Elections: Avoiding the 'Mistakes' of 2006

The Government will ensure there are proper laws in place to avoid what happened in Fiji during the 2006 elections.

Speaking at the opening of the Attorney-General’s conference at Shangri-La Fijian Resort last Friday, Mr Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said the European Union’s Report on the 2006
Election highlighted a series of defects, notwithstanding the fact that it said the elections were credible.

“Notwithstanding the fact that they said that there was a voter turnout of 101 per cent in one of the constituencies in Vanua Levu. Notwithstanding the fact that it noted there was no proper reconciliation of ballot boxes, or for that matter ballot papers, in some of the counting sessions,” Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said.

“We do not want a repeat of 2006. We have to ensure that there are proper laws to stop this from happening again.”

However, Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said that there was a lot more fundamental issues, such as ethnic voting, that would not happen in the next election - thanks to the Peoples Charter for Change, Peace and Progress.

“Under the 1997 constitution, the principle of one person, one vote and indeed one value was absent,” Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said.

“The province of Namosi, for example, of approximately 3200 voters voted for one person. The province of Nadroga had 19000 voters approximately and they also voted for one person. Six seats were allocated under the ethnic system for voting for urban and peri-urban indigenous Fijians. Yet 45 per cent of them lived in the urban and peri-urban areas but they were given six seats out of 23.

“On the other hand, Indo-Fijians were allocated 19 seats when they in fact should have received a lower number of seats because their percentage in the population was proportionally lower and that was the principle on which the Reeves Commission had worked out the numbers.

“I am glad to say the Peoples Charter for Change, Peace and Progress has mandated the Bainimarama Government to ensure the constitutional consultation, which will commence next year, will not negotiate on ethnic voting,” the Attorney-General added.

-- No:2188/MOI) ETHNIC VOTING TO BE ELIMINATED

Confusion about Poverty in Fjii by Fr Kevin Barr

SUMMARY. Wages Council Chairman Fr Kevin Barr defines poverty as it affects some 35% of Fiji's population; the Family Assistance Scheme (FAS) that assists the 3-4% who are destitute, and shows how the 2012 Budget has done nothing that directly help the 31-32% of the population that is poor but not destitute. 

• He shows how the 20% devaluation in 2009 and the 2½% increase of VAT to 15% in 2010 made the poor significantly poorer, and appeals for the lifting of VAT on non-luxury food items.  
• He agrees that the Budget will make  middle income families better off but shows how  the new $15,600 tax threshold will help only 20-30% of those earning under the threshold.  
• Government argues that the indirect benefits of the lower tax rates will "trickle down" to the poor by creating new jobs.  Fr Barr says this will only be so if Government passes regulations to ensure reasonable minimum wages. Creating new jobs on wages below the poverty line will merely entrench poverty. Some 60% of workers covered by the Wages Councils are already below the poverty line.-- Croz

For a number of years there has been a number of confusions in the minds of many people concerning the poor. They continue to surface in national budgets, articles on poverty as well as in the conversations of ordinary people. Unless these confusions are clarified then a number of misunderstandings arise which can have serious consequences.

$16m more for health - Fiji Times Online

$16m more for health - Fiji Times Online

Life Expectancy Declining?

 A report co-authored by Fiji National Univesity's Prof Graham Roberts claims that Fiji life expectancy (at birth) dropped from 72.9 years in 2000 to 67.8 years in 2005. Comparable 1986 and 1996 figures were 66.9 and 66.6 years.  I found Prof Roberts' reasons for the decline of interest but  respectfully suggest a drop of five years in five years is highly suspect, and most likely caused by faulty statistics, although the sharp increase in lifestyle diseases, particularly heart related, could be a factor. The actual figure for 2000 seems more likely to have been somewhere between the 1996 and 2005 figures. Whatever the actual situation, the report highlighted a number of other important concerns in the Fiji health service.  Today is the 5th anniversary of the 2006 Coup whose effects are not fully traced by the report.

The article below is from PINA, the Pacific Islands News Association. The article and video interview that follows is from ABC's Pacific Beat.  Readers will note the emphasis, first captured in its headline,  to possible political, coup-related, causes,  a theme pursued in the interview.


