Fiji's top diplomat calls it a day.

Samisoni Pareti

Kaliopate Tavola

Admired as the country's top diplomat who is just at ease with the world's rich and powerful as he is with his own people on tiny Dravuni Island in Kadavu, Kaliopate Tavola is calling it quits.

Thirty years of public service, the last six as Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase's enterprising and hardworking foreign minister, Tavola says he can no longer continue to give 100% commitment to the job.

This comes as a huge blow to the ruling Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua Party-a loss not lost on the party leadership. “When I informed the PM of my wish to retire, he asked me to take a day to re-consider,” Tavola told FIJI ISLANDS BUSINESS in his office on level nine of Suvavou House.

“But I told the Prime Minister that I would like to give 100% to the job and this is something I won't be able to do if I seek another term.”

This was mid-January and it was the minister's first day at work after a long overdue holiday with his wife Helen in New Zealand. Apart from it being "recuperative" and "renewing", the vacation gave Tavola time to realise that his decision to quit politics was right.

“After over 30 years in the public service, including six years up to the general election as a politician, it is time to call it a day,” Tavola told the magazine.

“I have enjoyed my time as a politician. I have given it all my commitment and resources.

“Because of my other commitments in life and for family and health reasons, I will not be able to provide another five years of total commitment to politics.

“I would be doing a disservice to myself and to the country if I stood in the coming general election.”

The Kadavu man believes he is not a “natural politician”. Actually many won't disagree. Not a few, however, will dispute the belief that while he may not be a willing politician, Tavola is certainly a born diplomat. This was obvious in the measured and reasoned way he handled this interview where personal views were skilfully articulated so as not to leave a few red faces or trigger a diplomatic crisis.

For instance, Tavola denied the widely held rumour that he was amongst a group of cabinet ministers that had difficulty “selling” some of their own controversial policies like the reconciliation bill.

“I certainly have no problem with government policies at all,” he argued.

“Once I made up my mind on them, I give it my 100% commitment.”

The woman behind the man... Helen Tavola

Then there is our relationship with our biggest trading partner, Australia. Asked whether we should view Australia as a friendly neighbour or as the region's deputy sheriff, Tavola said both countries are linked through history and geography, which would not change.

Yet he did add a qualifier: “The question is best reversed and put to Australia. Does Australia see itself as an inextricable part of the Pacific region?

“If so, are all its foreign policies and policies to be, formulated for the enhancement of the region?”

Pushed on whether Australia andNew Zealand do have our interests at heart given that we still have yet to secure more concessions under SPARTECA, that Australia has refused to accept a Pacific export labour scheme and Tuvalu is unable to convince Canberra that its people are environmental refugees, Tavola responded: “It is unfortunate that we have to waste so much effort, time and scarce resources on trying to sell some of our national and regional initiatives to our developed neighbours.

“Those who consequently query the commitment of these two countries can be justified in doing so.”

He, however, doesn't believe that Australia and New Zealand are too domineering and engaged in agenda setting for the region because of the millions of aid money they pour in.

"Pacific leaders are not going to sit around and allow them to dictate terms," Tavola pointed out.

But it is at the “bureaucratic level” that attention needs to focus. Staffing of regional organisations, he said, must be monitored and work methods need full transparency to dispel allegations of direct and indirect influences by member states.

For someone who outshone his classmates at Ratu Sukuna Memorial School, this Kadavu native has certainly come a long way. He began his public service career as an agricultural economist and had the rare opportunity to market Fiji sugar from the Fiji mission in London,
Rebuked and isolated because of the 2000 coup, it fell on Tavola to turn the tide of international ostracism in favour of Fiji.

With over a decade of diplomatic work in London and Brussels behind him, Tavola took the lead in renewing old contacts and reviving past networks. He got his staff at the Foreign Affairs Ministry to retrace the corridors of the world's most powerful, burning the midnight oil several times over. Slowly, but surely, Fiji was taken off the CMAG (Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group of the Harare Declaration) list of the Commonwealth and was back in the good books of international donors like the European Union, World Bank and the United Nations.

“One of his first tasks was to brief the first ever meeting of the (Pacific) Islands Forum Foreign Affairs Ministers in mid-2000 in Apia on the status of the political situation in Fiji.

“My vivid impression of that meeting was the no-nonsense approach by New Zealand's Minister Phil Goff to our situation and the calm and conciliatory approach, almost philosophical, by the Honourable Langi Kavaliku of Tonga.

“The seeds of what became the Biketawa Declaration were sown at that meeting.”

The Goff confrontation was only the beginning as Tavola had to appear before several high-powered committees in the United States and Europe.

“The suspension of assistance under the Cotonou Agreement led also to a series of consultations with the EU under the provisions of Article 96 of the Agreement.

“The most prominent one took place in Brussels where I had to front up to representatives of the European Commission and all the EU member states. I was assisted by two friends of Fiji, namely Papua New Guinea and Ghana.”

On Fiji's expulsion from the Commonwealth, intense lobbying saw Tavola appearing before the grouping's powerful action group to successfully plead for Fiji's re-admission.

“For any foreign affairs minister, it would be a highlight of one's career to have achieved all that and more.

“For example, having to deliver the country's statements at the United Nations General Assembly , UN Security Council, Comonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, and other UN conferences.”

Perhaps for space constraints, Tavola did not mention his appointment as leader of the Pacific's team on economic partnership agreement negotiations with the EU and leading the Pacific's eminent persons team to review the success of the Australian-led regional mission's rehabilitation work in neighbouring Solomon Islands.

On life after the million-dollar view from his Suvavou House office, Tavola said he had a few things in mind. Family, of course, is top priority. After 14 years as a diplomat and six years as a politician, the man admits he had basically been living out of a suitcase.

“In 1976 when Helen was expecting our second child, she banned me from travelling to enable me to be present at the birth.

“However, she relented believing at the time that the trip I was taking then was going to be a trip of a lifetime for me that would not be repeated.

“Ironically, that trip took me to Brussels, which turned out to be the city where we were going to spent 10 years of our time (1988-1998) as a family.

“In retrospect, I can say that the family developed a sense of getting 'used' to my travels, especially for the children, who have grown up and re-focussed their attention on their own work and families.

“All in all, however, too much travels are disruptive and can be difficult for those at home since the family obligations-immediate and extended families-do not disappear during travels.”

Consultancy is always something he can fall back, Tavola says, and yes there are also plans for a book.

On whether after a break of some years he might consider a political comeback especially if asked by his own people of Kadavu province to try for prime ministership, Tavola was again a 'diplomat.'

“No, I don't think that will happen and besides age is not on my side.”

He said he will be 60 this year, but when told that even his Prime Minister is over 60, Tavola was quick to respond: “Oh I admire the Prime Minister's energy on the commitment and determination he brings to the office. I admire his 100% commitment on the job.

“There are a lot of Kadavu people who can represent us in parliament and they will certainly have my support.”