Ba Province Wants Early Election

Province wants early election

By AMELINA NAIVALUWAQA - www.sun.com.fj - 29 March 2007.

Marjority of the Ba provincial Council members want a quick return to democracy and the interim government to have an early election before 2010. Eighteen members out of the 22 tikina within the province supported the motion to have an early election and a quick return to democratic rule. This was after a delegation from the Ministry of Information informed members of the council the 11 criteria that had to be followed by the interim government before it could return to democratic rule. Tikina of Waya representative Peni Veidreyaki said members of the council should just follow what the interim government was doing so that “we can reach 2010, where a new election will be held and a new government comes in”.
“I think we should go with what the interim government has to say and remove corruption, as well as have proper investigations on allegations and give them time to take us to 2010 before the general election,” he said. However, this was not supported by some members who said it is only proper the country goes back to democratic rule. Some of the delegates raised concerns on how a delegation from the Ministry of Information would go out to the various tikina and explain to the people what the interim government plans to do. “Many things have been said and I hope when a team from the ministry goes out to villages on the tikina level, they will be able to explain cautiously what their plans are and point fingers at things or allegations at others,” said a member. Mr Veidreyaki said it was not right to talk about the interim government because there were police and military personnel at the meeting. Ba Provincial Council chairman Ratu Ovini Bokini asked members of the council if the motion to have an early election was supported or opposed. Three members of the tikina were against an early election while the rest of the 18 members supported an early election by the interim government.
The meeting continues today.

Fijians & Mining Ownership

Fiji Indigenous People and Mining IV
www.fijidailypost.com - 28-Mar-2007

By FRANCIS WAQA SOKONIBOGI
Secretary – Fiji Indigenous Ownership Rights Association
Email: indigenousfiji@gmail.com

This week we continue on our way to discovery. In 2005 at a public discussion at Suva’s Epworth House on the then draft Qoliqoli and Lands Claims Tribunal legislations many indigenous Fijians present asked some very pertinent questions. One provocative query was - “When did or who gave our qoliqoli seabed ownership to the state?” Another question that surfaced - “Was the qoliqoli owners consulted?”
The Vatukoula issue compels us to raise a similar question, this time a more specific one - How come “the state has propriety control of all minerals or materials in the subsoil” as penned under Fiji’s Mining Act Cap.146. After the current dust of uncertainty is settled those questions still need to be answered.
These and other similar unanswered trans-generational questions, fuel the justification of support for future coups. Let us not delude ourselves about that fact. It is true we have the Ministry of Fijian Affairs and its arms out there to cater for the protection of the Fijian people.
However, it has legally paralysed the indigenous people and as a result they are successfully keeping the Fijian grassroots at the bottom of the social, economical and education ladder. We have dwelt at length on the reason why the “clean up” exercise should be more than a cosmetic surface excuse but must reach out beyond the curtain of time.
The past holds the key to the solution of our current dilemma. Coup villains Rabuka and Speight provided justification for their acts with the proclamation of ‘Fiji for the Fijians’. The Qarase Government’s Reservation to Native Land under Clause 8 Crown Lands Act (Cap. 132) emerged nearer to the actual source as landownership. The Cabinet reasoned as follows:
“Native Fijian people had been agitating for a long time for the return of their God-given land. The delays and de-service on those regards by previous governments had caused Native Fijians’ situation culminating in roadblocks, school closures, taking the law into their own hands and part of the many reasons for the coup-de’tat…”
We now know that the exercise is just a transfer of ownership of Crown Lands from one government institution to another quasi-Fijian real estate agency. We refer to the Native Land Trust Board. The Fiji Indigenous Ownership Rights Association’s submission to the Sector Standing Committee on Economic Services on the Real Estate Agents Bill 2006 on the 14 July 2006 suggested that the NLTB’s role has evolved from a trust institution into a powerful real estate agent. For the purpose of elaboration on this particular issue, we submitted as follows:

Section 2, Interpretation

An “officer’’, in relation to a licensee company, means every director, manager, or secretary of the company who, on behalf of and in the name of the company, carries on the company’s business as a real estate agent, and includes:
(a) any person, however designated, who is responsible for the management of the company or institution such as the Native Land Trust Board, that deals in “land’’ as defined hereunder as including estates and interests, whether freehold or chattel, in real property.

Meaning of “real estate agent”

3. (1) For the purposes of this Act, every person shall be deemed to be a real estate agent who acts, or who holds himself or herself out to the public as ready to act, for reward as an agent in respect of the sale or other disposition of land or the purchase or other acquisition of land, or in respect of the leasing or letting of land, whether or not that person carries on any other business.
(2) Notwithstanding subsection (1), no person shall be deemed to be a real estate agent for the purposes of this Act by reason only of the fact that:
(a) being a legal practitioner, the person acts, in the course of business as the legal practitioner, as agent in respect of the sale, purchase or other disposition of land, the acquisition of land or the leasing or letting of land, unless the person is remunerated for so acting by commission in addition to, or instead of, professional charges as a legal practitioner;
(b) the person sells or offers to sell any land by auction;
(c) the person enters into a transaction or series of transactions pursuant to a permit granted to the person by the Board under section 30.

Administration of trust account in certain cases

65. (1) this section applies in any case where the Board is satisfied that a real estate agent:
(a)is, owing to physical or mental disability, unable properly to administer a trust account; or
(b) has died; or
(c) has been adjudicated a bankrupt; or
(d) has had his or her licence revoked; or
(e) has been suspended from carrying on the business of a real estate agent; or
(f) has ceased to carry on the business of a real estate agent and has neglected to wind up his or her trust account after reasonable notice has been given by the Board requiring such winding up.
The attitude of the NLTB as to the situation of the Fijian landowners is aptly described in subsection (a) above. This institution has made landowners incapable of developing their lands to the point that they have become dependent on government handouts. The NLTB now justifies itself to hold in trust the Fijian peoples’ lands into perpetuity as a real estate agent under the pretext of “for the benefit of the Fijian people”. The current NLTB system and its management ethos have psychologically paralysed indigenous landowners.
It is time the NLTB re-examine its actual role and redirect its energies to being a trusteeship rather than a speculative real estate institution. Deputy General Manager (Operations) of NLTB aptly said “taken in its strictest interpretation, NLTB’s role is limited to the administration of land for the benefit of the Fijian landowners….” (Presentation to the Fiji Hotel Association Hospitality Forum by October,)

State Acquisition a terra nullius application

The dispossessed state of Fijian grassroots landowners continues to remain unchanged even after the so-called pro-indigenous coups (1987 & 2000) and successive Fijian-led governments.
The indigenes are still zipped up in the same colonially constructed straitjacket with their mineral, qoliqoli seabed and other natural resources locked up to boost the national coffers while they crowd the nation’s prison, squatter settlements and urban streets. Unless the Interim Government takes the initiative and reconciles the Fijian peoples’ dilemma as set out above there is no hope of hoping that future coups are avoidable.
At a 2005 Lautoka consultation sitting on the draft Qoliqoli and Indigenous Land Claims Tribunal legislations the author asked the panel of state lawyers as to how the qoliqoli seabed ownership rights came to belong to the state?
One of the panellists replied that the law was adopted from England. The author reminded the panellist that the 1874 Deed of Cession recognised that Fijians communally possessed the real property ownership rights of the whole of the Fiji island group. This right under the old common law extended to rights over all materials beneath the surface and all the air space above it.
This can be evidenced in the 1908 Mining Ordinance, which provides ‘Fiji landowners with the right to compensation for exploration of mineral wealth beneath their land.
This real property rights was altered in 1934 to cater for the discovery of gold in the Tavua basin and later Vatukoula.

