Lynda Tabuya Photo: Facebook / Fiji Government
Fiji Women's Crisis Centre coordinator Shamima Ali says the removal of Women's and Children's Minister Lynda Tabuya as the deputy leader of the ruling People's Alliance Party is "sending out very wrong signals to women".
Tabuya, who has been embroiled in an alleged sex and drug scandal with axed education minister Aseri Radrodro, was removed as the PAP deputy leader last week following an inquiry into her conduct by her party.
According to the party's main decision making body, the allegations has caused "irreparable damage" to PAP's "image and reputation" and they resolved to remove Tabuya "in the best interest of the party".
However, Tabuya told RNZ Pacific that the decision was "unfair" and "generated by opponents from outside the party".
She said the decision of the party "is not a finding of guilt" and that "the two lawyers in the legal and disciplinary sub-committee who have based their recommendations on allegations published on social media which is aimed to weaken the Coalition and weaken the party."
Radrodro, from Sodelpa - one of the two minor parties in the three-party coalition government - has not faced a similar inquiry into his conduct as a result of the allegations.
Ali told journalists at a news conference in Suva that women's leadership is often judged by their personal and sexual behaviour.
While defending the minister on the eve of International Women's Day last Thursday, she said Tabuya received almost 12,000 votes in the 2022 election - only second to Prime Minister Rabuka.
"She should be one of the deputy prime ministers, but she didn't take that up. None of the deputy prime ministers come anywhere near the number of votes she got."
Tabuya played a key part in Rabuka's election campaign and success at the 2022 polls to oust the Bainimarama administration's hold on power - being the fourth highest polling candidate and the only woman in the top 10.
Ali said since the 2014 elections, Tabuya has systematically gotten more and more votes and she is being treated unfairly "because she doesn't conform".
"Women leaders have to play dumb in front of men. It's a boys club, [women] have to play dumb in front of men, then they are accepted. Or they walk around and keep smiling and act like a school girl and don't show that you are too smart.
"This is how society a patriarchal society works."
Ali is calling on Rabuka to reinstate Tabuya as deputy party leader.
"A giant step would be for the Prime Minister to behave decently and do the right thing...so that women know we will be protected."
She said she has been working as a women's rights advocate for over three decades and the Parliament is "full of" MPs who have affairs and are "wife beaters".
"It's full of them...wife beaters, girlfriend beaters, I have seen them all in there, but no one judges them by all those things. It's the women who is [judged].
She has also blamed the media for being "very bad" at reporting about the sex and drug allegations.
"It's all allegations. I thought the media was there to tell the truth," she said.
Meanwhile, Rabuka has told local media that he has no input in Tabuya being stripped of her role as PAP deputy leader.
The prime minister said the decision was made by the party.
"I'm still considering," Rabuka said when asked by the state broadcaster about what his decision is on the issue.