CoupFourPointFive's posting today on Driti and Mara is incredulous. They write that the two military leaders were reinstated after they apologized to Bainimarama for plotting to depose him. The blog must take their readers for fools if they think they will believe this. Someone plots to depose you; they say sorry and all is forgiven? The blog should just admit their first report was wrong, rather than trying to wriggle out of it with another tall story. Errors happen all the time when one relies on unsubstantiated, anonymous rumours.
Their second posting was on Sharon Smith-Johns and it is deeply offensive and libellous. The accusation was first published months ago on another anti-government blog and has no more substance now than it did then. I am quite frankly shocked that a once reputable anti-govenment blog should have stooped so low.
CoupFourPointFive no longer meets the criterion of a 'reasonable' anti-Government blog and for this reason I have removed the link to the blog on this site. The decision will be reviewed when CoupFourPointFive shows signs of returning to its previous status.
I trust RadioNZ International and other international media will think twice before again using CoupFourPointFive for their information, and they should certainly never publish anything from this source until they have verified the information.
24 comments:
Vinaka, Croz, for taking a principled stand for decency, journalistic integrity and the right of all Fijians to be free from racial vilification. The latest stuff on 4.5 is truly appalling. The racial and sexual stuff is bad enough. But to get everyone excited or upset about a major political upheaval is truly reprehensible. It's just destabilising Fiji and its economy for crude propaganda purposes. Talk about crying wolf. "Oi, your house is burning down! Oh, no flames? Ahhh, well they must have gone out by themselves. Never mind". This is really pathetic. The whole of 4.5 is at fault but the main thrust of all of this came from Jone Baledrokadroka, who poses as an independent analyst at the ANU. The University should hold him to account for this bomb throwing. He's a complete disgrace.
Croz
I'm struggling to find any benefits of this coup for Fiji and its people? Can you tell us why you think this military coup and the military junta is a good thing for Fiji?
Are you not concerned about things such as the PER, intimidation and human rights abuses?
The dictactor must be so happy. Even the blogs have turned there attention from the real issues and are know fighting about who's blog is fair and who's is responsible.
It's like everyone has accpeted that is OK for a strong man to over throw a government and declare himself the leader, it's OK for him then to exclusively decided laws.
If a military leader in NZ took over the Keys government this week would we all so quickly move on and accept that behaivor as normal ?
...oh please. It's a rumour site. That's what it is, nothing more and nothing less.
Contrast that to this site. It looks more offical and uses nicer words but in the end spends most of it's time reflecting the edited/censored media and prodaganda of Fiji's dictator.
On a unrelated note no one seems to have picked up that the PM has confirmed 2014 as the year for elections a number of time over recent weeks. This is a positive step. The next would be for him to publish his roadmap so we have something more than a promise to go on.
Croz - perhaps you could ask Sharon for a copy or when we can expect it to be published.
Thank you for having posted the following link on your website: http://www.econ.fbe.usp.ac.fj/fileadmin/files/schools/ssed/economics/Wadan_Narsey/Media_articles/2010_C____Fiji_s_population_revolution.pdf
I think that those who will take the 5-10 minutes required to read it will understand better the problems Fiji will face in the future. Clearly, it's time for the native Fijians to change their mentality. It think the coup is all about that...
Coup benefits, you're only struggling because you're not paying attention. The benefits of the 2006 coup:
1/ An end to the Qoliqoli Bill and the ridiculous notion that already having more than 80 per cent of the land, indigenous Fijians should charge everyone else to utilise coastal resources.
2/ An end to the Reconciliation Bill which would have seen George Speight and his gang freed to contest national elections and strut around like victors.
3/ An end to any notion of altering land title to further benefit indigenous Fijians when 40 per cent of citizens can never own more than 20 per cent of the land.
4/ An end to the corruption, trafficking in influence and feather bedding of the Qarase government and the spectacle of the coup makers of 2000 at the heart of a supposedly democratic administration.
5/ The abrogation of a flawed constitution that was weighted in favour of the indigenous majority and marginalised 40 per cent of the population.
6/ An end to the rorts in the civil service and government instrumentalities and the vaka malua attitude ( laziness and unaccountability ) that deprived vast areas of the country of basic services.
7/ The creation, for the first time, of a level playing field for all races, a common name for all citizens of Fiji and the prospect, in four years time, of one man one vote for a truly democratic government.