Fiji's Life Expectancy Decreases

Life expectancy rate in Fiji has declined from 72.9 years to 67.8 years from the year 2000 to 2005, reveals a Fiji Islands Health System Review by the Asia Pacific Observatory on Health Systems and Polices. The detailed review written by experts from Fiji National University (FNU), World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Ministry of Health also found out that 39 per cent of Fiji’s population are below the age of 20. The review also highlighted 61 per cent of the countries population live in the urban areas.

According to Dr Graham Roberts one of the writers of the review the out-of-the-pocket medical expenditure for people in Fiji increased from 11.9 per cent to 15.5 per cent between the years 2005 to 2008 and 22 per cent in 2010. The review also highlighted that the cost of transportation is a major barrier affecting access to health facilities for people living in the remote areas of Fiji.

Fiji Islands Health System Review has also found out that Fiji’s health sector has pressuring human resource issues. The comprehensive review of Fiji’s health profile by Asia Pacific Observatory on Health Systems and Polices also highlighted that there is lack of doctors in rural areas and emigration of health workers overseas.

Presenting the overview of the findings at the Holiday Inn in Suva today Dr Graham Roberts of the Fiji National University (FNU) who is one of the writers of the review said (the) majority of Fiji’s health professionals are now concentrated in the urban hospitals. “The scarcity of qualified health professionals has caused Fiji delays in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s).” Dr Roberts said. He said 79 per cent of doctors in Fiji migrated to New Zealand, Australia, United States of America (USA) and other Pacific Island countries by the year 1999. The review also found out that nurses play a pivotal role in Fiji as they make up two thirds of the workforce.

Meanwhile, Fiji’s Public Service Commission has announced permanent secretary for the Ministry of Health, Dr Salanieta Saketa was no longer in the post following Government’s decision to bring to an end her appointment in line with provisions of her contract.

PSC chairman Josefa Serulagilagi confirmed that the position will soon be advertised and short listed before interviews and selections are held.  The chairman today acknowledged the substantial work contributed by Dr Saketa at the Health Ministry.

Serulagilagi said the recently announced 2012 Budget required new direction and management style within the ministry and added the ministry needed a new person in the position of permanent secretary because a lot of more reforms and a change in focus was needed.  The Hospital Services deputy secretary, Dr Eloni Tora will be the acting permanent secretary for Health effective from Monday, 05 December. Public Health deputy secretary, Dr Joe Koroivueta will act in the role until then.


Fiji life expectancy cut short by political turmoil: academic 

AUDIO from Pacific Beat Fiji life expectancy cut short by political turmoil

A new report has revealed a dramatic decrease in life expectancy in Fiji, with the figure falling by nearly five years within a five year period.The life expectancy rate dropped from 72.9 years to 67.8 years from the year 2000 to 2005.

The figure comes from a Fiji Islands Health System Review by the Asia Pacific Observatory on Health Systems and Polices. One of the report's authors, Professor Graham Roberts, believes the difficult times experienced by Fiji since 1987 - particularly its political turmoil - are largely responsible.

But he's told Radio Australia's Pacific Beat that no single factor can be blamed for the dramatic fall.

"It's the fact there's been multiple transitions going on," Professor Roberts said.

"We've got urbanisation, we've got changes in dietary patterns, we've got political instability. We've got large proportion of the population moving into poverty, we've got a significant proportion of the population living in squatter settlements with inadequate water and sanitation.

"And these are symptoms, once again, [of] the hard times."

