Staff Reporter (with other media)
Auckland, February 10, 2021
The ouster and deportation of Pal Ahluwalia, Vice-Chancellor of the Suva-based University of South Pacific (USP) has caused ripples of anger and disappointment across Fiji.
RNZ has quoted Mr Ahluwalia as saying that on February 4, 2021, USP Chancellor Taneti Maamau had alerted the University’s governing body, the USP Council, to veiled threats in Fiji media.
“This resulted in Mr Aingimea advising Council Members, including Fijian representatives, that in their next meeting they would amend the Vice-Chancellor’s contract to afford better security,” RNZ said in a report.
However, Mr Ahluwalia said that his work permit was rescinded on the same day and he that he was deported a day before the Council could meet (on Friday), following the notice in the media.
“What had appeared in the Fiji Sun in the ‘Whispers Column’ to say that ‘Watch this space. A school where big students study, its leader will be removed from the country.’ So he took the step to say to Council, we need to amend the Vice-Chancellor’s contract.”
“It was an Illegal Act”
Mr Ahluwalia said that the way in which his contract was frustrated was an illegal act.
The USP is a regional institution, said Ahluwalia, owned by 12 Pacific countries and “the decisions of the University Council, which has representatives from all the countries, needs to be respected” which is inconsistent with the way Fiji acted in his arrest and deportation, he added.
The Council said in a statement that they were not consulted.
Mr Ahluwalia said that he had received a lot of support from the entire region and that he would welcome any action from the USP Council that would allow the University to move forward, including a rumoured move of headquarters to another country.
“I believe that I was selected to do the job and it is obvious that the community – staff and students – strongly endorse what I was doing. So, it is my belief that if I need to move to Samoa to run this University, we will make it work,” he said.
“I will abide by whatever decision the University Council makes.”
