News and Commments Friday 7 October 2011

WEEKEND READING. • Allen Lockington Column • Economic Freedom and Human Values  

Click to enlarge

• Graham Davis The Foreign Media's Coverage of Fiji, Past and Present • And possibly more. Watch this space.

7.10.11 
ACUTE WATER CRISIS IN TUVALU. Health Minister, Dr Neil Sharma, said “A clinical medical specialist team from CWM Hospital can be available within six hours notice for deployment.

There are adequate stocks of certain antibiotics but the low stock of other items has prompted our Chief Pharmacist to make supplementary orders to UNICEF for oral rehydration solutions (ORS), intravenous fluids and elixir and tablet paracetamol.”  Clinical support services from CWM Hospital are available in terms of beds, clinical management (including surgery) and personnel. The minister said the public health/clinical team could also be organised when the need arose to travel to Tuvalu. Fiji will help as much as it can. -- Based on No:1884/MOH. The NZ media make mention only of aid from NZ, Australia and the US.

FLY THE FLAG FOR FIJI DAY. MOI Permanent Secretary Sharon Smith-Johns said Government is urging people to fly the Fiji flag outside their homes and offices as part of Fiji Day celebrations. She said Fiji Day is the only time of the year when citizens remember how Fiji was given the responsibility to govern the country without external influence. She added that the best way to celebrate Fiji Day is to reach out to those who are less fortunate.

REMOTE AREA ALLOWANCES TO HELP RURAL DEVELOPMENT.  Single civil servants posted away from their home bases  to work in rural and maritime areas will receive a Locational Allowances of $1,200 p.a. and married officers $1,800 p.a.backdated to August 1st. And all officers in these areas living in Government houses (other than doctors and nurses who will receive free housing) will have their rent dropped from 8 to 4% of basic salary from October 1st.

In announcing these changes, the PM said the measures are a response to appeals from the officers affected and are intended to improve service delivery in rural and maritime areas. The allowances will be sourced from the respective ministerial budgets and will replace all previous allowances.-- Based on No:1874/PSC.

POLICING RURAL AREAS. The iTaukei Affairs Board and the Police signed a memorandum of understanding yesterday that will establishing a rural policing partnership. The MOU is an outcome of National Consultation on proactive approaches to curb drug cultivation and the need to find alternative community-based approaches for effective rural policing. Police will closely liaise with all Roko Tui in the organization of drug awareness programmes and in finding ways to strengthen community policing within iTaukei communities. -- Based No:1885/MiT.

LAND BANK v. TLTB LEASES. The 2010 Land Use Decree aimed to bring more idle unused land into productive use by setting up Land Banks. Landowners offered their unused land to Government for 99 years and Government looked for leasees. Once leased, landowners receive a higher, government-backed, rental (10% of Unimproved Capital Value compared to the iTaukei Land Trust Board's 6%); payment are regular, and leasors receive all the rent (The TLTB deducts about 15%). So  far, some 2000 hectares are in Land Banks.The demand for land by overseas investors continues to grow and requests for four to five acre lands for residential purposes have also been received from locals. The Land Banks are one of several reforms Government intends to have in place before the 2014 general elections. -- Based on Fiji Sun.

News and Comments Thursday 6 October 2011

Watch Fiji Day Celebrations Live on Fiji TV at 9.50am, 7^th October, 2011

6.10.11  RUGBY WORLD CUP PUNCHES HOLES in the NZ readership.  Whether it's the RWC or the near absence of almost any other news in the NZ media I do not know but NZ blog readers have dropped by half since the Cup competitions started. For the past two weeks Fiji readers have slightly exceeded Australian and US readers, with NZ readers less than half of any of the others.

NEW CONSTITUTION BEFORE ELECTIONS? The latest FijiLive poll asks: "Do you think there is a need to draft a new Fiji Constitution before the 2014 elections?" So far 77% have said Yes and 23% No. What the No vote represents is difficult to say: No, vote using the old race-based electorates. Or No, Government can pass a decree on this.

Whatever the reason for any of the votes,  it is important that the Constitution is revised before the elections, and even more important that there are full participatory discussions on the changes needed.

Government FOR the people needs to be accompanied by government BY the people as Fiji proceeds with its plans for a sustainable democracy after 2014.

