FIJI – A former senior member of the Fiji government Pio Tikoduadua – who this week announced he is joining an opposition party – says he had concerns about the Fiji First Party’s direction before the landmark elections in 2014.

Tikoduadua headed the Prime Minister’s Office during military rule from 2008 and became a minister in the Fiji First government when Frank Bainimarama won power in a landslide victory.

The former lieutenant-colonel announced at the weekend he was joining the opposition National Federation Party (NFP), complaining of a climate of fear and intolerance of dissent within the governing party which he left after eight months in power, citing health reasons.

In an interview with RNZ International this week Tikoduadua said the Fiji First government was veering off on the wrong course and the NFP better represented what he stands for.

He indicated the switch was not a sudden change of mindset, pointing to how he had raised many issues while on the government side, including the controversial rewriting of the 2013 draft constitution.

“Matters that were perhaps in principle close to me and wanted to see go forward perhaps were not really given 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.”

On the abrogation of the 1997 constitution when he was permanent secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister, Tikoduadua was succinct.

“I was in the government so my involvement in that decree is without doubt.”

He said time would tell if he had any regrets about the abrogation which came after a court ruled the interim government, formed after the 2006 coup, illegal.

“There are certainly things that are worse. The 1997 constitution 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 was abrogated and there was a constitution that was put together after that and that’s what we are living with now.”

Tikoduadua said he realised the NFP aligned with his principles and ideas on nation-building over discussions in the lead up to the 2014 election with the party’s leader, Biman Prasad.

But he said his decision to run as a candidate in 2014 under the Fiji First banner was a “natural” thing to do.

“Because we were coming off the back of a government and we were transitioning a military-backed government into a parliamentary democracy. It was a process we arrived at and that would need my input and support.”

“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.”

The NFP leader Biman Prasad admitted their new member was a feather in the NFP’s cap, given his significant past role.

He dismissed criticism the party was going against its principles.

“NFP has never supported a coup, will never support a coup but will welcome people who share the principles and long-held values of democracy, freedom, justice, human rights for all.

“Tikoduadua was in Australia when the coup happened. He remained a civil servant and he only got into government after being elected in 2014.”

He described Tikoduadua’s views during discussions at UN talks in the lead-up to the 2014 elections as progressive.

“I know his unhappiness at the discarding of the Yash Ghai constitution which was going to become a consensus constitution.”

Tikoduadua, meanwhile, said the Fiji First government had achieved a lot of good things.

But he said he had many reservations.

Although he had been Frank Bainimarama’s right hand man, he said he had not spoken to him since the day he left government.

In an interview with the Fiji Times, Tikoduadua said he was not an opportunist. He said he can not continue to take the back seat in national affairs.

He had no interest in power and it took him two years to come out and make his reason for resignation public because he needed time.

“I am not opportunist,” he said. “I have absolutely no interest in power and the thing is I want to make a contribution and that is something that has emanated after two years of my staying in my village, I just could not stand to take the back seat.”

Responding to queries on his two year silence since his resignation from the government party which at the time was said to be based on medical grounds.

“And I need to get this off my chest. Because there is no doubt about me being sick, and I am still sick. I am taking a lot of medication.

“But it needs to come off my chest so it frees me, I am free.

“That’s why it is coming now and in my current state I want to make a contribution and I cannot make a contribution for the future, unless I, first of all, acknowledge that gap, particularly in my life.”

Tikoduadua said he felt free now and was ready to engage constructively in political activities.

At a press conference on Saturday, the new NFP member claimed that apart from his health condition, another factor that led to his resignation was a disagreement he had with Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama.

Tikoduadua said loyalty must be given to a leader but it must also be returned.

Bainimarama has brushed aside claims made by Mr Tikoduadua, saying his comments were “irrelevant”.

Prasad said Tikoduadua still had to go through the party’s candidacy selection process but he said if he was successful he would have a significant role to play.

- RNZ/Fiji Times/PNC