Friday, 29 May 2009
Snippets: Police Brutality; ACP and Vanuatu Support; Fiji Live; Corruption Comment; I Sometimes Get it Wrong; My Biases
(o) Brutal Assault on Fellow Police Officer
In what looks like an initial revenge assault followed up by sheer police brutality, Police Officer Raj Shavendra Prasad was so badly beaten up by assailants, including senior police officers, during the weekend of 16-17 May, that he spent six days in hospital. Coupfourpointfive understands that he has received a letter terminating his police appointment and, despite a magistrate ordering the assault be investigated, no investigation has yet been made by the police. For a full account and disturbing photos of Prasad's injuries, click here.
The incident has nothing to do with the political situation or with race (both Fijian and Indo-Fijian officers were involved in the assault) but in not insisting the incident be made public and in abolishing the Fiji Human Rights Commission, Government must assume some responsibility. The abolition of the FHRC means there is now no avenue for complaint against government servants unless a complainant can afford to take his or her case to court. Government can ill afford such a situation to continue if if wishes to "win the hearts and minds." In this case, Prasad should be granted leave on full pay and the senior officers allegedly involved should be suspended until the case is fully investigated. If found guilty, they should be dishonourably dismissed from the service as an example to others -- and as evidence that this Government means business when it talks about justice. P.S. June 10 2009. Coupfourpointfive reports the officer has been reinstated. No explanation was given.
(o+) Bainimarama at ACP Meeting, Appeal Supported by Vanuatu
Radio Fiji reports that PM Bainimarama addressed the 89th ACP Council of Ministers on Thursday. He told the Council of the necessity of Abrogating the 1997 Constitution following the Appeal Court ruling on April 9th. There was no other way of continuing the reforms "supported by a maajority of Fiji's population" encapsulated in the People's Charter for Change, Peace and Progress. He again called on ACP and the EU to assist Fiji "to bring about a lasting resolution to the political situation in Fiji and support the implementation of the necessary reforms for the welfare and economic wellbeing of the people." [See "Background Material", left column, for his full address.]
The PM's statement was supported at the Council by the Foreign Minister for Vanuatu, Bakoa Kaltongga, further demonstrating that not all members of the PI Forum support the inflexible "do this or else" approach of Australia and New Zealand in dealing with the Fiji situation. PI Forum countries who have called, or who more recently have called, for dialogue with Fiji include PNG, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Kiribati, Tuvalu and Tonga.
(-) Fiji Live Off- and On-line
This on-line news service mysteriously went off-line yesterday, to resume today with no explanation offered. Bloggers think the situation was caused by Government censors who objected to photos Fiji Live had published of an incident involving a bomb scare hoax in Suva. Fiji Live is the one service that has continued to supply some news of politically-related incidents since the mainstream media, and particularly the Fiji Times, objected to censorship as authorised under the Emergency Regulations.
My own view is that Government is exceedingly unwise to persist with tactics that can only encourage the spread of rumours to which it cannot respond. Some accommodation with the media is urgently needed.
(o-)My Recent Posting on Corruption
Readers are urged to read comments to postings by clicking the very small "comment" at the bottom of each posting. Special attention is drawn to Jon's valuable comment on my recent corruption posting.
... and I Sometimes Get it Wrong, and I'm Baised
Readers are also reminded that the symbols (+, -, o, etc., see Notices at the bottom of the page) indicate pro-, anti-, neutral positions towards the Interim Government. This is the only blog to signal likely bias, and one of the few to publish informative, reasoned commentary, on the Fiji political situation. But, of course, I don't always get it right, and I'm limited in my ability to check the validity of all sources.
I also have my own biases. I sometimes give the Bainimarama team the benefit of too many doubts. I think NZers, our politicians and media, have too little knowledge of the Pacific. And I think NZ's policy is misguided and unhelpful, because it is too inflexible; it gives succour to the Fiji Government opponents, driving Bainimarama even deeper into a corner, and its influence internationally has helped cause a worsening of the situation in Fiji.
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3 comments:
Yes, your biases are quite clear. As, I hope, an objective reader, it strikes me that you are more likely to excuse the Fijian government in its excesses than challenge it to abide by the standard human rights components that any New Zealander would expect. This means that it is a little disengenuous of you to be as critical as you are of the Australian and New Zealand positions. If Fiji truly wants to return to a healthy, prosperous state, then it's time that the leadership - both the government and the political parties that it ejected with the coup - started negotiating a process that will lead back to normalcy.
This commentator is dreaming. He is quite obviously not in Fiji and he is holding out an unattainable ideal. Normalcy? What is he thinking of? Fiji has never known 'normalcy' - apart from a few, golden years after 1970. Yes, there have been excesses (of all kinds - what did you expect?) but neither New Zealand nor Australia have had or will have any success in their unsubtle, un-nuanced present approach: often ill-informed, naive and thus counter-productive. Step back, take a deep breath and......think again. You have ill-served the ordinary, struggling and 'put-upon' people of Fiji. You have delighted it would seem in imposing all manner of restrictions which have done nothing at all to assist 'move things ahead' (I detest that word "forward"). None of you speak Fijian nor Hindi so how could you possibly hope to know what truly takes place? Our Culture of Silence would get the better of all of you. At the end of the day, our Japanese, Chinese and Indian contacts have proved more helpful, more understanding and thus more pragmatic in what is obviously a struggle to evolve into the 21st century without all hell breaking out. Can you not see this? Are you so comfortably immersed in your own self-satisfaction that it is beyond your capacity to imagine? To date, it has taken a deluge in Nadi and Ba for anyone from "Down Under"to make sufficient effort to find common, humane ground with us. That is very telling.
There is no intention to insult. But there is true indignation at the opacity of your understanding. If you wish to genuinely assist.....then engage in an intelligent and percipient way. There are years of neglect to make good; years of misguided effort to erase.
Update on Police Brutality: See post April 12th. Prasad reinstated. Three police officers suspended on no pay pending investigation.
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