Eyebrows will have been raised in the “Five Eyes” intelligence alliance of Australia, New Zealand, the US, Britain and Canada at the sight of Lynda Tabuya at Sitiveni Rabuka‘s right hand as he discussed an upgraded security arrangement with the Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, during the Pacific Islands Forum in Honiara.
Why? Because Fiji’s new Minister for Information – whose scandal-ridden career has been resuscitated by the Prime Minister – is a suspected agent of influence of the Chinese through her close relationship with Beijing’s ambassador in Suva, Zhao Jian.
Zhao has gone outside the normal channels of funneling aid to Fiji to personally give money to Lynda Tabuya for her pet projects on her home island of Kadavu. We know of one donation of $172,000 that has been publicly acknowledged and there may well be more. (see below) And one of the first things the Ambassador did when Tabuya was given the Information portfolio was to pay a courtesy call on his friend. (see below)
Of course, we can expect the usual denials of an improper relationship. But the question remains as to why Lynda Tabuya would have any independent relationship with the Chinese at all. She is not in the foreign affairs or defence portfolios where she might have a legitimate reason to have regular contact. And we can be sure that the Chinese know everything there is to know about the “Minister for Bullsh*t, Bonking and Weed”, including her penchant for the high life.
Tabuya is a national security risk merely because she now has an obligation to the Chinese for their personal largesse towards her and her home island. China is a transactional society and it will naturally expect something in return. And yet there she is by the Prime Minister’s side as he discusses a new security treaty with Australia primarily designed to keep China out of the region.
What guarantee do we have that she won’t immediately report the details to Ambassador Zhou? Answer: None. Can someone who was found guilty by her own party of a “sex and illicit drug scandal” and of lying about it be trusted with the national secrets not only of Fiji but of Australia and the rest of the Five Eyes? What do you think, Fiji?
The wonder of it all is that there was no sign at the Honiara meeting of either the Defence Minister, Pio Tikoduadua, or the Commander of the RFMF, Major General Ro Jone Kalouniwai. The pictures from the room show Lynda Tabuya on the Prime Minister’s right and the Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Dr Raijeli Taga, to his left but not those officials most concerned with the nation’s defence and national security.
Given her history – the antics in Room 233, the sex, the drug-taking, the lies, the pornographic video and the sham divorce to avoid declaring her income to the Elections Office – Lynda Tabuya is a security risk all on her own. But the Prime Minister is so smitten with her and so reckless to the consequences of including her in a meeting with Anthony Albanese that he appears willing to compromise Fiji’s national security and that of its allies in a much more fundamental way.
Australia and the other members of the Five Eyes need to have their eyes wide open about whether they can really trust Fiji under the circumstances. And for Sitiveni Rabuka to fail to recognise the risks when the stakes are now so high that his Palauan counterpart says the region is already at war with China shows just how much Lynda Tabuya has the PM wrapped around her little finger.
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Anthony Albanese talks up a new security deal with Fiji with a suspected Chinese agent of influence on the Fijian side.
The problem with Lynda Tabuya as outlined in previous Grubsheet stories…
Seriously. Would you trust this man if you were Anthony Albanese?…
….when “Albo’s” intelligence people would have undoubtedly briefed him that Rabuka’s right hand woman used illicit drugs during an official parliamentary visit to Victoria and already takes money from the Chinese?
And all just a week after the latest acknowledged meeting between Lynda Tabuya and Ambassador Zhao. Here’s how the Chinese Embassy reported it…
UPDATE THURS AM:
Lynda Tabuya is taking precedence at the PIF by the Prime Minister’s side ahead of his Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs and the veteran diplomat, Ratu Inoke Kubuabola – Fiji’s High Commissioner to New Zealand and Sitiveni Rabuka’s co-conspirator in the 1987 coups.
It is highly irregular. Tabuya is Information Minister, with no formal role in Foreign Affairs, Yet it is she who has the PM’s ear at a biggest gathering of regional leaders. And boy, does she look pleased with herself.
From feather duster to rooster. Look at me, look at me!
Scandalous.
Think she is there just to hold his stick (walking) for him. haha
Honestly these days is Australia any better than China? Who is the “enemy” and why? It kind of feels like we have been told a narrative for so long that we have accepted it as the truth – but the way things are unravelling globally and the more publicly exposed Govt actions are, the more people are starting to question what the truth actually is.
It is dismaying to see the millions spent on vehicles in the Solomons when there are so many people below the poverty line, basic necessities are not met (medicine, power, water, shelter), the roads are dustbowls riddled with diseases, gender based violence is escalating; and yet again we see Government elite benefiting the most from donors.
Instead of all the dick swinging from Governments – maybe we could actually help people.
It’s very simple. Australia is a vibrant democracy of competing political parties in which every citizen has guaranteed rights. China is a one party dictatorship of unelected gangsters in which dissenters are hounded, jailed or shot.
Notwithstanding everything you say, China is still Australia’s biggest trading partner.
