Fiji Osition Is Now

Well And Truly Out

From a Suva correspondent

Mr. A. D. Patel and his Federation Party Opposition crossed the Rubicon at the beginning of April when they con tinued their boycott of Legislative Council to the inevitable forfeiture of their seats but, unlike Julius Caesar, Mr. Patel early encountered a sticky patch.

His Alliance opponents, he found, d the gall to be logical in their atment of him after he ceased, ough the boycott, to be the ader of the Opposition and a mber of the Legislative Council.

His invitation from the Chief Min ir, Ratu K. K. T. Mara, to be one Fiji’s team at the conference in ;neva on the World Sugar Agree ing was cancelled.

Whether there was guile in the 11 is a matter for conjecture. In ; speech at the opening of the Leg itive Council on March 29, the wernor, Sir Derek Jakeway, said •. Patel had been invited by Ratu ara to be one of the sugar talks im, and later, it was announced it Mr. Patel had accepted.

Reasons why

There were several reasons why accepted. Sugar is the mainstay the colony. He claims leadership the cane farmers, and he and Ratu ara had agreed some time before it on several matters, such as the w university, localisation of the vil Service and the sugar agree ;nt, his party would be consulted d there would be an attempt to ;sent a bi-partisan front on those liters.

Without doubt Ratu Mara would ve been glad to take him along yway, so Mr. Patel could share “ responsibility for a sugar decision lich may not be in Fiji’s best inter ts.

But Mr. Patel was to go as :ader of the Opposition, and Mr. itel ceased to be that on April 3 ien the council’s meeting closed thout any of the Federation Party having attended.

Under the regulations, any mem r who, without the Speaker’s per ission absents himself from two ccessive meetings, loses his seat.

Appearance at Geneva would ive enhanced Mr. Patel’s stature id the withdrawal of the invitation r Ratu Mara is a setback for him lespite being something of a dis

appointment for Ratu Mara). When the invitation was announced, it was obvious that the Federation mem bers of the Legislative Council would not be coming back to the council.

Was it intended to get Mr. Patel over a barrel?

Which way?

The withdrawal of the invitation came only a day or two before he would have left for Geneva. It could have come the day after the council meeting ended, or not even been extended to him until it was seen which way the party cat would jump.

Letters in the Press had argued that as Mr. Patel was no longer Leader of the Opposition he should not be a member of the team, but it’s hardly likely that letters in the newspapers would have influenced Ratu Mara.

For his part, he is likely to have been less influenced by political guile than with observing the facts of the situation.

His explanation was that, by stay ing out of Legislative Council, Mr.

Patel had “manifestly showed he will not co-operate with Government” and it would not be wise to take to Geneva someone who had showed he would not co-operate.

It’s sure that many of Mr. Patel’s opponents will be jubilant at what they will regard as a shrewd move to rub his face in the rapidly deepen ing mud of Fiji politics. But, it’s also sure that Mr. Patel will not let it get him down.

In the Legislative Council meeting there was little for any Opposition to get its teeth into, so that the nine eloquently-empty seats put up a stronger argument against the gov ernment than would nine, not always-persuasive full ones.

The Governor outlined the future policy of the government, but in the main it was a run-through the five year development plan.

It gave the ministers a platform and the opportunity to give an account of their stewardship. In the

main they weren’t bad accounts, but it all added up to a dull meeting, with several amending measures passed. It was all over in two and a half days.

There was a little meat towards the end when Ratu Mara and the Attorney-General, Mr. Justin Lewis, warned “certain newspapers” about what Mr. Lewis called “open advo cacy of racial discrimination”.

There was a threat that such news papers might run into trouble, and Ratu Mara called racialism a malig nant growth which could not be con fined to one race.

“It is a consuming and eroding dis ease which, if allowed to grow, would rot away the whole fabric of our body politic, including those who first planted the germ,” Ratu Mara said.

Racialism is what?

The Federation Party’s propagand ists refused to be cowed, and their reply to the charge of racialism, con tained in their English-language weekly, was “For what is racial, and what is not, or what is racism and what is not, is purely a matter of opinion”. And then the paper pro ceeded to publish the usual unsigned articles and letters.

What of the by-elections which will follow with the forfeiture of the Opposition’s seats?

The Federation Party are con fident they will win their seats again, and it’s not a wager a bookmaker would take on.

The Alliance Party will probably fight for all nine seats, and perhaps —they hope—win two.

Mr. A. D. Patel. The walkout is final.