Transcript
PIO TIKODUADUA: Much of the reason behind me joining NFP is because of my knowledge and respect for the party values and what it stood for at the UN Roundtable which I had noted that I had unsuccessfully tried to try and work out something that at the time I believed would be able to move our country forward and that's when I met the (NFP) leader and I identified myself with it and that's when I thought and believed that if I actually have to come back then the best platform I believe best represents my principles and what I stand for and the values that I have to ... on how to build the nation is reflected in the party so that is the reason I have joined NFP.
SALLY ROUND: Yet you decided at the election to go with Fiji First, not NFP. So why did you make that decision in 2014?
PT: You know at the time it was the natural thing to do because we were coming off the back of a government and we were transitioning a military-backed government and transitioning into a parliamentary democracy. It was a process we arrived at and that would need my input and support into getting the full democratic process so I thought that at the time it was the best thing to do to try and help it evolve from what it was. You know, it's a process, and it's not something that you achieve in one day. You know it made good sense at the time for me to support the Fiji First party for the reason I believed in what it stood for going into the elections and into the democratic process.
SR: Biman Prasad, the leader of the NFP, I've just been speaking to him, he said you actually weren't happy with some of the moves by the interim government of Frank Bainimarama and Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum in the lead up to those elections, like for instance the constitution that Yash Ghai was bringing in. You weren't happy with the way that was dealt with. Is that correct?
PT: There were many issues that we had engaged in and we all raised our views. I had raised my views with government on the matter of the constitution, Yash Ghai, and all that at the time. Decisions were (inaudible) on what was to be taken. I had my concerns about how things were going where, you know, matters that were perhaps in principle close to me and wanted to see go forward, you know perhaps were not really given, you know the due concern that it required. Everyone including me had concerns and I had already aired those views to the government at the time when I was there.
SR: Going back a few more years to 2009, you were senior in the military led government when it abrogated the 1997 constitution. Did you play a part in that decision?
PT: You see the issue of abrogating the constitution is a matter that the government had decided. I was in the government so my involvement in that decree is without doubt.
SR: And do you regret it?
PT: Well you know time will tell. Everyone has an opinion about 1997 (constitution) ...there are certainly things that are worse. It was a constitution that was borne out of a process. People had their own reservations. I mean everyone's had reservations about it. The fact of the matter is that it what was abrogated and there was a constitution that was put together after that and that's what we are living with now.
SR: People might wonder whether you moving from Fiji First is just a matter of political survival for you. Are you jumping from a sinking ship perhaps?
PT: No I believe I am still in the boat. I think just others have gone off that boat. For me, it's not something that only just began after the elections. You know I went all the way back standing for aspirations that I held dearly about the process of democracy. I still hold that dearly but right now I believe the government is veering off on a direction that I perhaps believe, that they have preferred to ... you know to change their views about certain things, so you know made proclamations about things that I don't think that they truly want to stand for.
SR: For example?
PT: Let's take for instance freedom of democracy and talk about the media. There must be an assurance that the media is completely free so that assurance needs to come out. And most of the media believes that they cannot print exactly the things that they want to print. I mean that's only just one example of perhaps what could be made better.
SR: Are there other Fiji First members that perhaps are going to be doing the same?
PT: I can only speak for myself and this is like two years down the line so I have not had much of a connection to the party since then.
