By RNZ.co.nz and is republished with permission.
The health situation of the country’s leaders should not be a state secret, said former Fijian prime minister Sitiveni Rabuka.
He said the Government’s silence over Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama’s condition is deafening.
Sitiveni Rabuka and Frank Bainimarama. Photo: AFP / RNZ Pacific
On 4 February, Acting Prime Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum told a media conference that Bainimarama needed “time to recuperate” after undergoing heart surgery in Melbourne early last month.
There has been no further update from the government and Sayed-Khaiyum has rejected rumours that Bainimarama’s health has deteriorated after his medical procedure.
Rabuka said all speculation about Bainimarama “must be laid squarely at the feet of Sayed-Khaiyum for his misconceived policy of trying to stay silent”.
The Government, Rabuka added, was paid by the Fijian people and therefore answerable to the people.
Rabuka also questioned why Sayed-Khaiyum, who is also Fiji’s Attorney-General, had not disclosed details about his own medical check-up in Singapore recently.
In a democracy, regular updates were released when a prime minister was ill and required hospital treatment, Rabuka said.
National Federation Party leader Biman Prasad agreed.
Fijians have a right to know what’s happened to their leader, Prasad said.
“We have the right to ask questions. In any decent democracy – if the prime minister is going abroad, the honourable thing for the government to do is to inform the people.
“If he’s not around and people are asking questions, then it’s incumbent upon the government to say where he is and why he’s not seen around,” the NFP leader said.
Sayed-Khaiyum was approached for comment.
The last time Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama was seen in public – at a funeral on 5 January. Photo: Facebook / Fijian Affairs Board
