So the unions at USP are going ahead with their strike demanding the removal of the Vice Chancellor, Professor Pal Ahluwalia – jeopardising the education of the region’s young people to assert their right to choose their boss.
The Fat Cats have got their pay rises but it isn’t enough. So they are withdrawing their services until the USP Council caves in to their demand that the Vice Chancellor must go.
Imagine, Fiji, if the entire nation said: “We don’t like Sitiveni Rabuka and until he is removed as Prime Minister, we are going on strike”. What’s the difference here? Oh, here’s the difference: Rabuka’s performance is abysmal and under Pal Ahluwalia, USP has just gone up 200 places in the global university rankings.
The unions say they want a Pasifika person as vice chancellor, not an Australian born in Kenya. Oh right. Let’s have a Pasifika person as head of Fiji Airways. Let’s have a Pasifika person as head of Tourism Fiji. Never mind competence. Let’s make ethnicity the sole criteria for choosing who runs our institutions.
Why does Pal Ahluwalia even bother? Why does Andre Viljoen at Fiji Airways even bother? Why does Brent Hill at Tourism Fiji even bother? Everyone knows there’s a local who could do better, eh Fiji?
Getting rid of outsiders has been such a success. Look at the criminal justice system in Fiji. Who needs Anthony Gates when we can have Salesi Temo? Who needs Christopher Pryde when we can have Nancy Tikoisuva and John Rabuku?
Nations get the leaders they deserve. Institutions get the leaders they deserve. Something for the parents of the students at USP to contemplate as a precedent is set that the workers of Pasifika decide who should be the bosso. And the education of their young people grinds to a halt.
Never mind. They can always sell bananas like the nice lady in the picture. Look at this front page. A snapshot of national life. Street stalls, rugby and a strike at the region’s foremost institution of higher learning. All that’s missing is the drugs. Oh, they’re on the Fiji Times front page ( see below).
Just another day in the Jaina Republic.
Yes, let’s get rid of Pal. His KPIs are woeful.
Oh, here’s the drugs on Pravda’s front page. Barrow boys at the Nadi Market overdosing.
While the elite in Fiji enrich themselves, the poor are left to die.
Some of Grubsheet’s stories on USP. They have not made me popular with the unions.
It’s got me thinking that maybe I should stand aside for a Pasifika person. I was born in Fiji but, of course, that doesn’t count. Yet as each day passes – as Pal Ahluwalia must feel – I wonder why the hell I bother.
No pay rise for me. In fact, no pay at all. But I could go on strike for my removal. Now there’s a thought.
Troy says
The collapse of good governance in Fiji is depressing and startling. Hopefully there’s a PhD student recording the poor decision making, feathering of nests, conflicts of interest, tax holidays and preferential treatment among the elite and connected.
Dave says
There’s only one option. Call their bluff. Suspend their pay until they return to work. It is not acceptable for the workers to be allowed to fire the boss. The students can go back to work when it is settled, the staff can go back to earning their wages when they realise that they are there to work for the boss and not to choose him. If any company or institution accededs to blackmail because some of the staff don’t like the person who is in charge, it is on a steep slope to self destruction.
Let them exhaust their well stocked bank accounts and then go back to work in the knowledge that it is not and never should be the prerogative of the staff to choose their boss once he has given them a job. If they don’t like the boss, they have the option of leaving and finding a boss that they do like. Simple as that. Ultimately, it will disrupt the students, but one can never bow down and accept blackmail, in any shape or form, it is just another term for corruption.
International Airline, Tourism & Schooll says
Would you see parents of students at International School in Laucala Beach Suva going on ‘strike’ demanding a Pasifika to manage and operate the school! No way. Just see how much the school has expanded in number of students and it’s facilities. And see who runs the school…the Head of School. Their Primary and Secondary principals etc. And the Overseas curriculum. That will tell you clearly why it’s the #1 school in Suva for those who can afford it. It would be interesting to see how many of the ethno nationalists send their kids or pay for their grandkids to go to this school which is run by overseas management and has overseas or non pasifika staff. If all the management and staff there who are non Pacifika were ethnically cleansed from their roles like Temo and mate Rabuka are doing in the govt sector just see how soon the parents there would strike and remove their kids from the school !
Daniel Richards says
The problem now with USP is that its governance structure doesn’t work.
The Council of USP led by its chair is the main problem. Australia and New Zealand are not owners of the university, but because they are major donors, they pull strings from time to time.
USP has a NZ Chair – do you think he is bothered ? If he was, he would have sorted out the problems by leading action and being very clear how the governance at USP should function, including how the VC and Senior Management should behave .
It was also observed served that Pal didn’t follow the hierarchy and started going to individual members of the Council, particularly to smaller members, to get them on his side. Pal has also brought division in the Council, which was never there before.
