FICAC’s failure to prove its case against Manoa Kamikamica because its star witness went to water in the witness box has triggered a renewed tussle for the leadership of the People’s Alliance and again presents a direct threat to the Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka.
It’s widely believed that Rabuka set up the Ashton-Lewis Commission of Inquiry into the Malimali affair primarily to thwart the attempt by Manoa Kamikamica to get Rabuka to step aside during the current term of government and hand him the leadership.
Justice David Ashton-Lewis as good as said so in his astonishing Queensland radio interview in June 2025. He referred to the now-to-be-restored deputy prime minister as a “wannabe prime minister” who had done “disgraceful things” yet was “smiling to the Prime Minister, I’m your greatest loyal fan”.
It was an oblique but unmistakable reference to Kamikamica which is about to resonate in the corridors of power all over again.
What were the “disgraceful things”?
Here’s what Justice Ashton-Lewis wrote in his Commission of Inquiry Report about Kamikamica’s alleged role in offering to derail a FICAC investigation into the former Fisheries Minister, Kalaveti Ravu.
This was a CoI finding that cost Mr Sweet his job as deputy prime minister but wasn’t a conviction in a court of law, where the onus is on the prosecution to prove the guilt of an accused beyond reasonable doubt.
The problem is that when the case brought by FICAC finally made it to trial in the magistrate’s court, Kalaveti Ravu refused to name his fellow MPs who he had openly fingered at the CoI to corroborate his allegations.
Why wasn’t he forced to answer the question? It is one of the great mysteries of the bungled FICAC prosecution that has now propelled Manoa Kamikamica back into the deputy leadership and prime minister in waiting. And make no mistake. That’s precisely what he is. And on Sitiveni Rabuka’s say so. (see below)
Leaks from within FICAC have also made much of material that was allegedly found on Manoa Kamikamica’s confiscated phone. Yet this also wasn’t pursued in court, which has got some people wondering if this case wasn’t meant to succeed amid reports that the Acting FICAC Commissioner, Lavi Rokoika, not only wants out but wants to stand for the People’s Alliance in the coming election.
We’ll see where the skittles eventually fall in all of this. But one thing is certain. Manoa Kamikamica may have been acquitted because of a lack of evidence presented to the magistrate but there are still serious questions about his conduct that aren’t going to go away.
This includes him going to FICAC during the tenure of the exiled former acting deputy commissioner, Francis Puleiwai, and quite improperly, according to her, raising questions about his own case. At the time, that alone was enough for Grubsheet to opine that it ought to disqualify Manoa Kamikamica from ever holding high office.
Yet all this is already being eclipsed by what it all now means for the relationship between the number one in the government, Rabuka, and his number two, Kamikamica. Does anybody seriously think it is all going to be hunky-dory from now on? Not on your nelly.
Mr Sweet and his ambitious wife, Ann, are seething with rage about Rabuka’s conduct in cutting Kamikamica loose. And Rabuka himself will be just as paranoid now, if not more so, about Kamikamica as a threat to his own position. It is certainly no recipe for stability in government or the nation as a whole.
Decide for yourself, Fiji, when you read the following article, in which the Prime Minister is desperately trying to pretend that all is now well, but which smacks of a simmering power struggle that only one of these men can win.
Kalaveti declined to sing, which means that the kalavata king and his queen are back.
I lost all respect for this man when he said, pay us more money if you want us to do a better job. So greedy.
The data centre project he has been boasting about has Natadola landowners up in arms because they were never consulted. It is another Vuda waste-energy fiasco.
As they say, there is a strong woman behind every successful man. In this case, Mrs Sweet was too strong, and it was her greed, entitlement and ambition that landed Mr Sweet in trouble in the first place. She felt her husband should be PM, not Rabuka, and that he is God’s gift to Fiji.
Doesn’t mean that the case was thrown out for lack of evidence that Mr Sweet is innocent. Behind that famous innocent smile is a very calculating man.