(+) NewstalkZB Host’s Visit to Fiji

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This is a long posting. You may care to digest it slowly, over two of three readings. It is important because it is the first long "pro-Frank" programme broadcast in NZ, and because Leighton records what many "ordinary" people have to say about Fiji.


NewstalkZB’s talkback host Leighton Smith spent an extended weekend in Nadi Fiji (Dec 4-8,2009).This is what he said on Wednesday Dec 9th in a lead up to Thursday’s discussion:

“Much of the time that I was there was spent working (and) discussions with many people, suffice to say it confirmed firmly my belief that Australia and New Zealand have approached Fiji in totally the wrong way. We are dealing with Fiji out of ignorance, superiority and quite frankly political stupidity and I will do my best to convince of exactly that (if you need convincing by the way)…………An Australian up there said to me, (one of the number I spoke with), ask people who think that Fiji is going down the drain – in which ever way – ask them if they are aware of any ex-pats up there who are packing up and coming home. And the answer is none, they are not because they like it and they approve and both Fijian and Indian with whom I spoke all gave the thumbs up for Frank.”
 
At the end of  programme  Leighton said he was going to discuss how he found Fiji. On Thursday Dec 10th over a one and half hour period Leighton Smith talked about Fiji and his unplanned meeting with the Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum and took listeners calls about Fiji.

Below is a summary of some of what Leighton and his listeners had to say.   Please note some hyperlinks may have expired.  My many thanks to an enthusiastic reader for transcribing these audio programmes. It must have taken hours.

http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/thisweek/hourrecs/Thu,%20Dec%2010%2010.00%20trn-newstalk-zb-akl.asf..

 Leighton

 “What follows will be something of a ramble. I don’t have a list, but over a period of time we’ve all watched Fiji change - well change hands really. There have been four coups and I went up and covered the first one…..made a small contribution back in ’87.

And then I have been up there a couple of times after the more recent coups and the coup in 2006 when Frank Bainimarama took over happened only a couple weeks before we went up there for my birthday and we had the place to ourselves almost because everyone cancelled.

And we have watched since then and we have watched both the Australian and the New Zealand governments, and their attitude and their treatment of Fiji and the politicians, or those who are running the country.

Now on a different tangent there are many people who have business in Fiji who come from there, go there, live there - there are many ex-pats up there - as one of them said to me over the weekend, “If it’s so bad up here, or supposedly so bad why aren’t there ex-pats packing up and going home - because they are not - we’re not - we love it and we think its great and we think what’s happening is right, and good for Fiji”. And a number of you have written to me and sent me stories and told me things over the last few years.

And through all of that in my own digging and adjustments and thinking, I began to realise that the approach that was being taken by both Australia and New Zealand officially, to what was happening Fiji, was very likely wrong. Now I am certain of it. When we landed there on Friday and well on the plane on the way up actually, one of the Fiji papers (Fiji Sun) featured some comments by Sir Paul Reeves made the day before.

 Sir Paul Reeves urges NZ to work with Fiji. http://www.fijisun.com.fj/main_page/view.asp?id=30536 And they were exactly the same - that Australia and New Zealand needed to rethink the official approach to Fiji and I don’t know whether he used it but I seem to think he used the word “embrace” the administration up there and work with them. Now this is Sir Paul Reeves who is on the distinguished person’s panel or whatever it was, with regard to drawing up the (Fiji) constitution.

Leighton talks with cab drivers
So, on arrival - you know what you do - you ask the cab driver. The cab driver was an Indian. (Leighton): “What’s it like?” You start off casually and you get more specific when the guy shows he’s willing to talk. (Leighton): “So what’s your opinion of Frank?”  Well Frank got the thumbs up. “He’s doing the right thing”, said the Indian taxi driver on the way from the airport.

Next morning we went into the butchers and the taxi driver on that day was a fairly strapping, as they can be, young-ish, mid-twenties, late twenties maybe, Fijian guy - you can imagine him playing rugby. Started off the casual conversation. (Leighton): “What’s Frank doing? How do you feel?” (Taxi driver): Raised his thumb - “Good”. I asked him a few questions. Came out glowing reports. “Very happy.” He said, “Number one thing Frank is fixing is corruption. Number one thing - corruption”. (Leighton):”What do you mean corruption? What sort of corruption?                             (Taxi driver): “Corruption - all the previous governments, all full of corruption. Frank’s fixing it”. I thought I would venture a bit further. (Leighton):“I hear that the Attorney General’s a Muslim? How do you feel about that?”  He (Taxi driver) said: “As long as Frank’s beside him - OK.”



Talks with Australian and NZ business people
And I had discussions with various other people up there - people who were business people - people who have lived there and what have you. I met a couple from Australia – they think what Frank is doing is right on target. I met a couple from New Zealand. They live in Whitford, and had a brief discussion with them. They are listeners to the programme and they said “We know how you feel about Fiji - we are very pleased and happy that you do…….. Then the news services came in for severe criticism. And the news is conveying and purveying the wrong image. What the government is doing in Fiji at the moment, everybody said to me, is right. They are headed in the right direction.

  Leighton talks with the Attorney-General. And then came the coup – if you like my coup. Quite through an accident really, I ended up having a meeting on Monday morning with the Attorney General of Fiji, the man we spoke with on the programme a few months ago, Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum, the Attorney General. http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/podcasts/audio/05093940.mp3  (05/05/09) …He came to the hotel and he said he had 10 or 15 minutes. He stayed an hour because the conversation was good and he cancelled another meeting - his next meeting back in Suva because he wanted to keep talking - and I like the guy and everybody I met likes the guy - they think he is the future face of Fiji, actually - Muslim or not- didn’t matter to anybody. And he said to me - you know Muslims make up 4-5 percent of the population - it’s never been a problem, never will be.

