Ratu ''Ratu'' () is an Austronesian title used by male Fijians of chiefly rank. An equivalent title, ''adi'' (pronounced ), is used by females of chiefly rank. In the Malay language, the title ''ratu'' is also the traditional honorific title to r ...

'' Meli Bogileka is a

Fiji Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...

an politician. He was the Secretary of the

People's National Party The People's National Party (PNP) (PNP; ) is a Social democracy, social democratic List of political parties in Jamaica, political party in Jamaica, founded in 1938 by Norman Manley, Norman Washington Manley who served as party president unti ...

(PNP) up to its decision to merge into the Party of National Unity (PANU) on 5 March 2006. This merger, an affair complicated by several about-turns, saw Bogileka appointed Secretary of the new PANU. (Bogileka had originally helped to forge the PNP as a union of a former PANU and another party, the Protector of Fiji (BKV); both parties were reregistered in January 2006, seceding from the PNP; the PNP and the BKV subsequently merged into PANU in March). Bogileka was educated at St John's College in Cawaci. First elected as a candidate of the original PANU to represent the Ba West Fijian communal constituency in the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entities. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often ...

in the

parliamentary election A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. General elections ...

of 1999, Bogileka subsequently served in the

Cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filin ...

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Mahendra Chaudhry Mahendra Pal Chaudhry (; born 9 February 1942) is a Fijian politician and the leader of the Fiji Labour Party. Following a historic election in which he defeated the long-time former leader, Sitiveni Rabuka, the former trade union leader beca ...

from 1999 to 2000, and was held as a hostage by gunmen led by

George Speight George Speight (; born 1957), also known by his pseudonym Ilikimi Naitini, is a Fijian businessman and politician who was the leader of the 2000 Fijian coup d'état, in which he and rebel soldiers from Fiji's Counter Revolutionary Warfare Unit sei ...

, who led a

coup d'état A coup d'état (; ; ), or simply a coup , is typically an illegal and overt attempt by a military organization or other government elites to unseat an incumbent leadership. A self-coup is said to take place when a leader, having come to powe ...

against the Chaudhry government, starting on 19 May 2000. Political realignments that followed the 2000 crisis saw him lose his seat in the

election An election is a formal group decision-making process whereby a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold Public administration, public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative d ...

held to restore democracy in 2001. Bogileka also stirred controversy by criticizing the legacy of modern Fiji's first statesman, Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna, who is regarded as a national hero. On 23 May 2005, he said that Sukuna's achievements had been overstated, and that his policies had confined Fijians to villages and marginalized them economically. He considered that Sukuna should have used his chiefly position to urge indigenous Fijians to work rather than remain in their villages in the name of culture. His comments provoked an angry reaction from the government, which issued a press release calling his statement "inaccurate" and saying that it should be "treated with the contempt it deserves." Bogileka has also served General Secretary of the Viti and Resource Landowners Association, which advocates the return to indigenous ownership of all "crown land" – i.e., government-owned land. This was not a political demand, he told the Fiji Sun on 3 January 2006, but rather an insistence on the fulfillment of a promise made by

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

in 1881, at Nailaga in

Ba Province Ba () is a province of Fiji, occupying the north-western sector of Viti Levu, Fiji's largest island. It is one of fourteen provinces in the nation of Fiji, and one of eight based in Viti Levu. It is Fiji's most populous province, with a populat ...

. He strongly disagreed with

Military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a d ...

Commander

Commodore Commodore may refer to: Ranks * Commodore (rank), a naval rank ** Commodore (Royal Navy), in the United Kingdom ** Commodore (India), in India ** Commodore (United States) ** Commodore (Canada) ** Commodore (Finland) ** Commodore (Germany) or ' ...

Frank Bainimarama Josaia Voreqe "Frank" Bainimarama (; born 27 April 1954) is a Fijian former politician and naval officer who served as the prime minister of Fiji from 2007 until 2022. A member of the FijiFirst party, which he founded in 2014, he began his c ...

for saying that the association should not "waste time" trying to recover ownership of the Queen Elizabeth Barracks in Delainabua,

Suva Suva (, ) is the Capital city, capital and the most populous city of Fiji. It is the home of the country's largest metropolitan area and serves as its major port. The city is located on the southeast coast of the island of Viti Levu, in Rew ...

. It was announced on 12 March 2006 that Bogileka would contest his old Ba West constituency in the

scheduled for 6–13 May. He was unsuccessful. Following the

2006 Fijian coup d'état The Fijian coup d'état of December 2006 was a coup d'état in Fiji carried out by Commodore (rank), Commodore Frank Bainimarama against Prime Minister of Fiji, Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase and President Josefa Iloilo. It was the culminatio ...

Bogileka became a supporter of the military regime, and urged the removal of democrats from the regime's pre-election political forum. In 2009 he was suspended from the Nasinu Town Council for unspecified reasons. He contested the 2014 election as a Labour candidate, but was unsuccessful.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bogileka, Meli Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Party of National Unity (Fiji) politicians I-Taukei Fijian members of the House of Representatives (Fiji) Fijian chiefs Politicians from Ba Province