THE NAME FIJIAN AND GOOD GOVERNANCE CONTRARY TO CULTURE AND RELIGION.   Government's proclamation that all Fiji citizens are Fijian was a healthy step towards creating a common national identity but a proclamation does create a new reality, and there is some resistance from ituakei citizens, especially among older people. This was the finding of a Citizen's Constitutional Forum-organised workshop on citizenship, good governance and human rights. CCF educator Sereima Lotubula said there was a need to change attitudes and CCF CEO Rev.Akuila Yabaki said this would take time.

"We started the advocacy programs after the 2000 coup and found that because of misinformation, there were wrong perceptions in all communities about government's intention and other ethnicities.  The colonial structure of rule is probably the cause of the misinterpretation and of pre-conceived ideas," he said.

A baseline report by the CCF showed it was clear that the iTaukei views and misconceptions about exclusive rights to the term Fijian were entrenched, particularly among the older members of the population.The report said there were misconceptions about the Vola ni Kawa Bula issues and privileges of the iTaukei people.

On good governance, the report said there was a need for more education regarding what good governance is. The report said there is knowledge of principles of good governance but some  iTaukei labour under the misconception that such principles contradict their religious beliefs or cultural values.

FIJI'S DESTITUTES, THE POOR AND THE WORLD BANK. A reader comments on the World Bank assessment that 28% of Fiji's welfare recipients should not be on welfare.

"The World Bank has not been known to alleviate poverty anywhere in the world. Indeed, it together with its sister or brother Bretton Woods institution, the IMF, has caused misery, hunger and deaths in numerous debtor nations of the global South in the 1980s through their conditionalities and structural adjustment programmes.

As you know, Fiji's family assistance allowance is rather paltry, amounting to monthly support ($60 to $120) to the poorest of the poor. As pointed by Fr Kevin Barr, the 24,000 who receive FAA constitute a fraction of Fiji’s poor who officially comprise 35% of Fiji’s people.

If some not so poor have slipped into the category of destitute currently receiving FAA, then this has to do with the lack of professionalism among the public servants who work for the department of social welfare. Many of these employees are under qualified and were especially politicized during the periods of governments led by Rabuka and Qarase.

It will be most revealing to see whether the Bainimarama government is transparent on the 28% who are deemed by the ‘Bank’ to be unworthy recipients of FAA. Let's see the criteria that is being used to remove them from the list of FAA recipients.

UPDATE FROM ANOTHER READER: "In fact the Dept of Social Welfare has reduced payments from the previous $60-$120 to $50-$100.Also once the $30 food stamps were introduced some people on $60 found their allowance reduced to $40. Protests were made to the Minister and I hope this has been rectified. Also, the idea of giving up to $5,000 for people on FAS to start a small business and then declaring them "out of poverty" is another crazy move."

NEXT PINA MEETING IN FIJI.The Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) feels its decision to hold its 2012 media summit in Fiji will assist local media to work together for the betterment of the country. PINA president, Moses Stevens said he was aware of the situation in Fiji but it wanted to engage with the local media to assist in a return to having normal media relations.

The breakaway Pacific Freedom Forum, however, raises an important point in the Solomon Times: "Under the media decree application process for a regional media meeting, every session of PINA 2012, every speaker presenting and the name of every delegate planning to attend has to be vetted by the regime, who can also be there 'monitoring' what is said." I think the PFF is confusing the Media Decree with PER. I can find no references to the alleged restrictions in the Media Decree.

Australia's Elite Sources of Information on Fiji

Richard Marles, the Australian Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Affairs, has called the recent Tebbutt poll "ridiculous." The poll showed that 66% of the sampled population thought the Bainimarama Government was doing a good job. Jenny Hayward-Jones of the Lowy Institute that paid for the poll  disagrees. This is what she said of Australia's sources of information on Fiji:

"Just because the people polled expressed views that conflicted with what the Australian government believes the Fiji people think does not make the poll ridiculous. Thanks in large part to the Fiji regime's restrictions on free speech, the Australian government has relied on the views largely of elites – academics, NGO leaders, Fijians with chiefly status, former politicians, some businesspeople, blogs written largely by Fiji citizens residing in Australia and New Zealand – to inform its views of what the Fiji people think.

"With the exception of the occasional taxi driver, the people diplomats rely on for information and opinions tend not to be gardeners, textile workers, nurses, teachers, shop staff or unemployed people. Such people probably don't come to the attention of the regime in Fiji, and they may not feel as fearful as outspoken critics of the regime about the consequences of expressing an opinion.

