The National Federation Party (Fiji Hindi: नेशनल फेडरेशन पार्टी; Fijian: Mataisoqosoqo ni National Federation) is a Fijian political party founded by A. D. Patel in November 1968, as a merger of the Federation Party and the National Democratic Party. Though it claims to represent all Fiji Islanders, it is supported, in practice, almost exclusively by Indo-Fijians whose ancestors had come to Fiji between 1879 and 1916, mostly as indentured labourers. However, in the 2018 general election, the party recorded a considerable change in its support base due to the inclusion of more indigenous Fijian candidates.
History
The formation of the Federation Party and the 1965 conference
The formation of the Federation Party was a direct consequence of the dispute between cane farmers and the Colonial Sugar Refining Company (CSR) in 1960 regarding the new cane contract. Farmers contested the 1963 Legislative Council election under the banner of Citizens Federation. This party was reconstituted as the Federation Party on 21 June 1964, with A. D. Patel as president and Sidiq Koya as vice-president. The merger took place in time for the party to participate in the 1965 constitutional conference which was called to map out a path towards independence from the United Kingdom. The British Government decided to introduce cross-voting as a compromise between the Fijian and European delegates on one side and the Indians on the other; nine of the 36 seats on the Legislative Council would be elected by universal suffrage, but allocated by ethnicity, divided equally among Fijians, Indians, and general electors (which consist of Caucasians, Chinese, and other minorities). The Legislative Council was enlarged to 36 members, consisting of 14 Fijians (9 elected on communal roll, 3 on cross-voting roll and two nominated by the Great Council of Chiefs), 12 Indians (9 elected on communal roll and 3 on cross-voting roll) and 10 Europeans (7 elected on communal roll and 3 on cross-voting roll). Some of the non-contentious proposals by the Federation Party were accepted. These were the establishment of a Public Service Commission, a Police Service Commission, and a Judicial and Legal Services Commission, as well as a Bill of Rights.
From 1966 until the death of A.D. Patel The outcome of the constitutional conference was a major issue during the election, which was the first election in Fiji contested on Party lines. The Federation Party was expected to win at least the three cross-voting seats in the western division because of its predominantly Indian population but managed to win only the 9 Indian communal seats. The Alliance Party won 22 seats but the three independents and the two Council of Chiefs nominees joined it to give it a total strength of 27. Ratu Kamisese Mara of the Alliance Party became the Chief Minister and A.D. Patel became the Leader of the Opposition.
Ethnic tensions escalated following the adoption of responsible government in 1967, when Patel's arch-rival, the Lauan chief Ratu Kamisese Mara was appointed Chief Minister on 20 September. Mara's Alliance Party was a coalition of indigenous and European factions, with minimal Indo-Fijian participation. Patel and the NFP were consigned to the opposition benches. In protest at the new government's refusal to call a second constitutional conference, Patel led the nine Federation Party legislators in a mass walkout in September 1967. Missing two consecutive sections of the Legislative Council resulted in the forfeit of their seats, forcing by-elections. The ensuing by-elections were marked by inter-ethnic violence. All nine Federation Party legislators were returned with increased majorities, winning 78.55% of the votes cast. A.D. Patel won by 7903 votes to 2772 for Manikam Pillai. There were demonstrations by ethnic Fijians and calls to not renew native land leases and extreme elements called for Indians to be deported from Fiji. Relations between the Indo-Fijian and indigenous communities were at a new low.
The Formation of the National Federation Party In November 1968, the Federation merged with the National Democratic Party to form the National Federation Party. Patel and Koya became the President and Vice-President, respectively, of the merged party. Apisai Tora and Isikeli Nadalo, both indigenous Fijians, were leading figures in the NDP, and the merger brought well-known Fijians into the party for the first time. The attempt to position itself as a multi-racial party failed to translate into significant electoral support in the indigenous Fijian community. The NFP never succeeded in getting ten percent of the Fijian vote at any poll. It did, however, manage to elect several Fijians to what became the House of Representatives after independence in 1970, owing to cross-voting in the renamed national constituencies.
Less than a year after the founding of the NFP, Patel died suddenly on 1 October 1969. His deputy, Siddiq Moidin Koya, succeeded him as party leader.
NFP under the leadership of Sidiq Koya
NFP and Alliance work together to attain independence The party played an important role in the negotiations that led to Fiji's independence from the United Kingdom in 1970. Their original demand for a universal franchise threatened to stall the independence process, but at a conference in London in April 1970, Sidiq Koya, eventually negotiated a compromise with Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, the leader of the Alliance Party, the main ethnic Fijian-dominated party. According to this compromise, ethnic Fijians and Indo-Fijians would each be allocated 22 seats, with 12 representing Communal constituencies (comprising voters registered as members of a particular ethnic group) and a further 10 representing National constituencies (distributed by ethnicity but elected by universal suffrage) in the 52 member House of Representatives. A further 8 seats would be reserved for General electors (Europeans, Chinese, and other minorities); 3 of these would be "communal" and 5 "national."
