Check out what this Australian journalist had to say about meeting Bainimarama. Link. There'll be bigger article, with more pictures, in the Observer on Saturday.
Is Australian "expert" ignorant, devious or what? Jenny Hayward-Jones, Director of the Lowy Institute's Myer Melanesia Program, is in the news again. Commenting on Australia's relaxation of sanctions on Burma, she asked why not Fiji. So far, so good. But then she went on to say "the Methodist church senior hierarchy has been arrested" and "former public officials that criticise the government will be stripped of their pensions for years of public service." Neither statement is correct.
Some Methodist leaders were detained and then released for breaching the Emergency Regulations. None is pining away in prison, as her listeners might assume from this statement. The pensions are non-contributory parliament pensions paid to politicians, not the much wider group of "former public officials. These pensions have little to do with "years of service," recipients make no financial contribution, and they are paid directly by government. They most certainly are not the contributory FNPF pensions received by ordinary public servants.
When supposedly informed people in the public eye, such as Ms Hayward-Jones, make such incorrect statements, we must dub them ignorant or devious.
Winston Churchill would have used another word, and then apologized. When asked by the Speaker of the House of Commons to withdraw his accusation that a fellow MP was a liar, he "apologized" by saying he had committed a "terminological inexactude."
Farmers Union supports Fiji PM.The National Farmers Union will give their full support to Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama’s efforts in taking the sugar industry forward…despite differences in the past with the current government. Union national president Sanjeet Maharaj made the commitment after Commodore Bainimarama met with cane farmers in Rakiraki last weekend. Maharaj says this was probably the first time for a prime minister to have an open forum with the people of Rakiraki to freely discuss sugar industry issues. “Yes, we fully support this government. We have been supporting the government right from the first day ... there were ... some differences but looking at the things now I think its quite on the positive side.” Maharaj says they now have confidence in the government to resolve the issue of land leases and other problems facing the sugar industry. Link.
Bogus contracts being clamped down. A number of investigations are underway. Ridding the public service of graft and corruption is part of the Roadmap . Link.
Teachers warned to show profesionalism. Education Minister Filipe Bole has issued a warning to all the teachers to show professionalism and commitment to their profession.This iniative is also part of the Roadmap. Link.
7 comments:
Please refer to the official NFU statement on this issue on our website www.flp.org.fj
Vinaka NFU, I will provide a link to the full statment in my next Short Briefs. Your help is appreciated.
Jenny Wayward Jones is devious, Croz, an Australian foreign affairs department apparatchik masquerading as an independent commentator. She's a peddler of spin and misinformation about Fiji and, as a former diplomat, never does anything to stray from DFAT's agenda d'jour. She poses as an expert on Melanesian affairs yet shows little aptitude for understanding the subtleties of the region. So her ignorance of the finer points of Fiji's position is to be expected. What's contemptible is her misrepresentation of the facts to suit her own purposes. You're absolutely justified in bringing this preposterous harridan to book. She's extremely dangerous as the Australian media routinely uses her as an "independent commentator" when she's nothing of the sort. I suggest you start a Madam Hyphen-hyphen watch. You'll soon find other instances of willful misrepresentation by this puppet of the Australian establishment.
Terminological inexactude? Terminally dishonest and disingenuous more like it. Members of Australia's foreign affairs cabal are seething about the failure of their Fiji policy. No need to be too alarmed. This is just a death throes squawk.
Should it be inexactITude?
Yes Croz, you and Gone to Myers are both wrong. The following from Wikipedia:
Terminological inexactitude is a phrase introduced in 1906 by British politician (later Prime Minister) Winston Churchill. Today, it is used as a euphemism or circumlocution meaning a lie or untruth.
Lets try to get this kind of thing right before we head butt our enemies.
What did I get wrong? Churchill said it, in the House of Commons, and he used it to mean "lie". And that's what I said and meant.
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