Issue No: 807; 30 May 2001

In an article published today, veteran journalist Robert Keith-Reid writes that the University's new Vice Chancellor "landed on a path littered with thorns." He states:

"[Siwatibau] has inherited a list of issues that impinge on the university's credibility."

"Some USP academic staff resent his occupation of the vice chancellor's office. They claim that he got the job simply because he was an indigenous Fijian. They say the USP Council decided timidly that at a time of violent tension between the indigenous Fijian and [ethnic] Indian communities, it would be dangerous to appoint the veteran deputy vice chancellor Rajesh Chandra, a Fiji Indian. Chandra's supporters claim he would have got the job, but for the coup."

"If that was the real story, Siwatibau says, it would have been degrading for him to have accepted the appointment".

Ethnic tension on the campus has been high for many years. There have been riots in the past involving students from different cultural groups and island nations. Last year a small but vocal group of ethnic Fijian students, led by a student who was frequently seen on the Parliament Complex with the terrorists, had staged a protest march to get the earlier decision of the USP to appoint Chandra as Vice Chancellor reversed. USP sources reveal that these students threatened the USP that they would burn the campus if Siwatibau was not appointed.