New Fijian party to be launched

Press, 4 July 1985, Page 10

New Fijian party to be launched

NZPA-Reuter Suva Fifteen years after independence Fiji is facing a political shake-up that could change traditional political alliances among Fijians and Indians. A new Labour Party is about to be born and the main Indian Opposition to the Fijian-controlled Government is in disarray. Its powerful youth wing is trying to overthrow the leader. Indians make up about 51 per cent of the 680,000 population, outnumbering indigenous Melanesians and playing a main role in the economy. But the Indiandominated National Federation Party has never held power. Disputes, public squabbles and faction fights have marked the N.F.P.’s stormy history, apd since a flamboyant lawyer, Siddiq Koya, H

took over its helm last year the divisions have worsened. He led the party to a disastrous by-election defeat in an Indian communal seat in May against a candidate put up by N.F.P.’s disenchanted youth wing. Mr Koya, aged 62, who had pledged to resign if the official candidate lost, stayed put, cried foul, and turned to the courts, alleging that some of the votes had been spoilt. The party leader, who had unsuccessfully urged the police to stop the new Parliamentarian using Opposition offices in Government buildings, lost the case. Despite renewed calls for Mr Koya to quit from a growing number of his party members, his response was defiant and brief: “My answer is no. Full stop.” Since the

Koya has declined to give press interviews and appears prepared to dig in and take a ramshackle party to a general election due to be held in mid-1987. The youth wing leader, Anil Singh, is in no doubt that the N.F.P. will never stand as a credible alternative to the Alliance Party Government unless Mr Koya goes. “Koya has made a promise and he ought to keep it . . . nobody is going to trust this party in Government if you have a leader who cannot be trusted for his word.” Singh said. - Mr Koya’s problems stem from smouldering antipathy between his supporters and those who back the leader he replaced in May, 1984, Jai Ram Reddy, now party president. The youth wing says that it now has active support from at least nine of the 22

N.F.P. Parliamentarians. The Alliance Party of the Prime Minister, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, the country’s leader since independence from Britain in 1970, holds power after winning 28 seats in the 52-seat House of Representatives (Lower House) in the 1982 polls. Fijian politics are constitutionally structured on racial divisions and members of Parliament are elected on communal and national electoral rolls balanced between the constitutent races. As the N.F.P. continues along a path of seeming self-destruction, Fiji’s trade union movement is launching its own political party this month. The Fiji Trades Union Congress with 37 affiliated unions and a membership of more than 40,000 workers, is the largest organised body in the country. UniofJ leaders promoting

the new party say that it will attract Indians and Fijians because of the F.T.U.C.’s balanced racial structure. “We are confident that with the formation of the new Labour Party, no one party will get a majority in the next election. We will provide the balance of power,” said James Raman, F.T.U.C.’s general secretary. Political observers question whether the new party, no matter how well organised, can break into traditional Indian and Fijian support for the N.F.P. and the Alliance. But Mr Raman is confident that disenchantment with the Government and the N.F.P. guarantees success. He says that the Government has failed to solve economic problems, which has sent up food prices, increased the

jobless, and prompted a wage freeze. “We believe the leaders of today are those of the past and are no longer relevant. This goes for both parties,” he says. There is growing speculation by the Opposition that the Government might call a snap General Election late this year or early next year to get a fresh mandate to deal with the economy, heavily dependent on tourism and a sugar industry hit by the slump in world sugar prices. Justification could come from the need for two byelections, one caused by the death of the Foreign Minister. A Government spokesman declined to comment on the speculation. But since the N.F.P. is in disarray and a new Labour Party is still in its infancy, the timing would benefit the governing party.