{"id":1030292,"date":"2023-03-19T11:35:17","date_gmt":"2023-03-19T11:35:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/?p=86139"},"modified":"2023-03-19T11:35:17","modified_gmt":"2023-03-19T11:35:17","slug":"how-the-usp-political-saga-may-end-the-era-of-bainimarama-and-fijifirst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/03\/19\/how-the-usp-political-saga-may-end-the-era-of-bainimarama-and-fijifirst\/","title":{"rendered":"How the USP political saga may end the era of Bainimarama and FijiFirst"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>ANALYSIS:<\/strong> <em>By Shailendra Bahadur Singh in Suva<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The long-running row between the former Fiji government and the Suva-based regional University of the South Pacific (USP) has come back to haunt former Fiji Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama, who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/international\/pacific-news\/485671\/frank-bainimarama-spends-night-in-police-cell-due-in-court-today\">spent<\/a> a night in a police cell on March 9 before appearing in court, charged with abuse of office.<\/p>\n<p>Not only did the \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lowyinstitute.org\/the-interpreter\/hard-knocks-university-south-pacific\">USP saga<\/a>\u201d, as it came to be known, cause a major rift between Fiji and the other 12 USP-member countries, but it may have contributed to the narrow loss of Bainimarama\u2019s FijiFirst Party (FFP) in the December 2022 election.<\/p>\n<p>Bainimarama\u2019s abuse of office charges included accusations of interfering with a police investigation into financial malpractices at USP. If convicted, he would face a maximum sentence of 17 years in jail.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/2023\/03\/10\/fijis-bainimarama-granted-bail-ordered-to-remain-in-country\/\"><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> Fiji\u2019s Bainimarama granted bail, ordered to remain in country<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/2023\/03\/09\/former-fiji-pm-bainimarama-and-suspended-police-chief-charged\/\">Former Fiji PM Bainimarama and suspended police chief charged<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/?s=The+USP+saga\">The USP saga<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>But there are also serious questions about the future of the party that he co-founded, and which won successive elections in 2014 and 2018 on the back of his popularity.<\/p>\n<p>A day before his indictment, there were surreal scenes at the Suva Central Police Station, as police officers marched an ashen-faced Bainimarama to his cell to spend the night before his court appearance the next morning.<\/p>\n<p>This, under the full glare of live media coverage, with journalists tripping over themselves to take pictures of the former military strongman, who installed himself as prime minister after the 2006 coup and ruled for 16 years straight.<\/p>\n<p>Arrested, detained and charged alongside Bainimarama was his once-powerful police chief, Sitiveni Qiliho, who managed a wry smile for the cameras. Both were released on a surety of F$10,000 (about NZ$7300) after pleading not guilty to the charges.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Shut down police investigation<\/strong><br \/>\nIt is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2023\/mar\/09\/fiji-prosecutors-to-charge-former-prime-minister-frank-bainimarama-with-abuse-of-office\">alleged<\/a> that in 2019, the duo \u201carbitrarily and in abuse of the authority of their respective offices\u201d shut down a police investigation into alleged irregularities at USP when former vice-chancellor Rajesh Chandra was in charge.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img class=\"moz-reader-block-img\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lowyinstitute.org\/sites\/default\/files\/inline-images\/Fiji%20courthouse.jpg\" alt=\"SUVA, FIJI - MARCH 10: Former prime minister Frank Bainimarama arrives to court on March 10, 2023 in Suva, Fiji. Fiji's former prime minister Frank Bainimarama was placed in police custody after he was arrested and charged with abuse of office, according to reports. Former police commissioner Sitiveni Qiliho has also been placed under arrest as charges relating to alleged irregularities in the finances of a University are investigated. (Photo by Pita Simpson\/Getty Images)\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" data-entity-type=\"file\" data-entity-uuid=\"b36f9cb7-a99c-4a39-b5a3-46113c9d045e\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former Fiji prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama spent a night in a police cell on March 9 before appearing in court, charged with abuse of office. Image: The Interpreter\/Pita Simpson\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In November 2018, Chandra\u2019s replacement, Professor Pal Ahluwalia, revealed large remuneration payments to certain USP senior staff, some running to hundreds of thousands of dollars. The Fiji government, unhappy with Ahluwalia\u2019s attack on Chandra, counter-attacked by alleging irregularities in Ahluwalia\u2019s own administration.<\/p>\n<p>As the dispute escalated, the Fiji government suspended its annual grant to the USP in a bid to force an inquiry into its own allegations.<\/p>\n<p>When an external audit by the NZ accountants BDO confirmed the original report\u2019s findings, the USP executive committee, under the control of the then Fiji government appointees, suspended Ahluwalia in June 2020.<\/p>\n<p>This was in defiance of the USP\u2019s supreme decision-making body, the USP Council, which reinstated him within a week.<\/p>\n<p>Samoa\u2019s then Deputy Prime Minister Fiam\u0113 Naomi Mata\u02bbafa (who is now prime minister, having won a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lowyinstitute.org\/the-interpreter\/fast-end-era-political-dominance-samoa\">heavily contested election<\/a> of her own) said at the time that Ahluwalia\u2019s suspension had been a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.samoaobserver.ws\/category\/samoa\/64911\">nonsense<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The then Nauruan President Lionel Aingimea <a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/2020\/06\/10\/nauru-president-accuses-fiji-group-of-hijacking-usp-in-vendetta\/\">attacked<\/a> a \u201csmall group\u201d of Fiji officials for \u201chijacking\u201d the 12-country regional university.