Faith in Govt Restored But Backlash For ‘Misogynist’ Decision

The dismissal of Lynda Tabuya as the Minister for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation has renewed faith in the Coalition Government, while garnering backlash from others on social media who viewed the termination as ‘harsh’ and ‘misogynist’.

One commentator called out the Government’s failure to address the issue of Technology Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TFGBV) and speaking out against the perpe-trator – in this case, the individual who leaked the video.

Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka finally gave in to mounting public pressure to remove Ms Tabuya one day after Christmas after a nude video of Ms Tabuya dancing surfaced and was widely shared on e-mail and social media.

Mr Rabuka released a statement highlighting that Ms Tabuya had failed to uphold her oath, and the standards expected of a govern-ment minister. However, she re-mains a Member of Parliament.

“This is not a decision I have taken lightly, but one that is necessary in the best interest of the people that we serve,” he said in his statement on the Fiji Government Facebook page.

And rightly so. Potential inaction by Mr Rabuka would have spelled further erosion of public trust in the Coalition.

Ms Tabuya is notorious for going against the rule book, even if it was defying Cabinet and the Prime Minister.

Last year, Ms Tabuya was report-edly caught in a sex and drug escapade that only surfaced on social media after screenshots of Viber messages that also contained her nude photos allegedly shared between her and her fellow MP, Aseri Radrodro, were leaked and widely shared on social media.

Ms Tabuya had strongly denounced the allegations of drugs and sex scandal and labelled the nude photos as AI-generated.

This year, without the Cabinet’s knowledge, she publicly proposed the reintroduction of the death pen-alty for those engaged in the traf-ficking of hard illicit drugs, which received a lot of criticism from the public.

It did not stop there. Ms Tabuya was also caught in a war of words with the Minister for Finance, Bi-man Prasad, after her savage attack on Mr Prasad.

She even pushed for a salary increase for Members of Parliament and the President, contradicting her former responsibility to put the welfare of women, children and the vulnerable first.

And whether someone was pulling the strings is still unknown.

In all these incidents, Mr Rabuka had saved her from being shamed and crucified publicly, always ready to downplay any controversies sur-rounding Ms Tabuya.

Shortly after the statement of her dismissal, Ms Tabuya posted on her personal Facebook page “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Keep going Fiji, happy Boxing Day.”

The post was deleted a few minutes later, but had attracted over a hundred reactions, comments and shares, with sympathies and encouragement flooding the comments section.

Former parliamentarian Adi Sivia Qoro said political leadership, irrespective of a man or woman, should be marked with integrity, honesty, and just sheer plain hard work.

Adi Sivia and Ms Tabuya contested the 2014 General Election un-der the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) banner but were unsuccess-ful because the party failed to meet the 5 per cent threshold.
Adi Sivia is now a member of the Unity Fiji Party.

“…knowing that the [ministerial] position is not self-serving, but one is there to serve the public and to demonstrate tangible results,” she said.

Adi Sivia had strongly condemned the conduct of Ms Tabuya and voiced her frustrations over Ms Tabuya’s tactic to pull out the vic-tim card when caught in a scandal.

“To play the victim in this situation is pathetic and downright insulting to any right-thinking person and to our intelligence, let alone women,” she said.

“She is paid by taxpayers’ money, holding a public office and she is expected to uphold high standards of conduct and ethics to maintain public trust in the Government.

“Also, in holding a public office, she should expect that her private life will be scrutinized by the public and she is expected to conduct herself with professional integrity and to uphold standards of public morality.”

NUDE VIDEO
Responding to the media earlier this week, Ms Tabuya admitted the existence of a nude video that was widely circulated on social media. She mentioned the video was a private message intended for her husband, Rob Seamaan.

An inquiry conducted by the Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption on April 2024 found that Ms Tabuya and Mr Seamaan’s marriage was formally and legally dissolved since December 2016.

For a video to be leaked, the phones used to record and receive the original video would have to be stolen, hacked or both the sender and receiver re-shared the video outside of their private Viber chat.

It is understood that the Criminal Investigation Department Cyber Crime Unit has begun its investigation into the leaked video.

