French Polynesia's ruling Tavini Huiraatira Party has defended the attendance of Fiji's roving ambassador at this weekend's youth conference it has called under the banner 'Build me a Nation'.
It says questions are being asked about what a representative of a dictatorship will do in a democratic country and whether independence advocates are true democrats.
In a statement, it says as the colonisers' models in the Pacific were not necessarily the best, Fiji has a right to be given time to build a better future.
It says Britain didn't need to be asked to leave, contrary to France, whose colonisation has left a majority of French Polynesians fearful that they prefer their status as a colonised people.
The party says while France is proud of its revolution that had its massacres and beheadings for democracy to triumph, there has been nothing like it in Fiji.
It says as Fiji keeps getting more tourists, a dictatorship which doesn't frighten the tourists is a rather good sign.