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Students threatened boycott<\/strong><br \/>\nThe USP Students\u2019 Association threatened a boycott of exams, while more than 500 signatures supporting the suspended vice-chancellor were collected and students protested across several of USP\u2019s national campuses. All these events played out prominently in the regional news media as well as on social media platforms.<\/p>\n<p>With Fiji\u2019s national elections scheduled for the following year, the political toll was becoming obvious. However, Bainimarama\u2019s government either did not see it, or did not care to see it.<\/p>\n<p>Instead of backing off from what many saw as an unnecessary fight, it doubled down. In February 2021, around 15 government police and security personnel along with immigration officials <a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2021-02-04\/fiji-pal-ahluwalia-vc-deportation-university-of-south-pacific\/13120256\">staged<\/a> a late-night raid on Professor Ahluwalia\u2019s Suva home, detained him with his wife, Sandra Price, and put them in a car for the three-hour drive to Nadi International Airport where, deported, they were put on the first flight to Australia.<\/p>\n<p>The move sent shockwaves in Fiji and the region.<\/p>\n<p>To many, it looked like a government that had come to power in the name of a \u201cclean-up campaign\u201d against corruption was now indulging in a cover-up campaign instead. The USP saga became political fodder at opposition rallies, with one of their major campaign promises being to bring back Professor Ahluwalia and restore the unpaid Fiji government grant that stood at F$86 million (about NZ$62 million) at the time.<\/p>\n<p>A month before the 2022 polls, a statement targeting the estimated 30,000 staff and student cohort at USP, their friends and families, urged them to vote against FijiFirst, which would go on to lose government by a single parliamentary vote to the tripartite coalition led by another former coup leader, Sitiveni Rabuka.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Albanese official visit<\/strong><br \/>\nIt was Rabuka who greeted Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on his first official visit to Fiji last week. During talks at the Australian-funded Blackrock military camp, Albanese reportedly secured Rabuka\u2019s support for the AUKUS deal.<\/p>\n<p>Australia is keen for stability in Fiji, which has not had a smooth transition of power since independence, with democratically elected governments removed by coups in 1987, 2000 and 2006. Any disturbance in Fiji has the potential to upset the delicate balance in the region as a whole.<\/p>\n<p>For Bainimarama and his followers, there is much to rue. His claimed agenda &#8212; to build national unity and racial equality and to rid Fiji of corruption &#8212; earned widespread support in 2014.<\/p>\n<p>His margin of victory was much narrower in 2018 but Bainimarama managed to secure a majority in Parliament to lead the nation again.<\/p>\n<p>His electoral loss in 2022 was followed by a series of dramatic events, which first saw Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, his deputy in all but name, disqualified from holding his seat in Parliament.<\/p>\n<p>Bainimarama went next, suspended for three years by Parliament\u2019s privileges committee for a speech attacking head of state Ratu Wiliame Katonivere. He chose to resign as opposition leader.<\/p>\n<p>Following his March 10 hearing, Bainimarama addressed the media and a few supporters outside court, adamant that he had <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/ap\/ap-international\/fijis-former-leader-bainimarama-arrested-and-due-in-court\/\">served<\/a> the country with \u201cintegrity\u201d and with \u201cthe best interests\u201d of all Fijians at heart. \u00a0The former leader even managed to smile for the cameras while surrounded by a group of followers.<\/p>\n<p>With nearly double the personal votes of the sitting PM Rabuka under Fiji\u2019s proportional representation voting system, Bainimarama\u2019s supporters still harboured some hope that he could return as the country\u2019s leader one day.<\/p>\n<p>However, his health is not the best. He is now out of Parliament and bogged down by legal troubles. Is the sun now setting on the era of Bainimarama and FijiFirst?<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lowyinstitute.org\/the-interpreter\/contributors\/articles\/shailendra-bahadur-singh\">Dr Shailendra Bahadur Singh<\/a> is a frequent contributor to Asia Pacific Report and is on the editorial board of the associated <a href=\"https:\/\/ojs.aut.ac.nz\/pacific-journalism-review\/\">Pacific Journalism Review<\/a>. This article was originally published by the Lowy Institute&#8217;<\/em><em>s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lowyinstitute.org\/the-interpreter\/sun-setting-era-bainimarama-fijifirst\">The Interpreter<\/a> and is republished here with the author&#8217;s permission.<\/em><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/2023\/03\/20\/how-the-usp-political-saga-may-end-the-era-of-bainimarama-and-fijifirst\/\">Asia Pacific Report<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ANALYSIS: By Shailendra Bahadur Singh in Suva The long-running row between the former Fiji government and the Suva-based regional University of the South Pacific (USP) has come back to haunt former Fiji Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama, who spent a night in a police cell on March 9 before appearing in court, charged with abuse of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4429,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56141,361,34244,362,432,433,5,495,10488,118,10,58804,12,6086,13,18003,14,58807,5965,5968,500],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1030292"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4429"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1030292"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1030292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1032062,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1030292\/revisions\/1032062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1030292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1030292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1030292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}