Tupeni Baba - Life Outside Politics

Life Outside Politics

Baba waited until 2005 to reiterate and clarify his reasons for leaving the Labour Party. It was no longer the party he had joined under the leadership of Timoci Bavadra in the 1980s, he said on 18 September 2005. Bavadra's vision had been of a multiracial Fiji, but the present leadership of the party could not see past ethnic boundaries. All that was left of Bavadra's party was the name, he said. He expressed disappointment at Chaudhry's failure as Leader of the Opposition to work with Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase on matters of national importance, saying that when the party negotiated with the government at all, it appeared more like a trade union than a political party. In a multiethnic country like Fiji, Baba said, it was imperative that leaders look beyond ethnic boundaries.

On 22 December 2005, Baba said that he would pursue academic and consultancy work after completing his four-year contract at the University of Auckland, which expired at the end of 2005. He was happy to be away from politics, he said, and was not inclined to return to it. He found recent political trends in Fiji depressing, especially the polarization of political parties on ethnic lines. Questioned again by the Fiji Village news service on 16 February, after his return to Fiji, he refused to be drawn on whether he would contest the 2006 election or not, but made it clear that he was no longer affiliated with the FLP.