AGRICULTURAL Scam 2001. The Court of Appeal has dismissed all nine grounds of appeal filed by former Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forests, Peniasi Kunatuba who is serving a four year sentence for his role in the $16 million agriculture scam of 2001. Judges Justices John Byrnes, Paul Madigan and Priyantha Fernando all ruled that Kunatuba had been lawfully convicted and properly sentenced. Agricultural implements distributed in the "scam" were used to buy ethnic Fijian votes in the 2001 Election.
CHINESE Businessmen have expressed an interest in two FNPF projects, the Momi Hotel and the Grand Pacific Hotel in Suva.
KAI SOLOMONI Injustices. In February last year my post "Solomon Community Wants to Return "Home" described the terrible injustices done to the descendants of Fiji's first indentured labourers, from what is now Vanuatu and Solomon Islands. Yesterday I received this comment: "Thanks Walse for the blog. I am one of the decendants and what you have highlighted is true and I hope that one day we will be recognized and not seen as outsiders."
After six or more generations in Fiji, with no knowledge of their paternal ancestor's islands; with Fijian mothers and a largely Fijian culture, language and lifestyle, they are still seen as "visitors" and are not recognized as Fijians by ethnic Fijians. In pre-Contact Fiji they would have been "absorbed" generations ago. Their continued exclusion today is the result of the fossilisation of an idealised homogenous culture that did not exist. Traditional Fijian practices were far more flexible than the colonial-interpreted law used today. Click here to read the original post.
FIJI Helping Australia. The Suva High Court ruled last week that a child abducted by the father and now living in Fiji be returned to Australia and placed under the care of its mother. Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum pointed to the obvious irony: Australia made the application for the child's return to the very same courts they tried to undermine by placing Fiji judges on a travel ban.
BIO-DIESEL Has Teething Problems.Koro Island's Bio-Diesel Mill opened recently by the PM is having difficulty selling the new product to wary villagers. It's also likely the "strong" 20/80 blend with normal fuel will cause mechanical problems for newer vehicles that, without adaptation, require a 5% blend. There's a bright future for copra bio-diesel in Fiji but the infrastructural "mix" is not yet right.
ANNOUNCEMENT. Indo-Fijians in New Zealand will be celebrating the arrival of their ancestors from the Asian, Indian and Afghanistan sub-continent at Fickling Centre, Three Kings, Auckland, on Friday May 14, 2010 from 7pm to 9pm.
4 comments:
Good stuff Suva High Court. What about Fiji asking Oz & Nz for help to bring Ballu Khan to Fiji, he has a lot to answer to.
Yes, the kai Solomoni have done it tough and, yes, are still seen as vulagi in Fiji. But let's not forget that everyone other than the taukei are ultimately regarded as vulagi. Kai Idia, Kai valagi, kai wherever, none of us are truly accepted even after several generations in Fiji. Contrast this to the ready acceptance of Fijians as Australians or New Zealanders when they emigrate and you get some idea of how far Fiji has to go before it becomes a modern multiracial state. For all the protestations from people like TheMax that attitudes are changing, when it comes to accepting outsiders as anything other that vulagi, your average Fijian is, let's be brutally frank, backward.
Joe – ‘Good stuff’?
Of course the Australians would ask the Fiji Court system to make the legally correct order for the abducted child’s return. What other options were left open to them? Invasion? Assassination?
It’s derisible for you and the AG to intimate that this shows hypocrisy on Australia’s part. I trust that no one tries to use this, or any other legal request by overseas courts, as a straw man argument to ‘confirm’ the validity of the Fiji Court system.
In most matters the Fiji court system is, arguably, independent. But in matters pertaining to the interim government and its decrees, it remains - very definitely - castrated.
As far as the return of Ballu Kahn goes – forget about it. The Fiji court system itself freed Kahn on the basis of actions by police and soldiers at the time of his arrest and afterwards. It’s highly likely that Kahn was instrumental in the whole assassination plot but the military’s actions could have been premeditated to allow him access to the argument by which the court finally granted his escape. Now that he’s safely out of the country he’s not likely to spill the beans over what really went on, is he?
So, once again – just like the 2000 coup, the NBF scandal and the 87 coup, the Fiji public has been cheated out of knowing who was really behind fundamentally important events.
fiji is only fulfilling it's international obligations nothing more..to presume to suggest that australia need change it's position on this illegal regime it laughable..it is as if they want to be congratulated for doing a decent thing.Oh and must we keep listening to this garbage about politicians and politics being the source of fiji's ills...it appears that this illegal AG can get knee deep in politics when it suits cant' he..... to slag off your biggest revenue source.?? The only obvious irony is an illegally military appointed...judge sacking ....coup making....illegal oath taking AG. That's an irony.
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