‘Our National Security Structures Have Been Found Wanting’: Fiji Chief Slams State Response To Drug Crisis

Margot
Staunton RNZ Pacific senior journalist

A Fiji high
chief Ratu Tevita Mara has warned the government that time
is nearly up for it to deal with the country’s drug
crisis.

“The window to act on Fiji’s drug crisis is
closing,” Ratu Tevita said, in yet another salvo fired at
the coalition government, as the general election
looms.

Ratu Tevita, the son of Fiji’s first prime
minister and president Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, said Fiji
could be breeding a new generation of drug dealers and it
was time the National Security Council acted
urgently.

The former military officer, who is the
traditional head of the Lau Province, made the comments
after more than 60 parcels containing “white substances”
washed up in various locations across Fiji.

Police
said 27 parcels were discovered in the Lau group, and were
being tested at a forensics lab in Suva. Another 35 parcels
were found floating along Munia Island, while cocaine was
found in Kadavu Island.

Ratu Tevita said the surge in
narcotics washing up across the Lau group and other maritime
provinces was escalating fast, and the timing was hard to
ignore.

“The drugs washing ashore on our villages and
populated coastlines do not arrive by accident,” he
said.

“This is beginning to look like a
well-orchestrated plan and our people are left defenceless
while Suva holds yet another forum,” he said, alluding to
the recent National Drug Security Forum held at the Grand
Pacific Hotel in the capital.

The Fijian government’s
information director Samisoni Pareti did not respond to RNZ
Pacific’s questions.

“If a package of drugs meant for
Australia ends up on a Fijian beach, what do the people of
our maritime provinces actually gain from our security pact
with Australia under the Vuvale Partnership?”

The
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra did not
respond to questions.

The Vuvale Partnership is a
comprehensive bilateral agreement between Australian and
Fiji. In March, Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka announced the
two countries were working
to upgrade the framework into a new treaty, which would
help Fiji tackle regional challenges, including
transnational organised crime and illicit drug
networks.

Rabuka’s coalition government is treating
the escalating drug crisis as a top national security
priority, warning the issue threatens the indigenous way of
life.

Intravenous drug use, particularly through
highly dangerous practices
like needle sharing, is also the main driver behind
Fiji’s rapid
rise in HIV infections.

Health minister Atonio
Lalabalavu said the government had been proactive about
trying to get the HIV crisis under control, unlike the
previous administration under Frank
Bainimarama.

Warning of ‘new generation of drug
dealers’

Ratu Tevita said Fiji carried the risk while
other countries reaped the rewards.

“I am issuing a
direct warning: if the government continues to neglect our
communities in the face of this crisis, the day will come
when our own youth realise the true worth of these finds.
Through that gross negligence, we will have bred an entirely
new generation of drug dealers,” Ratu Tevita said.

“No
forum will keep drugs off the beaches of our islands in Lau
– only practical, funded, community-led action
will.

“We are seafarers. We know our seas and our
weather like the back of our hands. Empower us to use that
knowledge.

“The drug crisis was above all, a national
security issue and the National Security Council needs to
meet urgently and agree on an immediate response. Our
national security structures and systems have been tested
severely and found wanting.”

Fiji Police Force
spokesperson Ana Naisoro declined to comment, saying that
Ratu Tevita “didn’t specifically refer to police” in his
comments.

A spokesperson for the Republic of Fiji
Military Forces, Lieutenant Colonel Dr Eroni Duaibe, did not
respond to RNZ Pacific’s questions as well.

“The
growing regularity of these wash-ups is a direct challenge
and threat to our joint security operations against
drugs.”

The drug crisis demanded a whole-of society
response, he added.

“The government must restore the
necessary regulations and provide the tools and resources;
traditional leaders must be empowered to act. Every layer of
our society has a role – but only if the government steps
back from the podium and into genuine partnership with the
Vanua,” he said.

“We do not need more navy bases or
police patrol boats. We need traditional guardians who are
resourced, backed by law, and trusted to act.

Ratu
Tevita is asking the government to:

• Restore the
  customary and village by-laws removed by the previous
  government. He claims their removal has left a dangerous
  vacuum, and it must be filled without delay – through proper
  parliamentary process if necessary.
• Equip and
  support communities on the ground – the gear, the
  constabulary support, and drug test kits so that finds can
  be verified at once and dealt with without delay, before
  anything disappears into the wrong hands.
• Redirect
  the money spent on endless conferences straight to our
  coastal communities who are carrying this burden. He claims
  the forum on drugs is one more exercise in institutional
  self-congratulation while Fiji’s beaches are
  contaminated.
• Ban unregistered and uninspected
  yachts and foreign vessels from our maritime zones – an
  immediate and non-negotiable measure.

Earlier
this month, Ratu Tevita blasted
a forum on the state of the Fijian economy held in Suva,
labelling it as a “talkfest”.

The two-day event was
organised by Dialogue Fiji, a civil society organisation
focusing on creating a national space for meaningful
discussions on Fiji’s economic situation.

The forum
was “timely”, especially as it was held ahead of the
national budget announcement this week, Dialogue Fiji’s CEO
Nilesh Lal told reporters.

In April, he
weighed in on the debate on a common national identity for
Fijians.

He spoke out after the Great Council of
Chiefs (GCC) – the institution that represents culture,
identity and heritage of the iTaukei people – proposed to
reserve the term ‘Fijian’ exclusively for indigenous
Fijians.

Ratu Tevita, who is a member of the GCC, said
at the time that ethnic diversity made Fiji unique and
should be protected.

“Common identity in Fiji is one
that touches the very soul of our nation and it deserves
honest, respectful, and consultative resolution. We owe that
much to each and every one who calls Fiji home,” he
said.

Fiji’s first indo-Fijian prime minister,
Mahendra Chaudhry, who still leads the Labour Party, had
called the idea “racially divisive” while civil society
organisations said it undermined equality and democratic
principles.

In February, Ratu Tevita said Fijians
needed to decide their own future rather than looking
backwards at the colonial era under the British
Monarchy.

Ratu Tevita, who received
his father’s traditional titles of Turaga Tui Nayau,
Sau Ni Vanua Ko Lau and Tui Lau in July last
year, had previously been reticent to comment on national
politics.

However, he made the comments after Prime
Minister Sitiveni Rabuka revealed that King Charles III had
invited the GCC to Britain for “a session on constitutional
matters”.

Ratu Tevita fled to Tonga in 2011 and went
into exile after the then Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama
sought to arrest him and charge him with treason.

The
Tongan royal family sheltered him in their Nuku’alofa
palace, where he worked as an advisor to King Tupou
VI.

The Bainimarama administration banned him from
re-entering Fiji – something that only became possible after
Rabuka’s government came into power in December
2022.

He returned to Fiji in 2023 and now
there are predictions that he could well enter politics
and become prime minister in the future.

However, Ratu
Tevita has not publicly declared any official intention to
enter Fijian party
politics.

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