# WHAT FRANK’S NEW PARTY LACKS. A CHARISMATIC LEADER CAPABLE OF CAPTURING THE NATION’S IMAGINATION

So the new FijiansFirst Party has finally broken cover, though without any mention of what Grubsheet reported 12 days ago – that the man behind it is Frank Bainimarama.

The announcement in today’s Fiji Sun of some of the (proposed) party’s founding members doesn’t include the biggest founding member of all – the former Prime Minister, who can’t contest the coming election because of his 12-month jail sentence and is currently being tried on two further charges, including inciting mutiny in the RFMF.

Did the Fiji Sun delve deeper into precisely who is the guiding force in the new Party? Clearly not because Frank isn’t mentioned at all. Yet rest assured, Fiji. You heard it here first and it is 100 per cent correct.

The only question still to be answered is whether Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum is also part of the new grouping, though that presumably depends on the long-awaited verdict in his own trial, which is due to be delivered by the Chief Justice, Salesi Temo, on Monday.

It is all a bit strange – the disclosure of a conga line of FijiansFirst (proposed) candidates without any mention that the Party is essentially a reincarnation of the FijiFirst government guided by its two principals – or one principal, Frank Bainimarama, if Sayed-Khaiyum can’t be formally involved.

Also strange is that the President of FijiansFirst is lawyer Tupou Draunidalo, the former president of the National Federation Party, who sat in the parliament for the NFP before leaving to set up the unsuccessful HOPE Party. Talk about a politician in search of a political home. FijiansFirst is Draunidalo’s fourth party after the Fijian Association, the NFP and HOPE, which turned out to be No HOPE, though there is no doubting her integrity .

Strangest of all is that the Fiji Sun identifies the proposed party’s leaders as Tupou Draunidalo and Faiyaz Koya, the former FijiFirst Minister and current independent MP who was closely aligned with Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum as one of his oldest and closest friends.

Neither individual – in Grubsheet’s opinion – has what it takes to set the nation’s pulse racing, to have any hope of defeating Sitiveni Rabuka and the People’s Alliance. Or for that matter, to eclipse the former FijiFirst MPs currently still in the parliament, led by Inia Seruiratu, who have formed themselves into another party calling itself People First.

So here’s the thing, Fiji. FijiansFirst is a party in search of a leader. A fresh face. A candidate without baggage capable of capturing the public imagination and taking the fight to the Coalition parties as they wallow in chaos and dysfunction. And to take on the Herculean task of putting the nation on a better footing.

It is a very big vacancy. Yet it is clearly an opportunity for a man or woman with charisma, integrity and political nous to step forward. To join FijiansFirst and have the mana to be acknowledged straight away as the natural leader capable of forging the current also-rans into a winning political force within a matter of months.

The principal requirement , of course, will be the ability to manage Frank Baimarama, and possibly Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, and share their fundamental vision for Fiji which won them two elections but was derailed in 2022 by the “power of one” on the floor of the parliament and ushered in the present governance disaster.

None of the current individuals, also in our opinion, has the capacity to inspire the nation and capture its imagination as party head. Why? Mainly because they are established political players who have already failed to cut through and there is no reason to think that anything has changed.

So FijiansFirst is a party in search of a leader. He or she will have to be charismatic, smart and be capable of achieving ascendancy in the parliament and in the country. To have the strength to handle two strong personalities, Frank and Aiyaz, behind the scenes. And to build an alliance with those other former FijiFirst MPs in People First who became estranged from Frank and Aiyaz as the party imploded but who share similar values and are natural partners.

Sounds impossible? “Cometh the hour, cometh the man” (or woman) goes an old English proverb. It means – according to one definition – that “at a time of great crisis or need, the right leader or capable person will appear to solve a problem and save the day. That history produces the necessary hero precisely when a situation demands one”. And, boy, does the current situation in Fiji demand a hero.

We are entering a period of grave danger as the economic fallout from the war in the Middle East collides with the nation’s crippling social problems – of a drug and HIV crisis, a collapse in public confidence, a mass exodus from the country and a national leadership wallowing in dysfunction.

Who can lead us out of it?

For the right person, destiny awaits.

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