CIRCULATED VIDEO:
– Ms Tabuya is the woman featured in the nude video;
– The video was sent on the Viber messaging app;
– The video was sent by ‘Harlequinn’;
– The person ‘Harlequinn’ had sent the video message too had recorded the video message on another mobile phone because ‘disappearing messages’ on the Viber messaging app cannot be downloaded; also, the device used to record the video message had its camera flash turned on;
– Viber has the option of ‘disappearing messages’, which the sender or the receiver can activate up to 10 seconds, one minute, one hour, or one day, when privately messaging so the messages can be automatically deleted after viewing;
– In the case of the nude video, the ‘disappearing messages’ option was activated to one minute;
– The nude vide was less than a minute long because Ms Tabuya is seen repeating her dance before the message was set to be automatically deleted;
– The receiver had viewed the video using a mobile phone; and-  The message was sent at 10:33pm, with a football match being played by Manchester United sounding in the background.

QUESTIONABLE DECISION
While the majority do not condone Ms Tabuya’s leaked nude video, many have questioned the motive behind the leaking of the video and the decision made to dismiss Ms Tabuya.

Roshika Deo, a former independent candidate in the 2014 General Election, called out the decision by the Prime Minister, labelling it as a “violent misogynist patriarchy on display”.

She wrote on her Facebook page:

I don’t like Lynda’s policies nor her values or vision but this here is wrong.
– Pitting women against women.
– Punishing a victim of TVGBV instead of speaking out against the perpetrator.
– Holding women to a different standard to men- violent domestic violence perpetrators as Ministers, racist misogynist men as MP/CJ etc etc. A PM with blood of minority ethnic people on his hands deciding what is ‘moral’ or not
– So called feminist and women’s activists shaming and victim blaming women and girls because they can’t differentiate between principles vs personalities and people they don’t like. They create an environment making it more hostile for women/girls and enabling for revenge porn (shame!)
– Perpetuating an environment where women leaders are only acceptable if they conform to what patriarchy dictates as a ‘good woman’. Authenticity is rejected and punished. Unless of course if you are a man then it’s celebrated.
– Advocates against Technology Facilitated Gender-Based Violence failing in their advocacy and showing the sexist and incompetent hypocritices they are! Because Lynda doesn’t fit their view of what a victim should look or behave like.

POLITICAL PASSION
Ms Tabuya is a strong advocate of a porn-free Fiji and for children.

She is part of the Anti-pornography Taskforce that was approved and established earlier this year by Cabinet to look at the root causes and gather evidence on the impact of pornography in Fiji.

In her interview with Letitia Shelton on Fiji Free From Porn on March 11, 2021, Ms Tabuya stated that no one was raising awareness on this pertinent issue in Fiji.

“I feel responsible as a parent, as a national leader here in my country to protect my children because the Government is not doing anything,” she said at the time.

Ms Tabuya is a seasoned lawyer and politician.

As a lawyer she understands that justice, moral and integrity go hand in hand.

She understands the gravity of any action that may jeopardise an individual’s social standing.

POLITICAL TRAIL
Ms Tabuya is not new to politics.

She joined PDP, where she was elected party president in 2014 and contested the general election in the same year, but was unsuccessful.

She was later elected party leader in 2017 replacing Adi Sivia.

In the lead up to the 2018 General Election, PDP merged with the Social Democratic Liberal Party (SODELPA), which was under the leadership of Mr Rabuka.

Ms Tabuya contested the 2018 election under the SODELPA banner and subsequently resigned from PDP.

She ranked the second highest in SODELPA with 5925 votes. Mr Rabuka had 54,295 votes.

In the 2022 general election, under the People’s Alliance Party (PAP), Ms Tabuya was ranked second to Mr Rabuka with 11,965 votes.

Perhaps, her position in the party with her number of votes and the financial backing she has is what keeps her in Government.

However, for the second time, she faces the PAP’s disciplinary committee to determine the gravity of the offense and whether it warrants her being axed from the party.

One thing is certain, a benchmark has now been set.

The conduct of every parliamentarian should be subject to the same level of public scrutiny, which is necessary for the effective functioning of democracy.

Feedback: ivamere.nataro@fijisun.com.fj