Recent Controversies
As of 2006, Tora remains a controversial figure. In mid-2004, he clashed with Police Commissioner Andrew Hughes, taking offence at a speech Hughes had made at the annual general meeting of the Pacific British Chamber of Commerce in Suva on 24 August. He said that as an Australian, Hughes should remember how his country had oppressed its Aborigine population to the point of genocide and had denied voting rights to many of them as recently as 1967. It was inappropriate, he told the Senate, for an Australian to come to Fiji attack the indigenous population. "Too often these days when people speak out on certain matters there are attempts to intimidate or muzzle them and breach their rights by throwing allegations of racism or making hate speeches," he said. "I would like to warn Mr Hughes to be careful," he declared. "To do his own work properly and not to tread where angels fear to tread." He went on to say that the 1997 Constitution was "nothing less than a fraud on the Fijian people."
In 2005, Tora came out strongly in favour of the government's controversial Reconciliation, Tolerance, and Unity Bill, which aims to establish a commission empowered to compensate victims and pardon perpetrators of the 2000 coup, and has harshly attacked its detractors. In a Senate speech on 24 August 2004, he clashed publicly with the Military commander Commodore Frank Bainimarama (an implacable opponent of the legislation), accusing the Military of "playing politics." He also questioned how, in view of the Auditor General's report that the Military was unable to operate within its budget, it had obtained funding for its nationwide campaign against the bill, which involved soldiers visiting villages to educate the people on the Military's perception of it.
Tora attacked both the Labour Party and its leader, Mahendra Chaudhry, for "creating political instability in the country." He said that Chaudhry was interfering with land legislation by coming between the President and the Native Land Trust Board. He said that if the Labour Party was serious about promoting good governance and the rule of law, they should denounce the political activism of the Military. "It is disgraceful that NGOs, Labour Party and the media appear to condone and turn a blind eye to the army's actions. Their silence is a mark of guilt. They are guilty of failing to call the army to order over threats to the security of the country," Tora declared.
Tora strongly supported the recent moves to form a grand coalition of ethnic Fijian-dominated parties to contest the election planned for 2006. "Anyone with political common sense know that stability and peace will be assured in this country that the government is led by Fijians and has majority," he asserted.
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