Bainimarama kick-starts new Pacific Islands Development Forum, with Fiji funding [1]
Friday, August 9, 2013 - 17:40. Updated on Monday, September 9, 2013 - 18:40.
Fiji’s Prime Minister, Commodore Josaia Ovrequ Bainimarama, this week told Pacific Islands leaders at the Sheraton Fiji Resort that he believed that ordinary people had been excluded from the decision-making process in regional government.
In hosting the inaugural meeting of a new "Pacific Islands Development Forum" from August 5-7, Bainimarama - the 2006 coup leader who closed down the Qarase parliament and made himself Prime Minister - said a new regional body was needed because he believed the Pacific Islands Forum was “dominated by a few”.
The new forum will be funded initially by Fiji, Bainimarama stated.
The three-days meeting under the slogan – "Leadership, Innovation and Partnership for Green-Blue Pacific economies" was attended by representatives and observers from 25 overseas countries, including special envoys from China, Russia, Chile and Cuba, and government ministers from the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Qatar.
Tonga was represented by the Minister of Internal Affairs, Lord Vaea.
Cdre Bainimarama believed that participants were right behind him, when he asked them: "Why do we need a new body, a new framework of cooperation?"
His answer was, "Because the existing regional structure for the past four decades – the Pacific Islands Forum – is for governments only and has also come to be dominated only by a few. In too many instances, it no longer genuinely represents our interests and needs."
In his opening speech on Monday, Bainimarama declared, "Until now, ladies and gentlemen, sovereign governments have largely determined how the Pacific will respond to its many challenges. The small island territories, dependencies and protectorates haven't had a direct say. And neither have civil society groups and businesses. The people most affected by government decisions – the grassroots and their representatives – have largely been excluded from the decision-making process.
"Not any longer….The PIDF [Pacific Islands Development Forum] recognizes that Governments don't have all the answers.
"So for the first time, we are bringing all these stakeholders together to discuss common solutions to our common problems in a practical and holistic way," he said.
At the closure of the three-days Pacific Islands Development Forum on 7 August, Bainimarama announced that he had agreed to formally establish a Secretariat of the Pacific Islands Development Forum, and he was also "… equally delighted to say that Fiji offered to host the Secretariat and that offer has been accepted."
He said that a working group, comprising of all stakeholders, governments, civil society groups and businesses will be set up to map out the way forward
Suspended
Fiji was suspended from the Pacific Islands Forum on January 27, 2009, after Bainimarama staged a coup in December 2006 and ousted from office Fiji's elected Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase, then closed down parliament and made himself Prime Minister.
Fiji was also suspended from the Commonwealth of Nations in September 2009.
At present Bainimarama is Fiji’s Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, and responsible for Strategic Planning, National Development and Statistics, Public Service, Peoples Charter for Change and Progress, Information, i-Taukei Affairs, Provincial Development, Sugar Industry, and Lands and Mineral Resources.
Fiji is scheduled to hold a general election next year 2014, for the first time since the coup of 2006, and Bainimarama will be a candidate for election.