The Conservative Alliance (Matanitu Vanua in Fijian) was a right-wing political party in Fiji, and a member of the ruling coalition government. It was commonly known as the CAMV, a combination of the initials of its English and Fijian names. At its annual general meeting on 17 February 2006, the party voted to dissolve itself and merge with its coalition partner, the Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua (SDL). The President of the party at the time of its dissolution was Ratu Tanoa Cakobau, a Bauan chief, while Ratu Josefa Dimuri served as General Secretary. For legal reasons, Parliamentary members of the disbanded party maintained a separate caucus in the House of Representatives, under the leadership of Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu, until the end of the parliamentary term, on 27 March 2006.
Party founding The Conservative Alliance was publicly launched at Furnival Park in Toorak, Suva, on 15 June 2001 by defectors who broke away from the Soqosoqo ni Vakavulewa ni Taukei, which had governed the country from 1992 to 1999, when it lost the general elections held that year. As part of its founding ideology, the party emphasized that the offices of President and Prime Minister should be reserved for indigenous Fijians, and that Christianity should be constitutionally established as the country's official religion. Among those attending the launch was the Rev. Tomasi Kanailagi, President of the Methodist Church. Ratu Epenisa Cakobau, a Kubuna chief, was appointed President of the party, with Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu of Tovata and Ro Alivereti Tuisawau of Burebasaga as the two Vice-Presidents, thus representing at the apex of the party the leading chiefly clans from the three confederacies to which all Fijian chiefs belong. Ratu Josefa Dimuri was appointed General Secretary of the party.
The 2001 election George Speight, who led the civilian coup d'état against the elected government of Mahendra Chaudhry in May 2000, joined the new party, as did many of his supporters. In the parliamentary election held to restore democracy in August 2001, the party fielded candidates in 36 of the 71 electorates. Six of their candidates were elected to the House of Representatives, including Speight. (Unable to take his seat due to his imprisonment on treason charges, Speight was subsequently expelled from Parliament for nonattendance, and his brother, Samisoni Tikoinasau, won the ensuing byelection to fill the vacancy).
To secure a legislative majority, the Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua (SDL) of Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase forged a coalition agreement with the Conservative Alliance. The party initially insisted on Speight's release from jail as the price of its participation in the government, but later dropped this demand. The then leader of the party, Ratu Rakuita Vakalalabure, was appointed Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, and two members of the caucus were appointed to the Cabinet. Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu became Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, and Isireli Leweniqila became Minister for Youth, Employment Opportunities, and sport. As part of a deal brokered between the military and the insurrectionists, Ratu Jope Seniloli, another party stalwart, had already been appointed Vice-President in September 2000, following the end of the rebellion.
Alleged FLP offer At the annual general meeting held to dissolve the party on 17 February 2006, coup-convict Simione Drole claimed that the Fiji Labour Party had made an offer to the CAMV after the 2001 election. All six CAMV parliamentarians, including coup frontsman George Speight, would be given Cabinet office; one of them would be offered the post of Prime Minister. All prisoners held on coup-related offences would also be freed in return for CAMV support, Fiji Live quoted Drole as saying. "This information was relayed to us on Nukulau by CAMV lawyer Kitione Vuataki," Drole told the meeting. He went on to claim that the CAMV had made the very difficult decision to refuse the offer; the prospect of freedom was tempting, he said, but the priority was to ensure that an ethnic Fijian government held office.
FLP leader Mahendra Chaudhry rejected Drole's claims as "utter lies." "Drole should have his head examined," he said.
Arrest of CAMV members In 2004, a number of high-profile members of the Conservative Alliance were arrested and charged with treason for their roles in the 2000 coup. On 6 August 2004, Vice-President Seniloli and Deputy Speaker Vakalalabure were convicted and sentenced to terms of four and six years' imprisonment respectively. Youth, Employment, and Sports Minister Leweniqila was acquitted; Justice Nazhat Shameem accepted his defence that he had been coerced into taking an illegal oath of office during the coup.
Anxious to retain the support of his coalition partner, and shore up his electoral base in the Bau-Tailevu region, in which Seniloli is an influential chief, Prime Minister Qarase said that he was "dismayed by the severity of the sentences" handed down. His government indicated, however, that it would not interfere with the due process of law. On 29 November 2004, however, Attorney General Qoriniasi Bale announced that the government had decided to parole Seniloli on health grounds, in return for his resignation.