Continued next week — The need to ‘clean up’ the past so as to have a peaceful present and lay a prosperous basis for our future.

FRANCIS WAQA SOKONIBOGI

QVS Milestone

Vulinitu marks milestone

JONA BOLA
Tuesday, March 13, 2007 - www.fijitimes.com

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Ratu Epeli Nailatikau, right, was chief guest at the launch

Queen Victoria School is one school that has established its roots deep within all aspects of Fijian society.

This year marks a milestone achievement for the school as it celebrates 100 years of moulding sons of Fiji into becoming useful and better citizens.

Students, staff, old boys and parents converged at the Post Fiji Stadium to launch the centennial celebration of the school last Saturday.

QVS was founded in 1906 as a school for the sons of Fijian chiefs. The school had two main objectives, to provide Fijian boys with necessary education and training for leadership and to ensure that Fijian chiefs would continue to occupy a prominent place in their country.

After the cession of 1874, there had been much concern expressed about the future of the Fijian people.

The colonial administrators were quick to understand that Fijian society had a sophisticated social structure based on chiefly authority and they believed and expected that this social structure could be reinforced, through education, to support the colonial administration. To achieve this end, the chiefs were the most logical choice to be given priority in the development of education among the Fijian people with the ability and potential for leadership, testifies to the wisdom of that early initiative. Its impact is evident throughout Fiji's society.

The Fijian chiefs' decision at the turn of the century to request the colonial government to develop schools for the education of their sons was motivated by a strong desire to ensure the continuance of Fijian authority and dignity in a rapidly changing colonial environment. In this way, they hoped to ensure the protection of the Fijian people and enable them to play a role in the colonial administration. In acknowledgement of this, the colonial government built Queen Victoria School at Nasinu in 1906. The seriousness and gravity of the noble goals the chiefs had for their people is reflected in the choice of the name of the school. The name Vulinituraga or Vulinitu (a school for chiefs) was also born. Chief guest at the launch, Ratu Epeli Nailatikau admitted that his days at QVS were the best time of his life.

"I must say here that QVS was the best school that I attended and it had a real effect on my life.

Travelling back down memory lane, Ratu Epeli said he was honoured to launch the school centenial celebration.

"At QVS I was in Rewa House and there were a lot of questions being raised over why I was in Rewa house as I was from Bau.

"Our teacher at that time master Netani Druavesi told my father that I was in Bure Rewa and I am supposed to be in Bure Bau, and my dad told him, that I had made a very good choice by joining Rewa House," he said.

"Actually I have relationship with Rewa and to go to Bau House I thought it was a bit foolish," he said with laughter.

"I had never regretted my time at the school and I have managed to make a lot of friends and bond with my brothers form Vulinitu and today they are my lifetime friends.

"Actually I can say that they are my second family, a family that shares every bit of moment together with laughter and tears," he said. Ratu Epeli said people sometimes view the school as a place where leadership qualities are being instilled in a student. "That is a wrong perception. The school does not instill a person with leadership quality but it fine-tunes all the qualities of a person.

"Every person has leadership instinct in them and the school is there to see that this quality is fine-tuned to prepare a person to lead in every area of society that they live in," he said.

This, he said, has been proven in Fiji as most of the country's prime ministers were former students of the school.

"That is a feat that QVS is always proud of and I hope that it would continue," he said.

However, Ratu Epeli said one thing that was unique about the school is the fact that even if one becomes a prime minister or President, when he is amongst his seniors from school, he is still considered as a junior boy.

"Our positions in school weighs far more than any executive or government position that we hold and that is something that we hold dear to our hearts because it defines the comradeship in school," he said.

Ratu Epeli said the school, over its 100 years of existance, has achieved a lot but there was still room for it to improve.

He said QVS defines the Fijian in a person because it holistically prepares students for life outside of the school.

QVS, as a result of the expressed wish of the Fijian chiefs, began as a unique institution for the sons of chiefs.

As a pioneer in Fijian education it was often identified with the future hopes and aspirations of Fijians. As the nation progressed, chiefs realised that commoners were beginning to succeed academically so that Vulinitu was opened to commoners as well. The rest is history with Queen Victoria School with perpetrating the vision of the chiefs 100 years ago. QVS old scholars occupy a special place in Fiji and have been in all facets of Fijian leadership. The spirit to lead is encapsulated in the words of Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna when creating a motto for Queen Victoria School "Forward Fiji".

Builder in the Fijian Tradition

A builder by tradition

JONA BOLA
Tuesday, March 13, 2007 - www.fijitimes.com

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Akini Koroivalu in his boat building shed and a new boat in the background

TRADITION is a story or custom that is memorised and passed from generation to generation, originally without the need for a writing system.

Tools to aid the process include poetic devices such as rhyme and alliteration.

The stories thus preserved are also referred to as tradition or as part of an oral tradition.

One man who has learnt the art of building through tradition is Akini Koroivalu of Natacileka Village in the district of Dawasamu in Tailevu.

Traditionally, Mr Koroivalu is a mataisau, or traditional builder in the Fijian society.

In Fijian mythology, the mataisau clan are the descendants of the deity Daunisai, one of the sons of Lutunasobasoba who brought the Fijians people across the seas to Fiji.

Daunisai settled on Kabara Island in Lau when the Fijian people spread through the Fiji group from Verata.

Now at 72 years of age, Mr Koroivalu still practises his talent.

At the same time, he is passing his skills and knowledge to his sons, grandchildren and nephews in the village.

He said while he was a mataisau, what enhanced his skills more was that their mother was vasu to the mataisau clan and a direct descendant of Daunisai from Ucunivanua in Verata.

"It is in Verata where all the mataisau clan around Fiji originate from," he said.

His trade has made a name for himself around the Fiji group of islands.

He has left his mark, so to speak, because he has built most of the wooden boats that sail inter-island in the Fiji islands.

When we visited him last week he was doing what he likes best building boats.

"I started the trade of building boats on this beach at Natacileka in the early 1960s after coming out of Ratu Kadavulevu School," he said.

"My architectural skills were fine-tuned at RKS during my years there, from 1951 to 1958.

"I knew I was a mataisau and it was really the reason why I wanted to develop the gift which is a God-given talent.

"During my years at RKS, I was able to put all the skills I knew into practice and it really helped me a lot when I left the school.

"I was the headboy at RKS for two years, in 1957 and 1958, and was a member of Ma'afu House," he said.

It is interesting to know that Mr Koroivalu was never employed but did his own thing after he left school.

"I built boats for people in Yasawa, Lomaiviti, Naigani Island and other villages along the Tailevu coast.

"My work does not only involve building boats; I've built more than 100 houses.

"Most are village houses in Dawasamu and includes a couple of churches and schools," he said.

Some inter-island and village boats he remembered building include the Vasu i Darata, Gone Vasu, Tai Tiki and Rosi ni Toba.

"Most of the boats I built here on the beach and when I complete them, I would take it with my family to the owner.

