation for the way Fiji is.
Except Taniela doesn’t realize the dalits in fisi are really untouchable as the tail that wags the economic dog of Fisi’s economy.
The itaukei dogs can keep their “last stand” – what that might be – where the sun don’t shine.
Better still, focus on getting itaukei brother dogs currently living under Sydney bridges and the other many ills that blight itaukei society.