Whatever the problem may be, the situation can only be resolved by having an independent investigation against Pal. This doesn’t mean that Pal is guilty, but this is the only way a resolution can be reached. Pal is not bigger than the university. It will be good for Pal as well
I understand that the enrollment has gone down, and if it is not for Fiji Scholarships and TELS, USP would have suffered more. It is also noticed that the quality of teaching has deteriorated as new graduates can hardly perform. I would not read too much into THE rankings for USP. One needs to find out is it the overall ranking or just in certain categories.
The main issue is that the region relies on Fiji Australia and New Zealand for its finances. Fiji campuses are profitable, but al all campuses outside Fiji run at a loss. This needs to be addressed.
While Fiji is an integral part of USP, it now has its own national university, which they should concentrate on to make it the leading university in the region while supporting USP. Fiji’s funding of USP should be relooked.
The Unions in Fiji are supported by the Coalition government, so it will not interfere with the rights of the unions to strike for their grievances .
Pal, on the other hand, has reached the retirement age, so he should exit honorably rather than trying to stay longer. This will be best for the region.
USP needs a fresh start.
Graham Davis says
Yes, the outsiders should just shut up and pay the bills for the locals to do what they want, including going on strike because they don’t like the boss. All very logical.
You fall into the trap of believing that Fiji is the only stakeholder at USP. What about the other island nations? And where did FNU come in the global rankings?
We don’t need yet another “investigation”. We need people to get on with their jobs.
Dejected says
A “division in the Council, which was never there before” is a very stark display of ignorance of USP’s history that should preclude you from commenting on it. Maybe you were not around when the council was divided along Tonga vs The Rest which is how Masaso got in.
Only a little knowledge is dangerous. In your case, a tad embarrassing too.
Misfire Bae says
Ooo..if they keep this up, they might just get the Acting-up Chief Justice involved.
Our USP says
Am a proud alumnus, often reliant then on Fatty’s shop (black market for booze and banking) and Pong’s (hot buns) opposite the old main gate, and am a former staff too from the 80s. The then VCs were Maraj, followed by, I recall, Brosnahan, Caston, Esekia and Siwa. Great days despite ups and downs back then like the 1987 upheavals. So it’s really upsetting and disappointing to observe the unprecedented mess during Pal’s reign. He started off with a bang, unfairly deported, then now. Sadly, students are those affected most. Besides each VCs’ individual characteristics, it says a lot too about the governing Councils that the VC reports to, both past and present. Hopefully, this will be resolved following due process sooner rather than later.
Daniel Richards says
GD, if the organisation has issues, the buck stops with the boss – in this case, VC, his senior management, and the Council.
What I am simply saying is that issues are recurring, and for the interest of everyone (insider or outsider), a fresh and innovative approach is needed.
On the ranking, yes, FNU has a long way to go, and it needs to tighten its governance structure and recruit high caliber lecturers and professors.
Elizabeth Reade FONG says
The biased ranting continues but I will add this never-the-less for those persons who believe that there are always two sides to every issue.
The Ministry of Employment, Productivity and Work Relations has issued the letter approving USP’s strike notice. The Unions are working within the law and have observed all protocols and processes.
If the University is supposedly in the space that we expect it to be, why is there no involvement and contribution to the CHOGM 2024 that will take place in Samoa? Alumni are informed that the CHOGM programme shows no side event or contribution by USP Samoa. Where was the USP leadership in all of this?
Invitations were sent out for side events at CHOGM and the timeline for this extended but USP did not respond. The National University of Samoa is hosting a side event but not USP – why?
USP’s relationship with the Commonwealth dates back to VC James Maraj. I share the following by an alumni
`As a relatively new University in the Pacific, USP had the very good fortune to have as its second Vice Chancellor, a Carribean educator of vision, intellect, empathy, integrity and energy. Dr James Maraj came to USP from the Commonwealth Secretariat where he had been Director of the Education Division with the responsibility for developing and promoting schemes of co-operation in education among all Commonwealth countries. As Assistant Secretary General, he was responsible for co-ordinating and supervising functional co-operation in all Commonwealth countries in the fields of Education, Law, Medicine, Natural Sciences and Youth Community. During his extensive travels, he caught the eye of leading Pacific Islands educators in government. They shoulder tapped him and when approached, he allowed his name to go forward as their nominee for the VC’s position of USP.
As a young naïve Pacific Island university student representative on Council in 1975-1977, it was an enormous privilege to sit at the table and learn from this incredible resource of the Commonwealth, recruited by Dr Langi Kavaliku of Tonga, Dr Fana’afi Larkin of (Western) Samoa and Hon. Filipe Bole of Fiji/Viti kei Rotuma. Dr Maraj arrived at an auspicious moment in 1975 and immediately extended the USP experience into Africa via Zimbabwe and the Indian Ocean.
