FIJI: Regime leader challenges media description of him as dictator

6954 SYDNEY: Fiji’s interim Prime Minister is not ruling out standing when the country goes to elections in 2014.

Commodore Frank Bainimarama told the ABC’s Foreign Correspondent the country would definitely have a poll in 2014, eight years after the military took power.

He took issue with the media continually portraying him as a dictator.

“Dictators in the sense that we go round abusing the powers that we have. I am a military man, but what does dictator mean to you. I also mention this. The military is the only entity that can bring about the reforms. The politicians can’t bring about the reforms for obvious reasons. They are politicians. They would love to stay in power, and because of that, they don’t like much to bring about changes.”

Commodore Bainimarama says the Methodist church and the Great Council of Chiefs had to be silenced as they had become politicised. -  Radio NZ International/Pacific Media Watch