George Cakobau, Jr.

Ratu George Cakobau, Jr., also known as Ratu Jioji Cakobau, is a Fijian chief and political leader. The son of the late Governor-General, Ratu Sir George Cakobau, who was also the "Vunivalu of Bau" (widely considered to be Fiji's most senior chiefly position). A meeting of elders from the Tui Kaba clan, to which he belongs, tentatively proposed him as the next "Vunivalu" in June 2005. The position has been vacant since the death of his father in 1989, owing to disagreements over the succession.

In 2001, Cakobau was appointed to the Senate by the Great Council of Chiefs, having been nominated by the Tailevu Provincial Council. During his term, which ended in 2006, he took a strongly nationalistic position, opposing the constitution adopted in 1997 and calling for political control to be restored to Fiji's chiefs. In October 2004, he said that people unhappy with the Fiji Week reconciliation ceremonies, which ran from 4 to 11 October, should get out of Fiji. He said that it was not usual for chiefs to apologise to their people, and that if chiefs did go down on their hands and knees, they should be respected for doing so. Those unwilling to accept their apology "wholeheartedly" should "find another country." The Fijian people had had enough, he said. These comments drew a storm of protest from some fellow-Senators, politicians, and the Military.

Later that month, he said that fellow-Senator Atu Emberson-Bain was not indigenous and therefore had no right to presume to speak for the Fijian people. Cakobau's clashes with Bain continued, and in May 2005, he repeatedly interrupted her during a Senate debate. The Senate Privileges Committee is currently investigating a complaint subsequently laid against him by Bain and by fellow-Senator Ponipate Lesavua.

Cakobau's sister, Adi Litia Cakobau, was also a Senator (one of 9 appointed by the Prime Minister), and whose nationalist views were regarded as even more strident than his own. On 6 December 2005, she publicly called for the complaints against her brother to be withdrawn, saying that his own outbursts had been provoked by the complainants. She would not be pressured into vacating her Privileges Committee while her brother's case was being heard, she declared, despite calls from opponents to do so.

In another controversy, Cakobau accused the Native Land Trust Board on 6 December 2005 of neglecting indigenous landowners who were living in poverty. "Poverty in Fiji is caused by lack of vision and poor management by those entrusted with the land, marine and forest resources of the people," he said. He called for landowners to be given easier access to the Fiji Development Bank.

Cakobau made headlines at a United Fiji Party (SDL) campaign meeting on 18 March 2006. According to the Fiji Village news service, he strongly opposed the renomination on Adi Asenaca Caucau and Irami Matairavula, neither of whom had done anything for Tailevu constituents over the past five years, he claimed. Confronting campaign director Jale Baba and Cabinet Minister Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu, he angrily demanded that the two names be withdrawn.

Fiji Village reported on 6-7 June 2006 that Cakobau was angry at the decision of the Tailevu Provincial Council not to renew his membership of the Senate, having chosen Eminoni Ranacou in his place. Confronting the council, he said they were acting disrespectfully towards his chiefly household, which prompted one councillor to retaliate that he himself was acting disrespectfully towards the council.

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