"It was during one such trip that I found my true love at Kese in Naviti, Yasawa," he said with a smile.

"The feeling of satisfaction is something that comes in me when I see that the boat is near completion and we all enjoy the end product," said Mr Koroivalu.

He said the most important part of his work was when he taught his family about the art.

"It is something that I always stress to my relatives and that is to develop the traditionally God-given talent and develop it much further.

"From what I am seeing now, most of my nephews and grandchildren are quickly learning and know more, for which I am very grateful," he said.

Mr Koroivalu said he would continue with his work until he knew that he had done enough.

"God has a plan for each one of us and as long as he wants me to continue with my work, I will do so," he said.

Mr Koroivalu said tradition was frequently changed to suit the needs of the day and the changes quickly became accepted as part of tradition.

A National Identity for Fiji?

Fiji lacks national identity: Yabaki

Sunday, March 11, 2007

At the heart of Fiji's problems lies the lack of national identity, says Citizen's Constitutional Forum executive director, Reverend Akuila Yabaki.

The comment is part of Mr Yabaki's personal testimony to an audience including Queen Elizabeth II, at London's Westminster Abbey tomorrow Commonwealth Day.

Other high profile personalities to be present include the Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip, Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon, senior ministers and 2000 other people.

In his statement to be presented tomorrow, Mr Yabaki said the use of the term 'Fijian' to describe nationality was resisted by many indigenous Fijians.

"For example, the use of the name "Fijian" to describe all citizens of Fiji is resisted by many indigenous people," he said.

"Those who fear that the promise of equality before the law in a multicultural society threatens the protection of their own status.

"The other communities, such as the IndoFijians, who have lived here for three or four generations, feel alienated by the political system and find it difficult to identify with national symbols."

Mr Yabaki said Christianity was used by the indigenous majority to justify the political situation.

"I am working to keep alive the vision that all Fiji citizens can have a sense of belonging to the country of their birth," he said. "We in Fiji must move beyond racialised politics and military coups."

Mr Yabaki was invited by the Council of Commonwealth Societies.

The theme of this year's celebrations is "Commonwealth Respecting Difference, Promoting Understanding".

Meanwhile, Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon told AFP there was no reason in Fiji for a military leader to decide to take over the Government.

He said even if there was corruption identified and highlighted, that is no reason as there were the political and judicial systems to deal with that.

He said if people do not like a government, they could vote it out.

Fiji President's Health Under Scrutiny

People watch chief's health

Saturday, March 10, 2007

The Vanua o Vuda is concerned about its paramount chief and President Ratu Josefa Iloilo's age but will not ask him to step down and return to his people, it has been revealed.

His nephew and Taukei Sawaieke Ratu Tevita Momoedonu said the vanua (traditional subjects) had seriuously considered approaching Ratu Josefa to step down as President last year.

But he said it did not work out because the Great Council of Chiefs soon after re-appointed him to the vice-regal post.

Ratu Tevita said the idea was discussed in January 2006 but it was decided to put it on hold until the Great Council of Chiefs met in March 2006.

Ratu Josefa, 86, was reappointed by the council. Ratu Tevita said the vanua had considered approaching Ratu Josefa last year to step down because of his age.

"Considering his age we wanted him to come back home to the vanua," he said.

Ratu Tevita said they would just wait and accept whatever decision was made on the presidency.

"We have accepted the GCC's decision," he said.

"Until now, there is no other discussion to go and ask him to step down. The vanua will not do anything now unless he tells us."

It follows arrangements being made for Ratu Josefa to undergo further medical examinations overseas.

It is understood security arrangements for him and his entourage would be slightly amended because his military bodyguards would not be allowed to travel to Australia.

Secretary to the President's Office Rupeni Nacewa said Ratu Iloilo was entitled to overseas medical treatment once a year.

An Australian High Commission spokesperson said there had been no changes to the position announced immediately after the coup that Australia would restrict travel to Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama, his supporters, members of the interim administration and their families.

It includes the travel ban of all members of the Fiji Military Forces.

Meanwhile, yesterday while launching the $100 note, Ratu Josefa urged everyone to work together and assist in moving the country forward.

"While we have problems to solve, we should not lose sight that we have opportunities that we can exploit in service areas like tourism and ICT (Information and Communication Technology)," he said."We cannot change the past, but we can do something to change the future. "I call on the nation and our people to hold on to that hope. We can, and we must, now look ahead and build the future for our children and grandchildren."

The vanua o Vuda has five yavusa Sabutoyatoya, which Ratu Josefa is the head of, Tububere which Ratu Tevita leads, Nakoivuda in Lauwaki, Draulunavuda in Lomolomo, Navatulevu and Viagoisaukova in Abaca.

Ratu Tevita said the Yavusa Sabutoyatoya and Tububere lived in Viseisei Village.

Chiefs take on the military. But where to from here?

By Samisoni Pareti -  Island Business

- http://www.islandsbusiness.com

Do traditional leaders have a role to play in a political crisis? Some people in Fiji surely think so, although the chiefs' claim to being the sole repository of God-given mana has been tested in recent times.

Chiefly talk... Ratu Sakiusa Makutu, Ratu Tevita Uluilakeba Mara and Sitiveni Rabuka who are members of the Great Council of Chiefs.

Meeting 15 days after the Fiji military ousted the government of Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase, Fiji's Council of Chiefs (GCC) was hard-pressed to come up with a solution that will be accepted by both the military and the government it toppled.

At the end of what was initially set to be a two-day meeting but dragged on to the third day, the chiefs decided to side with the law. 

Expressing "profound regret" at the "unlawful overthrow of Fiji's democratically-elected government," the chiefs went on to urge Commodore Frank Bainimarama and his men to return to the barracks to allow aging president Ratu Josefa Iloilo to form an interim government. 

In return, the chiefs will ask Prime Minister Qarase to resign given that his government "has been rendered ineffective and incapable of discharging its constitutional responsibilities".

Interestingly enough, Qarase when contacted after the second day of the chiefs' meeting, said he holds the GCC in the greatest esteem and he stands "ready to listen" to its decision. 

But Bainimarama and his soldiers would not play ball. Angry that the council had invited him as the military commander, thus not recognising his takeover of government and his consequent sacking of Iloilo, his deputy Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi and Qarase and his government as well as parliamentarians, together with some senior public officials, Bainimarama stayed out of the GCC meeting. 

When told on the final day of the meeting that a GCC delegation, to be led by chairperson Ratu Ovini Bokini, would like to deliver personally to him the council's decision, the army chief said he was busy and refused to receive them. 

"Now they want to recognise that I have the executive authority," Bainimarama told the Suva-based Pacific Islands News Association's news agency, PACNEWS.

"The only message I want to tell members of the (council) is for them to go to their villages and enjoy their Christmas and New Year. We don't recognise them."

Whilst Bainimarama snubbed the GCC meeting, he did allow one of his senior officers to attend-Ratu Tevita Uluilakeba Mara-who heads the Fiji Military's 3rd Infantry Regiment. 

He is one of the three Lau province's representatives on the Great Council of Chiefs. Lau at this December emergency meeting was hopelessly split and could not put up an unanimous front. 

Mara, a lieutenant-colonel, was pushing the military's position, another rep from Moala was a die-hard Qarase supporter, leaving its third rep, Ratu Josefa Basulu, to walk the middle ground. 

