A talanoa session, without the talanoa
Sitiveni Rabuka’s entire mantra during his reentry into the political scene has been – leadership that listens. Biman Prasad has, on more than one occasion, talked about the need to dialogue, has often accused Government of not listening.
The two political figures take talanoa so seriously that this past week they embarked on a series of talanoa sessions in the Western Division.
In their first talanoa session, which was held in Sigatoka, Mr Rabuka was a no-show. Mr Prasad then addressed some 40 people who turned up.
Later that night, they had their second talanoa session. This was at Korovuto College in Nadi. Here, the two politicians were bombarded with questions. People wanted to know their plans, their policies, how they intend to run the country. People wanted to know their views on equal lease distribution, about same-sex marriage.
At one stage, Mr Prasad said to one of the many people asking questions that he sounded like the Attorney-General. What was the relevance of that comment? Anyone who doesn’t stand there slavishly praising the duo are the enemy?
The next night, they had a decent crowd turn up in Ba. But where was the leadership that listens? Where was the talanoa? There was none. Both the politicians took to the stage, said their rehashed piece and that was it. They went down, shook hands with people, posed for photos and left.
No questions were allowed from the floor. They did not sit to speak with the people. There was no talanoa. The people were not even from the Ba area.
There are allegations that people came in busses from other areas from where provisional candidates of these parties are from.
The posts on their Facebook pages informing the public about the meeting was marketed as a talanoa session.
Why are these two leaders scared of questions? They have often accused the Fiji Sun and Fijian Broadcasting Commission (FBC) of being biased but we were not the ones asking those questions?
Those attending their meetings are the ones who would be voting in the next general election, who want to know their plans.
It is not out of the ordinary for people to ask the hard questions, but our political duo seemed to have learned this the hard way.
So, in a nutshell, it was a talanoa session without any talanoa. jyotip@fijisun.com.fj