The new administration in Fiji has dismissed the police commissioner and hinted at the end of a contentious policing arrangement with China. In December of last year, a coalition of parties narrowly elected to install Sitiveni Rabuka as prime minister, marking the first change in administration in the Pacific island nation in 16 years. The reign of former military leader Frank Bainimarama was overthrown as a result of his electoral win.
The Constitutional Offices Commission recommended that the Commissioner of Police, Brigadier General Sitiveni Qiliho, be placed on administrative leave “waiting investigation and referral to and establishment of a tribunal,” as stated in a presidential statement released on Friday.
In addition, the announcement revealed that the commission had suspended Mohammed Saneem, the elections supervisor. One may assume that Qiliho and Bainimarama were close. Earlier this month, Fiji’s military head Major-General Jone Kalouniwai voiced concerns about the “ambition and pace” of Rabuka’s government’s reform efforts, citing the country’s history of military coups. The island has assumed greater significance as China and the United States jockey for position in the region. It was reported on Thursday by the Fiji Times that Rabuka’s administration had decided to discontinue an arrangement with China that had allowed for police training and exchange. For further defence cooperation, Fiji and Australia reached an agreement in October. On Thursday, Rabuka was quoted as stating, “We will go back to countries that have comparable systems with us,” alluding to Australia and New Zealand. “Our system of democracy and judicial systems are different,” he said. A message sent with the prime minister’s office went unanswered.
Kalouniwai has been quite clear that Rabuka’s government must follow the constitution that was passed in 2013 that grants the military a prominent role.
After staging a military coup in 1987, Rabuka first gained political notoriety by asserting that the descendants of ethnic Indian migrants were taking over Fiji. In order to remove the government he had put in place, he orchestrated a second coup the same year. Although he had handed up authority to an interim government, he continued to serve as army chief of staff and minister of interior.
