Bulitavu Is Digging His Own Grave, SODELPA Needs To Take Action Now
Editorial:
Five thousand three hundred and forty-two Fijians from all over the country had voted for Mosese Bulitavu in the 2018 general elections. They were men, women, young and old.
They and all Fijians have been let down by Mr Bulitavu’s way of thinking. He put out despicable statements about women and about the Indo-Fijian community. Where does he get the courage to speak out in this manner? Is it from the Social Democratic Liberal Party (SODELPA) hierarchy?
In his response to this newspaper, Mr Bulitavu continued to use the term vulagi (foreigner). This term was used by their outgoing President Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu when referring to political parties, the National Federation Party and Fiji Labour Party.
The inability of the NFP and its leadership through Biman Prasad to condemn previous racist and sexist statement uttered encourages the emergence of such blatant expressions of deep seated racism and prejudice.
In fact, Mr Prasad was quick to defend the wife of a SODELPA MP who is an academic when she had told a student to “stop barking like an Indian dog.”
Where are the women’s organisations? Where are the so-called defenders of the down trodden? Silence from their side has been rather deafening.
Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama was the first leader to publicly condemn Mr Bulitavu. Not too long ago, we had run an article about FijiFirst’s lone fight against racism. Mr Bainimarama did not think twice before condemning such despicable views from an elected Member of Parliament. Had he been a FijiFirst MP, there is no doubt he would have been shown the door. Will SODELPA do the same? No way. They will never discipline Mr Bulitavu for such outrageous comments.
By now, they would be looking at ways of doing damage control.
All groups need to rally today and ask that Mr Bulitavu be removed from Parliament and from SODELPA. But, doing so will mean SODELPA showing some real leadership and political will to correct this.
The time is gone for SODELPA to make excuses or sweep this under the carpet. They need to act. They need to hold Mr Bulitavu accountable and expel him from the Party. Fiji is watching and this will not be forgotten.
Feedback: jyotip@fijisun.com.fj