8/ The exposure, marginalisation, silencing and in some cases, exile of prominent citizens who constituted the pharisee class in Fiji - preaching one thing and living another, their hands firmly in the jam jar or wrapped around their own vitals ie. wankers.
How's that for starters? There's eight answers to your question for you to ponder and there's a lot more - like no longer persecuting gays and strengthening laws to protect women against violence and children against exploitation.Oh, and free bus fares for kids!
Get it? Got it. Good.
Why?, you forgot to mention finally calling the bluff of the political talatalas.
These are those Methodist Church ministers who used their pulpits not to preach the Christian message of God's love for everyone but the special nature of indigenous Fijians.
Frank was finally able to do what successive Methodist Church leaders could not - push the likes of Manasa Lasaro and Tomasi Kanailagi from the centre to the margins of national life.
Hallelujah and Amen to that.
@Why? where did it all begin
So just to make sure us real Fijians understand what you are saying. It is ok for indo-fijians to support a coup but not Fijians? So indo fijian coups are ok but no other coups?
Get real. Your poor one sided argument provides nothing but a rationale for continuing coups. and are you speaking for all indo fijians with your attack of Fijians culture and traditional land? and are you speaking for all indo fijians when you condone the murder and human rights abuses of Fijians - you would squeal like a pig if the reverse happened?
Get it. Got it. Good - see you soon...
@Why....and the very first things this regime did was the PER, to sack judges , give themsleves back pay and give themselves immunity from prosecution. totally selfless
and i still not seeing any racial equlity in the military are you and where are the gays in green ??
Not entirely sure any of this is in dispute,
i don't have to dispute the goals but for this regime to take any moral high ground about its origins is laughable
Got it, get it, good.
@ And another thing
OK. So not content with racist attacks on Fijians and their culture, you now attack their Christian beliefs? Bring it on.
Got it. Get it. Good.
@ this coup will be crushed and sara' ssista:
Wishful thinking will get you nowhere: nowhere at all. The logic of the move forward for Fiji and all Fijians (yes, all Fijians) is beyond anyone person and their individual ideology. It is a global necessity and requirement that sovereign countries like Fiji move into a place where they may survive and find niche markets for their enterprise and their commodities. To continually harp on the past will do no one any good. There is no purchase in this and spouting names and venom will achieve absolutely nothing. Vent your spleen and your energy in useful enterprise. If you are here, then get into business and employ a few dozen or a few hundred people. Fiji needs employment. It also needs a rising GDP. Apply some smarts and some savings and get on with it!
You poor miserable fools, I'm not Indian at all. So where does that leave you except needlessly frothing at the mouth?
The last few racist diatribes are the last gasp of a bunch of indigenous thugs who belong in the ranks of the categories I was describing. So how does it feel, guys, to have your usual primeval knee-jerk reaction against the Kai idia only to find your boot up the backside of someone with no Indian blood at all?
This is the blind stupidity of the racist i'Taukei, no idea who they're fighting or for what. They're just beside themselves with anger because they lost all their privileges, not at the hands of a Kai Idia but one of their own.
So this was an Indian coup was it, fellas? You can call Frank Bainee or Baini all you like but he sure looks i'Taukei to me. Qori. Go back to your vakatunaloa and have another bilo, It'll help dull the pain you've inflicted on yourselves, all by yourselves. Leave the Kai Idia out of it. The real enemy is within.
Oi, who are these "real Fijians" these people are talking about? Oh, so they're real but everyone else isn't. Time's up you goons, the indigenous-only bar is closing. Welcome to the new Fiji.
Wow, this has really brought out the lunies. Must be the bother boys from 4.5 out to kick a few heads. How tragic that when they get angry, it's the Indians who cop the abuse. It's almost instinctive. Do Indians talk like this about Fijians? I don't think so. Very sad.
Why is simply explaining the benefits of the coup "an attack on Fijian culture and beliefs"? I don't read any such thing into what's been said here. It's as if these guys are provoked to anger merely by laying out the facts.
@ SOE
You do NOT speak for all Fijians - we do that through the ballot box....well, we used to but for the next 4 years (if the regime lasts that long)....we will have no vote....hmmm
Oh, and why is the PER stiull going....is someone still jumping at shadows?
@ Go Croz....
Racial vilification. Wow! That's a Big Deal.
But....truly it is! Why would any decent human being who works, has a family and aspires to a home and some peace and quiet, put up with all this? Well, have I got news for you: they won't and they don't have to - anymore. And the Crimes Decree of 2009 ensures that they do not.
CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY - 94
Persecution
1. (a) to (f)
The provisions of (a) to (f) would appear to fit some of the posts on Coup 4.5 and in addition:
If the perpetrator's conduct is committed intentionally or knowingly as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population:
PENALTY: Imprisonment for 17 years.
Cannot be plainer than that.
CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY:
The laws of Fiji are being broken on Coup 4.5 with impunity. Anyone caught at this, anyone who propagates such crimes based on: "political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, relgious, gender or other grounds that are recognised in paragraph 1 of article 2 of the Covenant, and the perpetrator's conduct is committed in connection with another act that is
(1) a proscribed inhumane act: or
(11)genocide
(f) and the perpetrator's conduct is committed intentionally or knowingly as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population
PENALTY - Imprisonment for 17 years.
Think about this. Then make your own judgement. The Fiji Courts are now empowered to try Crimes against Humanity. The ball now sits in our court.
@ This coup will be crushed ...
Well you can go on hoping and wishful-thinking but, "it ain't gonna happen"! Sorry to 'not make your day'. How might you imagine otherwise? You must be completely befuddled by your 3D Goggles? You are also, presumably, being paid by Australian taxpayers to promote this point of view? Amazing how generous and patient they are. Do you not get a trifle uneasy about being permitted to spout such nonsense at someone else's expense? A day must come when the ANU will tire of all this highblown, racist rhetoric aimed at the blogosphere while they pay? Soon, they will want to change the Song Sheet and the funding will dry up. Taxpayers are very tricky, testy people: in Fiji or in Oz.
Looking at these postings tonight, it's pretty clear to me that the breach with 4.5 was inevitable. It's not a moderate blog any longer and hasn't been for some time. What it reflects is the utter frustration of the anti-regime forces after four years of constantly agitating for Frank's downfall and achieving nothing.
The example of Jone Baledrokdroka demonstrates this point. Here's a guy who stood up to Frank thinking he'd get away with it but lost a power struggle in the military and had to leave Fiji.From the bosom of the ANU, he's been able to launch a fierce campaign against the regime and at face value, seemed, for a time, to have succeeded. With the rest of the anti-regime clique at the ANU like Brij Lal, Baledrokadroka has had a big influence on Australian foreign policy towards Fiji and especially the more punitive aspects of Canberra's policy.
The problem is that this policy hasn't worked. And as the ANU clique watches on helplessly, Australian policy is slowly changing as Canberra recognises its impotence to achieve regime change. The Americans, the French, the Japanese, the South Koreans etc are alarmed that sanctions - smart or otherwise - have been totally counterproductive in driving Fiji into the hands of the Chinese and altering the geopolitical balance in the region. In the eyes of these nations, that policy simply can't continue. All this has affected the standing of the ANU clique in the eyes of the Australian policy establishment. "You told us a hardline policy would bring Bainimarama to his knees? It hasn't and look at the mess we're in now!"
Facing humiliating defeat, Jone Baledrokadroka and his kai vata have become increasingly desperate and shrill, willing to pounce on every rumour that supports their position, irrespective of its source or veracity. Instead of doing the sensible thing and waiting for confirmation, every little anti-regime titbit that hits the Coconut Radio out of the QE Barracks, or from someone who claims to know what's happening, becomes holy writ. This latest farce - of reporting that Pita Driti and Tevita Mara were plotting against Frank, were exposed, confronted , had to apologise and were then taken back in - shows just how far even intelligent men can delude themselves when all hope is lost. But let's face it. These are the same people who, just weeks ago, were trumpeting the equally unlikely "joyous news" that Frank and his AG had been arrested.
Jone Baledrokadroka has fallen into the trap of many political exiles in operating not on the basis of the evidence, as real academics should, but on the quicksand of wishful thinking. He's started to report these wild rumours as fact on the flimsiest of pretexts and finds eager ears at Coup 4.5. These are young journalists or fringe media dwellers who live in awe of Baledrokadroka and people like Victor Lal, share their hatred of the regime and take their contributions as gospel. As a result, these stories get published, no matter how improbable, and reach respectable media outlets like Radio NZ because the journalists there are also suckered by the reputations of the people involved.