Basulu is currently chair of the Lau Provincial Council and happens to be Qarase's chief. Whilst he agrees that his island of Vanuabalavu and the entire province of Lau are solidly behind the ousted prime minister, he admits that Mara and the military should get a fair hearing.

"I think we the chiefs are meeting fire with fire," Basulu told ISLANDS BUSINESS.

"If we really want to achieve something and resolve this crisis, we need to adopt a more softer approach."

But many Lauans wouldn't agree with him. He is even accused of being a traitor in the Qarase camp. There are, however, reasons for Basulu's cautious stance. He confirmed that his province's chief administrator, the Roko Tui Lau, has already been summoned to the Queen Elizabeth Barracks where he was warned by none other than Lt Col Mara.

"Tell Tui Mavana (Basulu's traditional title) to watch what he says or I will arrest him too," was Mara's message to the Roko.

Basulu said on another occasion, soldiers were found outside his home where he and a few other Lau councillors were meeting days prior to the chiefs' meeting.

Interesting is the young Mara's participation at the December meeting of the Council of Chiefs. Irritated by his constant intervention during the first day of the meeting, insisting-officials said-that the council offers its support for the military, a council representative from Tailevu province reminded the army officer to remember what the military did to his late father, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara.

Haunted by the detention in parliament of his favourite daughter who was tourism minister in Mahendra Chaudhry's Government in 2000, Ratu Mara had fought hard to get the council to uphold the law and reject the George Speight-led coup. 

The GCC heeded Ratu Mara call and relented, only to have its position severely compromised when its supposed mediation committee entered parliament only for many of them to openly support Speight and his cronies. The Council of Chiefs' only commoner and life-time member Sitiveni Rabuka was then chair of the council. The life membership was the payoff he got when he executed Fiji's first coup on May 14, 1987. 

Then, the council sided unashamedly with Rabuka, praising him as a hero for ousting the Labour Government of Prime Minister Dr Timoci Bavadra.

Unbeknown to many is Rabuka's proposals to the December Council of Chiefs meeting. Many of his recommendations were already contained in a discussion paper the chiefs' secretariat had circulated to delegates. But three stood out as original and revolutionary. 

It included getting Bainimarama to resign but to continue to receive his military commander salary until he reaches the age of 55. As well, it was Rabuka who identified another source of the provision of immunity for members of the Fiji Military Forces. 

He says the president of Fiji has the "inherent powers as the fount of mercy" to grant pardon to Bainimarama and his men and women.

The third, which the chiefs ignored, was a drastic re-structuring of the Fiji military. Rabuka recommended splitting up the military into two independent services: the navy and the army with a non-executive commander to be named Chief of Defence Staff who will work with the Secretary of Defence under the Minister of Defence.

So with the chiefs' intervention reaching a stalemate, what's next then for Fiji? For one thing, the chiefs will need to revise their resolutions if they want the Fiji military to come to the negotiating table. 

While they want the president to form an interim government to take the country to fresh elections, they however are recommending a 10-member privy council to "advice him (the President) to establish the interim government of national unity." 

After enjoying uninterrupted and unfettered access to Iloilo, it will take more than a three-day meeting of chiefs to convince the military to give it up to a privy council that relegates it to a minority voice.

A Historial Event at My School RKS

Historical Event to Happen Tomorrow at RKS www.fijivillage.com Mar 1, 2007

Ratu Kadavulevu School old scholars and students are looking forward to a historical event in their school tomorrow when they will present a traditional apology to the landowners of the site where the school is built.

Principal Joji Tabua has confirmed that the "matanigasau" will be presented to the landowners asking forgiveness for the way in which their land was taken from them to construct the school.

Tabua said that Interim Education Minister Netani Sukanaivalu will also be present to witness the event which they believe will bring good fortune to the school.

It has been highlighted that RKS students have been facing a lot of problems in the past years, academically and in sports, and they hope tomorrow's event will be able to solve their problem.

Cakaudrove Provincial Scholarship Fund

Making the most of the fine weather

By Sitiveni Rabuka
Fiji Times - Sunday, February 25, 2007

Ni sa Bula! It is Saturday and a great day here in Savusavu and the whole of Vanua Levu.

People are out making the best of the fine day out here.

Men looking over their plantations to see if the standing crop will survive the effects of the heavy rains and strong winds of the past fortnight, or whether they will have to be uprooted for the usable to be used and the damaged, cleared for new ones to be planted.

The Soqosoqo Vakamarama of Cakaudrove had a soli day at the Cakaudrove Provincial Compound at Yaroi yesterday to collect money as the women's contribution towards the Province's Scholarship fund.

A few tikina sent in their request to be excused as they tried to clear the debris of the flash floods (I don't know why we call them flash floods we knew they were going to come when we blocked the natural waterways by cutting trees, building roads and houses where water used to run etc.!) that damaged houses and villages in parts of Vaturova, Tawake and Saqani.

Undeterred by the decision of those in the villages, those women from Vaturova and Tawake on the good roads side of the damaged road came along, and the Turaga ni Vanua of Saqani also left behind those that needed to work and brought the rest of the women to the soli because his daughter in law is of the Ai Sokula household and he did not want to embarrass her when the ladies of the Ai Sokula called for the soli, that his daughter-in-law would be seen to be disrespectful to her Naus by not coming to the soli.

It was a beautiful day and the women came in their different coloured muumuus and jabas and the few Turaga ni Vanua that came sat and drank yaqona in support of their ladies at the Vakatunuloa.

The singing was beautiful and weather great perhaps made greater by the company and the fact that we had just come out of a bad rainy and windy spell here in Vanua Levu.

The passersby might have wondered why so many ladies and some men spent so much time most of the day, sitting, singing and some drinking yaqona.

I told those few men I was with that the Cakaudrove Provincial Scholarship fund is for the good of Fiji not just the recipients, their families or Cakaudrove.

When I was in Secondary School at Queen Victoria School, all boys from Cakaudrove received $27 which was the fees for one term at that school at that time. The fee for the whole year was $81 probably the highest of all the schools of that era.

Cakaudrove students at Queen Victoria School, Ratu Kadavulevu School, Adi Cakobau School and Navuso Agricultural School were the original beneficiaries of the provincial scholarship, and those that went to Ballantine Memorial School, and Lelean Memorial School later also qualified for the scholarship.

I said Fiji benefited because the sons and daughters of Cakaudrove that were helped through their secondary school education by the scholarship later became great servants of Fiji, some distinguishing themselves alongside the distinguished sons and daughters of the other provinces and Rotuma and the other races capable of holding their own among the elite of our nation.

Those a few years ahead of me and those of my age group whom I can remember include my generation of the Lalabalavu, Ganilau, Kubuabola, Lesuma children, Ratu Inoke Vakataraisulu Tabualevu a great rugby and cricketing son of Cakaudrove, the late Ratu Jone Filipe Radrodro, a long time permanent secretary in the civil service of our country, Sekonaia Tui Mailekai, a long time head of the former Inland Revenue Department and founding head of the new Fiji Islands Revenue and Customs Authority and his wife Ulamila, Doctor Laisa Naivalulevu, a former national table tennis gold medalist, the late Deputy Commissioner of Police Aseri Tagicakiverata, the ever-so-humble late Savenaca Siwatibau, the Gonelevu brothers Vili and Tomasi of Vanuavou, Vaturova, former senator Ratu Seru Buliruarua, the recently dismissed CEO's Sakiusa Rabuka and Anasa Vocea of Drekeniwai, Navatu, our own Roko Tui Cakaudrove, Waisele Wainiqolo of Korocau, Cakaudrove, who also served as Roko Tui in Namosi and Ba before coming to serve in his own Province, and I will also mention my two sisters one recently retired as a long time Head Teacher at Namaka, Nadi and the other still at the Institute of Applied Sciences in the Laucala Campus of USP.

