FijiFirst Leader: Be Careful of Parties with No Track Record
FijiFirst leader, Voreqe Bainimarama, told supporters at a rally on Saturday not to be swayed by sweet-talking political parties with no track record of positive and resilient leadership.
Hundreds of supporters turned up to show their support packing two large marques and ground space to capacity at Nawaka District School grounds in Nadi.
This was also visibly the largest campaign rally so far in the Western Division.
“It’s a very important Election for us because you will then decide whether we carry on going forward with FijiFirst or go backwards with some of the political parties that are talking loud but have no track record,” he said.
“You will hear a lot of stories about what the FijiFirst is doing.
“Somebody had told me that Rabuka was asked a couple of days ago I think, why you would want to lead again and he said, just look at my track record, hello, he doesn’t have a track record,” Mr Bainimarama said.
“If you want us to lead again, look at our track record.
“In Nadi, we have shown in the past, all the development in Nadi shows what a great track record we have put in place.”
Great Council of Chiefs
He said he was also aware of The People’s Alliance leader Sitiveni Rabuka pledging to reinstate the Great Council of Chiefs.
“We really don’t want the Great Council of Chiefs back. We’ve gone past that.
“We’ve carried on without the Great Council of Chiefs for the last seven, nine years,” Mr Bainimarama said.
“No one has missed them, especially our kids, our youth, all they want right now is education and employment. The Great Council of Chiefs is not going to give them that.
“Our chiefs are still here, they are not missing, we’ll never get rid of our chiefs from this world but the Great Council of Chiefs brings politics, we do not need them to come in and politicize our Vanua where the government will follow one path and the Great Council of chiefs will follow another path and they will constantly collide,” he said.
He said no other previous government had ever achieved what the FijiFirst Government had done throughout its terms of leadership. “I was asked by one of the leaders, I think it was Narube, what is my track record.
“I thought he wanted to challenge me on the track but I really don’t know what his track record is because he just came out from nowhere.
“He just popped up and is asking everybody what my track record is,” he said.
“I would love to tell him just open your eyes and look around. That is my track record. Look around. Look at what we’ve done in the last eight years.”
He said his biggest record and legacy was fostering equality through inclusive policies
“There’s no differentiation in Fiji, everyone is called a Fijian, then and only then can we prosper,” he said.
“If not, then all hell will break loose and we’ll go back to what we’ve what previously happened before in ‘87, in 2000.
“You know what transpired in both of those times and If you look at Rabuka’s track record there’s none really, his track record says nothing.
“In the last eight years I’ve done more in Fiji than anybody, any Prime Minister, I’ve done more for the iTaukei than any Prime Minister.
“I’ve done more for the whole community than anyone else. Look at the roads, the electricity. I’ve been told that that’s the job of the government, yes, but not at the pace I did.”