Vocea at the UN in Geneva
Fiji's delegate to the UN Geneva Human Rights meeting, Peceli Vocea, has told delegates pressing for early elections is futile. First the Roadmap, then the elections. Radio Australia has the best coverage of what he and others had to say. Link.Sydney Morning Herald Link.
The Australian link. US Mission statement link.
The Australian link. US Mission statement link.
Vocea welcomes UN workshop recommendations on human rights and says “Fiji will employ the outcome of this process as a benchmark for future human rights reporting and express the committment that in areas found wanting, it will be improved upon in future reviews.” The National Dialogue Forum and visits by UN representatives will improve the human rights situation in Fiji. Link.
Fiji to assess UN's 116 recommendations. China, Russia, Mexico and the Philippines urges the international community to support the government’s roadmap to democracy. Link.
Fiji will help media. Vocea also said government would help the media "in everyway conceivable ... to ensure that the media provides the level of journalism and media coverage that encourages national unity and harmony, and which is conducive to the development of real and sustainable democracy in Fiji. For details, click link.
How independent is independent?
Formerly with Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and now the Lowy Institute Myer Foundation Melanesia Program Director, Jenny Hayward-Jones, reveals all she knows about Fiji -- and there are no surprises. The Lowy Institute's board is a mix of corporate businessmen, bankers, academics linked to business, former ambassadors and advisers to the Australian government. It is privately endowed and claims to be independent. Link.
Wise calls for Pacific regional co-operation
Speaking at the UN meeting on the global economic conference in Vila, Vanuatu, Fiji’s Permanent Secretary for National Planning Pita Wise has called for more regional and sub-regional co- operation - "South-South" co-operation with countries such as India and China, and inter-Pacific Island co-operation. He said Fiji was particularly keen to foster Melanesian group trade. Link.
Security analyist on China in the Pacific Link.
Security analyist on China in the Pacific Link.
In Fiji
Bainimarama in Ra province
During his three-day tour of Ra province in N.E.Viti Levu, the PM has promised six inland village a bridge connection to in Naitasiri to give them access to primary schools and health clinics. Link. Also, PM called for more fish ponds for subsistence and earnings. Link.
Shameem clarifies Crimes Decree meaning of treason. Link.
Tourism rebounds. Link.
Tourist VAT refund scheme underway. Link.
Massive waste and abuse.
Massive ($3.4m) waste and abuse revealed in the Public Accounts Committee review report on farming in the Northern Division up to the first quarter of 2006,is attributed to "shortcomings" in the then Department of Land Resources Planning and Development. Link. See also Co-operatives fail to repay loans. Link. Mahogany and pine trees "disappeared." Link.
The Suva City Council Staff Association says it is willing to apologise to the council management and the government on behalf of 12 employees sacked last week if they were indeed guilty of posting anti-government comments on blogs. Link.
Tourist VAT refund scheme underway. Link.
Massive waste and abuse.
Massive ($3.4m) waste and abuse revealed in the Public Accounts Committee review report on farming in the Northern Division up to the first quarter of 2006,is attributed to "shortcomings" in the then Department of Land Resources Planning and Development. Link. See also Co-operatives fail to repay loans. Link. Mahogany and pine trees "disappeared." Link.
Minimum wages in the manufacting industry (process workers, machine operators, tradesmen, drivers, clerks) are under consideration. Present minimum rates range from $2.50 to $4 an hour. Link.
The Suva City Council Staff Association says it is willing to apologise to the council management and the government on behalf of 12 employees sacked last week if they were indeed guilty of posting anti-government comments on blogs. Link.
The Fijian Psyche. Emoni Cama in the blog Fiji Today gives his view on the "Fijian Psyche." Some may find it too generalized and stereotypal but for those wishing to know "ordinary" Fijians better, it's well worth reading. Link.