We all owe so much to those leaders of our vanua who introduced the scholarship.

So to those who might have wondered why we spent so much time at Yaroi on Friday, I can say we were sacrificing one day to raise money for our provincial scholarship that will fund the further education of our sons and daughters to better prepare them to be servants of our country.

My sincere thanks to the two ladies of the Ai Sokula household who came to our villages at the behest of our Paramount Chief, Na Turaga Bale na Tui Cakau, to inspire our women to take up this great challenge and help our province support our children to help Fiji.

Vinaka Di Mitimiti, vinaka Di Kavu.

And it was great to see my wife among so many ladies from all the other thirteen provinces and Rotuma the "marama vakawati mai" supporting their adopting province.

Perhaps the Cakaudrove Scholarship is just as much a national investment as a provincial one.

Vinaka Vakalevu.

The GCC and its Place

The GCCs lost aura

ROBERT MATAU
www.fijitimes.com - Friday, February 23, 2007

+ Enlarge this image

August but silent...members of the GCC at a meeting

The ever assuring voice of the Great Council of Chiefs has helped shape Fiji into what it is today. Without this august body we would not have modernisation in its present form, nor would we have adopted the Western concepts of governance and democracy.

In the absence of their voice through their current stand-off with the military, we take a look at the GCCs history and the consequences that shaped this institution up until recent times, in this three-part series.

SINCE that first shot was fired on May 14, 1987 in Fijis unknowing parliament, the fluidity of Fijian politics has never recovered from the so called coup culture.

It has become the main catalyst to legitimise the overthrow of any tyranny of democracy in Fijian politics.

Caught in this vice-like grip is the Great Council of Chiefs, the last bastion of the Fijian race. For many years Fiji has looked up to the Great Council of Chiefs for answers to a wide range of its problems in its darkest hours.

And many times they have bailed out a nation on the brink of collapse with their wisdom and aura.

That is why it has been revered and tagged with the label, august institution. However, the 2006 coup and the leadership problems that continue to plague Fiji, have given fuel to the growing number of critics who are losing confidence in this institution.

The continuous silence on the part of the chiefs has also fuelled rumours that the GCC may have been too politicised, and, that what the public now hears is only the voice of the institution called the GCC making decisions but without the full mandate of all chiefs.

This school of thought is also bold enough to claim that the GCCs aura and manna have been lost.

Interim Prime Minister Frank Bainimaramas public swipe at the GCC, though considered harsh by many, has also given fuel to that same school of thought.

The erosion of chiefly rule, stemming from the 1987 coup, was sensed and opposed strongly by the late Josevata Kamikamica.

He said the chiefly body should be apoliticial, with reference to the Soqosoqo ni Vakavulewa ni Taukei Party the first political party to receive the backing of the chiefly body.

Mr Bainimaramas slating the GCC was blasphemy in the eyes of any Fijian. But could it be that he knew certain truths within the roots of all things chiefly that gave him the ammunition to conduct the so called clean up campaign, starting with the GCC?

In the absence of the chiefly voice maybe it is an opportune time to review the roles of this institution, its origins and what its initial functions were.

To do this we have to go back into history to fully understand the initial establishment and purpose of the GCC. The Great Council of Chiefs was a brainchild of William Pritchard, the British Consulate who initiated the first ever general meeting of chiefs in Levuka on December 14, 1859 to pave the way for the cessation process of Fiji to the British Crown. Like the 1997 Constitution, the old Matanitu could understand what its true purpose and benefits were.

Their ignorance of understanding the issues was interpreted by the Colonialists as a major threat to their chosen leading chiefs led by Ratu Seru Cakobau the then Vunivalu of what was to be regarded by many, as the leading military and naval power in Fiji, supported by white historians.

He was under threat from the Americans to pay up the debts for the burning of the US Counsels residence in Nukulau on July 4, 1846, which plagued Cakobau for the next 20 years. Pressed from all corners to avoid the same fate that Veidovi of Rewa in 1840 faced for his crimes against visiting American ships when he was shipped out of Fiji in chains by Commodore Wilkes to America to answer for his crimes, Cakobau needed a way out.

At the same time, Cakobau, who became fascinated by the Hawaiian monarchial system through his secretary Samuel A St.John, assumed the title Tui Viti. He was sending out the message that he held absolute power throughout the divided yet pocket and strongly entrenched matanitu that made up Fiji.

Each matanitu operated under a sophisticated and civilised system of its own chiefdoms your chief did not recognise the other, hence the adage manu dui tagi (you only rule in your own land) common to the chiefs of Kadavu. Even more true to this debate were the Colo states that now come under Naitasiri.

Each small state had their own chief and there was no recognised paramount chief in their eyes.

The opportunity to consolidate his position through the first of many coups (with the overthrow of the principle chief of Bau the Roko Tui Bau) during his own lifetime and his continued skirmishes, armoured with muskets and fierce warriors was a war itself against the ancient Fijian chiefly hierarchy. A hierarchy that had stood the test of time over 15 generations before his time.

In the eyes of the old matanitu or old guard if you may, the uprising Bau matanitu was a junior state yet it had the gall to challenge the old ways.

To achieve his goals, Cakobau subjected the seniority of many other matanitu and gave prominence to the lesser matanitu that gave him their support forming the provinces to be their leader. Many of these old matanitu were at war with the emerging power for a long time including that of Rewa, Verata and Lau under the Tongan prince Enele Maafu.

(Next we look at the assessment of the British advance party to check Ratu Serus claims as Tui Viti)

Vanua is Not Alienable

Interim government is on the right path to the future
www.fijidailypost.com -14-Feb-2007

THE return of 86 acres of ancestral lands to the Raviravi people of Vugalei, Tailevu, is a welcome sign of greater things to come from the Interim government, we would hope. There is much restitution to be done for Fijian landowning units who have suffered the alienation of traditional vanua as a result of past chiefly deals, dubious conquests, bureaucratic confusion, contested claims, and past government inaction.

The indigenous people of our islands deserve to have all of the books of dispossession thrown open for reassessment. The issue of how some of Fiji became ‘freehold property’ needs to be reconsidered in the light of global trends to revalue the worth of indigenous peoples and to re-assign their heritage to them. ‘Freehold’ is a Western and European conception of the relationship between humans and their physical environs; it has no root or principle in the indigenous Pacific. It has no history or legitimacy here beyond that of an introduced ideology that came with gunboat diplomacy and Christian mission cooperation.

The idea of the vanua as a permanently tradeable resource is simply and unalterably opposed to historic ancestral notions of what the Fijian is as a person, and what their heritage is, as a God-given resource. The Western and European idea of ‘land-use it or lose it’ is anathema to the indigenous mindset – not just in Fiji, but all over the world.