Australia cannot do without China. So why the Sinophobia?
As far as Fiji is concerned, China is an important development partner.
There will be no Chinese military bases in Fiji that will threaten Australia. The fear-mongering is unnecessary.
China and three of its principal allies – Russia, North Korea and Iran – pose a clear and present danger to world peace. The jury is still out on its other “friend”, India. But anyone who is complacent about the Chinese threat is as foolish as the Nazi appeasers of the 1930s or those who ignored the threat from an expansionist Japan.
Isn’t trading with China an act of appeasement in itself?
Or is it a demonstration of double standards by Australia?
Such a fitting response on the date of Sept 11 to resurrect Sinophobia Graham. Are you intending to write your own Huntington epic. Perhaps your intended thesis can be covered as an expose on 60 minutes. Rope in Sam Dastayari as a potential villain co starring Lynda Tubuya.
Yawn.
Ask the people of Hong Kong what Chinese assurances are worth. Some people never learn even when history is staring them right in the face.
So, in trying to join the dots between a ‘democratic ‘ freedom-loving and open Australia and an authoritarian China, how do you explain Australian officials barring Pacific Island journalists from covering PM Albanese’s media conference in Honiara?
After all, Australia assures the Pacific Islanders with the rhetoric of “we are family” (vuvale) and that Australia should be their “partner of choice,” etc.
Isn’t this all ‘Big Brother’ tactics?
Don’t be ridiculous. Talk about seizing on a molehill to make a mountain out of nothing. Is that the best you can do? Journalists being excluded from one news conference to justify casting Australia as the same as China when it comes to human rights? Pathetic.
Really Graham, the jury is still out on India, come on man give some due credit to the world’s largest democracy. India is not China, Russia and North Korea .You really need to give your head a shake, sometimes you absolutely make no sense.
Well maybe Narendra Modi should have thought of that before he held hands with Putin and Xi in the most extraordinary eff you to the other democracies you could possibly imagine at the present time.
India has turned a blind eye to the Russian aggression in Ukraine and now Putin’s incursions into Poland in a manner that beggars belief. Yes, Modi is getting cheap fuel but at the expense of India’s reputation in the rest of the democratic world.
Do I make sense now?
China doesn’t follow America like a pooch to fight American battles, and Australian politicians are in danger of becoming ZIONIST shills.
GD, no you still don’t make sense, go back and look at the historical relationship between India and Russia.
Watch all the news conference where India’s Foreign Minister Jai Shankar has repeatedly addresses the issue of India purchasing oil from Russia.
Modi is way smarter than Trump.
Indias reputation is very much intact , you need to sometime better understand geopolitics.
I stand by my original comment. Holding hands with tyrants is not something respectable democratic leaders do.
Moci was is and will be the biggest bastard out of indian politics, the man is a joke there’s a reason he’s known as the butcher of Gujarat.
Would not trust her with anything. Why she is Minister is beyond a joke. I regard her as the apprentice Snake.
No doubt the Australians will watch her carefully, if they don’t already do so.
Australia is a great enabling force propping up a racist ethnonationalist led Coalition Government that oppresses Indo Fijians contributing aid and substantial budget supplement. Hypocrites as always the past exploitation of Indo Fijians by CSR Australians conveniently forgotten. Vuvale for some, exploitative hypocrisy for the already oppressed in Fiji. Not on, mate!
Oppressing Indo-Fijians? What you smoking bro?
The 2013 Constitution regards us all as ‘Fijians’.
Indians control the economy, their freedoms are guaranteed etc.
Stop playing the victim, coz we will not fall for that BS
They look like a couple of dizzy teenagers. That’s what love does to you.
You are all wrong and lack judgement. Lynda is being groomed to be the next PM.
She has all the right qualifications and experience as far as the Christians in Fiji are concerned.
She is dodgy, she is a sex maniac, she is a liar, she is a faker, she has no financial acumen, she has no idea about anything, she is a first rate dickhead and most importantly she is a fake Christian or Israelite or both. – yeah, she is not sure either!
All the characteristics which make her the ideal person to be the next PM.
Rabuka with Tabuya at his side for photo opportunities looks so much like an old man with his attractive carer. Seriously pathetic .
Kick out SL Rabuka at the general election and his concubine is history. It’s obvious Jezebel has her dirty hands around his …. and he will do as she says.
This disgusting “state of affairs” would never happen in a proper democracy with checks and balances working smoothly and respect for the rule of law.
What do you say about a leader whose party once sacked Lynda Tubuya as Deputy Leader over sexual misconduct allegations, who later admitted to smoking weed, and who was fired as a Minister after her nude video scandal? Yet Rabuka shamelessly brought her back as Minister for Information.
Now, she sits beside him at the Pacific Islands Forum and joins his 17-member delegation to Jerusalem to open an embassy in a country at war.
And Australia? Canberra not only looks away — it bankrolls this circus. Millions are poured into Fiji and Melanesia, not to strengthen democracy or lift ordinary people, but to play its old game of chequebook diplomacy.
