Alefina Vuki – the Chair of the People’s Alliance disciplinary committee that found the sex and drug allegations against Lynda Tabuya proven – has resigned from the committee and from the Party after the Prime Minister retained Tabuya as the Minister for Women and Children.
Alefina Vuki’s decision to sever links with the PAP altogether is a massive blow to the credibility of the Party and a strong vote of no confidence in Sitiveni Rabuka. Vuki – a lawyer and founding member of the PAP – has so far made no public statement. But friends say she has resigned as a matter of principle, believing that the Prime Minister threw her and other members of the the Legal and National Disciplinary Sub-Committee of the People’s Alliance “under a bus” when he ignored its findings and retained Lynda Tabuya in the cabinet.
Grubsheet reported almost a month ago ( March 14) that the stage was set for resignations from the PAP amid a furious backlash against the Prime Minister’s decision. He humiliated not only the members of the disciplinary committee but the Party’s Executive Council, which stripped Tabuya of the PAP’s deputy leadership only for the PM to retain her in the cabinet.
The other lawyer on the Committee was Filimoni Vosarogo – the Minister for Lands and Mineral Resources and close relative of Sitiveni Rabuka – who was also said at the time to be upset that having found the allegations against Tabuya proven, he and the other members were ignored. Vosarogo has a lot more to lose by walking away and isn’t expected to do so. But he is nonetheless said to be similarly aggrieved and has been making his feelings known within the Party.
The loss of Alefina Vuki – who played a major role in the formation of the PAP – will shake the confidence of a great many of the Party’s supporters, who are already extremely concerned about the direction the People’s Alliance has been taking. Vuki is said to have been a stickler for proper conduct and proper process and this reportedly put her on a collision course with some major figures in the leadership, including the Prime Minister.
Now that she has resigned in disgust, can we expect a further deterioration in standards of probity in the government? Undoubtedly. As the old saying goes, evil triumphs when good men and women do nothing. But when good people like Alefina Vuki walk away on a matter of principle and illegal and unethical conduct – if not evil – is green-lighted, it is generally a slippery slope in democratic politics towards defeat.
Sitiveni Rabuka’s decision to retain a Minister for Women and Children who lured a fellow minister into a “brutal” sexual entanglement and boasted of being “high on weed” has sent shock waves through the PAP. Confidence in the Prime Minister has been severely eroded. And while he and Lynda Tabuya will doubtless be glad to see the back of Alefina Vuki, any notion of the PAP being a force for integrity in government has gone with her.
A squalid saga that is far from over.
integrity in government just walked out the door.
A new political paradigm in Fiji. When the going gets tough, take off your clothes.
Onya Alefina
Absolutely disgusting that Lynda Tabuya is still in office! She should be removed. So should the PM! But glad to see some members of the government still have decent morals and principles.
Someone has a moral compass in that Party, at least for now. Unless she has been forced to resign.
Said it before and saying it again.
Tabuya is the Parliamentary bitch of Fiji and this cabinet.
Can the PM endorse this bitch to sit next to his granddaughters as a role model? Or can they sit beside each other as role models anymore?
Fijians pay for her wages.
Fijians deserve a respected MP.
Lynda was never a leader from day 1.
Let her parade in her bikini.
That’s all that is left in the woman now.
One day she talks about clothes and dignity.
The next she is walking in a bikini.
Totally lost it.
Totally f**ked.
I read with disgust anything about this PAP party.
They have all failed Fiji and their voters.
Lynda is a laughing joke in Parliaments abroad. She is talked even in local government meetings as Fiji’s Bonking MP.
Shameful.
Shameful to call her a woman leader.
Good that another woman is standing up to her.
Hope others will follow.
Fijians should grow a spine and start asking the hard questions on the Facebook pages of Rabuka and Tabuya in Fiji.
You would have seen that Fijians in New Zealand did not hold back in roasting Aseri Radrodro on the the Auckland Fijian Community Facebook page last week. Even the past Fiji Times editor, Mr Jale Moala, had Aseri’s presence challenged. Others laid formal complaints to the International Democracy Union for granting Aseri the Deputy Chair role.
We hope that Fijians in Fiji will hold these MPs and PM accountable. Ask them. They are employed through your taxes. They should be of service first and leaders after.
As Mr Moala asked on Aseri’s intentions to meet the Fijian community in NZ, “And has anyone in Auckland Fijian community spoken to his wife? And what is he going to talk about exactly? Ethics? Credibility? Honesty? Loyalty? Compassion? Respect? Trust?”
Ireen Rahiman-Manuel, an international development specialist, further commented, “IDU gives him a Deputy Chair role this week in NZ. I bet he didn’t disclose his abuse on a woman. This doesn’t sit well with women leaders already so we have raised concerns with IDU.
Any leader who thinks that they can escape their deeds while overseas better think twice. We will hold them accountable. There is nothing more here than a group of men showing political powers.”
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid02vLpcH2NHkpXoJEVf1H1XFcqvkYQ1WjacY6CAL28KpJ8vAihoagLvMDBv2eq6pJ6xl&id=100064467648784&mibextid=Nif5oz
Alefina’s resignation is to be commended. It is proof that the PAP system is badly corrupted: — the good people fall to the bottom or fall out while the detritus rises to the top.
Now we see the histrionic, narcissistic dope-taking Minister posting photoshopped images of her semi naked self posing in a beach that was probably photoshopped too.
Those images from a Cabinet Minister would not be tolerated in any country in the world.
It was basically a triumphant middle finger from Tabuya to people like Alefina Vuki who uphold high standards in the party. Others in the disciplinary committee and the party should follow Vuki’s example.
It’s clearly a party that has different strokes for different folks.
You all entertained Tabuya in the PAP.
Now she is chopping you all out.
One at a time. Slowly.
Get ready for a total coup on the party by Tabuya.
She is a slandering, unsettled and entitled woman.
You are all nothing in front of her as she has you all wrapped around her pinky finger.
She is running PAP now.
Like it or not.
Vosarogo and all will go and then she will hit the PM last.
Just watch.
They all deserve each other.
In an uncanny way I am somewhat comfortable in seeing Rabuka fall. And made so by a Bajaru woman. Life’s a bitch. So is Tabuya.
Hip hip hooray for at least someone who stands on principle
I thought Lynda was more comfortable with nothing on.
Can she please show us a rear view as well. We want to see the fat legs and the fat butt and the tattoos from the back as well please, with as much pride.
Omg… that shameless hussy who’s putting her body on display is the Minister for Women and Children, then we’re surely doomed!
Absolute disgrace.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Good to see there are some people with strong principles and moral ethics taking a stand. SLR seems to have been bewitched by the Bonk & Weed Minister. And put some clothes on. Reminds me of that song, “I don’t look good naked, anymore”.
Respect Ms Vuki.
We need 4 MPs from Pap/NFP/Sodelpa to tell PM Rabuka to banish Tabuya to the backbenches and restore some respectability or else …
Ms Vuki knew Rabuka . They all know ! That he is as inconsistent as it comes! Only thing Rabuka is about is himself and his cronies ! If he can liumuri people who’ve helped him like Col Raivoce when he was a nothing, and go off and casually tell a group of men yes remove Raivoce from Chair of the FHL because his becoming too big for his shoes, then you know Rabuka has zero moral values and zero ethics ! His loyalty will always be to his groin ! Moce Alefina! Sadly you slept with the devils you already knew but you thought getting rid of Frank at any cost was better for Fiji. Welcome to recession ????