Tevita Momoedonu
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The Right Honourable Ratu Tevita Momoedonu MP |
|
|---|---|
| Prime Minister of Fiji | |
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In office 14 March 2001 – 16 March 2001 |
|
| President | Ratu Josefa Iloilo |
| Preceded by | Laisenia Qarase |
| Succeeded by | Laisenia Qarase |
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In office 27 May 2000 Several Minutes |
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| President | Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara |
| Preceded by | Mahendra Chaudhry |
| Succeeded by | Vacant |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
13 January 1946 Lautoka, Fiji |
| Political party | Labour Party |
Ratu Tevita Momoedonu is a Fijian chief and has served as the fifth Prime Minister of Fiji twice – each time extremely briefly. Both appointments were to get around constitutional technicalities; his first term of office – on 27 May 2000 lasted only a few minutes. His second term – from 14 to 16 March 2001 was for two days. He subsequently served his country as Ambassador to Japan. Using his chiefly title of "Taukei Sawaieke", he later led pushes for the Yasana of Ba to secede from the Burebasaga and Kubuna Confederacies to form their own fourth confederacy under the Tui Vuda, Ratu Josefa Iloilo, who died in 2011.
In 1999, Momoedonu had been elected on the Fiji Labour Party (FLP) ticket to represent the Vuda Open Constituency in the House of Representatives, and subsequently appointed to the Cabinet. He was the only minister not present in the Parliament building when George Speight stormed the complex on 19 May 2000, taking Chaudhry and other government members hostage and staging a coup d'état. The President, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, wanted to assume emergency powers to deal with the situation, but was unable to do so, because constitutionally, the President is not allowed to act except on the advice of the Prime Minister – and Prime Minister Chaudhry, being in captivity, was unable to render such advice. In a move which some legal scholars have questioned as being of doubtful constitutional validity, Mara therefore dismissed Chaudhry and appointed Momoedonu in his place on 27 May, so that Momoedonu could "advise" him to suspend Parliament and assume emergency powers. Upon tendering the requisite advice, Momoedonu promptly resigned. The whole procedure had taken only a few minutes. (The move backfired when, two days later, Mara was himself deposed by the Commander of the Fiji Military Forces, Commodore Frank Bainimarama.)
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Wikipedia