stampede?

political currents

Fiji’S Nfp Still Upset

Will Irene lead a stampede?

Speculation is buzzing in Fiji that numbers of Na tional Federation Party politicians are close to defecting to the newly-formed, multi-racial Labour Party, among them the former deputy leader of the NFP, Mrs Irene Jai Narayan.

She, and others sympathetic to the rebel “Youth Wing” of the party, are openly and stern ly critical of the present leader, Mr Siddiq Koya, who sacked Mrs Narayan from her long time position as deputy leader.

Significantly, this row has developed at a time when the trade union movement has en tered parliamentary politics by founding the Labour Party with a group of national figures quite likely to find favor among many of the NFP’s erstwhile adhe rents or, to put it with possibly greater accuracy - NFP voters who support Mrs Narayan rather than Mr Koya, and they appear to exist in substantial numbers.

There was “nothing wrong” with the formation of the Labour Party, Mrs Narayan told the recent convention in Lauto ka of the Youth Movement of the NFP.

Although Fiji Indian politics are notorious for passionate rhetoric and frequent refusal to recognise facts, the row within the NFP this time has all the earmarks of a major crisis. No love has ever been lost between the shrewd and sharp Mrs Narayan and the autocratic Mr Koya. Now there is open guer rilla warfare.

A good deal of the ire emerged during Mrs Narayan’s bitterly-critical speech to the Youth Movement convention.

She seemed to be saying that the Koya-led NFP had a death rattle.

“If anyone thinks the NFP can be strong again, then that person is fooling himself,” she said.

“It has no future and is no longer virile as an opposition.

An opposition party is sup posed to question the govern ment and keep it on its toes, but that is not the case here,” she said. She accused Mr Koya of having compromised himself to the point that he could not cross swords with the prime minister, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara. “Mr Koya and the Prime Minister meet in the Scotts Restaurant in Suva and that is where the future of the country is discus sed,” she said.

When a party remained in power for a long time it formed the view that it was fire-proof, she said. “The Alliance govern ment is acting in that fashion now.

“The recent crime commis sion report pointed out that the police force should be in creased to combat the increas ing crime in Fiji, but the govern ment says it does not have the money. Yet the prime minister can make numerous overseas trips, taking 12 or more in his group each time.”

She complained, too, about government policy which gave 50 per cent of scholarships at the University of the South Pacific to Fijians while the re maining half had to be shared among the more numerous sec-

tor of the population made up of Indians, Chinese, Part-Euro peans and others. Debate on such topics was stifled in parlia

ment, she said.

Staff Writer.

Mrs. Irene Narayan