(+) Customs Co-operation. One area where Australia and New Zealand should co-operate with Fiji is with customs control. But Fiji's Acting Revenue and Customs Board Chairman LtCol Pio Tikoduadua says this is not the case.
Tikoduadua said the Oceania Customs Organization has 23 members and as part of this Organisation, Australia and New Zealand should be more open as Fiji's stringent border control measures will also be beneficial to them.
(o) Idle Land. The Native Land Trust Board has revealed that over 3,000 land leases, given to grow sugar are now lying idle. According to the blog FijiToday this represents about 180,000 hectares.
NLTB General Manager the Alipate Qetaki says the sugar industry's failure to obtain the 4 million tons of cane required by the sugar mills is not due to lack of acess to land. Many leasees are old people unable to look after the land which now serves as their residence only. Qetaki says that to resolve the problem, all stakeholders such as Fiji Sugar Corporation, NLTB and Government must work together.
[One might add that many leasees, who migh otherwise work the land, feel their leases and their future in Fiji are insecure. Many have already left the country. Government is working on ways to increase leasee security and get more lease money to the mataqali owners ofland, and less to the chiefs and the NLTB. This is part of the Roadmap.]
(+) Lawyer Struck from Roll Suva lawyer Abhay Singh has been disbarred from the legal profession and ordered to pay $1,000 fine. He was charged with breaching the Legal Practitioners Decree – through professional misconduct, following complaints from the public. One of the charges was that he pressured a client to transfer a parcel of land to him in payment of the balance of fees. Another was that he acted for multiple parties in a sale and purchase agreement for a land - in return for the transfer of a taxi permit to the land vendor. Ending such practices by some members of the legal profession is part of the Roadmap.
(o-) The Cancellation of Sitiveni Rabuka’s Pension Some years ago this may have been justifiable. Rabuka started the "coup culture" in his 1987 Coup, and although his record has left some questions about his sincerity (there were rumours of his involvement in and immediately after the Speight Coup in 2000), his overall record as PM up to 1999 and his offers to assist the Bainimarama Government have been reconciliatory and, at least on the surface, helpful.
I presume Government has heard rumours that Rabuka has made anti-Government statements in public and this could be the reason his persion was cancelled. Whether true or false, and whatever the rights or wrongs of this particular case, I think the pension cancellation sends the wrong message. Government needs to be seen as conciliatory and moving towards dialogue across the political divide. If the public think the action unfair, it will be seen as petty and vindictive.
(+) Chiefs on the island of Kadavu have expressed support for Government and asked Bainimarama to carry on beyond 2014 if necessary.The chiefs told the PM the whole of Kadavu supports his leadership as they have witnessed first hand developments they have never seen in the past 40 to 50 years.
(-) Media organization Pacific Freedom Forum has said the Media Decree discussions will be "meaningless" if the Fiji Times and Fiji Television are not represented. I found their argument unpersuasive and and unneceesily provocative, but I agree the mainstream media should be represented. The more Government moves are seen as inclusive, the more support it will win, in Fiji and overseas -- and inclusiveness means inclusion of all all major viewpoints. If only those who totally agree with Government are included, it is talking to itself!
See also RNZI news in which Bainimarama says irresponsible journalism over many years "promoting certain political ideologies and philosophies [has] contributed to the nation’s social and political unrest [causing] disunity and upheaval."
(o) High hopes of Fiji Competing in Commonwealth Games
This is one area where Australia and New Zealand could ask the Commonwealth to think again. Fiji's exclusion only adds to all the other exclusions, and this one only hurts sports men and women.
(+) New Crime Decree Will Assist Fight against Sexual Abuse
(o-) The Truly Pro-Democracy NGO Citizen's Constitutional Forum has released a statement calling on Government to ensure a truly independent judiciary amid concerns this has not alway been so. This blog supports them not just because a judiciary should be independent but because Government must, increasingly, be seen to "do the right thing." It has more to lose than gain by not doing so.
(o) Rugby Coach Sale Sorovaki, well known in Manawatu rugby circles, would like to return to NZ to finish his coaching certificate. but there are problems ...
Fiji Appeals for Blood. Local readers please help. Click heading to view details.
