Academic: Time to respect the wishes of voters

THIS is the time to respect the wishes of voters rather than the hunger for power and grievances of individual political players.

Renowned Fijian academic and director of the University of Canterbury’s Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies, Professor Steven Ratuva, said this while referring to the internal issues erupting within the Social Democratic Liberal Party (SODELPA).

He said the indecision over who to form a coalition with in the 2022 General Election, could be a threat to the formation of a new government and impact on stability in Parliament.

Speaking to The Fiji Times, he said the SODELPA split which led to the formation of the People’s Alliance was unfortunate “with lots of bruised souls and egos who harboured very deep resentment and clamour for vengeance.”

“It was a complex mixture of traditional vanua politics, personality power struggle and liumuri (backstabbing) politics played out in an unashamedly public way for all to see,” Prof Ratuva claimed.

“The effects were to be seen not only in the vicious PAP versus SODELPA campaign mudslinging, but also in the differences within SODELPA regarding its potential partner.

“If not handled properly, the effects of this can impact on the stability of parliament and the country in the future.

“Let’s learn from our history which shows that since 1987, the power struggle outside constitutional processes, which some people are trying to engage in now, can be destructive to the country.

“If we don’t learn from this terrible history then we are once again doomed to repeat it.”