Epeli Ganilau - Chairman of The Great Council of Chiefs

Chairman of The Great Council of Chiefs

Ganilau was appointed to the Bose Levu Vakaturaga (Great Council of Chiefs) in 1999 as one of six representative of the Fijian government. In 2001, he was subsequently elected Chairman on 3 May 2001 after his predecessor, Sitiveni Rabuka, stepped down amid accusations that he may have been involved in the coup d'état that deposed Fiji's elected government in May 2000. The Bose Levu Vakaturaga is a formal assembly of Fijian hereditary chiefs, along with a number of specially qualified commoners, chosen mainly by Fiji's provincial councils, which also has a constitutional role in functioning as an electoral college to elect the President of the republic, as well as 14 of the 32 Senators.

As Chairman, Ganilau took a strong stand for law and order, and supported the prosecution of persons implicated in the 2000 coup. On 11 April 2003, he was quoted as saying that politicians had already done enough damage to the country, which could not afford to have any more coups and bloodshed. He spoke out in support of Commodore Frank Bainimarama, who was then becoming increasingly vocal in his criticism of some government policies. On 6 August that year, he said that all persons implicated in the coup should be brought to justice, regardless of their position in the community. Culture and tradition should not, he said, impede the investigation of chiefs who had allegedly participated in the plot. He also rejected a call from Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu, a Cabinet Minister and the Paramount Chief of the Tovata Confederacy, for the Great Council of Chiefs to replace the Senate as the upper house of the legislature, saying that would mix the chiefly system with the modern governmental apparatus, which he believed should remain institutionally separate.

Ganilau held the chairmanship until his sudden replacement on 21 July 2004 by Ratu Ovini Bokini. His departure followed the decision of the government not to renew his membership on the council. The Great Council of Chiefs is required to elect a chairman from its own members, so the decision not to reappoint him effectively terminated his term as Chairman, which was not due to expire until 2005.

The Qarase government gave no reason for its decision to not to reappoint Ratu Ganilau, but there were known to be strained relations between him and some Cabinet Ministers. Information Minister Simione Kaitani had criticized Ganilau for his public calls for the resignation of Vice-President Ratu Jope Seniloli, who is currently (2004) on trial for suspected involvement in the 2000 coup. Kaitani maintained that Seniloli was legally entitled to a presumption of innocence until proven guilty. He went on to accuse Ganilau of hypocrisy, saying that he himself had been accused of involvement in the forced resignation of his father-in-law, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara's, as President on 29 May 2000. There were also accusations that Ganilau was undermining the political neutrality of the Bose Levu Vakaturaga with his calls for a revival of the defunct Fijian Alliance, the multi-racial political party founded by Ratu Mara, which governed Fiji from 1967 to 1987. His call received support from a number of political factions, including the Indo-Fijian-dominated National Federation Party, but received a cool welcome from Prime Minister Qarase's Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua, which would see the revived Alliance as an unwanted rival, especially for the ethnic Fijian vote. Ganilau hinted that he himself would play a role in reviving the Alliance, and it the decision to oust him from the leadership of the Great Council of Chiefs was widely seen as a ploy to prevent him from using the Council as a platform from which to advance his own political ambitions.