Trying to decipher what is going on in the Coalition in Fiji is a bit like trying to decipher what was going on in the Kremlin during the Soviet era – a combination of getting small bits of information and piecing them together like a jigsaw puzzle to try to produce a complete picture or sometimes simple guesswork.
Take this cryptic FBC News story that the Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, is thinking of skipping next week’s Pacific Islands Forum gathering in Honiara because something more important is happening at home.
Come again? The Ashton-Lewis Supreme Court Commission of Inquiry “requires his attention”and “he and the President have an important matter to discuss”.
Now what could that be?
Is the Prime Minister finally going to act on the COI’s recommendation that the Chief Justice, Salesi Temo, be suspended after it found that he was liable to charges of obstructing and perverting the course of justice, perjury and abuse of office?
Has Salesi Temo now outlived his usefulness having delivered the Supreme Court opinion that Rabuka can change the 2013 Constitution as long as he gets a two thirds vote in the parliament and more than half the electorate in a referendum?
Will the Prime Minister tell Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu that irrespective of whether they are old friends from their Raiwaqa days and he is related to the Chief Justice by marriage that he has no choice but to suspend Temo and put him before a Tribunal of three judges because of the gravity of the allegations against him?
Or is the Prime Minister going to see the President to advise him to cancel the authority of the Commission of Inquiry because the police are investigating a complaint from the CJ as head of the Judicial Services Commission that Justice David Ashton-Lewis has made claims about his qualifications that are allegedly false?
Is the COI and the whole $2-million Ashton-Lewis Inquiry going to be quashed even though, or more pertinently because, it has uncovered widespread wrongdoing in the offices of state and on the part of some of Rabuka’s most senior ministers?
All this is in the mix of Kremlin watchers trying to work out what on earth is going on at the highest levels in Fiji, with a Prime Minister who throws out tit-bits to the media that might contain a wider message or might just be an aging leader struggling to think on his feet.
Time, as always, will tell.
Yet is there something in the weekend statement by the Minister for (Dis)Information, Lynda Tabuya, that contained a heavy hint that the government is poised to embrace the recommendations of the Ashton-Lewis Commission of Inquiry.
This is what she said:
Oh really? So after more than three months and a very public kick in the pants from the Judge, the government is finally acting?
The thought of that has certainly roused the COI’s biggest public critic – the voluble Yorkshireman, Charlie Charters, who as well as being son-in-law of the late madrai queen Mere Samisoni, has taken on the role of matanivanua for his old friend – the President of the Fiji Law Society, Wylie Clarke – who the COI has found liable to a charge of perverting the course of justice.
Here’s another cryptic exchange in response to Lynda Tabuya’s statement in which Charlie Charters is promising, “Haha”, a “drop” of documents.
What documents? Well as any Kremlin Watcher will tell you, these must be documents to back up the complaint by Charlie Charters to the Judicial Services Commission that Justice David Ashton-Lewis has, er, been economical with the actualité in terms of his professional qualifications.
Charlie is also now in a tizz with Lynda Tabuya for suggesting that the COI recommendations might be implemented after all and the dreadful prospect that his sustained campaign against David Ashton-Lewis and Janet Mason could amount to nought.
Here’s an astonishing separate Facebook posting with Charlie in full hissy-fit mode, turning his blowtorch not only on the COI but Lynda Tabuya for her heresy in not falling into line with the Gospel According to Charlie and his old mate, Wylie Coyote. And their old mate, Richard Naidu.
—————
“I WAS MORE … than a little surprised to read on Sunday how closely the new Minister of Information chose to ally herself with the Commission of Inquiry.
She appears to be trying to convince us that the COI is a positive, like an emetic, that will expel bad forces from within us. It’s thanks to the Government’s new-found constitutional transparency that the COI was possible.
She promised the COI was ‘an important step to hold institutions accountable. Allegations that once would have been hidden were investigated openly by an independent judge.’
The Minister beamed: ‘what was silenced is now debated openly’.
