Pio Tikoduadua holds the key to two of Fiji’s most crucial portfolios – Home Affairs and Immigration – yet he feels his ministry is “crippled” because of its inability to participate actively in defining policy change and strategic direction.
And now that he is at the helm, he plans to go forward in a definite direction, along with a strategic vision which encompasses how matters of national security should be handled.
“Unfortunately, the way things are structured, I have pretty much a crippled ministry, I’ll call it that word,” he said.
“It’s unlike any other ministry responsible for defence and security in any normal democracy where it is a civilian-led government, where there is a greater emphasis on what the people want and set strategic directions for where we should go.
“It’s pretty limited in that regard but that’s just how we are set up, the law that governs the police, the military, and in that sense for immigration, which has just come to my ministry.
“There is a greater role that the people can play and that’s what I would like to set going forward. It’s how the Fijian people through the Fiji Government envision our future and how they want to place their security to be, that’s how this ministry needs to structure itself.
“At the moment, unfortunately, it’s not quite set up for that. It’s just because it’s one of the baggages coming from the last government where it’s virtually unable to influence things as much as they would like it to be. I mean that’s the honest truth. But I would like that to change.”
Mr Tikoduadua also stressed that they needed to relook at Fiji’s placement in the region and decide how best to work alongside regional partners and stakeholders.
“That needs to be inward looking first so we need to fix the law, look at the opportunities where we can actually work better.
“At the moment because people are, once the law is there we depend a lot on the goodwill of the people that are heading these institutions to sit down and talk, which is a good thing.
“I would like to see a greater role in defining policy and set the strategic direction and that’s what we would like to do in the future.”
