People's Alliance Party Leader, Sitiveni Rabuka says when the party has its first full executive meeting, he will submit a resolution of support for the USP and the resolution will also urge the Fijian Government to pay the funds it is withholding from the regional educational institute.
In a statement, Rabuka says the Government is doing this to coerce the university to accept Fiji’s views on issues relating to Vice-Chancellor Professor Pal Ahluwalia and some governance issues.
Rabuka also says the Fijian Government is obviously unable to accept regional decisions made by the USP Council and that is because they have a problem with democracy.
Rabuka adds the institution has brought many benefits to Fiji as its host country, and served the development needs of the region.
He further says the Pacific Islands Forum appears reluctant to congratulate USP on its new and historic world ranking as an institution of learning.
Rabuka says the USP has received many congratulatory statements from Fiji, the region and further abroad but the Pacific Islands Forum Chair and head office in Suva are conspicuous by their silence adding that this is shameful.
Rabuka says it is a slap in the face for students and staff at the USP.
He says Fiji’s Prime Minister, Voreqe Bainimarama, as Chair of the Forum, has a duty to the region to ensure that the PIF, as a body, gives credit where credit is due.
Rabuka adds Bainimarama should rise above his own Government’s petty dispute with the USP and Bainimarama must surely know that the USP has wide and well-deserved support in our region.
Rabuka also says he notes that there had been comment about the precise significance of the USP earning a first-time rating from the prestigious Times Higher Education University rankings
However Rabuka says Phil Baty of Times Higher Education, who had raised this issue, had affirmed that the USP’s rating achievement was nonetheless “fantastic”.
He says he would recommend to Bainimarama that he should carefully and personally peruse the ministerial statement on the USP in the Nauru Parliament this week by Nauru President Lionel Aingimea.
Rabuka further says Attorney General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, who has a leading role in Fiji’s ill-conceived dispute with the USP, would also do well to study it.
