Fix Governance, Discipline to Make SODELPA Better, say Candidates
Two candidates vying for SODELPA party leader say good governance and discipline will help to make the party better. MP Viliame Gavoka and former general secretary Pio Tabaiwalu were responding to a Fiji Sun question to name three things that would help improve SODELPA. A third candidate, Deputy Opposition Whip Aseri Radrodro shared his views yesterday.
Mr Gavoka said: “We have been too lenient and too forgiving with squabbles within the party.”
Mr Tabaiwalu said: “There is a need to change the governance system in the party,”
Here are their views in full in their own words:
Pio Tabaiwalu
SODELPA is a party on the rise with the political momentum on its side evident by its increasing seats in the past two elections. It lost with a very narrow margin in the last elections.
It has a very good chance of winning in 2022 but the party needs to improve a few things. The top three issues I would address as party leader to improve the party and its chances of winning are as follows:
There is a need to change the governance system of the party. There are just too many grievances that are hobbling the party’s progress and negatively highlighted in the media. I have noticed that alot of these issues are administrative issues that could be dealt with at secretariat level. This can be addressed through the present review of the party constitution and separate administrative issues into a Standard Operating Procedures ( SOP) of the party. The SOP is the best way to handle many of these grievances and the general secretary to be empowered to resolve them. At the moment all grievances are brought to the Management Board unduly raising political persuasions and factions rather than an objective, fair and transparent anaysis of the issues. My suggestion is to have a Disciplinary Commitee that examines these grievances and to examine all cases in a fair and transparent manner with rules of evidence so the committee can mete out the most resolution. Secondly the party needs to consolidate its structure from the Branches, constituencies, Management Board to the Annual General Assembly. SODELPA is the only party that has constituencies and then each constituency chooses its candidate for elections. This is contrary to the present De Hondt system of elections which has done away with constituency representation and brought in the one constituency system. This in my opinion was deliberately done to suit the “Super Star” following of Bainimarama where he was promoted as the candidate to vote for and all other candidates can then benefit from his overall votes. That is why you have ministers with only 500 plus votes in Parliament and some with more than 2,000 votes outside of Parliament. The system does not reflect a representational government and fails to adhere to the principles of transparency, accoutability and good governance. In fact it promotes and perpetuates a dictatorial system of government as one person because of his huge voter numbers holds unbridled power over his Members of Parliament and effectively renders then as blind maleable followers.
As a founding member of the party we envisaged the party to be constituency based so that MPs can better serve their voters. As party leader this is what I will strengthen and promote so that each constituency is fairly represented in Parliament. In the last elections the party followed the “Super Star” model and vigorously campaigned to vote for the party leader and it led to a some constituencies not being represented in Parliament.
As party leader I see it as my role to promote the constituency candidates. This also means that the party leader needs to stand for constituency and he will naturally attract other voters because of his position. Thirdly I will promote the party as a party for all whatever our ethnicity. Fiji needs the talents of all its people to face a more challenging future. We have had too many coups and they have had devastating consequences on our country. We have lost so much as a nation. And we have unprecedented levels of debt that our future generation will be burdened with and we owe it to them to usher in a generation of leaders with a renewed vision to take the country forward. With all the imposition of laws to promote national unity we are still very much a divided nation along major ethnic lines as reflected in Parliament. We need a fresh innovative approach to national leadership.
We have been held at ransom for too long by those who claim that they will bring in a brighter more promising future only to realise that this so called “interventions” was done more for self interest and unbridled ambition and was not for the country and the welfare of its citizens.
I am of the firm conviction that there is a need for the emergence of young, dynamic leaders untainted by the baggage of the past to take our country forward.
Viliame Gavoka
Three issues I’d like to focus on, namely; the model to adopt to campaign in 2022; the core of the messaging; and the discipline. For the campaign, I would adopt the model known as ‘ turf control’ for 2022. This model empowers the constituencies to run their campaign within their boundaries and ensure their candidates make it to Parliament. This is the opposite of the ‘rock star’ model where the leader is promoted over everyone else as FijiFirst does.
SODELPA is structured to suit the ‘ turf control’ model. We started out that way in 2018, but changed to the ‘rock star’ model in the home stretch, creating confusion and contributing to our loss. There is still belief within the party though, that the ‘rock star’ model works, but I feel it is a threat to the constituencies. The ‘ turf control’ model is best and has the added advantage of enabling the paramount chiefs, now established in the hierarchy of the party, to take ownership of the ‘ turfs’ within their confederacies.
Secondly, messaging will be laser-like on the economic empowerment of the iTaukei. Following the 87 coup and our efforts to change the constitution, the PM of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, a friend of Fiji had made some contributions and expressed strongly that uplifting the economic well-being of the iTaukei was the solution, not changing the Constitution. We didn’t listen; now we are up to the 4th constitution and the iTaukei are still poor. Qarase had set out with his vision known as ‘50/50 by 2020’ aimed at uplifting the iTaukei to control 50 per cent of the economy by 2020, but fell by the wayside when his government was overthrown. The economy will galvanise the iTaukei, and properly packaged, the other communities will see it as uplifting for Fiji with how it grows the GDP and other indicators. Thirdly, I will fully enforce party discipline. We have been too lenient and too forgiving with squabbles within the party. SODELPA has all the mechanisms to enforce discipline, but we have lacked the appetite to use them. Our supporters want stern action as squabbles discourage them, especially when they become public. We are two years to the general elections, enough time to mold the candidates to be disciplined. The quality we want are those that keep the heart and soul of the party intact. There will be no dissension or second guessing. In conclusion, SODELPA is well positioned to win in 2022 with its network of 28 constituencies, anchored to the hierarchy that has the paramount chiefs of Kubuna, Burebasaga and Tovata.
As leader, I intend to strengthen the constituencies and the confederacies, and with that SODELPA will form Government.