Bringing GCC back ‘useless’

FIJI Labour Party (FLP) leader Mahendra Chaudhary seems to have forgotten that the Great Council of Chiefs (GCC) were the ones who threw him out of Parliament.

FijiFirst party (FF) leader and Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama said this during a campaign rally in Nakurukuru, Lami on Thursday evening.

He said all Opposition parties had made mention of reinstating the GCC, a move he said in the iTaukei language “e sega ni yaga” (will be useless).

“If the GCC was brought back, will it of any use to us? It is useless,” Mr Bainimarama said.

“Our children want to work and get educated, the GCC will not bring any work or education.”

Mr Bainimarama said he had to remove the GCC because the chiefs were in a pitiful state.

“They were placed in a position where politics were then slowly fed to them.

“Only a few people speak in the GCC, maybe only six of them and they are all chiefs.

“Only those six individuals were leading that journey.

“The GCC was what politicised our chiefs.”

Mr Bainimarama said the GCC members

If the GCC was brought back, will it of any use to us? It is useless.

– Voreqe Bainimarama

were in full support of the George Speightled coup of 2000 and that they (GCC) had tried to rope in the nation to support them during that coup.

He said the chiefs’ ‘mana’ was taken away from them because they tried to enter into the political conversations and abused their chiefly positions.

“Chaudhry has forgotten how the GCC members at that time threw him out of Parliament. They (opposition members) seem to think that we are uneducated because what is the use of the GCC to us?

“Let me tell you, the GCC is being brought back to win you people over to them because we, Fijians, are easily influenced.”

Unity Fiji party, The People’s Alliance (PA) party, FLP and Social Democratic Liberal Party (SODELPA) leaders have said they will bring back the GCC if their parties formed the next government.