SODELPA MP Mosese Bulitavu (From left), Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum and Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama.

Social Democratic Liberal Party MP, Mosese Bulitavu says that he and a few other members of the party sensitized iTaukei issues to attract indigenous votes before 2014 and 2018.

In screenshots posted on his Facebook page, Bulitavu says he crafted their campaign message around 17 matters to get votes in their favour.

The 17 sensitized issues include the suspension of the GCC Regulation of 2007, Native Land Trust Decree no2 of 2009, Land Use Decree no36 of 2010, and iTaukei Affairs (Amendment) Decree no22 of 2012, amongst a few others.

Bulitavu admits in the comment section of the post that the message was first preached at the Civic Centre in Labasa in June of 2014 and was taken on board by SODELPA.

Bulitavu also admits that he made DVD disc’s after it was taken on board including Niko Nawaikula’s NGO Fiji Native Tribal Congress.

The SODELPA MP in his comment clarified that all this was a campaign strategy to draw indigenous support and the political ploy then was to use Attorney General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum’s thesis as the baseline to portray the decrees as part of the ‘sun set clause’ implementation.

Bulitavu further adds that the tactic used was to project that Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama was allowing Sayed-Khaiyum to weaken iTaukei rights.

The Vanua Levu MP says this needs to be highlighted as it must not be encouraged because it promotes discrimination.

This is the first time Bulitavu has admitted to this as he and Nawaikula were accused of this in the past by Sayed-Khaiyum.