No Fijian saw their vanua as something to be traded – it may be won by conquest for a generation or so, but it could never be traded simply because it was never conceived of as something alienable. That idea had to be planted in the mind of a chief – as it was. And once planted, we know what happened: tracts were traded and thereby alienated in the interest of cementing alliances, paying debts, seeking advantages, or punishing enemies.

To make the trade in land stick, another idea had to be planted and take root too. That was the idea of ‘the state’. The state became the judge and jury of what was to be traded and what wasn’t. Deals between parties were no longer private affairs, but had to go through the examination and adjudication processes of ‘the state’. In colonial times, the state was the colonising power, the government or more specifically, the governor of the day. So a promised deal – a land trade - that no Fijian had any interest in honouring beyond meeting the satisfaction of their own purposes or their own lifetime, took on a permanence through the instrument of the state.

The state became the trans-generational source of creating, defining and sustaining ‘freehold’. by recourse to ‘law’ and specifically ‘property law’. By this invention, the Fijian relationship to their vanua was codified and rendered transcendent – the law no longer emanated from a shared oral tradition reinforced by the club, but now stood over and above them. The law took on a mystical power because it was unreadable and therefore not understandable by the predominantly illiterate Fijian people. It was no longer a collective consensus, but the domain of an elite of experts who held their authority at the behest of the state.

The meaning of ‘freehold’ became a new orthodoxy with its own sacred power, and ‘the law’, ‘the state’ and ‘freehold’ became a sacred ideological triangle that ensured Fiji would never be the same again. Ultimately this set of alien ideas and their corresponding institutions were reinforced by ‘it goes without saying’. In other words: don’t question what has been done to Fiji and its ancient culture for to do so is to upset too many apple-carts (as it were).

The fact is history is only as sacred as we suppose it to be. But whose history? The history of indigenous values or the history of introduced ones? There is no sure answer to this, but in relation to the vanua, the response of the interim government in honouring the claim of the Raviravi is a worthy signal that it values the history of the older (and prior) over the younger – especially where that priority can be honoured without cost to those who have gained through the subversion of that order. We applaud this move.

Suva City Claim by Fijian Landowners

Suva worth more than $1billion
www.fijilive.com - Tuesday January 30, 2007

A High Court has heard that the value of the total land area in the Suva Peninsula, which is home to Fiji’s capital, is worth $1,402,450,000.

Former chief valuer in the Lands Ministry Josefa Dulakiverata, said this was the average cost of the 4007-acre land at $296,000 per acre last year.

Dulakiverata was testifying in the trial of Suvavou landowners, who are claiming that the land taken on October 10, 1874, was done unlawfully.

The court heard that in 1999, the peninsula was worth $1,186,072,000. The value increased in 2000, as the same piece of land was worth $1,402,450,000 at $322,000 per acre.

Dulakiverata said the figures were based on the average market value and they were instructed to value the land as if it was not developed.

"The whole area is subdivided into residential, commercial and industrial class but we just looked at the whole area.

"We looked at the potential of the land," he said.

Landowners also claim that land belonging to the three yavusa - Nayavumata, Nauluvatu and Vatuwaqa - was converted to private freehold land from 1882 to date.

The landowners are claiming compensation for about 675, 653 acres of their ancestral land which they say are now mostly in private hands.

Court hears $1.2bn claim

www.sun.com.fj - Monday 29 January - By Harold KOI

More than a billion dollars is owed to landowners of the Suva peninsula area, an economist told the High Court yesterday. Economist and lecturer Jese Verebalavu took the witness box before High Court judge, Justice Devendra Pathik and read out information regarding the real landowners of the land that the capital city occupies.

Ms Verebalavu said Suvavou landowners were deprived of their rights to the land of their ancestors and did not receive the benefits enjoyed by other landowners. Ms Verebalavu based her arguments on research saying for the last 114 years the Suvavou people had been alienated from what was rightfully theirs.

Referring to the Suvavou people as ‘kai suva’, she said land was sold by the colonial administration at $750 pounds, which was the fixed exchange rent established between 1886 and August, 2000. She said 4007 hectares belonged to the kai suva and estimated the money owing to them at $1.2 billion.

Suva peninsula includes the junction of the Tamavua River and creek ascending to the course on the hill Na Ului Roko Leka, thence to the hilltop Namadai descending to the junction Waisomo and Waiqarati thence downstream to the junction of the creek Nabuni and Wai Ko Nasamabula - down to the sea around the sea coast past the old European town of Suva to the mouth of the Tamavua River. Ms Verebalavu said that compared to landowners of the Fijian Resort and Warwrick Hotel, the kai suva has lost their ancestral home ground, lost traditional roles, rights to protect their own social destiny and property rights.

“The rightful owners of the Suva land do not have any more space for expansion of their village in Lami,” she said Suvavou people were asked to move by Ratu Seru Cakobau when the capital of Fiji was being decided. The village people were requested to move to Kiuva in Tailevu but this request was later refused because they opted to stay in Samabula. However the crown had plans to develop the area and Suvavou people were finally moved to Lami where they stay today.

Ms Verebalavu said Ratu Seru Cakabau was not the King of Fiji when he sold most to the land to Polynesians and the colonial administration, after abolishing the deal by Ratu Cakobau did not give land back to the proper owners. Questioned by Justice Pathik on how she knew that the land belonged to the Suvavou people, Ms Verebalavu said she based her findings on facts of research.

Dear Commander

www.fijidailypost.com 29-Dec-2006 - Dionisia Lewanavanua, Bau, Fiji.

Sir,

I WOULD like to take this opportunity to utter a few words of gratitude to our self proclaimed President and current Commander of our military forces, Mr Frank Bainimarama. I would like to speak my mind about the current situation and show our brave and noble dictator how I’m feeling right now. Because of you Mr Bainimarama:

My mother has lost her job that she has been doing for the last 5 years;

My father’s pay has been reduced by half of what he was getting before all this happened;

My parents will not be able to send me to school next year because of financial problems;

I didn’t get to visit my grandparents in the village like I use to every single year during Christmas and New Year;

I will not get the opportunity to meet my cousins from overseas who were supposed to visit my family for Christmas and New Year; and

I didn’t get what I would have normally wanted for Christmas (gifts and presents);

Finally I would like to say that you Mr Bainimarama probably had a wonderful Christmas Day spending it with your family, friends and most of all your grandchildren.

I’m sure that they (your grandchildren) must have really enjoyed their Christmas receiving all those wonderful gifts and presents while me and thousands of other innocent children in Fiji had to go through Christmas without those special pampering. I’m sure that the good Lord will look down upon us all and comfort us in these times of need and most of all, in these times of misery.

Same Old Swan Songs

www.fijidailypost.com.fj 29-Dec-2006. T Lesu Woodridge, QLD, Australia

Sir,

I CONTINUE to be amused by the repeated comments from the National Alliance Party headed by Ratu Epeli Ganilau and the Kadavu Provincial Council Chairman, Ratu Jo Nawalowalo.As we know, Ratu Epeli was dropped from the GCC by Laisenia Qarase and he did not even attract a significant number of votes in the May 2006 General Election to make him or his party pretend that they speak for a lot of people.And Ratu Nawalowalo got overlooked by the SDL party to be their candidate for Kadavu, even though he applied for an SDL ticket.Their bitterness with Mr Qarase and the SDL party and their support of the military clean up is therefore understandable.I am just wondering why they continue to beat aloud their drums of support in the same tune, with the same words in the media almost everyday.If you support the military, which is your right, say it once maybe twice then enough. No need to keep shouting it aloud for everyone to hear it again and again, especially when you are speaking for yourselves only, or for a minority of people that voted for you in the last election.I am sure the military has noticed your support already and will give you two men senior positions in the new interim government.Just put to rest saying the same thing over and over again. We want to read and hear something new and more constructive in the media and not the same song and tune from Ratu Epeli’s party and my tauvu, Ratu Nawalowalo in Kadavu.If you want to comment again, sure do so. That’s your right. But say something different and better too please.