Oh really?
It can’t have escaped the Minister’s attention that the COI Report concluded she and her husband/ex-husband appear to be living a lie and that their marriage dissolution ‘could be a sham to avoid financial disclosures’ [3.126].
The COI Report dissected the ‘intimate video’, who it was made for and why, and then reported as fact the two former spouses were still living together, ‘raising the possibility of a sham divorce’. [6.200].
Are you ready to discuss these allegations openly?
The COI Report acknowledged in Annex J 464 and 465 that the Minister denied putting the Voter Status Information of Alexandra Forwood on Facebook, and also denied receiving the VSI data from Ms Malimali.
But the COI Report said in 4.159 they preferred the explanation of FICAC officers who concluded that the Minister had somehow been unlawfully provided with Forwood’s VSI by Malimali.
In addition, by publishing information about Forwood’s electoral and taxpayer status on Vuvale i Vunimatalou, the COI Report in effect opened the door to accusations that the Minister was potentially herself acting unlawfully.
Afterall providing this information unlawfully was one of the three charges FICAC alleged was provable against Malimali and which the COI Report agreed with. The same could apply to the Minister for receiving and then publishing the same confidential information.
Can we debate these allegations?
And despite the Minister and Malimali testifying clearly under oath that whatever friendship existed between the two had ended on or around 2019, the COI Report chose to disbelieve this sworn testimony. And from two lawyers no less.
Instead the COI Report favoured ‘reports’ that they had an enduring friendship and this was why the alleged ‘sham divorce’ was not looked at in closer detail while Malimali was FICAC Commissioner.
It follows from this that the COI Report was in effect concluding the Minister’s [and Malimali’s] testimony lacked sufficient credibility to be believed.
So which parts of all the COI Report’s conclusions relating to the Minister, her public and private lives, and integrity as a witness, would she like us to begin ‘debating openly’?
Or, as most of Fiji has already worked out, might the Minister’s experience of testifying to one thing to the COI and hearing the COI Report conclude something completely different based on FICAC and Alexandra Forwood’s ‘say-so’, point to the fact the report is not worth the paper it’s printed on?
It was a crocodile hunt with no crocodiles. All thanks to the PM’s extraordinary instructions given to a conman, fantasist judge who couldn’t wait to do his master’s bidding.
Assisted of course by counsel who, we now know, was refused a solo practitioner’s licence in 2014 after crashing one law company into administration for non-payment of PAYE and GST and who this week has just emerged free to practice again after her latest scrape with the New Zealand Law Society, a suspension ‘for unsatisfactory conduct’.
When the Minister accepted her new position on August 5 she promised to launch the Goverment equivalent of a ‘no spin’ zone.
‘Let this Ministry not be known for managing narratives, but for telling the truth,’ she pledged.
Time for some truths Madam Minister. It’s either your version of the truth or the COI Report.
Which will it be?“
——————-
Wai Lei. Hell hath no fury than a Yorkshireman scorned. Charlie Charters must know that the new Minister for Information wouldn’t be talking about the COI Report being implemented unless the Prime Minister had green-lighted her to do so and that is precisely what is going to happen.
Is he in a panic that his promised document drop (“haha”) will amount to no more than a drop in the ocean and his vociferous campaign to denigrate and derail the COI will have been futile? ” But I told you this has been a crocodile hunt with no crocodiles. How dare you contradict me!”
So is the Prime Minister going to the President to tell him that Salesi Temo’s position is untenable because his conduct in relaying a message to Francis Puleiwai that no FICAC charge she laid would be heard by any court in Fiji is all on tape?
Will he advise the President to finally suspend the Chief Justice and replace him with Rabuka’s ally of four decades, Justice isikeli Mataitoga, the President of the Court of Appeal, who has suddenly been listed as a Supreme Court Judge in the Court’s constitutional opinion, making him eligible to step into the role of CJ?
Questions, questions. Such is the role of the Kremlin Watcher in Fiji trying to make sense of the inexplicable.
