By Netani Rika
FIJIAN Prime Minister, Rear-Admiral Frank Baimimarama, has told Opposition Leader, Ro Teimumu Kepa, to marry if she wants better travel allowances.
In the Parliament complex at lunchtime today, Bainimarama accosted Kepa, obviously unhappy about her remarks during the budget debate regarding his $3000 daily travel allowance.
Baimimarama pointed at Kepa’s face and told her she needed a husband in order to match the allowances he received.
The incident was witnessed by Opposition MP, Josefa Dulakiverata, and a number of staff.
Kepa later told journalists she regarded Baimimarama as an officer and a gentleman.
But staff said the Opposition Leader told those close to her: “When they go low, we go high.”
This was a reference to former United States First Lady Michelle Obama’s refusal to stoop to criticism from her opponents.
Kepa is understood also to have declined to make an official complaint about the incident to police or the Speaker of the House.
Accounts of the incident have gone viral on Facebook.
Kepa, Paramount Chief of the Burebasaga Confederacy, has remained a widow since the death of her husband, the late Justice Sailosi Kepa.
With the late Ratu Isoa Damudamu, Tui Noco, Kepa was instrumental for accepting Girmitiys descendents as people of Rewa.