In Zimbabwe’s transition to modern statehood a group ten plus young Zimbabweans arrived to study at USP and all returned home after graduation just as their country gained independence.
A second group of ten plus Africans who studied and graduated from USP were from Ethiopia. Judging by their behavior on and off campus, both groups of students certainly enjoyed USP’s diverse and multi-cultural Pacific Island communities in Fiji and Samoa where the School of Agriculture is located at Alafua campus, just a few minutes outside of Apia. [We would have hoped that CHOGM would have had a chance to visit and meet some of its diverse staff and students.]
The popularity of the exchange scheme ensured its continuity well after Dr Maraj left in 1983. In the 1990s and up to the early 2000s, students from the Maldives attended both the Alafua Campus and Laucala campus. There must have been over 20 students from the Indian ocean.
Furthermore, he enhanced the the establishment of the Extension Services Centres beyond the Fiji-Laucala Campus taking teaching and learning across 14 (it was about ten then) campuses in the 12 (it was then 11) member countries. Another initiative was a network of Institutes and Centres for the purpose of providing short-term courses and on-going collaboration to serve the human resource capacity needs of newly developing Pacific Island countries, all of which would not have been possible without numerous Commonwealth agencies such as the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation (CFTC).
Simply put, without the Commonwealth connections established by Dr Maraj (1975-1983), USP would be the poorer. We need more of this depth of vision, strength and quality of leadership …” This CHOGM was a great opportunity to show off USP in a side event but this is now unlikely as at 16 October.
Many recall that under the former Canadian leader Mr Pierre Trudeau funded the building of the School for Pure and Applied Sciences that stands today as SAGEONS. His son is the Canadian Government PM and as a contributor to USP’s development would, we believe, have been interested in USP’s progress as would have been many other Commonwealth Governments.
It was the USP Management’s responsibility to place USP on the CHOGM agenda but to date there is nothing. USP has lost a great opportunity and its leadership is ultimately responsible.
Graham Davis says
“Biased ranting”? Seriously? You people are astonishing, Libby. First it’s about not getting a pay rise and not filling USP jobs. Then it’s about getting rid of Pal Ahluwalia and installing someone Pasifika. Now it’s about not doing anything for CHOGM.
Utterly bizarre. Tell it to the students and their parents and see how impressed they are. A strike at USP when so many Fijians are suffering cost of living pressures just isn’t going to fly in the court of public opinion. I hope you have a better argument than this one for the forthcoming backlash.
Morgan Tuimalealiifano says
Response to Graham Davis’ Grubsheet 16 Oct. post, USP: utterly selfish people.
“So they (USP unions) are withdrawing their services until the USP Council caves in to their demand that the Vice Chancellor must go.”
Dear Graham, I don’t think that is the case here and even if true, a HR101 student knows that termination of any staff including a VC is subject to process prescribed by internal rules and employment relations law of the land.
As you know, during the 2019-2022 saga, VCP Professor Ahluwalia was suspended and deported by the Fiji First Party’s (FFP) for his ‘Issues paper’. It is as clear as daylight that without staff and student unions’ active and solid support, he and his wife would not have lasted this long at USP.
In a regional show of solidarity, the University community showed the FFP that he like any other worker has a natural right to be heard. And thankfully that is what happened.
With activism around the region, Council commissioned an independent investigation and BDO substantiated most of his claims and added Accounting Professor Arvind Patel to their list for investigation as one of the top five beneficiaries of inducement, additional allowances, etc. As a top beneficiary, how Patel was missed remains an enigma.
Fast forward to 2024.
When VCP sacked a valuable regional staff who was also union president, staff unions expected the same process that applied to him. According to Ahluwalia, he sacked her because she had exposed a matter he considered confidential for the good order of the institution. Fine. He is entitled to his opinion. But the matter related to his contract. Whatever the merits of his complaint, that is a matter to be investigated and decided by an independent investigator because the matter he sacked her was personal to him.
Instead of recusing himself from the process because he was the complaining party, he put the staff on trial using his chosen lawyers, who dished up a verdict and then termination. Where is her natural right as a worker? Who was selfish here?
In 2019, his complaint was rightfully escalated to Council which produced a BDO report. But this year, 2024, his complaint concerning disclosure of a vote on his contract was dealt with by him as prosecutor, jury, judge and executioner. Who is being selfish here?
When a CEO is suspected of foul play, it is incumbent on governing body to step in. And that’s exactly what has happened. The unions and students have called him out and Council has ordered an independent investigation. Why was it not escalated to an independent body like his complaint in 2019?
Further, while the investigation into his performance as CEO is being conducted, good governance practice requires he as the officer under investigation to step aside until cleared. Instead, he is still in the driver’s seat as CEO. Where is the transparency and good governance?
Who do those involved in drawing up the TOR, selecting the investigator, such as the acting chair of council, Audit and Risk Committee members and council secretariat report to?