Chairman of Fiji's Great Council of Chiefs - Ratu Ovini Bokini

AMELIA VUNILEBA Sunday, December 24, 2006
www.fijitimes.com

THE Bose Levu Vakaturaga or Great Council of Chiefs is an important part of Fiji's society and has been so for quite some time now.
This is a body that is made up of chiefs from different districts and provinces and is often looked upon for wise counsel.
The position of GCC chairman could be considered as one that comes with a lot of power and demands a person who can rise to the challenge of whatever situation or issue is thrown his way.
The GCC was brought to the fore of the country's political spectrum recently during the impasse between the military and the Government.
And in the midst of all the furore, there stood the GCC chairman, Ratu Ovini Bokini in all his calmness.
Ratu Ovini holds the title of Tui Tavua of the district of Tavua which comes under the province of Ba in the Western Division.
Since his appointment to the GCC chairmanship and with all the issues the council has to deal with, Ratu Ovini always seems to maintain his composure no matter what the mood of the council or the country for that matter at that particular time.
You can't help but wonder if ever he raises his voice in anger because he is a very soft spoken person.
Such is his stature and such is his personality.
He is 62-years-old, having turned a year older just last month and he is the son of Ratu Etuate Bokini and Sereima Lalavanua.
He was born in Tavualevu and educated at Tavua District School, Marist Convent School, Ratu Kadavulevu School and Queen Victoria School.
Apart from that, he attended some management courses at the University of the South Pacific and worked firstly at the Colonial Sugar Refinery before it changed to the Fiji Sugar Corporation Limited.
He is married to Tavo Bokini and they have four children and it was his eldest son Ratu Inoke Bokini who shed a little light about Ratu Ovini.
"I may be a bit biased but he is a good father no, he is the best father," Ratu Inoke laughed.
"He was always firm and caring and always believed in sharing whatever we had with others," he said.
"We grew up with a lot of cousins because he wanted us all to have an education and for us his children, we had to go without some things so that there was enough for all of us."
"And that was not only for family members but for anyone who would come to him for help."
Ratu Inoke said although Ratu Ovini was well employed at FSC, the family didn't have much in terms of material things or that which many young people yearned for.
This, he said, was because his father centred his attention on education and would try and spread his earnings to cover for the educational costs of family members who came to stay with them.
"Now the FSC homes were big but our home was always full," he laughed.
Ratu Inoke said although there were four children, and they were a family of six (including Ratu Ovini and Tavo), this was extended by two members when Ratu Ovini took in two nephews who are now counted as part of the family.
He said one was named after Ratu Ovini and he works at the Tavua Water Supply while Nacanieli was considered the youngest and was presently a student at the Fiji Institute of Technology in Suva.
He said although these two cousins were registered in the Vola ni Kawa Bula under their father's name, Ratu Ovini took them in as his own sons and that was how things remained to date.
Apart from Ratu Inoke who is the Human Resources Manager at the Housing Authority, the other son is Ratu Totivi who works at Douglas Pharmaceuticals, Kelera Naborisi, a teacher at DAV Girls College in Samabula and Sereima Korosaya who works at the Bank of Baroda in Suva.
Altogether, Ratu Ovini has 13 grandchildren 10 from his four children and three from his namesake.
Ratu Inoke said because his father was very busy with his work and his traditional commitments when they were growing up, he didn't really have much time for them.
But, he says, that is a totally different story with his grandchildren.
"One woman who looked after us while we were younger and who passed away recently, used to tell us that when we were babies, he (Ratu Ovini) would hardly change our nappies or carry us when we cried," he said.
"But it is totally different with his grandchildren when one cries, he is there ready to carry them and he changes their nappies whenever he can," he laughed.
"Oh they are getting a lot of love and attention from him and when he's home, they get to choose what movies they watch at home and he sits and watches with them."
Ratu Inoke says his father is one person who doesn't really show much emotion but takes in whatever's happening and "keeps his cool".
He said Ratu Ovini was the kind of person who accepted other people's views but didn't make decisions straight away, rather, choosing to listen to everyone's views before he makes up his mind.
And in the recent weeks with what has transpired in the country, Ratu Inoke says Ratu Ovini's grandchildren provided a welcome distraction for him when he would get home as he would sit and talk with them and would end up laughing with them.
"He hardly loses his temper but I suppose he has a good 2IC in our mother," he laughed.
Ratu Inoke says his brothers and sisters talk with Ratu Ovini frequently and this has become a daily thing since the impasse started.
Daily Routine
Ratu Ovini has maintained a similar routine for a number of years now where he wakes up at 3am everyday and has his morning devotion.
"So when we get a call at around 4am, we know that its him because that is a time when he makes some calls," said Ratu Inoke.
At around 5am, the family is woken up and a family devotion follows suit.
Following that, Ratu Inoke says the village elders or qase ni vanua would come for a meeting at his home and they would then plan what sort of work is to be done in the village on that particular day.
"They would discuss developments that are useful like plans for planting crops that could earn cash for the villagers or things that would ultimately eradicate poverty," said Ratu Inoke.
He said these developments would also include discussions like getting computers for the village or getting youths and villagers to learn courses that would enhance their knowledge.
Also, this included discussions that could get women involved in cooking courses that were on offer.
Ratu Ovini was one who believed in mixing with other cultures and sent his children to Drasa Indian School.
"He wanted us to mix with other races and encouraged us to learn Hindi and we speak it fluently now," he said.
Beliefs
Ratu Inoke says his father is a spirited and firm person and a disciplinarian but was very patient.
He said his father would never forget being asked to serve in the government that was formed following the 1987 coup by then prime minister Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara.
"All his life he has worked for the FSC and when he was called by Ratu Mara to serve in the interim government, he had some second thoughts at first but these were quashed when Ratu Mara told him it was an opportunity to expose himself and his talents which would help in nation building.
"He was still working at FSC then and was receiving more money but decided to resign and join the interim council.
"He thought the call of duty was more important than the money he would have received and that's why he accepted.
"It was a call of duty and when he finished off from there, he was the general manager of the Rarawai Mill.
And just like that time, Ratu Ovini Bokini is now served with the task of heeding the call to duty. Ratu Inoke says the family has rallied behind their father/ grandfather during this time.
And he would like to thank all those who've prayed in ernest for Ratu Ovini and asked them to keep praying and remain calm even.
And just like his nature, Ratu Inoke says his father has remained calm throughout this ordeal between the military and the Government.
"Basically I know he's a person who speaks from the heart and I suppose that is why he's penniless," Ratu Inoke joked.
Career Brief
Apart from being a member and chairman of the GCC, Ratu Ovini held previous positions in various boards and committees like the Fiji Development Board, the Liqour Tribunal in the Western Division.
He has held senior managerial positions at both the Fiji Sugar Corporation Limited and the Penang Mill in Rakiraki.
While his hobbies were gardening and fishing before, his eldest son Ratu Inoke says that has changed to spending time with his grandchildren.
Ratu Ovini became the chairman of the GCC in 2004 and was re-elected to the position in 2005 for a term of three years.
Ratu Ovini became chairman after his predecessor Ratu Epeli Ganilau was not re-elected by the GCC.
This was in July of 2004, after the GCC decided that the position of chairman should go to a chief from either the Kubuna or Burebasaga confederacies since Ratu Epeli was from the Tovata confederacy.
Last year when the Promotion of Reconciliation, Tolerance and Unity Bill was introduced by the Laisenia Qarase led government, Ratu Ovini said the council was not consulted and their attempts to get a copy of the controversial Bill was futile.
And during Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna Day celebrations, he stated in his speech that reconciliation was not something that could be forced or was one sided.
Ratu Ovini also holds the position of chairman in the Ba provincial Council in his capacity as the Tui Tavua.
He was a member of Parliament in the 1990s during the Soqosoqo Vakavulewa ni Taukei government's term in power and also held Cabinet positions.
He contested the Tavua open seat in the 2001 general elections but failed to win the seat and he stayed in his village, involving himself in various activities in his village of Tavualevu.