8 comments:
Much as I've got a huge amount of satisfaction from Sitiveni Rabuka being forced to walk for an hour back to his village when troops seized his four wheel drive, I agree with you, Croz, that it all comes across as petty and vindictive. This is the problem with the regime, its erratic and capricious behaviour in relation to practically everything. As a former elected Prime Minister of Fiji, Rabuka deserves a modicum of respect whatever blame he shoulders for the present coup culture taking root in the first place. It sets a very bad precedent removing his privileges just because he dares to question the regime's behaviour. The problem is that Frank simply can't forgive Rabuka for his perceived role in the mutiny of 2000, turning up at the camp at the height of the uprising with his uniform in his car offering to "help". He was only just cleared of involvement by the presiding judge in his trial after the assessors were split on a verdict. Frank still thinks he's guilty of trying to knock him off and gives Rabuka no quarter. The trouble is, what happens down the track when the boot is on the other foot? Frank won't be feeling quite so comfortable if a future government or dictator decides to give him his own comeuppance. A bad move, I think, that will rebound on the regime and its major figures sometime down the track.
I don't think the removal of pensions from former PMs, parliamentarians, senators etc, who are against the current leadership is a bad move. In fact, it's the right move so let me explain why this is justifiable.
Bainimarama’s leadership is cleaning up the problems created by the Rabuka and Qarase governments that came into power as a result of uprisings carried out by people claiming themselves to be Taukei Nationalists and were using such excuses that it's the birthright of indigenous Fijians to rule/lead Fiji. Look closely at what they did to the indigenous Fijians once they got into government. NOTHING.
Rabuka and Qarase did nothing tangible to uplift the standard of living of the ordinary indigenous folks in the islands and rural areas. Instead they help line up their pockets (and their friends too) with exorbitant salaries and pension schemes once they got into power. Only when election time is around the corner, you see token government funds and developments carried out in the indigenous communities.
When Bainimarama took over government and set about dismantling the corrupt system that has allowed thieves, crooks and murderers to embed themselves into our society, the culprits started jumping up and down criticizing government. That’s simply because their comfort zones gained through greed and deceit have been broken and dismantled.
Today, some of the same groups of people who are responsible for the political turmoil in Fiji in the last 20 years are still going around deviously plotting strategies to gain power and wreck havoc once again. They criticize government using blogs. They exploited and manipulated the vanua and church machinery to garner support for their own ideologies. Yes, some of them became parliamentarians, senators and even PMs. Yes, it is JUST to take away their pension after all it is paid for by government in the first place.
As Bainimarama said in Kadavu, the new Fiji will be led by government. Not the GCC nor the Church but government - By ALL the people, Of ALL the people, For ALL the people – and NEVER again by a group of DECEIVERS dressed in a talatala’s cloak or come with a Ratu, Adi or Ro beside their name.
TheMax, I find your logic very compelling and wonder why the regime hasn't been even tougher on all those who, since 1987, have trashed our country. I think we should have a series of show trials of assorted chiefs. politicians, talatalas, journalists and human rights activists and have peoples' courts pronounce appropriate punishment. Perhaps Makogai can be resurrected not as a leper colony but as a penal colony for opponents of the regime?They can all be sent there for various periods and undergo reeducation to cure them of their deviant ways. Just imagine the likes of Laisenia Qarase, Apenisa Cakobau, Mere Samisoni, Imrana Jalal, Netani Rika, Manasa Lasaro et al being forced into exile in this anti-Bainimarama nirvana. They could all be taught to weave mats and cook pankeke with a view to giving their lives purpose instead of continually causing the rest of the nation grief. And military teams can brainwash them into accepting multiracialism, appropriate levels of humility and how to make the right choice on the ballot paper when any election is eventually held. I know this may strike you as an elaborate fantasy on my part. But if Stalin had his gulags, why can't Frank?
Bula Croz,
Is there an email address you could provide us in case we want to email you. Perhaps I wasn't looking hard enough but I could not see one on your blog.
Vinaka.
Nesian, The address is
croz.walsh@xtra.co.nz
Look forward to hearing from you. Croz
I disagree with anyone who says taking Rabuka's pension is a petty move. Rabuka is responsible for ruining Fiji as a nation. Because of him people like me can't live in Fiji anymore. We left Fiji in droves because from 1987 onwards Fiji became a hell-hole - all thanks to one man, Rabuka. I say "Go Bainimarama. Go one step further. Put Rabuka in jail for life. That's where he belongs. That's where anyone who commits treason against his country belongs.
Two wrongs do not make a right.
Rambos involvement in coups 1987 and 2000 and more importantly his lack of remorse over the years tells us that this parasite is not ready for reconciliation. He should have been sent to Naboro years ago instead of growing fat off the public purse.
He should be made an example of for the benefit of those presently in the public service.
Pension is a privilege, not a right.
A most important point has been missed by most of the posters above: Governments do not have money. They are funded by taxpayers through: personal, corporate and VAT taxes. If the interests of these various taxpayers are not being served (and they have not been in 20 years or more), then the taxpayers have a right to decide where their money should accountably go. Have the taxpayers of Fiji had this right in twenty odd years? Are they to have it now? That will be progress and that will be a step towards Good Governance.
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