Your talk, Vore – soooo cheap and rings hollow

Commit to election first, says Clark   2 Oct 2008 FIJI SUN

There are obvious signs of willingness among political leaders in Fiji to commit to the implementation of an agreed framework for further reform and national reconciliation after an election, says New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark. She said it was only then, when Pacific Island Forum leaders would guarantee their support for the country and would even be guarantors for the full implementation of any reforms and nation building. It was for this reason that the Forum leaders tasked the ministerial contact group to monitor the progress of the political leaders’ forum and any consensus that might arise from it. She said the forum was concerned about the situation in Fiji and was doing all it could to assist it on the pathway back to democratic rule as soon as possible. “That is why Forum Leaders proposed that the Ministerial Contact Group visit Fiji again before the end of 2008 to prepare a report for a possible Special Leaders Meeting in PNG before the end of the year on the situation in Fiji. This Special Meeting need not be about further measures against Fiji, such as suspension from the Forum. If the major actors in Fiji seize the opportunity identified in the Niue Forum Communiqué, the Special Leaders Meeting could be about how best the Forum can support a return to constitutional governance and democratic politics in Fiji,” she said.Interim Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama did not attend the Forum leaders’ meeting in Niue in August and this copped a lot of criticism from Forum member countries. This also resulted in insistence from the Forum that the promise made at the leaders’ meeting in Tonga is honoured, and that elections are held by March, next year.