Forum Chair disappointed Fiji won't meet democracy deadline
Updated
The Chair of the Pacific islands Forum, Niue premier Toke Talagi, says he's disappointed at Frank Bainimarama's decision to ignore the deadline to announce a return to democracy. Commodore Bainimarama says Fiji will have parliamentary elections in the future, but this will happen at its own pace, and not because of any external deadline. He's also accused the Forum leaders summit in Papua New Guinea which set the deadline of being bullied by Australia and New Zealand. The Chair of the Forum, Toke Talagi, says any future suspension of Fiji from the Forum will be of the interim government, not the country as a whole.
presenter: Bruce Hill
Speaker: Chair of the Pacific islands Forum, Niue premier Toke Talagi.
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TALAGI: I am disappointed because what I wanted the interim prime minister to do from the chair of the forum is for him to sit and think about what was said and to sit and think about what the prime minister of Papua New Guinea has counselled, and to realise that the forum wants to work with him, rather than against him. The idea of him just off the cuff in some respects or knee jerk reaction as I call it is disappointing, because he really needs to sit and think, because these are very prominent elder statesmen of the Pacific that he is talking to and with and we're very, very keen indeed to continue to engage with Fiji, to determine a pathway forward.
HILL: Commodore Bainimarama has characterised that leaders meeting in Port Moresby as Australia, New Zealand and Samoa forcing this deadline down the throats of the small island states without getting into the obviously secret discussions, is that a fair characterisation of what happened in Port Moresby?
TALAGI: No, not at all. In fact I thought it was a very good open meeting, everybody had their peice to say about what we needed to do. We gave the chair of the ministerial contact group a very good hearing. We gave the interim attorney-general a very good hearing. I know that he thought that he was being interrogated, but as chair of the meeting, I thought there should be opportunity given for each leader to ask and pose questions as they wish and then when the time came, I decided that was enough and we would consider the responses and we would also consider his presentation to us in the analysis we all needed to do, to come to a conclusion and the conclusion that was made was agreed to by everyone. It wasn't just a matter of New Zealand or Australia or Samoa or anybody for that matter, forcing the issue with respect to the decision.
The decision was reached unanimously and everybody was in agreement with what the communique explained in the end. I think at the present moment, there is this idea that New Zealand and Australia is splitting the forum. I was very pleased at the way New Zealand and Australia, as well as Samoa, Tonga, the Federated States of Micronesia, Tuvalu and Kiribati responded in the very frank discussions we had with respect to the situation in Fiji. And the conclusions that were made were made by everybody unanimously.
HILL: You've said that you don't want to engage in too much public diplomacy through the media with Commodore Bainimarama's statements. But do you have a message as chairman of the forum for the people of Fiji as to what the forum is trying to achieve here?
TALAGI: I think the message becomes very apparent, when you consider the decision that was taken. The decision that was made by the leaders was that it would suspend if you wish the administration, the interim administration. The idea that that meant necessarily we would suspend Fiji as a country does not and is not what we meant at all. The message we would like to send to the Fijian people is that they will continue to be part of our community. Fiji is a country and the people of Fiji will continue to become part of the forum family. It is the interim administration that we are concerned about. It is the interim administration that we would like to consider their particular position at the present moment to ensure that they will see that the interests of Fiji, the country Fiji, the people, the majority of the Fijians are given the right to have, to elect a government, to determine their future, not just by an interim administration of a few military officers.
