(o+,o-) Three Letters to the Editor, DominionPost
20 December 2008 on

(o+)In no position to scream
I’d hoped that the new Government would lift the petty, yet vindictive, sanctions on Fiji.It has never done New Zealand any harm and it’s both presumptuous and arrogant for us to try to dictate its form of government, especially when former prime minister Helen Clark welcomed to Wellington and effusively praised Pakistan’s General Pervez Musharraf, who, like Bainimarama, used the military to overthrow a corrupt civilian government that was robbing the country blind.A cynical and unprincipled government such as New Zealand’s, which happily concludes a free trade agreement with communist China - probably the most murderous, odious and environmentally destructive regime on earth - is in no position to preach to Fiji.The campaign against Fiji, driven by an elite of Left-wing, liberal ideologues in the Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry, is clearly against our national interests, because it will only drive the Fijians into the arms of China, which is busy extending its hegemony and making mischief throughout the South Pacific.More for our own sake than for Fiji’s, it is time to make a magnanimous gesture by lifting the sanctions and talking constructively with Fiji instead of screaming at it.
J McLLean (Khandallah)

(o+) Hoist by their own petard
No one, least of all TVNZ executives, should be surprised that reporter Barbara Dreaver was refused entry into Fiji last Monday.The manner in which TV One news reported Fiji’s alleged threat to expel New Zealand’s acting high commissioner by misleadingly featuring old footage of Fiji soldiers on patrol, dressed in combat attire, was sufficient to raise the ire of Commodore Frank Bainimarama and his staff, especially when they remembered the outrageously misleading film clips broadcast during the first coups, which showed tanks charging through the local jungle.It seems TV One was hell bent on boosting a minor diplomatic incident into war.Its reporters made sure we were facing a major crisis by over-emphasising the situation beyond its newsworthiness.If they had bothered to ask Ratu Isoa Gavindi, Fiji’s permanent secretary for foreign affairs, they would have been told that expelling diplomats would not solve the current dispute with New Zealand. And taxpayers would have been able to save the cost of Dreaver’s abortive trip to Nadi.
Jim Carney (North Shore City)

(o-) Isn’t there a better way?
Would it not be better to encourage the sons of Fijian government officials to finish their education in New Zealand (Dec 17)? Who knows they might learn something about democracy to pass on to their parents.
Ian Cook (Taupo)