Bau chief and former Vice President Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi said there is a need for dialogue and engagement in a forum that the interim government and its political opponents can participate in, without preconditions.

He said the process under the National Council for Building a Better Fiji could continue to develop the principles for a charter for good governance, however, there has to be another means of finding a common ground.

Ratu Joni called upon the interim regime as the party holding the reins of power to engage its political opponents, without that, he said the country will continue to drift divided and fractured as ever.

He also highlighted that there is a need now to begin discussions on the role of the military since 2006, the extent to which they have entered the public service was a concern, and it has blurred the boundaries between the military as a disciplined service, and the latter as a civilian organization.

The former vice president said the military had come to see itself as having a part to play in national affairs and a generation of military officers has grown to maturity in the shadows of four coups and they will not be easily weaned off their appetite for more.