Issue No: 987; 31 July 2001

Now the newly formed party of members expelled from the Fiji Labour Party have embarked along the same lines. The band, calling itself the New Labour Unity Party (NLUP) has taken out pamphlets inviting people to free hotdogs, free rugby balls, and a free musical concert in return for their votes.

The party has engaged numerous musicians to play for it. The reported price is $14,000 excluding the cost of producing the concert.

The musical team also includes a famous rugby player Waisele Serevi. The public has started asking questions on whether the musicians and the rugby player support the party or whether it is a purely commercial deal of advertising the party.

Dubbed the sausage party, the NLUP is led by Tupeni Baba.

Baba has ambitions of becoming the country's Prime Minister but could not get the necessary support in 1999 from within the Parliament to become the PM. Later he began to undermine the Party and the Prime Minister in particular. In a media interview, he blamed the country's ethnic Indians of denying him the PM's post. In a radio interview, Baba stated: "Chaudhry indicated that he wanted to be the Prime Minister. I hadn't received any support at all - they were all Indians you see. So on his insistence, that he be the Prime Minister we chose him".

It is believed that Baba was initially encouraged to the PM's position by some ethnic Indian businessmen who thought that they could keep Baba in their pockets. After the release of the hostages, one particular ethnic Indian businessman with interests in the food industry, began courting and financing Baba in a bid to undermine the Chandrika Prasad case. The intention of the businessman, who is also a major financial backer for Qarase, was to engineer a split in the Fiji Labour Party in order to show the Fiji Court of Appeal that that elected government was divided and could not govern.