All the best wishes to Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi. I am sure he will do a great job.
Fiji names new VP
AUCKLAND: Fiji’s President and indigenous chiefs yesterday named a former High Court judge untainted by the 2000 coup as the nation’s new vice-president. He replaces a chief who had been jailed for backing the failed racially-inspired takeover.
The appointment of South Australian-educated Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi was endorsed by the Great Council of Chiefs. And it was later praised by Opposition Leader Mahendra Chaudhry who was ousted in the coup at gunpoint.
Mr Madraiwiwi, who is also a chief, has long advocated harmony between indigenous Fijians and ethnic Indians. He will to serve out the two years remaining in the term of his disgraced predecessor Ratu Jope Seniloli.
Mr Seniloli resigned the vice presidency late last month after he was freed from prison earlier on health grounds. He had been jailed for supporting the coup that overthrew an elected government headed by an ethnic Indian.
Yesterday’s decision ends weeks of speculation and controversy over the military’s role in the vice president’s selection.
President Ratu Josefa Iloilo announced Mr Madraiwiwi’s nomination to the chiefs yesterday morning and after consideration, they reportedly backed his selection unanimously.
Mr Madraiwiwi, a high chief, is a law graduate of the University of Adelaide and was admitted to the Supreme Court of South Australia in 1983. He has been a Fiji government adviser, industrial arbitrator and was a High Court judge from 1997 to October 2000, resigning for health reasons. He later had a kidney transplant.
A partner in a private law firm, he has been active in promoting human rights in Fiji and has supported having multi-racial governments of ethnic Indians and indigenous Fijians. Such governments were overthown in 1987 and 2000.
In September this year he criticised the coup in a lecture, saying it had undermined the rule of law in Fiji and was a “fearful time”.
Mr Chaudhry yesterday said Mr Madraiwiwi was an “excellent choice”.
“He is well liked and respected by people of all races in Fiji and he certainly will bring dignity and decorum to the high office of the vice president,” Mr Chaudhry said.
“He’d be an ideal person to succeed the president when the time comes.” Mr Chaudhry, who as prime minister was forced from office by the 2000 coup, defended the army making itself heard during the selection process. “The concern of the military was genuine. It was also a concern of this country that they wanted someone clean as vice president,” Mr Chaudhry
Mr Madraiwiwi was unavailable for comment yesterday.