"Unless there is clear evidence (not just an assumption) that the 1036 people surveyed felt intimidated and lied about their true feelings, there is no reason to dismiss the poll."
Click here to read her comments in full. 

Meanwhile, Amnesty International, relying on these same sources of information,  thought a popular uprising similar to the Middle East and North Africa "is not impossible in Fiji." Amnesty's Secretary General  Salil Shetty was speaking of  what he called "reports of torture and other human rights violations in Fiji" which he said were "worsening.. ... If this level of violation of human rights continues and if people don’t have a voice and if they have no basic freedoms, in my view it’s a matter of time.” Mr Shetty took up his AI appointment in December 2009 and to my knowledge has no firsthand experience of Fiji or the Pacific.

PER Is Being Used to Interfere with Basic Trade Union Rights

Government should move pendulum in right direction

 The Fiji Labour Party website reports that the permit for a meeting of the Vanua Levu Farmers Milling Transport Union, granted by Government on September 15th, was cancelled just one hour before the meeting was due to start on 28th September. Similar last minute cancellations, with no explanation offered, were earlier experienced by the Fiji Trades Union Congress and the Fiji Public Service Association.

The website reports: "Members of the Union have been facing huge problems as a result of the malfunctioning of the mill. Lorries queuing outside the mill for hours on end is a common sight. Lorry drivers have had to put up with long periods of between 48-72 hours to offload when the mill is down due to mechanical problems...[The action denied the union the right] to protect the right of its members to hold meetings to discuss such operational problems and other matters associated with their livelihood."

Comment: In my book, these actions are a misuse of the Public Emergency Regulations.

• What destabilising, political threat was posed by a group of largely Indo-Fijan Labasa truck owners serving the Labasa sugar mill? 
• If Government (or is it the Military acting on its own?)  thought the meeting likely to be political, why issue a permit in the first place?
• If Government was concerned the meeting could become political, why not allow it to go ahead but with a monitor present?  
• When, if ever, will the union be allowed to meet?  

The cancellation of the permit, especially at such short notice, is a demeaning action that does  nothing to support the Attorney-General's assurances that the Essential Industries Decree, and similar measures, are not anti-union.

Many of the union members are probably supporters of the FLP but my guess is that as late as 2009, most of them would have supported the Bainimarama government. I wonder how many still do?

With so much still in its favour, why does  Government allow such petty, small-minded abuses of power to continue? What is their purpose? And what do they foretell for the future?

News and Comments Monday 3 October 2011

3.10.11
CHECK OUT WEEKEND READING.

IS THIS THE BREAKTHROUGH WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR? New Zealand is calling on the Ministerial Contact Group to reconvene and take up Fiji's offer for a visit.

Foreign Minister Murray McCully says he is disappointed the Forum MCG could not come to Fiji before the leaders meeting in Auckland. McCully hopes the MCG will re-engage with Fiji soon and take up the invitation.

"I know that the Foreign Minister has been absent from Fiji - with the United Nations General Assembly meeting and other commitments over the last few weeks. But I think he will be in Fiji in the next few days. I will be hoping we can establish contact again to see whether we can take that forward."  Fiji's Foreign Minister Ratu Inoke Kubuabola had called on the Contact group to visit and see the work of the government.

EU EXTENDS BAN ON FIJI for another year and some claim this a victory for the trade unions. Ordinary people in Fiji, who will suffer as a result, will give it another name, and popular support for the trade unions will decline even more.

ONE WAY OF GETTING RID OF THE POOR. The World Bank has advised Fiji that 28% of those receiving welfare benefits do not deserve it. The Bank's reports, the ‘Assessment of the Social Protection Systems in Fiji and Recommendations for Policy Changes and Poverty Trends, Profiles’ and ‘Small Area Estimation in Fiji (2003-2009)’ was apparently approved by Cabinet last month. What Government decides to do about the Bank's recommendations has not yet been announced.

The Ministry of Social Welfare Women & Poverty Alleviation currently provides assistance to about 24,000 people.These include people who do not have income support, those that are chronically ill and disabled people who are permanently disabled without income support.

This is typical of the advice the Bank has been dishing out for years now, increasing gaps between rich and poor within and between nations. And if they don't accept the "advice" loans and other assistance is likely to be withheld. Pity they didn't recommend the resumption of EU, Commonwealth,IMF and Australian and NZ assistance. 