As I say, only time will tell. Yet one thing is certain. The real thing during the Soviet era was a lot easier to decipher.
UPDATE WED AM:
No wonder Charlie Charters is in a flap. He’d hoped to derail the COI Inquiry findings and save his mate, Wylie Coyote.
Alas. Very bad news for anyone who received an adverse finding in the 681 page COI Report.
I will never cease praying for my God given the Fiji islands – God knows everything, let the best thing happens to my beautiful Fiji and its citizens!
God Bless Fiji!
Nothing will happen.
Chill out!
These guys will be in power for very long time.
They have the tide on their side.
Watch Sylvester Stallone movies Rambo ,if you haven’t.
Tough and very hard to die.
This is just part 1.
Part 2 is after next election.
GD, you might have to retire your pen.
Hitler said the same thing. His “Thousand year Reich” lasted five years when delusion set in. Qori.
Same was happening to Aiyaz, year in and year out.
Rumors were that military is split and Aiyaz was going to be locked up.
Nothing happened until 16 years my friend Mr Graham.
Fiji needs to protect the LGBTQ community more. People should learn to respect the members of the LGBTQ community. It is a good thing to become someone from the LGBTQ community. It is much better than heterosexual interracial marriages.
I think it’s going to be something more mundane, such as postponing the elections until the constitutional reforms…yawn.
According to my sources Biman who is dreading the elections — I wonder why — has been desperately trying to get the elections delayed.
This is significant.
“Cabinet has agreed to invite the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Margaret Satterthwaite, to undertake an official visit to Fiji.
The Special Rapporteur is a mandate-holder appointed by the UN Human Rights Council and is tasked with monitoring, reporting, and providing expert advice on issues concerning the independence and effective functioning of judicial systems, legal professionals, and the broader administration of justice worldwide.
Ms. Satterthwaite, appointed to the position in October 2022, is an internationally respected human rights expert with decades of experience in the field.
The visit is expected to provide an opportunity for Fiji to engage constructively with the international community on justice sector reforms and the strengthening of judicial independence.
Ms. Satterthwaite’s visit, once scheduled, is expected to include meetings with members of the judiciary, legal practitioners, government officials, and civil society organisations.”
Significant indeed. Hopefully the judicial version of an enema. It sure as hell needs purging, that’s for sure.
The proposed UN visit is a possible and credible reason for the PM’s dilemma on whether or not to attend next week’s Forum Leaders Summit in Honiara.
Fiji often brags of its regional leadership status and it will be very “un-Forum” of the PM to be absent as usually it’s the Foreign Minister who stands in when the Leader is not available. And in Fiji’s case, the PM holds both those positions.
If the PM misses out, then one of the DPMs will sub him – probably the one not implicated in the COI report – Hon Gavoka (charter flight report?). Next in the pecking order would be Hon Tuisawau, who is known to have Pacific regional experience, especially in Melanesia which includes the Forum host, Solomon Islands.
But if that “important matter to discuss” somehow leads to a freeze on overseas Ministerial travel, could we be seeing then the PM’s army colleague and our PNG-based diplomat, H.E. Evans, occupying the Leader’s seat in Honiara?
Fiji Times’ latest FB post: “Fiji Airways pursuing legal action over unpaid Israel charter flights”. Mr Gavoka and other heavyweights should have a story on this.
And PM will be in Israel next week for just an hour on 17th Sep to open the Fiji Embassy together with his counterpart. So more dinau for taxpayers to bear? And forget Honiara.
Nothing will happen to COI inquiry. The Prime Minister and the President will not touch their favourite Chief Justice, Rabuku and others. Next week the ammendments to 2013 will be discussed.
I think this is more about him heading the Constitutional Review Committee. He’s hopefully about to find out it’s a more lengthy process than rushing through his hair brain ideas.
Given that new information, maybe little Miss Lynda Toduya, will be looking for a new job!
