KEY POINTS:
NUKUA'LOFA - Helen Clark is normally famous for her frank talk but she couldn't be bothered today continuing a press conference that kept returning to the "frank" issue at the Pacific Island Forum in Tonga.
Frank Bainimarama clearly has a following in the Pacific, that was evident from the
hero's reception he received from ordinary Tongans at the opening of the forum in Nukua'lofa today.
When I say ordinary Tongans I am talking about 1000 rain-soaked school girls form Queen Salote college who lead the rapturous applause when he was introduced.
In what could only have been an error by the manners-obsessed Tongans, Helen Clark was the only leader not given a formal introduction so it was difficult to assess the ordinary view of Helen Clark.
Bainimarama arrived back at the Dateline Hotel about five minutes before her and yet again he refused to stop and talk - though he did pause when an ABC reporter yelled the roof off asking the Commodore how he was going and getting a thumbs up.
Bainimarama is about to meet with Don McKinnon this afternoon, and while Clark disapproved of the coup leader having been invited to the Commonwealth dinner last night, she thinks the McKinnon meeting is a good idea.
Talking to journalists later she didn't want to comment on the reception the coup-leader received at the opening - actually she didn't hear it because he arrived before her.
Later Fiji media asked her if she was prepared to talk constructively with the interim Prime Minister, to which she answered a different question. "I won't be having any bilaterals."
She didn't want to know about my question asking what it says when Bainimarama has become a hero apparently because of Australia and New Zealand's strong condemnation of him.
I didn't get to ask the whole question because she cut it short and shut down, as we all in the Gallery witness from time to time when she has tired of an issue.
Frank is everywhere.
The speeches of the Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare at the opening appeared to have barbed a barbed message in them for Australia and New Zealand.
Sir Michael Somare said it was important "that we all work together in the usual Pacific Way to find a way forward in the best interest of the people of Fiji."
"A member of our family needs our understanding and assistance to bring it back to the fold. We would not be doing justice to our objectives if we sought solely punitive action for a member of the family."
It is a typically political straw-man speech, however, because no country, and certainly not Australia and New Zealand are seeking "solely punitive action" for Fiji and yet it makes Sir Michael looking like he is standing up to them.
At the opening, all the leaders arrived in Chinese-made and donated Buicks but King George Tupou V arrived in a stretch vintage car, a Hillman Pullman - said to have been brought in recently from New Zealand where it had been the car of his grandmother Queen Salote.
No signs of the monocle or the London cab which is his day car. He made a speech which was largely inaudible because of poor sound system but I did pick up a tribute he paid to Sir Keith Holyoake, who was instrumental in establishing the South Pacific Forum in 1971.