Lowry Institute Write up on Fiji

At present Fiji is benefiting from a moderate level of emerging economy investment into its infrastructure and across a wide range of its industries. Russian mining giant Rusal is looking to explore its bauxite reserves, and this year China has opened a hotel and financed a $4 million fishing vessel, a $20 million government data facility, and a number of roads and ports. India is present in Fiji as both a creditor and an investor, with Bollywood set to film three productions in Fiji this year, and India's EXIM Bank in talks with the government to revive the Fijian copra industry. Georgia recently held a series of bilateral talks with the Fiji Government about enhanced cooperation, and Indonesia has made noises about doing the same. While foreign investment is more important to the Fijian economy than official development assistance, it's worth noting that Bainimarama's preference for non-traditional donors is selling the Fiji people short. Aid from emerging economies has primarily come in loan rather than grant form, and left Fiji indebted by a US$50.4 million line of credit from India, and a total of US$253.4 million in Chinese loans (the latter accounted for 8.35% of GDP in 2009). Development loans are valuable if they actually yield development, but Bainimarama is no Lee Kuan Yew. GDP growth over the last few years has been marginal if not negative. The Asian Development Bank has warned that Fiji's government debt is dangerously high. Rather than diversifying the economy, Bainimarama's leadership has led it to become increasingly reliant on tourism, a sector vulnerable to exogenous volatility. Bainimarama's intransigence on democracy and human rights has led the Fiji people to miss out on multi-million dollar post-sugar protocol aid from the European Union, and on ongoing financing from the Asian Development Bank, which hasn't approved any new projects there since 2006. Even China is reportedly wary of engaging too extensively in Fiji lest it upset Australia and New Zealand — though this wariness speaks far more to the relatively low marginal gains to be had from engagement in Fiji than it does to China's fear of Antipodean wrath. Beyond relatively limited mineral resources, its vote in diplomatic wrangles, and a booming but low-profit tourism industry, Fiji just doesn't have that much to offer in its present state. The Commodore's heavy hand isn't helping, with a recent World Bank report showing increased difficulty in every evaluated aspect of doing business in Fiji. That the regime felt the need to falsify its ranking in the report is unlikely to inspire much further investment interest. Bainimarama's 'Look North' foreign policy offensive is driven by a lack of options in the region and a need to justify authoritarianism at home, but the regime has failed to sell Fiji's people on the relative value of the new emerging economy relationships over the old ones. Bainimarama may find this task increasingly difficult if his administration doesn't yield tangible development gains soon, because there are clearly limits on emerging economy interest in his regime. For all the rhetoric about South-South cooperation, developing economy donors have their own poverty problems to address and any development assistance they shell out internationally is going to be strongly premised on mutual gains. Fiji has geo-strategic and infrastructure advantages it should be leveraging in this 'Asian century' to stimulate record economic growth and opportunity for its people. That it is failing to do so is an indictment of Bainimarama's leadership.   Thanks to Kelera Tallis on Facebook's Fiji Economic Forum for this.

Fiji has moved on and Australia must play by the new rules

by: Michael O'Keefe

From: The Australian December 29, 2011 12:00AM
 
A KEY assumption underlying Australian foreign policy towards Fiji may prove to be false. Even if sanctions are lifted, Fiji may not welcome Australia with open arms. Australia now faces a mature and confident Fiji across the negotiating table and elements in the Fijian government are truly "looking north".

Lockington's Everyday Fiji ... Life Goes On

Allen Lockington is a self-employed customs agent and business consultant who has regular articles published in Fiji. I thank Allen for permission to reprint some of them in this political blog. They remind us that life goes on, whatever the political situation. And it's good to know that.

Need for Education Check Up

I refer to the TV news where we are told we have a lack of town planners. The lack of town planners speaks volumes about where the education system in Fiji has fallen short. While we have a dynamic education system and educationists, there are many vital jobs that are not catered for, probably for many reasons. In today’s world glamour is the way to go – pilot, aircraft engineer and flight attendant are chief amongst them. Yet that market is very small.

Many of our urban areas flood when there is torrential rain, we ask why, simply because of blocked drains. It doesn’t need a rocket scientist to know and prepare and clean drains during prolonged dry   periods. Town planners are not the only job where we lack experienced people. We don’t have qualified vets in abundance, and the agriculture area lacks expertise. If someone wants to argue with me, my point is, if we had experts, Fiji, a green country, would have been exporting root crops, beef and mutton instead of importing. Yes, that’s my point.