Any of the Fiji Niteclubs got poles?
Constitution will be amended. FICAC closing. Police and DPP will handle all future investigations. Annually $10million will be saved by closing FICAC.
Motion will be moved to do many other amendments. Fast Tracked and approved. Like Kaiyum used to do.
Fijian people will be free.
– Fiji Sun, P3
GOVT AFFIRMS IMPLEMENTING COI RECOMMENDATIONS
The Government will still implement the 18 recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) report, says Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka. In an interview yesterday, Mr Rabuka said the process of implementing the recommendations would continue. So far, the Government has only acted on two of the recommendations – the revocation of Barbara Malimali’s appointment as FICAC Commissioner and Lisiate Fotofili’s appointment as Deputy Commissioner. Mr Rabuka did not specify how soon the remaining recommendations would be implemented.
General Election
The Prime Minister confirmed that the general election will take place next year, contrary to speculation that the Government was pushing for another four-year term. “No, it cannot be. It will have to be next year or before February 2027,” he said. “That is the gap. As early as the middle of next year, or as late as the end of January. That is the law.”
Great news all around. Status quo minus a few dispensable kaisi n Kaiindia despatched from their perches. Lynda is poised for greater heights with her bum in the air antics now safely under designer wear. Radrodro does a Rambuka …alas for the two SSs Sulueti and Saniana stand by your rapacious manhoods running amok. Methodist Church is returning to its 1987 pitbull self. The Kaiindia tradition of a grinning traitor or Jai Chand now fully embraced by Baimaan and the greaser and appeaser role taken by rolling neckless nitbitch Sashi Kiran. All we can do is sit and wonder dumbfounded Kaivitis all.
M16 said “September 3, 2025 at 6:42 am
These guys will be in power for very long time.
They have the tide on their side.”
Not when our world’s CO2 fully melts Greenland’s ice, raising global sea level by seven meters (23 feet), submerging about 1000km² of coastal Fiji land.
Thus Mother Nature will overule any Fijii PM.
Whatever is happening is just the hangover of Bai and Kais doing in last 16 years.
Now the talk is about amendments to the constitution.
This vile and abhorrent Snake has lied and slithered all through his life. Rabuka is a hate-filled, soulless liar.
The newest case in point is his bullshit call for respecting those who are different. A bit rich coming from a life-long bigot.
The tragedy of the gay doctor’s brutal and sad death is not cause for political capital and milage.
Stop lying about respecting those who are different when you yourself have treated people who are different from you with vile disrespect and disregard all your life. Your brand of racism is well known.
Stop the bull and lip service for political mileage and start making laws to protect the minority groups. None deserves it more so than the LGBTQI community.
As any civilized society must rightfully make laws and have special protection provisions for women and children, so must society protect other most vulnerable groups.
The bastard Snake says one thing, but his church preaches the exact opposite-hate for those who dare to freely choose to be different.
Why doesn’t the bigot the faith groups speak out against this inhumane hate, ridicule, vilification, violence, and murder of the gay community?
If the Pope can say,’Who am I to judge?’, why not society at large? Because bastards like the Snake speak with forked tongues and deliver messages using double speak.
Your end is nearer than you think, Rabuka. For once in your life, stop hunting with the hounds and running with the hares.
Respect and legally recognize the LGBTQI population. They are not an insignificant party of society, but rather a group of people who are often hugh achievers and highly talented in their own right and lives.
They contribute towards nation-building as much as anyone and are taxpayers to boot. They deserve respect and inclusion.
Political parties should include plans in manifestos to better protect the LGBTQI. It can save lives.
Creating a government ministry or, at the very least, including a special division in an existing ministry to address the challenges the LGBTQI faces daily is not asking for too much.
The police need training to better handle crimes against the vulnerable in our community-including violence against women and children.
The police must stop tormenting and victim-blaming those who report domestic and sexual violence. Stop the cowardly bulling and machismo.
Do something tangible before you die a reptilian death. Enough lip service.