It is going on to three or four weeks since the Special Council and still no word on TOR, tender process. The November Council looms in a matter of weeks.
Who is overseeing this process? USP’s Director of Audit and Compliance? The acting chair Pat Walsh from NZ? Who is being selfish here?
Morgan
Graham Davis says
Morgan, none of this justifies a strike that will affect USP students. That is the selfishness to which I referred. And I stand by that depiction.
Tamara Osborne left herself wide open to being whacked by going on the record with Islands Business. In the same way that a certain union luminary has left herself wide open to defamation action by suggesting the VC is corrupt.
No-one is disputing your right to express an opinion within the bounds of the law. But a strike that damages the education of USP students is unacceptable. And you don’t have to be a PR expert to realise the opprobrium that is coming your way if it goes ahead.
Dejected says
Libby, I can assure you, the student community of USP doesn’t give a rat’s ar5e about a royal visit. They want to get on with their studies at a crucial juncture in semester 2. As they should and as the university should prioritise.
Don’t get me started on the mediocrity that descended on the Library and the USPSU under your “leadership”. For god’s sake, enjoy retirement and keep your meddling nose out of our institution and its business! Please!
KS says
The problem is the incompetent Executive Director of Human Resources and Chief Operating Officer. If only the Executive Director of HR had played proactive roles in submitting logs of claims to the union and having regular dialogues with the union, I don’t think this problem would have occurred in the first place.
The Executive Director of HR and the Chief Operating Officer are blaming Pal behind his back that Pal is blocking everything and the Union think that Pal indeed is blocking when the incompetency of these two has created issues.
Pal is also equally to be blamed for not hiring the Executive Director of HR via advertisement. He picked the current Executive Director of HR who was already retired on the advice of the Chief Operating Officer. It is common knowledge at USP that COO and EDHR were old flames. Had Pal recruited an intelligent Executive Director of HR, I don’t think Union would come after him.
The above is my analysis of the problem having worked at USP in the recent past.
WD50 says
This is getting all rather silly. The ethno-nationalists will soon get involved and demand that the VC be a circumcised Christian.
Chill Madam says
I guess that individuals who have resigned from an organisation should just steer well clear from its ops and sarasara from the sidelines with no comments. As the old market vendor from Naitasiri said, “Na cava nomu bhaigani?”
AChand says
Appointing a regional VCP of USP, just for the sake of it, is not the answer to the current USP awes. It should be the most suitable candidate after an open, objective and transparent process, after international advertisement.
USP has had some great leaders. both regional and non regionals, in its 50 years. These included Caston, Maraj, Siwatibau and Solofa.
Pal has been the biggest disappointment for USP. The USP has undone what it had achieved in its 50 years. The current USP is fraught with conflict, division, tension and the institution is completely divided into pro and anti Pal camps.
There is hardly any research and scholarship befitting an institution that receives millions of dollars of funding both from regional taxpayers and development partners. People are merely turning up to earn a salary and any dissent and initiative is compromised due to fear and discord.
The USP Council, which is really euphemism for the governments which own the University must take the blame for the lack of leadership and guidance to what used to be the proud premier regional institution.
Self educated says
Blinky Bill Gavoka reported that $17million was saved in reduction of imported fresh and chilled goods….I assume in a recent 12 month period. This was at the opening of the National Agriculture Show in Suva. It came across as a proud achievement by the Agri sector and somehow reflects well on the coalition govt.
I would surmise that the govt could take credit for this import consumption reduction….if 100,000 citizens leave Fiji over a year that would mean that there are 100,000 less consumers of imported fresh and chilled goods. Per capita it works out at $170 per person which may be close to actual spend which those gone overseas don’t spend anymore hence reduced imports.
So yes I’d give the govt credit for the reduced import bill, Bill! Drive away more people overseas and you can achieve even greater reductions in local consumption on imported goods. Of course it would be laudable if the local Agri sector did produce more to reduce the need for imports but that is hardly the case.
What has my comments got to do with USP strike..nothing and maybe a little something. It depends on the value and quality of the Maths education and economic understanding of Students! And the spin doctors.
Jobs for the boys says
Not often I disagree with you GD, but there are definitely pasifika pepople who can head up Tourism Fiji better than Brent Hill. He’s a self serving, culturally insensitive numpty poster boy for white privilege who does nothing but use the job to line his pockets, score free accommodation and other perks (none of which declared on a gifts register), secure direct appointment jobs for his wife and lucrative contracts to his mates back in Aus all while paying the local, and hardworking Fiji staff the bare minimum required under the Act. In fact, there was a local within TF who would have been fantastic at the job, but he saw through the inequality and left and is now over at FA. Don’t believe me, look into why the person who was the one actually responsible for all of TFs success during and post Covid left Fiji for UAE.
Dejected says
Might be worth digging further into this, GD?