The government, education ministry and the universities must work in conjunction with each other to determine what the market needs and then devise the courses. Right now I notice that computer, business, office management, catering, management, tourism and a few more disciplines are the ones that are offered. Where we need to strengthen our economy, we lack. And why do we have to constantly bring in expatriates.  It’s because of our shortsightedness. I worked as a Customs officer at Nadi airport for eleven years processing passengers and there were many times I came across farmers who had gone overseas to visit their children who were doing a BA, MBA, PhD or other qualification in computer science, management, banking, teaching, medicine and several other disciplines. But never in agriculture, fisheries, forestry, animal husbandry or cattle farming.  Where are the children of the farmers who go to university, gets a degree in agriculture, returns home and takes over the farm, taking it to heights that his or her parents could never have taken it?  I have asked many farmers in their late 70s and 80s and they always say, “Nahi, we don’t want our children to struggle like us. We want them to become doctor and teacher and earn big money.” And who will grow our food, the New Zealanders and Australians?

I rest my case.


Editor's P.S. I think it's also a matter of perceived status, where agriculture is pretty low on the ladder.  I'm reminded of a student I taught in Tonga. He had top marks in English but failed his School Certificate. Only one overseas scholarship was available to him: in poultry farming. I urged him to take it, saying he would be Tonga's first qualified poultry farmer with excellent changes of financial success.  He declined because his parents thought a minor clerk's job in Treasury had more status. The double irony is that his weak subject was Maths.   There was a time in Fiji, however, when students went overseas to study agriculture. Joketani Cokanasiga and Jo Chung come to mind, and USP has its Alafua Campus.

It's exciting, say iTaukei women

SOQOSOQO Vakamarama leader Adi Finau Tabakaucoro has come out in support of the 2012 Budget announced by Prime Minister and Finance Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama on Friday.
"It's interesting and exciting and very positive," said the former assistant minister for women and social welfare.

From the Fiji Labour Party Website

Budget 2012

[posted 25 Nov 2011,1445]

The 2012 Budget will destabilize State finances and will most likely lead to increases in indirect taxes to offset the huge reductions in personal and corporate tax rates.

Elections: Looking Back and Forwards

Report found massive faults in 2006 elections
Friday, December 02, 2011
http://www.radiofiji.com.fj/fullstory.php?id=41842
A report on the 2006 elections has pointed out major faults during the campaign. elections.

The report was compiled by the EU Electoral Observer Mission that was present in Fiji at that time.

Pensioners question pension legality

Pensioners question pension legality

From Radio Fiji

Pensioners have questioned the legality of the new pension rate.

The Fiji National Provident Fund held a public consultation at the Civic Centre in Suva where a majority of pensioners voiced their concerns.

Seona Smiles says FNPF’s new rate is illegal.

“36% is going to lose by the new arrangement are basically being punished for a lack of inaction and a lack of accountability and a lack of transparency by the FNPF - we should not be punished - there is a legal action in front of the court and I wonder what best practice advices changing the law while the matter is still under consideration in the court”

PCN's Budget Submission

From the PEOPLE’S COMMUNITY NETWORK (PCN)

We at the People’s Community Network are grateful for the opportunity to contribute our suggestions to the formulation of the 2012 National Budget. As an organisation which works with the grass-roots people of the country – the workers and the poor – we feel we have an important perspective to offer for the Budget, especially in view of the priorities of the People’s Charter and the Millennium Development Goals.

Australian policy on Fiji “dysfunctional”, says report

Fiji's military leader and Prime Minister, Voreqe (Frank) Bainimarama. Photo: Selwyn Manning

