National Federation Party leader Professor Biman Prasad has defended his party’s record in government, telling the NFP Convention in Suva last week that the NFP was a minority partner in Fiji’s governing coalition and could not shape every decision taken by government. Prasad, a former deputy prime minister, was answering concerns raised by some supporters about decisions taken by coalition partners, FBC News reported on 28 September.
Key facts
- Prasad, leader of the NFP — one of the parties in Fiji’s governing coalition — addressed the party’s convention in Suva last week, according to FBC News.
- He said the NFP does not necessarily get to influence everything that happens in government because it is a minority coalition party.
- He framed compromise and shared responsibility as fundamental to how coalition governments work, and said perfection is not the standard by which one should be judged.
- He said the party had still played a significant role in the coalition government’s achievements over the past three and a half years, singling out economic management.
- NFP President Parmod Chand told members the party remains committed to serving the country and to building on the legacy of its former leaders.
- NFP leaders told supporters they were satisfied with the party’s overall contribution, describing its performance over the past term as very satisfactory, if not above average.
What Prasad told the convention
Prasad’s central argument to the room was about the limits of junior partnership. In his own words, as quoted by FBC News: “when your [sic] in a coalition, and as I’ve said we were a minority coalition party and we don’t necessarily get to influence everything that happens in the government.”
He tied that limitation directly to the grievances of NFP members, saying continued shared responsibility, rather than the ability to influence everything, is how coalition governments operate, FBC News reported. Compromise, on his account, is not a failure of the arrangement but the price of it.
He did not, in the remarks reported by FBC News, name the coalition decisions that had drawn criticism from supporters, or say which partners had taken them. Nor does the report record him setting out where the NFP had been overruled inside government.
Why it matters
The convention is the NFP’s own accounting to its members for a term spent inside a government it does not control, delivered as parties begin positioning for the next general election. Prasad’s defence — that a minority partner shares responsibility without holding the levers — is the answer the leadership is putting to members who disagree with what the government has done in their party’s name.
It is also an argument with a political cost attached. A party that tells supporters it could not influence everything is, by the same logic, limiting how much of the coalition’s record it can claim as its own. Prasad’s way through that is to point to one policy area in particular.
The economic claim, and what backs it
Prasad said the NFP had played a significant role in the coalition’s achievements over the past three and a half years, particularly in economic management, according to FBC News. The broadcaster’s report does not attach figures to that claim, and does not quantify the party’s specific contribution to any economic result.
The most concrete number Fiji News has reported on the government’s economic scorecard is the record foreign reserves of $3.9 billion announced by government — a headline figure the coalition has used to argue its management has been sound. How much of that outcome is attributable to the NFP rather than to the coalition as a whole, or to external conditions, is not something either the party or FBC News’s report of the convention sets out.
That gap matters for voters trying to weigh the claim: the party is asking to be credited for economic stewardship in the same speech in which it explains that it could not determine government decisions.
The party’s own verdict
Chand, the NFP president, used his address to point members to the party’s history rather than to the current term, saying the NFP has great plans for the nation and that its previous leaders had done a wonderful job for the party and the country, FBC News reported. He said he hoped the people now in the party would continue that work, and that the NFP remains committed to serving the country.
Taken together, the leadership’s message to the convention was that the term had gone well. FBC News reported that NFP leaders described the party’s performance over the past term as very satisfactory, if not above average — a self-assessment delivered to an audience that, on Prasad’s own account, includes members unhappy with parts of the government’s record.
The convention also comes after Prasad signalled changes in its parliamentary line-up, Fiji News has reported, which means the record being defended in Suva may be carried into the next campaign by a partly different team.
Background: who is in the coalition
Fiji’s government was formed after the December 2022 general election by three parties — the People’s Alliance, the NFP and SODELPA — none of which won a majority on its own. That arithmetic is the basis of Prasad’s argument: the NFP sits in cabinet and shares responsibility for government decisions, but is not the party setting the agenda.
What is not yet known
- Which government decisions prompted the complaints from NFP supporters: FBC News’s report does not specify them.
- Whether the People’s Alliance, SODELPA or opposition parties have responded to Prasad’s characterisation of the NFP as unable to influence everything. No such response appears in the reporting seen by Fiji News.
- What specific measures the NFP counts as its own contribution to economic management, and what figures the party attributes to them.
- Which candidates and sitting MPs the party will field at the next election.
Related coverage
Fiji News has also reported on what a 15-year-high Australian cash rate costs Fijians in Australia, and on the government’s announcement of record foreign reserves of $3.9 billion.
Frequently Asked Questions
What did Biman Prasad say about the NFP’s influence in Fiji’s coalition government?
Prasad told the NFP Convention in Suva that the party was a minority coalition partner and, as such, did not necessarily get to influence everything that happens in government, FBC News reported. He said compromise and shared responsibility are fundamental to how coalition governments work and that perfection is not the right yardstick to judge one by.
Did Prasad accept that NFP supporters were unhappy with some government decisions?
Yes. According to FBC News, Prasad was responding to concerns raised by some supporters about decisions taken by coalition partners. He did not, in the remarks FBC News reported, identify which decisions had drawn the criticism, and the report does not name the partners involved.
What does being a ‘minority coalition partner’ mean for the NFP?
It means the NFP governs as one member of a multi-party government rather than as the party that controls it. Fiji’s government was formed after the December 2022 general election by the People’s Alliance, the NFP and SODELPA. Prasad’s argument to members was that a junior partner in that arrangement carries shared responsibility for government decisions without holding all the levers over them; FBC News reported him framing continued shared responsibility, rather than the ability to influence everything, as how coalitions operate.
How did the NFP rate its own performance in government, and what did party president Parmod Chand say?
FBC News reported that NFP leaders told supporters they were satisfied with the party’s overall contribution, describing its performance over the past term as very satisfactory, if not above average. Chand, the party president, told members the NFP remains committed to serving the country, said it has great plans for the nation, and said previous leaders had done a wonderful job for the party and the country — work he said he hoped current members would continue.
