Fiji continues lobbying to compete in Commonwealth Games
Updated
More than three weeks after Fiji was fully suspended from the Commonwealth, it's still unclear if the Pacific nation will be able to send a team to next year's Commonwealth Games in New Delhi. When the suspension was announced, the Commonwealth Secretariat insisted that would also mean exclusion from the Games. But Fiji's Commonwealth Games Committee will put its case for sending athletes to the Games at next month's meeting of the Games Federation, where a final decision will be made. Fiji is seeking to change the Federation's Constitution, to ensure a ruling in its favour.
Presenter: Campbell Cooney
Speakers: Mike Hooper, chief executive, Commonwealth Games Federation; Vidhya Lakhan, president, Fiji Commonwealth Games' Committee
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COONEY: When the Commonwealth suspended Fiji at the start of the September due to the military backed interim government’s refusal to allow elections next year, the Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma stated that meant the country would not be able to take part in the Commonwealth Games to be held in New Delhi next year.
But Fiji’s Commonwealth Games Committee has refused to accept that decision. The President of the Committee, Vidhya Lakhan is currently in the Cook Islands for the Pacific Mini Games where he spoke to Radio Australia’s Clement Paligaru.
LAKHAN: Some of the statement that is attributed to Mr Kamalesh Sharma, who’s the Secretary General of the Commonwealth Games Secretariat. He has said that Fiji’s fully suspended, and in another paragraph he says whilst Fiji remains in the Commonwealth they cannot take part in the Commonwealth Games. Now according to the Commonwealth Games Federation Charter if your country is a member of the Commonwealth then you retain your membership of the Commonwealth Games Federation.
COONEY: The Chief Executive of the Commonwealth Games Federation, Mike Hooper, says the final decision on if Fiji does or does not send a team to New Delhi will be made next month.
HOOPER: So Fiji itself has not considered the matter. We have received under separate government letter from the Secretary General’s office basically outlining the position with Fiji confirming to us formally that Fiji’s membership rights have been “fully suspended, and that their membership is in abeyance”. What our position will now be is that the matter will be considered at a meeting of our executive board on the 11th of October, it’s not for me to take a determination or decision on such matters. At that meeting, Vidhya Lakhan, the President of FASANOC will be invited along with the Secretary General to make any representations they see fit. And whatever determination our board makes will then go before our general assembly the following day on October the 12th in Delhi.
COONEY: Would it be fair enough to say though the Commonwealth’s position would be a strong one and one that would be very seriously considered by the Games Federation?
HOOPER: Based on what has gone before Nigeria was suspended in 1995 to 1999 and did not participate in the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur as a result. But again there may be other considerations that ?? wish the Fiji executive board and members to consider.
COONEY: Mr Hooper has also been in the Cook Islands attending the games and taking part in a meeting of Pacific Commonwealth nations. In the days after Fiji’s suspension Mr Lakhan said he’d be asking his Pacific sporting colleagues to support Fiji’s position, and he says during this week’s meeting he received and encouraging response.
LAKHAN: I just sought their assistance and I think they can help their Fijian counterparts by just first of all appealing to their own respective ministers of sport, and also their ministers of foreign affairs. So the response was pretty good.
COONEY: Mr Hooper says the delegates made their positions clear.
HOOPER: It would be safe from a sporting perspective and from the sportsmen and women of Fiji, we all feel passionately and strongly that they are an unfortunate pawn I suppose in what has happened and what is happening in Fiji and the regime there. Now it would be fair to say there was a lot of support for that position of sport.
LAKHAN: It’s not Fiji, it’s a matter of principle. We all preach about, talk about no politics in sport, and yet we’re not prepared to take any action once politics starts to creep in.
COONEY: But while Mr Lakhan and Mr Hooper both say national politics has no place in sport, Fiji’s fight to ensure it can participate in New Delhi has a particularly political edge to it. Mike Hooper has confirmed that in the months before Fiji was suspended Vidhya Lakhan as President of Fiji’s Association of Sports, and international Olympic committee, put forward changes to the Commonwealth Games Federation constitution, which if adopted would mean Commonwealth suspension will have no effect on games attendance.
HOOPER: It’s not written specifically for Fiji, but Vidhya Lakhan, the President of FASANOC had the foresight to see what was going to happen with the Bainimarama led regime of Fiji. He put forward, and FASANOC, formaly, and in time, a series of constitutional changes that would facilitate on ongoing participation, by any country that found itself in this position. Now whether that will get supporters or not again is a matter for the general assembly to determine.
