POSTSCRIPT: Driti denies rumours. Click here.Mere McCutchan's Parrot
There's something unreal about recent reports from Fiji, as the mainstream media, limited by Government censorship, continue to publish mainly inconsequential non-news articles in protest against media restrictions, or in place of the articles they'd like to write. Take, for example, the front-page feature in yesterday's on line Fiji Times --- Mere McCutcheon's parrot. "Mere McCutchan had just awoken and was preparing breakfast yesterday when she heard something outside ......"
True, the paper did have a small feature on shops and businesses returning to normal business hours (highlighted by Fiji Village) and on a possible apology to former Methodist Church president Rev. Josateki Koroi,* but these serious items were accompanied by another non-news item, "Full House for Harry Potter."
Fiji Village had more "news" coverage with items on the business hours (the emergency regulations being lifted on businesses), swine flu, a police enquiry into sorcery, and Qarase's appeal to leave the country again, which is opposed by FICAC (the Corruption Commission, because the Qarase case is pending). The Fiji Daily Post turned media restriction into media opportunity with a fascinating story of the Taunova Bay Resort manager's plans to put 1,000 acres to agricultural use (this is well worth reading), and the Fiji Sun did likewise with a feature on $3m being pumped into ailing Labasa. On balance, with so many non-news stories, readers would think little is happening in Fiji, but in this they'd be wrong if anti-government blogs located outside the country are any guide.
Bloggers' Rodeo:Jump on for the Ride
Most of these blogs republish each other's postings but over the past week all have been publishing items of alleged unrest in the military. It is impossible to know whether the items have any substance or whether they are published (and republished) as part of a campaign to confuse and destabilise -- or both, with the blog stories feeding the unrest.
Last week CoupFourpointfive reported Bainimarama had suspended Land Force Commander Pita Driti and Commanding officer of the 3rd Infantry Regiment Ratu Tevita Uluilakeba Mara. But on Monday the story was that it was Driti and Ratu Tevita telling Bainimarama to step down, and yesterday (Wednesday) it's back to Bainimarama telling Driti and Ratu Tevita again. Yet both officers were reported taking morning tea on Monday at the barracks and neither has made a public statement. To keep the pot boiling, the blogs also reported tension "within the ranks" over Bainimarama's cancellation of the Methodist Conference, saying "inside sources" said the Conference will go ahead despite the cancellation.
If these confusing accounts were not enough, at 1:20pm on Tuesday the blog FijiCoup2006, run by Sai Lealea, formerly of the NZ Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs in Wellington, published an item headed "Change in Fiji Military Leadership Underway Now." But then mysteriously the post was removed, with no explanation offered. Was someone pulling Sai's leg or did the change become unstuck?
It really is very difficult to know what's going on. There may well be some truth in the blog stories but I wish the blogs, and the generally more reasoned Coupfourpointfive in particular, would make more effort to check their sources, or a least give some indication of probable reliability. As long as the Government (in my opinion, unwisely) continues to censor the media, bloggers are too important a source of information to be ignored by readers who may find too many of their stories unreliable or unfounded. Photo Fiji Times.
*Rev. Koroi was forceably deposed for his opposition to the "pro-Fijian" 1987 Coup by Rev. Manasa Lasaro who actively supported all the Coups before the last one. It is Lasaro's and Rev. Tomasi Kanailagi's rabid ethno-nationalist politics that Bainimarama wants removed from the Church. If they had resigned, Bainimarama would have had no obvious reason to cancel the Methodist Church Conference. One presumes their failure to do so is a political statement.
2 comments:
A very insightful conclusion. This is the seat of twenty years of conflict: unresolved and deliberately overlooked to the detriment of an entire nation's development. Have a glance in N. Ireland's direction. Has that all 'gone away'?
Ministers of the Methodist Church do not resign unless there are obvious moral lapses on their part.
In the case of Kanailagi and Lasaro, their political stance would be reviewed under proper church processes that cannot simply occur overnight. Indeed it is bodies such as the Methodist Conference who possess the powers to discipline ministers; it is a strictly democratic process: church ministers are subject to their peers. Oh that we had such accountability within the current interim regime.
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