Independent member of Parliament Jone Usamate says the deregistration of FijiFirst is now in the past, and everyone must move forward.
And he said talks that the party was under a “two-man rule” were just assumptions.
While appearing on The Lens@177 yesterday, Mr Usamate said he continued to stand in Parliament as a representative of all Fijians, driven by principles of equality, meritocracy and diversity.
Mr Usamate said these were values he had personally held for a long time, and these were the same principles espoused by the rest of his Bloc of 16 in Parliament.
“What has happened has happened,” he said.
“At the moment, we are now independent Members of Parliament. We still carry out that function to the best of our abilities, and I don’t think it helps me in any way to go back and talk about what happened.
“I think for me and the rest of us, we need to move forward to see how we can continue to contribute to carry out our role, to be a good Opposition in Parliament, to give alternative views, to critique government when we need to do so.”
He said the Government often shone a light on topics which was portrayed in one way, so it was up to the Opposition to provide an alternative way of looking at things.
Mr Usamate said it was the role of the Opposition to gather people’s opinions, go around and meet people and ensure this was made apparent to the Government so they could be aware of the concerns that people had.
He said he had joined as a Cabinet Minister in 2012, during the military government rule, and had joined FijiFirst afterwards.
“I thank God for giving me that opportunity to be able to give something in that way and since last year, we have been in Opposition.
“I thank God also for giving me that opportunity to learn from that time that I served as a minister, participating in all different kinds of fora, different activities, and I think that’s helped me to be better in the current role that I have.
“I don’t want to go back to it. I just want to focus on what I need to do now and move ahead.”