And we talked through all sorts of areas - including the restructuring of the electoral system, the institutions, and I am not going to betray some of the things that he told me off the record. But I came to away from that meeting knowing that Fiji was at present in good hands – in very good hands in fact. If they can achieve what they are setting out to achieve, then Fiji’s future is a good one.

“Things take time to filter through, they take time to get accepted, to get established, but then again one thing the Attorney General said to me was ………I question ………what happens if for instance if you establish these new institutions and new rules ………and you have an election and then they just drift back to their old ways because they are traditional, because that is the way it has always been. His (AG’s) comment was that he is witnessing a more ready acceptance that even they thought would happen (or words to that effect).

Leighton’s comments on Sayed-Khaiyum. Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum is a lawyer, trained in Australia and lived there for 13 years. Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum did not know Frank Bainimarama but met him on a couple of occasions casually at functions. He was invited to join (the government) and his attitude was that you get a once in a lifetime opportunity to contribute. Basically he has taken a 75% pay cut from what he was earning as a lawyer to what he is getting paid now. He used to have a Volvo and now he uses a beaten up Pajero.

Lots of activity we don't hear about
Now there’s a lot more I could tell you... There is a lot of activity up there, the things we don’t hear about. I was shown for instance two brand new commercial buildings, five storey buildings, between the airport and Denarau that have just opened this year. And this is the sort of thing, development that is going on, that we don’t hear about.

Civil servant refuses lunch
And there is plenty of other stuff that is happening as well. For instance, a businessman told me that he was around in Suva last week... Two things:  He had some help from…….. a civil servant. And when I say help, he’d simply had the advice and achieved what he wanted to do, and he rang the guy up, and he said, “Thank you, when I am going to Suva I would like to take you to lunch.” And the answer was no - that would be seen as corruption - no lunch! “Thanks for that”, he (businessman) said, “You’ve saved me $10 (bucks) - that’s all it would be, it would have been a Food Court lunch”.

Leighton comments about the issue of Taxi licence applications in Fiji and how a taxi driver could get rejected without a valid reason and would be dismissed - told just to go away and how the new Freedom of Information Act will stop this practise.

Frank looks for a seat
The same man told me he was around in Suva and he was at the Food Court and guess who was there with a tray in hand, and his wife behind him, looking for somewhere to sit down in the Food Court. In a Bula shirt mind you. Frank, Bainimarama, the Prime Minister, eating in the Food Court with his wife, looking for a table to sit at. And he (the businessman) said, that’s why the people love him, he is out there mixing, all over the place, and the people are liking what he is doing. The corruption thing? I have got stories on corruption. And the corruption under the previous government was plentiful. The corruption is the thing that most Fijians are interested in getting rid of and Frank’s doing it ...

Who's happy; who's not? 
“Everyone is happy about what is happening and the changes that are taking place. You don’t get change like you are making without somebody missing out, somebody losing. Who is losing, who is on the negative side of the changes? Those who were benefitting from the corruption. Those who were benefitting from the gerrymandering. Those who were in positions where they could exploit them at the expense of others”.

Calls from listeners
 

 Caller Lesley. Compared what Leighton Smith had just said about Fiji to what was presented on the recent TVNZ Sunday programme interview of Frank Bainimarama. She questioned whether the mainstream media just don’t want to give the Fijian government good press and that Paul Reeves was right – if you don’t have dialogue you don’t get anywhere.
                                                                                                                               
Caller Bill (has a holiday house in Taveuni). Endorsed Bainimarama’s government especially the latest move to pay for school bus fares. He said he knew of a family who had four children and it was cost them $20.00 a day in bus fares. They couldn’t afford this so the children would not go to school regularly. Bill is very impressed with the Education Minister. Parts of Taveuni are quite remote and a village in an isolated area had been waiting for a grant to build a school for 12 years. The Minister of Education informed the village that $120,000 was available for them and with other local funding they are able to build two school rooms. A much needed hydro power station is being built on Taveuni and is financed by the Chinese government. Up until now all power has been generated by diesel which had to be shipped in.

Caller John (Indo Fijian). John said that from next year most of the poor schools will get text books free. He (Bainimarama) is the one who is making Fiji equal for everybody. John suggested PM John Key goes to Fiji to find out what is really going on in Fiji. Spoke out against the Chiefly system. There is very big change for the better.
                                                                                                                        
 Caller Margaret, long time traveller to Fiji since 1965. No coup has ever stopped her going there. She asked the question, But, if it is working well (and she thinks it is working well ) why would Frank Bainimarama not hold an election sooner … to keep the rest of the world happy?                            

Leighton’s response was: “I am not trying to and I don’t intend to act as a mouthpiece for Frank Bainimarama or the AG for that matter, I am giving you my best opinion and it is simply this …..because I thought the same thing ... Why can’t you just do it – make the changes and just do it? … And the answer is because you have to get the institutions in order to replace the system that existed – you’ve got to get them in order and operating properly and it takes time – and I came to realise that that is correct.... The institutions that need either fixing or replacing take time, it takes time to actually do it , it takes time to change mindsets and it takes time to communicate and that is the best answer I can give you and I am prepared to accept that...  Now if it came to the point in 2014, which does seem a little way off I have to tell you, agree with you … and it (elections) was delayed further … then I would start to have doubts.

Email comment sent from Fiji from a Whitford couple whose sons have set up a brewery in Fiji to produce a new (boutique) beer. They said “Spot On. ”
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