ENVIRONMENT TAX UNACCEPTABLE. Here is another example of passing on costs unfairly. Consumer Council's Premila Kumar  says the environment tax proposed  by the Ministry of Environment to address waste management and other concerns is unfair to consumers who do little to pollute the environment. She said the government should introduce a polluter-pay principle instead of increasing the overall Value Added Tax.

“The Polluter Pays Principle is an internationally recognized environmental policy principle which requires the costs of pollution to be borne by those who pollute,” said Kumar.“Individuals, factories, companies and industries that add to land and sea pollution under this policy will be required to pay the cost of pollution and waste generation.”

Government stands to gain around $952 million from the implementation of the tax. Annual environment expenditure is presently around $22 million.

Lockington's Everyday Fiji ... Life Goes On

Why on Earth Did Government Need the Essential Industries Decree?

This is an important detailed argument about what is wrong about the Employment Decree and how it was approved.  More importantly, the article raises doubts about Government's future actions.

• Link to the 2007 Employment Promulgation

• Link to the 2011 Essential Industries Decree

Preamble

I sent a draft of this paper to contacts in Fiji, including the Attorney-General, inviting comment. Replies were received from contacts in support of my argument. I received no comment from the A-G, but the Ministry of Information supplied copies of official releases on the Decree which I have used to comment on the Government case.

The following points were made in the releases that I had either not considered or considered insufficiently. My brief responses are shown in parenthesis. Fuller comment is made where necessary in the main body of the paper .]

Wages in Fiji Today

By Fr Kevin Barr

There is an urgent need for the Wages Councils to meet to propose wage increases for the various industries to come into effect on May 1^st 2012.

The Wages Regulation Orders which finally came into effect on the 1^st May 2011 were calculated early in 2010 to come into effect on 1^st July 2010. Hence they were about one year overdue. Moreover the proposed Wage Regulation Orders were reduced (without any consultation) by at least 5%. So not only were the WROs delayed by one year but they were also reduced by 5%.

All this needs to be seen against the background of the devaluation of the Fiji dollar by 20% in April 2009 and the increase in VAT by 2.5% in January 2011.

The devaluation of the Fiji dollar by 20% meant that the purchasing power of the Fiji dollar declined considerably. The Bureau of Statistics calculated that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for food increased by 38% and the CPI for building materials by 29%. This had serious repercussions for the 60% of those in full-time employment whose wages were already below the poverty line.

Certainly devaluation had very serious repercussions for low income earners and the poor generally. The proposed increase in wages by 15% (for most but not all industries) was meant to offer some small alleviation to those seriously affected by the devaluation. BUT the proposed wage increases were delayed for almost a year and many families found it very hard to cope.

On top of all this suffering not only were wages increases delayed and reduced but VAT was increased by 2.5% in January 2011. This added to the burden of low income earners and the poor because (as every economist knows) VAT is a regressive tax.

Consequently by 1^st May when the WROs finally came into effect after almost a year’s delay, not only they were totally inadequate to address the serious decline in the purchasing power of their existing wage caused by devaluation of the Fiji dollar but:

• The proposed WROs were cut by 5%
• VAT was increased by 2.5%.
• Food prices, water costs, electricity costs and fuel prices continued to increase (despite some adjustments by the Commerce Commission)

Thus the situation of the workers of the country and their families seriously deteriorated and their quality of life declined considerably.

In brief, because of policies introduced on advice from the International Financial Institutions, prices have increased – food by 38% + VAT, electricity by 30%, water by a considerable percentage and fuel (by erratic jumps). Yet wages for over 60% of the workforce have been kept at an atrociously low level.

One visiting IMF team in 2010 judged the wages of those covered by the Wages Councils to be outrageously low yet another IMF team advised an increase in VAT by 2.5%. And while the tax net was widened to cover everyone (even the poor and low income earners), corporate taxes were reduced and 13 year tax holidays were offered to attract investors.

Programmes like food stamps to assist those on social welfare assistance reach only the destitute (or about 3% of the population) and not the other 32% of the population who live below the poverty line. Free bus fares for school children whose parent’s combined income is below $15,000 are certainly welcome as is the promise of gradually providing some school text books free of charge and free meals for some rural schools. But these programs do not offset the heavy burden placed on the shoulders of the poor and low income earners by the policies mentioned above..

The Wages Councils must be allowed to meet and recommend a decent wage increase in wages to come into effect in May 2012.

Any current impasse on wage issues caused by some individuals in the Labour Ministry must be dealt with speedily and decisively.

We cannot expect real harmony in the country and productivity in the labour force until workers are treated with dignity and social justice.