As a journalist, Vijay Narayan – the News Director at CFL-Fiji Village – is showing clear signs of erratic conduct, as well as being demonstrably biased in favour of the Coalition. But did he really have to kill off Professor Tupeni Baba twice when reporting his death at the age of 81? As in “the late former…passes away”.
No-one likes to speak ill of the dead. And in Fiji it is almost sacrilegious – with a whole lot of hypocrisy and cant routinely uttered about someone when they “pass away” even if they were loathed in life. But Professor Baba deserves a more balanced appraisal of his legacy than the hagiography that has accompanied his passing.
Grubsheet first met Tupeni Baba back in April 1987 when I was sent by Australia’s Channel 9 to cover the defeat of Ratu Sir Kamiese Mara‘s government and the election victory of the Labour Party led by Dr Timoci Bavadra. Dr Baba was an impressive man – highly educated and designated as Education Minister in the Bavadra government. And he was full of optimism about the potential for change and the Bavadra government’s ability to set the country on a new course.
Of course, we’d all been brought up in the post-Independence period to expect that when the Fijian people voted decisively for change – and Ratu Mara’s Alliance Party had been in power for 17 years and change was certainly needed – that the will of the people would be respected. But no-one counted on the indigenous extremists, most notably Sitiveni Rabuka, who perceived Timoci Bavadra to be a “stooge of the Indians” when he was nothing of the sort. And it was only a month later that Tupeni Baba and the rest of the Bavadra cabinet was removed from parliament at gunpoint by Rabuka in his coup of May 1987, and Rabuka sowed the whole sorry cancer of indigenous supremacy that afflicts the nation to this day.
It’s hard to imagine the trauma that Tupeni Baba and his colleagues endured. And that trauma was repeated in 2000 when, as deputy prime minister in the Labour government headed by Mahendra Chaudhry, Baba and his colleagues were again removed at gunpoint by George Speight and his gang and held hostage in the parliament for 56 days.
So Dr Baba can be forgiven, like many people subjected to trauma, for a certain degree of erratic behaviour and bouncing off walls. Nonetheless, many people were startled – Grubsheet included – when someone who had been so staunchly Labour eventually threw his lot in with Laisenia Qarase‘s SDL – the Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua – and later contested the 2014 election for SODELPA.
Even more startling was that Tupeni Baba seems to have fundamentally changed his beliefs about inclusiveness and the multiracial ideal that was at the core of the Bavadra and Chaudhry governments. Back in 2012, Grubsheet was amazed when Dr Baba actively called for the establishment of a Christian state in Fiji – a concept that is unacceptable in any genuine democracy, and especially one where there are people of other faiths.
Click here for the full article and it’s also worth reading the comments back then to see how little we have come in 12 years. But here’s an extract:
“For Grubsheet, one of the most startling revelations was to see the former Labour Party cabinet minister, Dr Tupeni Baba, sitting on the panel that made the SDL submission. Time was when this distinguished academic moved in much more enlightened circles. He was at the right hand of Dr Timoci Bavadra – that revered, almost saintly son of Vuda – when the sadly short-lived Bavadra Government was removed at gunpoint in Sitiveni Rabuka’s ethno-nationalist coup of 1987. Dr Baba was then a fighter against ethno-nationalism. Now he sits among the racial supremacists of the SDL and advocates religious supremacy – the adherents of the other major faiths in Fiji reduced to second-class citizens.
Surely Dr Baba must know in his heart of hearts that other major planks of the SDL submission are also highly questionable. It talks about the i’Taukei being insecure because of the establishment of the Land Bank, the removal of the chiefs from the Native Land Trust Board and the imposition of the Surfing Decree. Insecure? What arrant nonsense. There is no change to land title. The i’Taukei continue to have exclusive ownership of more than 80 per cent of Fiji’s land surface. What on earth is there to be insecure about? This is blatantly scaremongering in the Vanua and Dr Baba should be ashamed to put his name to such rubbish“.
It is actually more than 90 per cent so Grubsheet was wrong in 2012. Of course the media in Fiji never pressed Tupeni Baba on his radical change of heart. And, of course, the media is studiously avoiding any mention of Baba’s religious intolerance in the many tributes to him that are now appearing.
The likes of Shaista Shameem, Mahendra Chaudhry and Biman Prasad, are saying lots of nice things about Tupeni Baba and a great deal of it is undoubtedly deserved. But we don’t get the full measure of any man if the more contentious aspects of his life are glossed over or are ignored altogether. And that is sadly the case with Tupeni Baba. A distinguished academic but politically all over the place.
Rest in Peace. But at least be remembered honestly.
I did not know he turned into a proponent to make Fiji a Christian State.
A little pathetic point of view if there ever was one. But in Fiji, no one can ever be trusted because you never know when they will pivot and do a 180 degree on you.
Never trust anyone, especially in Fiji. That is my experience and my mantra on Fiji.
And then to go from Labour to SDL to SODELPA – I do not understand why everyone can sing his praises. I guess one has to be respectful during this time.
I do not have a very high regard for anyone who changes allegiences.
Dr Tupeni Baba was a political opportunist.
Deep down he wasn’t a fan of Indo Fijians.
The Fiji Labour Party however gave him the opportunity to achieve what he always aspired to as a politician.
Good riddance to Tupeni.
Even Mahendra Chaudhary had been working with Rabuka for years to unseat the previous government. I, for the life of me would not be seen in the same room as the person who removed me at the point of a gun and with violence. Twice at that too.
How can MC be in the same picture with this idiot let alone in the same room. How can he be seen working with him. I do not understand that. Desperation, I guess? Or was MC also scammed into thinking that Rabuka had changed? Now Rabuka has got what he wanted with the help of MC, he has been cast aside and is again on the fringes struggling to be relevant. Surely there are idiots at all levels in Fiji, from the highest office to the man on the street. Fiji is full of idiots.
He is no more.
Whatever he did can’t be undone .
At least there are graduates out there who he taught.
No matter what color.
Gone forever.
Only thing we can do is be a human and mourn.
If you think he has hurt you with his choices in politics then it’s all over.
Tell me something new. Fiji politics is like baking roti on a hot plate, keeping turning sides. Examples include nine former FFP members siding now with Rabuka, Mahen Chaudhry, Reddy and Rabuka, and the lest goes on. There is truth in the adage, “politics maketh strange bedfellows.”
Even as an academic, he was very mediocre.
What do you expect from this representative system that has plagued us these past 50 years.
Nobody in this country questions it although it has caused us nothing but grief and strife.
The intellectual capacity of our elite is abysmal as is their courage.
Do not lay blame at the Ghai Commission (2013), it provided for a Constitutional Assembly in their Constitution to allow for considered change over time.
Frank and Aiyaz got rid of that Assembly, no doubt fearing any chance they would look at the immunity clauses.
Meanwhile, Section 121 of the Constitution is still waiting for all those representatives in parliament who swore on their respective holy books to enact law to bring it into life.
This law would be a gift for the people of Fiji, so one can see it is hated by the Bureaucracy, so there it lays dead with all the dead promises of our Parliamentarians words to honour the Constitution.