- Its leader, Biman Prasad, will be charged with abuse of office and be gone from politics if and when the Ashton-Lewis Commission of Inquiry Report ever sees the light of day and its recommendations are adopted.
- Fighting for his political life, Biman Prasad has resorted to repression by having the nation’s perennial bad boy, Ben Padarath, arrested and charged for having stated the bleeding obvious that the Prime Minister will move against him.
- Rage envelopes the NFP’s supporters as they realise it is turning a blind eye to its Coalition partner’s plan to revert to the racist 1997 Constitution, having remained silent when the minorities were described as “vulagi” – visitors in their own country. (see previous story)
- The angry backlash with just months to go before the 2026 election tells us that the NFP’s support base has collapsed and it has little or no chance of making the 5 per cent threshold needed to win any seats in the next parliament.
- The great party of A.D Patel, Siddiq Koya and Jai Ram Reddy – Fiji’s oldest political grouping – faces imminent destruction.
- Yet the best its leaders can do is lash out at their critics, blame the former Bainimarama-Khaiyum government for all the nation’s woes and in the latest astonishing defence of its woeful record, say that “at least no-one is being taken to the Camp”. No. In the case of Ben Padarath, he’s been taken to Namaka Police Station on a complaint by Biman Prasad.
For two days running in the Fiji Times, we have had front page stories from the NFP’s resident beaten dog, Pio Tikoduadua, making a desperate attempt to defend the indefensible – the party’s betrayal of its traditional principles and of the people who gave it five seats in the current parliament to “keep the bastards honest”.
Make your own judgment, Fiji, but to Grubsheet’s eyes, Pio Tikoduadua looks like a man who knows that the axe is about to fall. He knows what is in the Ashton-Lewis Report and that barring a miracle, it spells the end of Biman Prasad’s political career. Because no political leader can survive a judicial finding that having abused his power to prevent himself from being charged with giving a false declaration, that charge should be reinstated.
Ben Padarath is right. Sitiveni Rabuka will have to take action against Biman Prasad. He will have to cut him loose and allow the legal processes to take their course. And Pio Tikoduadua looks like the man who is going to be left holding the baby, to try to breathe life into the shell of a political force that Biman Prasad will leave behind.
Judging from the photos, never has someone been such a reluctant father. Tikoduadua makes the crazy-brave assertion that Fiji’s oldest party will go on. But the reality is written all over his face. If Biman Prasad goes down, it is the end of the NFP, at least for the term of the next parliament.
Its grand history and its well-oiled party machine will do nothing to save it from the rage of those who voted for it in 2022 and are seething with fury that they have been betrayed. Even if Biman Prasad survives because Rabuka throws him a lifeline and the Ashton-Lewis Report is buried, he is already a dead man walking.
If he doesn’t survive and the Party switches to Pio, that isn’t going to save it either. It will still not meet the 5 per cent threshold because the weight of Biman Prasad’s baggage – the FICAC debacle on top of his betrayal of the minorities – is simply too great. So the best that those in the NFP untainted by scandal can do is start talking to the other political parties. To save their political careers while there is still time to do so.
The NFP isn’t here to stay, Pio. Your “never say die” act isn’t remotely convincing. Because thanks to Biman Prasad, the prognosis is terminal.
You are too good to go down even as the captain of a sinking ship. So find a lifeline for you and your shipmates while there is still time to do so.
———-
Today’s Fiji Times front page…
Maybe not taken to the Camp but taken to the Namaka Police Station.
The NFP’s commitment to free expression. Ben Padarath under arrest for allegedly peddling “fake news” after a complaint from Biman Prasad.
More desperation on yesterday’s front page…
“Here to stay”? Yeah, sure.
A never-say-die posture when the body is already on the way to the morgue.
Yes, we’re all “fakers and haters”. “Known quants”.
It’s you who is the”known quant”, Biman. A hypocrite as well as a crook.
Whatever happens with the Ashton-Lewis Report, it’s already there in precise detail over at Victor Lal‘s Fijileaks.
Tick, tick, tick.
Yes. Don’t bother with my words. Read my face.
I will never trust NFP again. Pio, Lenora, Agni, Sashi and worst of all Baiman have betrayed us and the country. Aiyaz had the measure of this power-hungry, incompetent and overrated group. Never again.
https://www.4crb.com/live-interviews/the-judge/
29 May 2025 episode features Judge David Ashton Lewis.
No police will come and arrest you. Than NFP complains to police to have Ben Padarath arrested for telling the truth.
To quote Ashton-Lewis, ‘None protest their innocence as the guilty.’
Baimaan is the perfect example.
Areh Pio don’t forget you pocketed over 100k on your recent trip to visit the soldiers. The whole lot in NFP are corrupt.
The scumbags of NFP are well and truly being exposed now.
Where’s aunty Shashi and Lenora? What a waste of space these two liars and hypocrites.
Biman, Pio and Agni are dead men walking in the political landscape. Voters will bury NFP in next elections. So much for CHANGE.
I genuinely hope that politicians like Biman are made an example of, so that no one ever thinks of betraying the people who voted for them the way he did. Him together with Richard Naidu have brought immeasurable economic pain and suffering to poorest Fijians while enriching themselves and their friends.
Can’t wait for people like Biman and those around him to come crashing down.
There are/were a lot of smart people in NFP, or supporting NFP into Parliament during the last election. Thinking of all those high profile lawyers. Well, with Rabuka’s wily move in appointing the COI, and revealing “the crocodiles in the pond” (as described by the judge) he seems to have bested every single one of them, despite their intellect. Unfortunately (and it IS unfortunate for anyone against institutionalising the supremacy of any group of people over others based on ethnicity) their arrogance and hubris got them in the end, and all over the appointment of one clearly unsuitable person to head FICAC. They are finished politically if not legally. Clearly underestimated SLR.
Truth will come out by this week good job GD
Pio went on a 6 weeks trip shaking tbe money tree in the Middle East and Europe and reportedly earned over $100k in pay and allowances doing so. It should never have happened.
People are calling Rabuka snake. The the biggest snake is Biman Prasad. He’s the king cobra. He put on an act in Parliament while in opposition about democracy, good governance, accountability, and so forth.
it was all an act. once in power his greed, selfishness, and corruption became evident very quickly. He was like a kid in a lolly shop. As someone remarked, he would jump to open a pit latrine just to be garlanded and give a speech.
He’s a bastard of the highest order and he will get kicked out in the next election along with the NFP – unless the NFP kicks him out first.
NFP’s gift to the nation is the most incompetent finance, Minister and the worst deputy Prime Minister in the history of the country.