    ratu tatu tevita momoedonu is a fijian chief and has served as the fifth prime minister of fiji twice â each time extremely briefly. both appointments were to get around constitutional technicalities; his first term of office â on 27 may 2000 lasted only a few minutes. his second term â from 14 to 16 march 2001 was for two days. he subsequently served his country as ambassador to japan. using his chiefly title of "taukei sawaieke", he has recently led pushes for the yasana of ba to secede from the burebasaga and kubuna confederacies to form their own fourth confederacy under the tui vuda, ratu josefa iloilo. == first appointment == in 1999, momoedonu had been elected on the fiji labour party (flp) ticket to represent the vuda open constituency in the house of representatives, and subsequently appointed to the cabinet. he was the only minister not present in the parliament building when george speight stormed the complex on 19 may 2000, taking chaudhry and other government members hostage and staging a coup d'Ã©tat. the president, ratu sir kamisese mara, wanted to assume emergency powers to deal with the situation, but was unable to do so, because constitutionally, the president is not allowed to act except on the advice of the prime minister â and prime minister chaudhry, being in captivity, was unable to render such advice. in a move which some legal scholars have questioned as being of doubtful constitutional validity, mara therefore dismissed chaudhry and appointed momoedonu in his place on 27 may, so that momoedonu could "advise" him to suspend parliament and assume emergency powers. upon tendering the requisite advice, momoedonu promptly resigned. the whole procedure had taken only a few minutes. (the move backfired when, two days later, mara was himself deposed by the comm
1941_births Ambassadors_of_Fiji_to_Japan Ba_people Fijian_chiefs Living_people Members_of_the_House_of_Representatives_of_Fiji Prime_Ministers_of_Fiji