(+) They're At It Again. This Time Sir Rabbie

Comment.

Hardly had I posted an item on the stoning of Attar Singh's car (in which I raised the outside possibility that it could have been by anti-Interim Government supporters seeking to embarrass the IG and derail the PPDF) when a a further development gave support to my "outside possibility."

In a feature, "PM's Office in Damage Control as PNG Queries Insults," the Fiji Times reports anger in PNG after it was reported the "[Fiji] interim administration rubbished the integrity of former PNG prime minister Sir Rabbie Namaliu after rejecting him to be chief mediator at the upcoming President's Political Dialogue Forum."

Jone Dakuvula, the Forum Coordinator, having earlier refuted media reports that Sir Rabbie had been appointed as chief mediator ("no such decision   ...the matter is still to be decided by the political parties meeting on April 9") NOW had to deny the latest misinformation. In fact, he said, it was the IG that had recommended Sir Rabbie to the Commonwealth.The PM had made no comment about Sir Rabbie, either at the meeting or publicly to any news media in Fiji. 

"The misreporting of this matter by the news media in Fiji is entirely due to the activities of some persons who leaked confidential information from the UN and the Commonwealth Secretariat."He labelled the accusations "mischievous" and threatening to long-standing good relations with PNG. 

In a press conference on Tuesday, PNG's Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare and Foreign Minister Sam Abal had slammed reports that Fijian politicians had labelled Sir Rabbie as a "puppet of Australia and New Zealand". 

Meanwhile in Fiji, in a not very well timed move -- given that the media is implicated in all the leaks and misinformation concerning last Friday's meeting  -- anti-IG NGOCHR chairperson Virisila Buadromo called for an end to media intimidation in Fiji by the interim government.

One might ask who is trying to intimidate who?  Who spread this malicious information? Why the car stoning?  And most important: why such acts now, just as progress was seen to be made at last Friday's meeting?  

It does not stretch the imagination to suppose these acts aim to strengthen the hands of the Interim Government detractors, derail the PPDF, and tip the political balance to their advantage. Whether they are the result of a string of unco-ordinated events or a well organized campaign we do not yet know. But it is beyond belief that they are acts instigated or condoned by the Interim Government.  Someone else is "at it" again.  -- Crosbie Walsh.

STOP PRESS

Fiji Live reports (19 March 2009) Sir Rabbie Namaliu has withdrawn his name from the list of candidates proposed to chair the President’s Political Dialogue Forum (PPDF) after it was reported "Fiji's political parties (sic!) called him a puppet of Australia and NZ."  In fact, only two minor parties of the 19 attending the meeting were involved. They were the Conservative Alliance Matanitu Vanua (an ultra-extremist ethnic Fijian nationalist party) and the General Voters Party (one of two small parties representing "other races").  Neither party had a seat in the old parliament.  [Sir Rabbie's withdrawal is a setback for the PPDF and national reconciliation. Their statements, thanks to the media, had the desired effect.]