FIJI – Sitiveni Rabuka has the political acumen to put up a good challenge to Fiji’s prime minister Frank Bainimarama at the next election, according to a Fijian academic.

Steven Ratuva, who is the director of the MacMillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies at New Zealand’s Canterbury University, said the newly-elected leader of Fiji’s main opposition party has evolved from a coup leader into a very smart politician.

Rabuka, as a colonel in Fiji’s military, led the 1987 coup and later served as prime minister from 1992 to 1999.

On Friday, Fiji’s main opposition party Sodelpa elected him to lead the party in the run up to the next election in 2018.

Professor Ratuva said if the party wanted a chance of upsetting the Bainimarama government in 2018 it would have to look at its strategies.

“Rabuka has the experience and also has the mindset to be able to do that and to counter Bainimarama,” said Professor Ratuva.

“Remember these are both former military officers and they are able to read each other’s minds and they would strategise in relation to what the other is doing. So it will be a very interesting tussle between them.”

Sodelpa rose out of the ashes of the SDL party led by Laisenia Qarase who was ousted in a coup led by Frank Bainimarama in 2006.

Professor Ratuva said Rabuka’s past as the 1987 coup leader still haunts him but it could be seen as both a strength and a weakness as he takes on the reigns of Sodelpa.

“One can argue that perhaps Sodelpa has lost the moral high ground but you know, at the end of the day, almost every politician has been tainted in some way either by the 1987 coup, the 2000 coup, the 2006 coup and I don’t think anyone is actually clean.”

Professor Ratuva said a lot of people in the community, within civil society, were ready to move on from the continuous tension in Fiji and accepting Rabuka’s apologies, of which there have been many, could be a reconciliation of sorts for the country.

Professor Ratuva said Rabuka might also be able to generate support from other ethnic groups and forge an alliance with the National Federation Party, like he did in 1999, which would ring alarm bells for Bainimarama’s Fiji First bloc.

“His own political position has changed from i-Taukeism to multi-racialism and in 1999 when he stood for the election that was his platform – so in a way in terms of their political and ethnic positions, he’s really no different from Bainimarama now.

“They both believe in multi-racialism and they both believe in bringing all the ethnic groups together.”

In the 2014 election, Fiji First’s backing came in large part from Indo-Fijians and a split indigenous vote.

“That’s one of the weaknesses of Sodelpa in the last election. They were not able to go across the ethnic divide and generate votes from the other ethnic votes. Most of their votes were from i-Taukei,” said Professor Ratuva.

The outgoing Sodelpa leader, Ro Teimumu Kepa, has said she did not want Rabuka to be appointed because of his coup past.

“For me I have said right from the beginning, I do not support anyone to do with the coup.

“So personally my support for the party is intact, but can I just state here that I am also leaving my options open for any future ideas in moving forward.”

Rabuka’s appointment has also prompted some high profile Sodelpa members to leave the group.

Former Sodelpa youth wing president Peter Waqavonovono said Rabuka’s selection would cause “mass resignation” of members from the party, including the resignation of many young people.

He said having Rabuka as the party leader was “disgusting” and party’s management board decision was “a blow to our democracy”.

But Rabuka said a lot of time has passed and most people were not seeing him through negative eyes because of his actions during the coups– which he again apologised for last week.

“My selection tells me that there are people who remember my performance as Prime Minister. Those who are still in dissent remember my performance as a coup leader,” he said.

“To come out and win the majority of party support means that views are changing. Those that negatively see me because of the 1987 coup are probably now a minority.”

Rabuka is insisting his party was not split.

He said his focus would be on healing, consolidating existing support and widening the party’s base through a grassroots, multicultural approach.

Rabuka said he accepted Waqavonovono’s views and that it was sad that some other members of the youth wing would move away from the party.

“So if the youths now pull away, then perhaps there is no future for Sodelpa,” he said.

“They have a choice of remaining out there in the wilderness or joining another party.”

The leader of Fiji’s National Federation Party, one of two parties in the parliamentary opposition grouping, says he respects the leadership choice by the larger opposition party Sodelpa.

Biman Prasad, said his party looked forward to a continued partnership with Sodelpa and stressed the need for unity.

- PNC sources