It props up unstable leaders, turns a blind eye to corruption, and uses aid as a shield to block China.
Rabuka’s “security deal” in Honiara will collapse like all his broken promises. He sidelined his own security chiefs because deception and unpredictability are his trademarks.
This is the reality: an erratic Prime Minister and a scandal-ridden Minister for Information paraded as Fiji’s global face — enabled by Australia’s political games.
Canberra is not a partner in Pacific stability; it is a player exploiting the Pacific’s vulnerability.
The Pacific deserves leaders of integrity and partners of principle — not reckless politicians and foreign powers using them as pawns.
If watching the motley crew of leaders present at the Chinese Military display a few weeks ago, as well as the juggernaut on show, did not raise some questions about the ethos of the leaders and the direction of their global agenda, then in my view we are just a land of the living dead. The decision making process of how we choose and who we choose to be friends of reflects our own core values. Faced with an alliance of enough despots with the means and moral darkness to be able to significantly shift the earth on its axis in a detrimental way – when the huge resources available to these nations could be directed towards uplifting mankind in peaceful industry – we still debate the pros and cons as if it is a very difficult decision to make.
One clear litmus test is how these countries philosophy view the dignity of the human being.
Neither Rabuka and Tabuya can be trusted.
They are already in China’s pockets, don’t forget his and GCC’s recent trips to PRC. He is merely currying favour with Australia to squeeze more out of both of these countries. Albanese is also desperate to shore up support in the region given the rising Chinese influence.
As they say diplomacy is b…h.
Just look at his priorities. He does not attend the Leaders’ retreat in Honiara but heads home after grandstanding and the motherhood rhetoric on the ‘ocean of peace’. After talking about solidarity, standing together, regionalism etc etc, his actions (or lack of them) in standing up to Australia’s continued opening coal and gas mines (kudos to Vanuatu which continues to show spine)), the huge gulf amongst countries in relation to Fukushima discharge, deep-sea mining, militarisation etc, he does not have the balls to have face to face dialogue with other leaders. Talk about policy on the run. Who gave him the right to offer land for climate displaced people from other countries when he cannot even attend to the needs of Fijians who are needing relocation.
Talk about hypocrisy and lies. Rabuka’s record of deceiving and lying to his own people when trying to get elected is a testimony to his untrustworthiness.
Please advise when the official transcripts of text messages and videos from the forum will be released.
Was the room 233 interactions within the Fijian govt delegations or between international delegations.
Revelations must come out before the elections. The question is what happened to the bag of “diddy” oils that was carried inside the cabin luggage.
Very droll. All in good time. 🙂
Kudos to Mrs Tuisawau for her paradoxical views below, as the PM pursues his concept of Ocean of Peace at the Forum Leaders summit in Honiara. Instances of the paradox include, among others, the PM’s rushed return to Fiji in order to open an Embassy in a country at war; his representation at the Forum by none of his 3 Deputies, all of whom are remarkably linked to allegedly dishonest schemes (COI and FJ charter flight); and heightened lawlessness in the country where high-level offenders are safe and untouched while grassroot culprits like the recent butter thief are “taken to task” as the authorities would say.
“Tuisawau: Fiji not in state of peace”
Fiji may not experience wars, but it is not in a state of peace, says former trade union leader of Fiji and the Pacific and retired educator Susana Tuisawau.
Speaking at the inaugural IWPG Peace Conference Program held over the weekend in Suva, Ms Tuisawau highlighted that the idea of peace and the significance of peacebuilding have not received adequate attention in this nation.
“I have observed that today there has not been any serious attention specifically directed by Government, civil society organisations, schools, churches, and the private sector towards an organised or systematic sustained approach that is consistent to offer peace education to the people of all ages and in all sectors in Fiji,” she remarked while explaining four essential points regarding the notion of peace.
She noted that the issue arises from the misunderstanding that, since there are no wars in Fiji or neighbouring Pacific nations, people assume we are peaceful.
“That is why there has not been any organised program consistently offered to people here in Fiji on peace education. So, they say in the Pacific, we already have peace and there is no threat from our Pacific neighbours, hence there is no need for peace education here.
“Now, this is the wrong concept of peace because peace is not just the absence of war, conflict, or armed conflict.
Recently, she said, they were informed by the Minister for Women that as of now, there is a high number of reported cases of child abuse in Fiji, including incidents of violence and sexual exploitation of children from January to the present.
“To make it worse, Fiji is among the few countries with the highest record of domestic violence in the world per capita. That is horrible.”
“Further, we now have a very high incidence of youths being challenged by problems relating to drugs, substance abuse, alcohol, suicide, crime, pornography, teenage pregnancy, STDs, and unemployment, and not to mention rising cases of human trafficking.
“So, I’m afraid Fiji does not have peace. It may not have wars, but you may as well call us as being under attack with all these problems.”
https://www.fijitimes.com.fj/tuisawau-fiji-not-in-state-of-peace/