None of this would matter if the stakes weren't so high: a fragile economy in Fiji that is totally dependent on the country retaining a modicum of investor confidence. Coup 4.5 deserves to be censured because it erodes that confidence not on the basis of fact - which would be legitimate - but on wild rumour, speculation and innuendo. Couple that with its tolerance of racism and it has clearly crossed an important line. It is neither moderate nor reputable and your breach with it, Croz, isn't just inevitable but an absolute necessity for you to retain your own credibility. You've done the right thing.
its interesting that given a handful of facts those opposed to the government still bring in the race card and the never ending crying like a baby over the PER. I must have missed all the crimes against humanity in the last two years, can someone remind me who that was please.
Those 'privileged' Fijians who ripped off the system through government, their chiefly status and the Methodist church are the ones crying the loudest, they of course want things to remain the same, and why not, things were good for the 'privileged' few. But unfortunately they turned a blind eye to poverty, the Indo Fijians, the racial divide and rights for women and children, and more importantly their own people, just to name a few.
The arguments of the anti government supporter are the same week in and week out. The comment from one blogger about 'gays in the military'. Well let me tell you something, American is a shining light on how to marginalize gays in the military, ask yourself how many gays have been persecuted or killed because of their sexual preference in the US Military, however name me one instance where gays have been mistreated in the Fiji Military, and we know for a fact there are a lot of gays in the Military here, it has never been an issue in Fiji. Right Get it. Got it Good.
An interesting comment on C5.4 that O'Reilys bar is a regular hangout, well thanks to Frank they can hang out there all night, remember that we were slowly becoming a Christian State, shops were closing on Sundays, no alcohol etc, nightclubs closed at midnight. Well that all changed didnt it, now we have the freedom to shop on sundays, visit nightclubs to early hours of the morning and enjoy what was only afforded to 'Developed' countries.
There are so many examples of the changes that have been bought about by the current government, but the Fat Cat Chiefs (FCC) can not and will not acknowledge them, and why?
Because they wanted things to remain the same, but newsflash, THEY ARE NOT THE SAME, they are better.
GET IT. GOT IT. GOOD!
@i got it good, typically your arguments are for your kind of change at whatever the cost, bully for you. Things are not better and currently the fijian military regime, yes thats what it is, is the only bunch who thinks so. This was NOT a choice between a bunch of hopeless former governments and a military coup, you have provided that option, not me , there is plenty of choice before you decided to go down the path of a banana republic craving legitimacy and begging for money and recognition from anyone who will listen. you appear to believe that Aus nz, eu us et al don't have the inclination to wait this out, it will actually cost us nothing, but i would be keen to see the status quo in four years.If this regime wishes to cosy up to china i say go for it. There will be a price for that and i , being in o particular rush to make any concessions look forward to the realisation when the bill, and it will come, from the chinese. This regime can get all the equipment they like from the chinese but unfortunately it won't be compatible with anyone else... which is probably a good thing really....and this often raised issue of the great chiefs and what they would think is interesting...as i never quite thought what they would think of fijian soldiers going to china to learn something...as the only thing they teach is how to suppress your own people , curious. Maybe the fijian military have something to show the chinese on making loud defiant noises when no-one appears to care.
Yo Sissta - And let me ask you this, what were you doing whilst past government were in place ripping off the country, promoting racism and generally feathering their own pockets. Let me answer that for you NOTHING, absolutely nothing but sitting around complaining, but not getting off your backsides to do anything to change it. So the military did do something, they didnt just sit back and complain they too the action that you should have taken. their was always a choice just nobody did anything, but complain. so now you are stuck with it, so you can do one of two things, continue complaining or actually do something positive.
And ask yourself this, if the likes of those that are so opposed to this GOVERNMENT stopped lobbying in aust and NZ maybe Fiji wouldnt have to look to China, again you only have yourselves to blame. So keep up your lame arguments, your head buried in the sand attitude, keep blaming everyone else but yourselves, your life must be a misery.
And most of all i have read a lot of your racist blogs, you should take a long hard look at who you are and what you really stand for. A untied country? i dont think so, you want the good old days back when we all voted and nothing got done and we continued to complain.
Hope you GOT THAT, GOOD!
@ green beret ... Sorry but I don't think you have an argument. There is nothing personal in what I write about C4.5. It is criticized for what it writes and the comments it allows (and does not allow.) Neither can I see anything unprincipled in what people say who comment on this blog. And you cannot possibly believe the anti-government blogs do not take personal swipes? They are full of it, including swipes at me.
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