14 comments:
No surprise that the Lowy Institute's Jenny Hayward-Jones, a constant critic of the Fiji regime, is a former Australian diplomat. The Institute's position on Fiji has been a disgrace, a mirror image of Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade even as it purports to be an independent think tank. It even oscillates between positions in line with the changes in DFAT's weather vane on Fiji. Before Stephen Smith, the foreign minister, began his process of "engagement" with Fiji by meeting Ratu Inoka Kubuabola, Jenny Hayward-Jones was at the forefront of advocating a tough stance to bring the regime to heel. But when the meeting was announced, she did a complete about-face, going public with a call for engagement herself and warning that Australia was losing credibility in the region because of its Fiji policy. Now, it seems, that was just a sop to her old employers in the public arena. This piece shows her true colours. The hyphenated shrew is still one of the main attack dogs of Australia's unyielding policy, up there with other hardliners like the head of DFAT's Pacific Desk, Richard Rowe, and the idiot the foreign affairs luvvies hail as the oracle on Fiji, former high commissioner in Suva James Batley. History will judge all of them harshly but especially those careerists who bend with every change of the diplomatic breeze. A miserable, ignorant effort by a woman who's meant to be an expert on Melanesia but seems only comfortable with mono-cultural governments like the SDL and stooges like "Lie" Qarase who do exactly what the Australians tell them. The deeply unattractive Miss Wayward-Jones is the perfect bedfellow for her miserable fellow travelers at the ANU - Doctor Frankelstein, Brij Lalaland and Johnny-never-be-good Baledrokadroka. How they must be stewing to see the Aussies and Kiwis bending to the inevitable as the regime strengthens its moral authority with its multiracial program.
Red Dragon
@ Misguided Miss...
Well, Hayward-Jones has underestimated the tenacity and the determination of some of those with whom she has 'engaged'. Would Hayward-Jones recognise a Cabal of Corruption if she saw one? Does she now understand what plotters and planners of terrorism achieve - now that the Australian terror planners are behind bars for almost thirty years? Let Hayward-Jones come again to Fiji. Perhaps she was not spoken to sufficiently plainly? She ought to have asked herself at that time, Why?
Next time around, she should set aside her baggage of received ideas and brief and present a truly open mind. She will find that some will be prepared to give her another go. A little honest humility would not go astray. This is Fiji - not Australia.
I was at the meeting Frank held in Ra and he is no different to any other politician. He kept repeating what "his" government was doing for the people. He is lapping up the praise like he is doing it all himself. He had no words of praise for all the civil servants that are now stepping up and striving to achieve the aims of his government. He is another Qarase in the making.
Sali
@ Sali
It is interesting to hear your take on this visit. However, before we get ahead of ourselves, ought we not to think about the many years of improper service delivered to the people of Fiji by civil servants? People who were paid from taxation (raised from all of us) to serve us and to benefit the people of Fiji? When that outcome is achieved, then a meausre of recognition will be appropriate. Until then, it might be best if service delivery is rendered as part of a Code of Conduct. There always was one for civil servants but it somehow.....got shelved? Did Jenny Hayward-Jones and the Lowy Institute to which she belongs, get to notice this and take notes?
VII Generation
One of the failings of this blog is that most posts keep harping back to the past without a constructive way foward.
All will not be solved by smacking down any suggestion that the future is not all rosy.
Sali above comments that there are civil servants that have stepped up to the mark but immediatly we get into a speil where we rehash the fact that they were pathetic in the past.
That Frank may develop into another Qarase is one posibility that may have to be faced or nipped in the bud. Frank needs to be subjected to the same reasonable critique that any PM is subjected to.
Cama, I cannot accept this criticism. Far more than any other blog it has constantly made suggestions about the way forward. In reporting news, I also comment on possible outcomes. Use the "Search" facility to see if I'm wrong. Note also the +,- and o symbols to indicate political leanings. If you have suggestions on the way forward (or what I should be saying on this), please let me know.
Croz, I also think some of the blind adulation of Frank and the regime is uncalled for. But I don't think it's coming from you so much as your contributors. There are a couple of people who can't seem to abide anything other than 100 per cent endorsement of the regime. And their scorn for those who are more skeptical sometimes borders on the vicious. I don't need to name them but one always signs off with "God Bless Fiji" and seems to genuinely regard Frank as a saint. I agree with Cama that the true believers need to be as wary as the rest of us that their "saviour" might turn out to to be a huge disappointment. Frank governs only with the consent of the Military Council and if something goes wrong there, he'll be toast. We know some members of the council don't support his multiracial agenda. So if the current unity in military ranks doesn't hold, things could suddenly get very iffy indeed. I'm not saying this is a certainty or even probable but you'd be mad not to see it as a possibility given the major shocks of the past 20 years. History tells us that the old saying about hoping for the best but preparing for the worst isn't a bad approach to any government in Fiji including this one. Certainly, a critical eye is better than blind hagiography when so much is at stake. Now, watch as the true believers skewer me for my heresy.
