SODELPA-NFP team a political gamble that could backfire on parties
Sitiveni Rabuka and Biman Prasad teaming up is history repeating itself. The leaders of SODELPA and the National Federation Party have joined forces for a one-week West tour to listen to the people.
It’s a bold move that ignores the 1999 election debacle.
Mr Rabuka then Prime Minister and leader of SVT ( Soqosoqo ni Vakavulewa ni Taukei) teamed up with then NFP leader Jai Ram Reddy in a coalition and suffered a humiliating and ignominious defeat. They were decimated at the polls.
Indo-Fijians, who constitute the powerbase of the NFP, voted with their feet, rejecting the coalition with Mr Rabuka. It was clear that they had not forgiven him and did not trust him after he had apologised.
To them, Mr Rabuka was the colonel who led the racially motivated military coups in 1987 against the Indo-Fijians that caused fear, pain and suffering in their communities and led to the flight of many overseas.
The NFP did not win a seat, the first time in its election history. It lost all 20 seats it won in the previous election.
The SVT retained only eight of its 31 seats. The Fiji Labour Party which previously had only seven seats gained an additional 30 seats for a landslide victory and the historic ascension to the country’s top job of Labour leader Mahendra Chaudhry as the first Indo-Fijian Prime Minister.
That’s history now but Labour has bounced back after languishing at the bottom to displace the NFP for the number three spot after FijiFirst and SODELPA in the latest Fiji Sun- Western Force Research public opinion poll.
Has this forced NFP to ride with SODELPA after the major Opposition’s partner’s success in the poll, by overtaking FijiFirst for the first time? It is the junior partner and is expected to work with SODELPA anyway. But it has not been open or forthcoming about its support for SODELPA. Maybe the 1999 election experience still haunts it. This is the first joint public appearance for a joint exercise of Mr Rabuka and Mr Prasad and the announcement came from SODELPA. NFP and Mr Prasad have probably been bouyed by Mr Rabuka’s rise from 17 per cent to 27 per cent, six per cent behind Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama in the Prime Minister stakes.
It may have given them the confidence to align themselves with Mr Rabuka in public.
This West tour is a listening exercise, according to SODELPA. The two leaders will listen to the people and record their grievances which they will share in the next session of Parliament.
This tour will test the mood of NFP’s fan base - supporters who still see Mr Rabuka as the 1987 coup leader with racist sentiments against the Indo-Fijian community despite his plea for forgiveness. In a bid to redeem himself with Indo-Fijian voters he went with Mr Reddy in the 1999 poll.
The results emphatically showed they were not ready to accept him. Are they ready now?
For Mr Rabuka, it will be a bonus if he is able to woo more Indo-Fijians.
For Mr Prasad, he really has little choice. He has slipped in the ratings and does not have many options. He has nothing to lose. His best bet is the Rabuka option. Even that is fraught with danger. Despite all the best intentions, the venture is laden with risks. It could backfire on the NFP unless its diehards have moved on and buried the demons of the past.
For SODELPA, some who have never trusted the NFP because of the 1999 election disaster could ask: We are doing well, why bring in the NFP?
The next Fiji Sun- Western Force Research poll would indicate whether this joint venture has benefitted the two parties.