Pacific Scoop:
Commentary – By Graham Davis

The folly of Australian policy towards Fiji is at the centre of a damning new landmark report that suggests the United States has lost confidence in Canberra’s ability to influence events in the Pacific and counter rising Chinese influence in the region.
It calls for the immediate and unconditional lifting of regional sanctions against Fiji and for Australia to “repair its relationship at the highest level” by re-engaging with the Bainimarama regime through the Pacific Islands Forum.
“It is well past the time to treat this festering regional wound”, it declares.
The report – covering all aspects of Australia’s relations with the Pacific and entitled “Our Near Abroad” – has been issued by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), an independent, government-funded think tank set up in 2001 to advise Canberra on its defence and strategic policy options.
Direct challenge to Australian Government policy
The conclusions of its authors – Professor Richard Herr and Anthony Bergin – are bound to stick in the craw of Australia’s foreign minister, Kevin Rudd, for they present a direct challenge to the entire edifice of current Pacific policy.
The report details in stark terms the extent to which Australia has been isolated in the region and is losing its ability to influence “collective decision making in the South Pacific”.
It cites as evidence the fact that eleven Pacific Island members of the United Nations have formed a voting bloc that excludes Australia and that the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) – which also excludes Australia – has backed fellow member Fiji against Australian sanctions.
It calls on Australia to “regather the threads of regional leadership” with a comprehensive range of measures that include repairing its relationship with Fiji, a country it describes as being at “the heart of the Pacific Islands regional system” as the principal transportation, communications and diplomatic hub.
“The region cannot survive without its heart” – the report says – describing Fiji’s suspension from the Pacific Islands Forum as having “seriously changed regional dynamics”.
ASPI warns of the consequences of Fiji seeking new international relationships because of its breach with Australia and New Zealand over Frank Bainimarama’s 2006 coup.
China the “significant beneficiary”
It says Fiji’s membership of the Non Aligned Movement  “underscores Suva’s more aggressive pursuit of South-South dialogue, specifically to reduce reliance on its traditional friends, including Australia.
“Whether intended or not, China has been a significant beneficiary of this development as a leading state in the NAM”, the report concludes.
The authors suggest that Fiji has outwitted Australia to the detriment of its national interests in the Pacific and the strength and cohesion of regional organisations such as the Pacific Forum .
“The importance of Fiji for the new geopolitics of the region is that it’s actively challenging Australia’s privileged position in the regional system. There are many reasons why Australia should repair relations with Fiji, but the deleterious effects of the current contretemps on the Pacific Islands Forum are the key because they cascade through the regional system”.
The report cites  “the impossibility” of concluding the current PACER Plus trade negotiations and “the rift between the Pacific Islands Forum and the Melanesian Spearhead Group”, which have taken opposing views on Fiji.
Sanctions “impractical” and “dysfunctional”
It goes on to say that “Forum-related sanctions (against Fiji) are being subverted by other organisations, including the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC),  the Forum Fisheries Agency and even RAMSI,  the billion dollar Australian intervention in Solomon Islands.
It describes those sanctions as “impractical” and says “they have proved dysfunctional for Australia and for its image in the region”.
It also says the delay in repairing the relationship has been costly, partly because attitudes in Fiji about the need for Australian assistance appear to have hardened”.
As well as the lifting of sanctions, the report calls on Australia to follow New Zealand’s lead in re-establishing ministerial contact. More controversially, it also calls for the re-establishment of Australia’s ties with the Fiji military to deal with maritime security, border protection and transnational crime.
ASPI goes on to examine the divergence in approach between the United States and Australia towards Fiji, exemplified last week when Washington’s new ambassador in Suva, Frankie Reed, visited Frank Bainimarama in the prime minister’s office.
No Australian or New Zealand head of mission has had any direct contact with the Fijian leader since his coup five years ago.
The report quotes Ms Reed as having described Fiji’s position in the Pacific as “unique” and said it was “a key focal point in America’s larger regional engagement with the South Pacific”.
US seeking “more direct” approach
In stark contrast with the Australian position, the ambassador said the United States sought a “more direct engagement with Fiji’s government to encourage the restoration of democracy” within the regime’s stated timetable of September 2014.
The ASPI report says that while “the US is reluctant to openly express criticism of Australia’s handling of regional relations, it’s clear there are genuine doubts about Australia’s capacity to lead islands’ opinion on relations with China”.
It concludes that “the US is taking on a more direct role in protecting its own interests in the region, just as it did in the mid to late 1980s when it felt that managing Cold War challenges in the Pacific Islands was beyond the capacity of Australia and New Zealand”.
Graham Davis is an investigative journalist and media commentator. His articles are frequently published by Pacific Scoop. He publishes the blog Grubsheet where this commentary was originally published