What is Commodore Bainimarama Running Away From?

TIME South Pacific magazine - Dec 18 2006 Issue

For months before he appointed himself President and put Fiji's elected leaders under house arrest, military commander Frank Bainimarama had been threatening to stage a coup unless Laisenia Qarase's government abandoned plans to pardon those behind the abortive coup and mutiny of 2000. But some in Fiji say Bainimarama, who during the mutiny narrowly escaped assassination by rebel troops, has another motive: ending a police probe into the killings of four soldiers from the mutinous special- forces unit.

"It's cold-blooded murder," says Ana Kalounivale, "and that's what Bainimarama is running away from." The 37-year-old widow says Bainimarama must bear some responsibility for the bashing deaths of her husband and three other special-forces soldiers. If he did not order or know about the killings at the time, she believes, then he failed to properly investigate them afterward. "Now we don't know if we will ever have justice," says the mother of four.

The commander has repeatedly denied any responsibility for the deaths of Selesitano Kalounivale, Jone Davui, Epineri Bainimoli and Lagani Rokowaqa." I never gave any orders to kill," he said in 2003. However, in the weeks before the coup Bainimarama was under increasing pressure over the murders. Police probes and court actions by victims' families and surviving soldiers could have seen him suspended, forced to give evidence about the killings, and potentially facing charges and a six-figure compensation claim against the Fiji Military Force. During the mutiny by members of the elite Counter-Revolutionary Warfare unit, three loyalist soldiers were shot and-in an experience which some officers say has haunted him ever since-Bainimarama was hunted by armed rebels through a jungle-choked valley behind Suva's Queen Elizabeth Barracks. After the barracks were retaken, loyalists rounded up CRW soldiers regardless of whether they had taken part in the mutiny. Selesitino and the other soldiers allegedly fell victim to a violent paroxysm of revenge.

Among Bainimarama's increasingly peremptory demands to the Qarase government were the shutting down of the police investigation into the murders and the removal of Fiji's Police Commissioner, Andrew Hughes. The day after the coup, Dec. 7, Bainimarama sacked Hughes, who had already left the country after death threats to his family, and appointed Army intelligence chief Jim Koroi as acting Police Commissioner. Next day his soldiers took in for questioning six former CRW soldiers, alleging that they could foment civil unrest.

In the past year, Bainimarama and the military had been fighting four separate legal actions. Three were lodged by former CRW soldiers who survived beatings in 2000. The fourth was a compensation claim by Ana Kalounivale, who successfully sued the Commander and the government for worker's compensation over her husband's death but has yet to receive any money. In a hearing last April, the court was told that after he was first picked up, Selesitino had a 30-minute meeting with Bainimarama and was then taken to the local police station on the Commander's orders. He was later taken from the station by four or five soldiers. Acquaintances of his told the court they were working in a building next door to the police station when soldiers arrived with Selesitino. They said they heard him crying out for help as he was driven away in a military vehicle. According to the judgment of Magistrate Ajmal Gulab Khan, "He was on the floor of the van and bystanders could hear swearing, hitting with rifle butts and kicking at the back of the tray." Around midnight, his hideously injured body was delivered to the morgue. Magistrate Khan found that "the assaulting soldiers may have exceeded in the scope of their duty by assaulting the deceased, but they acted as soldiers of FMF and were responsible for their actions in the general scope of their duties." He awarded Ana Kalounivale $24,000, but she says the military is appealing the judgment. But it has never explained where the soldiers took Selesitino or why he was singled out. But documents lodged in support of civil lawsuits by the three CRW soldiers who survived beatings give a chilling insight into what might have happened. The soldiers "seized me at gunpoint and handcuffed my hands behind my back," said Sergeant Viliame Lotawa of the night he was taken from the police station. "I was punched, kicked and beaten with blunt objects such as rifle butts and iron rods. I was beaten all the way to [Queen Elizabeth Barracks]." Lotawa says his attackers included a former Fijian rugby international, Sergeant Jack Komaitai. Komaitai told Time last week there was no truth to the allegation. Another survivor, Metuisela Railumu, told the court he was taken by soldiers to a shooting range and "beaten with wood and iron rods all over my body." The case of the third survivor, Barbados Mills, is due to go to trial early in 2007.

All three suits include Bainimarama as a defendant, charging that as military commander he was responsible for the actions of his troops. Police have interviewed 12 soldiers about the bashings, but the military has reportedly insisted that a senior officer attend all interviews; in at least one case, the officer prematurely terminated the interview. When Time put Lotawa's allegations to Bainimarama's spokesman, Major Neumi Leweni, he said, "Who told you that?" He has since refused to speak to the magazine.

Police have told Time the military conducted its own investigation, under the supervision of then officer Jack Koroi, Bainimarama's hand- picked new acting Police Commissioner. None of the alleged perpetrators named by Lotawa and his fellow survivors has faced any military trial or disciplinary hearing. Police are unhappy about Koroi's appointment. Says one officer, who asked to remain anonymous: "Koroi knows what to look for in the files. He's a former Criminal Investigations Department officer and he was the point of contact up at the barracks for people wanting to interview soldiers in the past." Contacted by Time last week, Koroi said of the police investigation,"[The suspects in the bashings] have all been questioned but they have decided to stay mute. There is a lot of difficulties with this. I have to see the file before I comment."

Since leaving Fiji, sacked Police Commissioner Hughes, an Australian, has said one reason for the coup was self-preservation on Bainimarama's part. "He's been resistant to the investigation into the murder of the Counter-Revolutionary Warfare soldiers in 2000," Hughes told ABC News. "We believe he has some questions to answer in that regard himself." Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer shares Hughes' view. "I think, in particular, Commodore Bainimarama is deeply concerned about investigations by the police into the Fiji military itself," he told ABC Radio. A senior Fiji police officer tells Time he and his colleagues have new evidence suggesting some of the "top [military] brass ordered the actions." Now, he says, they are bracing for the day when soldiers march in and remove their files. But "We've got copies," he says. "We won't give up." Ana Kalounivale may get justice yet.