Cooks foreign minister sacked

Updated July 30, 2009 07:48:31

Cook Islands Foreign Minister Wilkie Rasmussen has been dismissed by the Prime Minister Jim Marurai for disloyalty. Earlier this week it was revealed the foreign minister was courting opposition members of parliament to form a new government.

Presenter:Geraldine Coutts
Speaker: Wilkie Rasmussen, former Cook Islands foreign minister


RASMUSSEN: Well I think for a number of reasons but the most obvious one of course is what everybody believes it to be, but the much more deeper reasons are that it's probably because the Prime Minister is threatened by my presence and abilities, that he felt that the best way to do this would be just simply get rid of him.

COUTTS: We spoke to you around Christmas time and you were bemoaning the fact that there was a paucity of leadership in the Cook Islands then, and you were critical of Jim Marurai and it's been a consistent complaint. But what are your specifics of the complaints against the Prime Minister?

RASMUSSEN: Well we are in a unique situation in the Pacific and probably the world, I mean we have a Prime Minister who became one by default, and that was because an earlier prime minister had lost his seat and then quickly a coalition was formed and Jim Marurai was the one that they selected to be the prime minister, and he stayed on in that regard simply as a balancing number. However since I came into government and worked with him and discovered that this man is totally incompetent, and I have to say this that we have tried many times to coach him, to assist him, to help him, to shelter him from a number of criticisms, it's still obvious that he is ill-suited for prime ministership. And because of that decision making in our cabinet and in our government is made poorly and we need someone who is able to clearly see through issues and politics and make a decision that will be beneficial for all.

COUTTS: Well what happened? Did Mr Marurai write to you, did he ring you? What did he actually say to you when you found out that you were sacked?

RASMUSSEN: Well I was in my office with a number of other MPs of our caucus and discussing of course the events of last Friday. And these two MPs had just come back from seeing the Prime Minister saying look let's all sit down and talk about the problems, and a letter was delivered. This was the advice that he had given to the Queen's Representative for my termination. So about 2.30 that afternoon I got the confirmation.

COUTTS: And do you have the numbers now to form a new government?

RASMUSSEN: Oh look I will have the numbers and I've always had the numbers, but it's a wrong impression that we were planning to form a coalition, it's not so. What we wanted from the opposition was support simply to remove the Prime Minister. We had the numbers to maintain the government and that's always been the case. However the opposition sometimes got somehow they have a character in the opposition called Norman George who more often is a very colourful political character, who simply just changed the whole scenario. So yes I do have the numbers and I will continue to do so because it's not over as the theatrical saying, not until the fat lady sings.

COUTTS: Ok well what is your next move?

RASMUSSEN: Well today we're going into a caucus meeting. Caucus is of course split and one of the reasons cited by the Prime Minister to remove me is that our caucus colleagues have lost the confidence in me, which is absolutely untrue. So there's a caucus meeting today and then of course there's parliament later this afternoon. We'll go through the normal process, but there's the budget being put through, and if I and my team don't support that budget, that budget collapses and if we don't support it the Prime Minister and others will have to form a coalition with the opposition, which is probably the last thing anyone should do.