The FijiFirst Party will not condone any derogatory remark or statement made by any of its members as opposed to certain political parties that haven’t condemned offensive statements made by their provisional candidates.

FijiFirst General Secretary, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum made this statement following the racist remark made by People’s Alliance provisional candidate Liliana Warid on their Facebook page.

Sayed-Khaiyum says FijiFirst is guided by values and principles and this is reflected in the stance they take in addressing such issues.

“You can bet your bottom dollar that if anybody makes such a comment, our leader will be the first one to fire that person and remove him/her as a provisional candidate or if they are a member of parliament they will immediately will be gone before you can say the word gone.”

Sayed-Khaiyum also called out People’s Alliance leader Sitiveni Rabuka for not addressing issues such as the racist comment made by his provisional candidate, Warid.

Warid posted a controversial statement to the People’s Alliance Facebook page describing Indo-Fijians as “visitors” who “were not going back anytime soon”.

In the same statement, Warid claimed that the indigenous Fijians are being marginalized.

She also admitted on her personal Facebook page on Thursday that her controversial statement was first rejected by a local newspaper, The Fiji Times, for its racial overtones.

Sayed-Khaiyum adds that at no stage has Rabuka condemned the article and nor has the provisional candidate apologized for the article in question.

“Rabuka does not have principles, he’s actually a weak leader and he’s trying to pacify everybody in his party. There are ethno-nationalists and there are right-wingers in his party and there are other people with business interests that he’s trying to pacify. Bainimarama would never tolerate such a thing and that’s the point of difference.”

Sayed-Khaiyum says it is critical that voters know the leaders they want to vote for in this year’s General Election.

He also says that in the midst of the current situation with People’s Alliance, its partner the National Federation Party has been quiet.

“But of course in all of this, the most deafening silence is been NFP. The new partner of Rabuka absolutely not a word from Biman Prasad, Pio Tikoduadua, Lenora Qereqere Tabua nor from any NFP stalwart.”

The FijiFirst GS also noted that the recent article in question is not the first of such derogatory or contradictory statements made by some political parties.