Eroni Cama deserves high praise for a very clever insight into the Fijian psyche. While he's obviously talking in generalities, every bit of his analysis rings true. For any outsider puzzled by the twists and turns of Fiji politics, it's an extremely valuable document. It can certainly explain why someone like Ratu Inoke Kubuabola can be a prime instigator of the 1987 coup and still wind up as Frank's foreign minister. It's about contrition on one side and forgiveness on the other. So many other paradoxes in Fiji can be explained when set against in this brilliant little synopsis. It ought to be widely distributed and even deserves to be incorporated into the nation's textbooks. There's nothing demeaning about it whatsoever. And it goes a hell of a long way towards explaining how Fijians think, celebrating both their immense qualities and occasional foibles. Vinaka, Eroni, for a very enlightening treatise.
Wow, wow, wow, all of a sudden we see naysayers come flooding this blog with their doom and gloom gibberish of Fiji under Bainimarama's leadership. Mark my world, the RFMF will achieve its mission come 2014 and beyond. That is a sure bet.
Why do I say the RFMF, and not Bainimarama, will achieve their mission? Because they know the price should it fails. But FAILURE is a NEVER, NEVER for this mission. That is a sure bet also.
The naysayers who have suddenly pop up on this blog are the very same people who have been poisoning the minds in blogs such as Raw Fiji News etc. Sorry folks, your doom and gloom will never work this time. We've had enough of the likes of you. We are moving forward to a truly race-free election and real democracy in Fiji.
The best article that sums up why the RFMF had to remake Fiji can be read in Rajendra Prasad’s article printed in blog Stuck In The Mud. That is exactly why all these changes had to be made.
The problem with naysayers is that their mindset is still absorbed and shaped by the discredited systems and ideologies of the past. They can’t think outside the box because they have tunnel vision.
The Max, we're not naysayers for the sake of it. As opposed to the yaysayers like you, we don't regard Frank as Christ reincarnate and the Military Council as his apostles. I'd have thought your blind conviction that the regime has a monopoly on righteousness makes you the one with tunnel vision. We doubting Thomases want to see the stigmata before committing one way or the other. Unlike the regime, however, we tolerate religious freedom so do go on worshipping your false god, if you feel it gives your life meaning. On your knees and a yaysayer to the max.
@ Gadarene swine
Wow wow wow again. Sorry if you think I'm a Frank worshiper, you are so wrong.
What Frank is doing to chart a new direction for Fiji is what I'm supporting. That is the absolute truth.
Now anti-Frank/RFMF people just want a quick return to democracy. They argue that an elected parliament should be the one making the changes Frank is doing. Everybody knows that is NEVER going to happen under the old mindset of Laisenia Qarase and his ilk.
Fiji needs a fundamental change everywhere to rid itself of this coup coup culture and the mentality that has into national consciousness. Everybody knows that it was the work of failed politicians, corrupt individuals, businessmen, thieves, murderers, etc that stifle Fiji from meaningful progress in the last 20 years.
Hey, Maxie, if you're not a Frank worshipper, then except that the guy has his drawbacks. Now, he's warned people that there'll be consequences if they criticise the regime. Is this big stick, bully boy approach any way to behave? I support his overall objectives but I don't like this sort of crap.
Sorry, that should be "accept". No Heineken here, Just a touch of insanity.
@ The Max provocation
That approach is necessary in these times.
When you have agents of destruction in the media, church, so-called civil societies all working in tandem to destabilize the country, tough language and authority needs to be implemented.
Those racists in talatala attires and now democracy peddlers needed to be kept at bay and be told the truth of their folly. We've had enough of these people.
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