With the leaders of both major ethnic groups working together for the first time in Fiji's history, the transition to independence was peaceful and the euphoria of independence continued for some time. Sidiq Koya travelled with the Prime Minister to India and the United Nations and there was talk of a coalition government. There were those within the National Federation Party (NFP) who were not happy with the close relationship between Sidiq Koya and Ratu Kamisese Mara, the most notable of whom was R. D. Patel, but for the time being dissent was not being expressed openly.
The 1972 general election The first general election since independence was held in May 1972 without the ethnic tension characteristic of the 1966 general election and the 1968 by-elections. The NFP won only 19 of the 52 seats in the House of Representatives, with Alliance Party actually increasing its share of the Indian vote. After the election, R.D. Patel, one of Koya's critics within the NFP, was elected speaker of the House of Representatives.
Worsening relationship between Koya and Mara From mid-1975, the relationship between Koya and Mara worsened. This was firstly due to the announcement by the Minister of Education that the Government would not subsidise school fees for non-Fijians. Sidiq Koya called this "a blatant piece of racial injustice". Secondly when a former Alliance member moved a motion calling for the repatriation of people of Indian origin back to India, Koya was not happy with the measured response of the Alliance Government and accused it of "having elements which wanted to do legally what the Fijian Nationalist Party Leader, Sakeasi Butadroka, was trying to do illegally." Thirdly, the Prime Minister rejected the recommendations of the Royal Commission which investigated the voting system, claiming that implementation of the recommendation would cause bloodshed in the country.
Split within NFP The inability of the NFP to make significant inroads into the ethnic Fijian vote kept the party in opposition in the years following independence. In the March 1977 election, however, a split in the ethnic Fijian vote enabled the NFP to win a plurality in the House of Representatives. Internal dissension, however, prevented the party from forming a government, as the party fractured over disputes about the leadership and the allocation of ministerial positions. The Governor-General, Ratu Sir George Cakobau, reappointed the defeated Prime Minister, Ratu Mara, and ordered a new election for September that year, in which the NFP was heavily defeated. For more information, see Fiji Constitutional Crisis of 1977.
NFP under the leadership of Jai Ram Reddy A second election to resolve the impasse was held in September that year, resulting in a heavy defeat for the NFP after it had split into two factions known as the Dove and Flower factions. Koya lost his parliamentary seat to Jai Ram Reddy, who became the new leader of the NFP. Koya's Dove faction had won only 3 seats compared to 12 won by the Flower faction.
Reddy followed a policy, which had been tried once before by Koya, that of moderation in which he sought to work with the Alliance Party to bring about change instead of resorting to the divisive policies of A.D. Patel and the later years of Koya's leadership. He enjoyed a brief period of honeymoon with the Alliance and there was again talk of a coalition. Relations between the two sides deteriorated as the Alliance used its massive majority to push through legislations seen to be anti-Indian. In 1980, after Reddy criticised, Alliance's policy of reserving Crown land for use by ethnic Fijians only, he and Ratu Kamisese Mara were no longer on speaking terms.
The NFP re-united for the 1982 elections and came close to winning the election by winning 24 seats in coalition with the Western United Front (WUF). Reddy's disagreement with the Alliance Speaker of the House led to his walkout in December 1983 and to resignation from parliament in April 1984.
Sidiq Koya's second term as party leader Sidiq Koya, who had returned to Parliament in 1982 under a unified NFP, was elected the leader following Reddy's resignation. He was not far from controversy, and was accused of favouring his own supporters for crucial appointments within the party. He barred the NFP Youth Wing from a Working Committee meeting further raising allegations of dictatorial rule.
Internal dissension reached a climax when a Koya supporter from Ba, Dr Balwant Singh Rakkha, was selected to contest the Lautoka seat vacated by Reddy's resignation. The NFP Youth Wing, put up its own candidate, Davendra Singh, a little-known small businessman. The NFP Youth Wing had the support of the former Flower faction and also claimed Reddy's support. For his part, Reddy did not openly campaign for either candidate. During the campaign, Koya turned the election into a referendum on himself, and threatened to resign if Rakkha lost. The result was a win for Singh by a narrow margin but Koya did not go ahead with his threat.
With the emergence of Fiji Labour Party (FLP), the NFP lost further ground. In the Suva City Council election of October 1985, it failed to field any candidate and the FLP won most seats and occupied the Lord Mayor's chair. In the by-election for the North Central National Seat (based in Ba district), brought about by the resignation of Vijay R. Singh, the Alliance won by a narrow margin over the FLP candidate, Mahendra Chaudhry. NFP was placed last. In December 1985, three prominent NFP parliamentarians resigned.
With his party falling apart, Koya resigned from the leadership of the NFP and was replaced by Harish Sharma.
Coalition with FLP