Challenges that face a coalition Govt are manifested in different responses to same issue

WThe ATS issue is about the move by the Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation Viliame Gavoka to reinstate 400 former ATS and Fiji Airways employees terminated at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

hen Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka and Minister for Home Affairs Pio Tikoduadua responded to a public statement by the Commander of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces Major-General Ro Jone Kalouniwai, they gave different reasons.

Mr Rabuka said Major-General Ro Jone was commenting on an article in the Fiji Sun newspaper. Mr

Tikoduadua, on the other hand, said the Commander was responding to the

Air Terminal

Services issue.

The Fiji Sun had published statements by the AttorneyGeneral Siromi

Turaga saying that they were looking at ways of amending the 2013 Constitution

The ATS issue is about the move by the Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation Viliame Gavoka to reinstate 400 former ATS and Fiji Airways employees terminated at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Major-General Ro Jone said the RFMF had quietly been observing with growing concern the ambition and speed of the Government in implementing sweeping changes, creating short cuts that circumvent the relevant processes and procedures that protect the law and the Constitution.

It was a legitimate concern and both Mr Rabuka and Mr Tikoduadua said we should not worry but relax.

But the angles they took to come to a common ground were different and reflected the different views of coalition partners.

While they share similar issues in their manifestos, there are still fundamental differences and these are going to test the robustness of the coalition.