A similar scenario unfolded in the trial of Ratu Lalabalavu, the party leader, and Senator Ratu Josefa Dimuri, also a party member. On 3 April 2005, Lalabalavu and Dimuri were convicted of unlawful assembly for their role aiding and abetting the 2000 coup by visiting rebels at the Sukanaivalu Barracks on 4 July that year, and were sentenced to eight months' imprisonment. They were released on parole after serving just eleven days of their sentences.
Opposition politicians charged that the release of Seniloli, Lalabalavu, and Dimuri was for political reasons, as the six votes of the Conservative Alliance are needed to maintain the government's parliamentary majority. The military also criticized their release. This led to a series of exchanged in April 2005, with the Conservative Alliance accusing the military of meddling in politics, and the military in turn charging that Alliance politicians included many who had "created havoc" in the 2000 coup. In a strongly worded statement on 25 April 2005, army spokesman Captain Neumi Leweni declared, "The RFMF would like to remind the CAMV that they were the very people who created the havoc from which the country is still trying to recover."
Trials of persons implicated in the 2000 coup, many of them Conservative Alliance members, are continuing.
Controversies, 2005-2006 A power struggle between the President and General Secretary of the party took place in September 2005. On 30 July 2005, Cakobau signed an agreement with four other parties to establish an electoral coalition of parties supported mostly by indigenous Fijians to contest the general election scheduled for 2006. Sivo opposed the decision, and said that Cakobau had acted without proper authority. Each subsequently called on the other to resign, and on 9 August, Cakobau said that he expected Sivo to be replaced by his predecessor, Ratu Josefa Dimuri. Sivo countered that he had no intention of relinquishing his position, and said that he could be only removed if the party judged him unfit for the post. He reiterated on 16 September that he would not stand aside for Dimuri. Responding to a letter that Cakobau had sent to Dimuri reinstating him, Sivo said that Cakobau had no such powers. He accused him of taking advantage of the famous Cakobau name to make unilateral decisions that were beyond his authority.
The public disagreement between Cakobau and Sivo appeared to be related to a wider debate about the policies and effectiveness of the party as a member of the ruling coalition. Without naming particular individuals, Sivo criticized certain colleagues on the CAMV executive on 17 September of being too subservient to the Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua, the dominant partner in the ruling coalition. The party should have pushed for the Reconciliation, Tolerance, and Unity Bill three years ago, Sivo said. The controversial legislation, promoted by the government in 2005, proposed to establish a commission empowered to compensate victims and pardon perpetrators of the 2000 coup, many of whom were supporters of the CAMV.
Policies The CAMV contested the 2001 election on a platform calling for a greater emphasis on indigenous rights and the proclamation of Christianity (the faith of most ethnic Fijians, but relatively few Indo-Fijians), as the official religion of Fiji. Officially, the party accepts the 1997 Constitution, calling it "a workable document," but in practice many of its elected representatives have strongly criticised it.
Despite its strongly nationalist image, reinforced by the arrest and conviction of many of its members for participation in the 2000 coup, the CAMV claims to espouse nonracial policies. The party President, Ratu Tanoa Cakobau, said on 8 June 2005 that anybody respected by the population could be Prime Minister, regardless of his or her race or status. He said this in response to a comment from Poseci Bune, Deputy Leader of the Fiji Labour Party, that the country should be ready for a non-indigenous Prime Minister.
Merger with SDL
Party President Ratu Tanoa Cakobau announced on 9 February 2006 that the party would contest Fijian communal and open constituencies in the upcoming election. In another development, however, it was announced on 16 February 2006 that the party would be deregistering, in order to merge with the Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua (SDL) ahead of the elections.
Fiji Television reported on 20 February that a letter alleged to have been written by Ratu Tanoa Cakobau had requested that the six CAMV parliamentarians be endorsed, unopposed, as SDL candidates. The SDL confirmed having received letter, written in Fijian and addressed to Prime Minister Qarase and to the SDL President, but Cakobau said that some portions of it were not authentic; his name had been written differently from the way he uses it official correspondence, he said.
The Prime Minister responded that all candidacies for the SDL were open, and that there would be no automatic endorsement of candidates, ex-CAMV or otherwise. All would have to go through the required selection procedure.
The next day, Fiji Live revealed that in addition to the six parliamentarians, five other CAMV figures were seeking endorsement as SDL candidates.
Radio New Zealand quoted Party President Ratu Tanoa Cakobau as saying on 28 February that the party had sacrificed little in its merger with the SDL. The party had abandoned its goal of freeing all coup convicts as long ago as 2002, he claimed. "We had to reconsider everything, in the beginning we were all out for everything, but then we realised that there’s something called the law that we had to respect, we had to follow. And through that process most of my party members, except myself, went to jail," Cakobau said.