Arrests Not Helpful to Fiji's Image But ...

Croz, 'Ata Island, Tonga, c.1965

By Crosbie Walsh 
  

Two arrests and one banning have made headlines recently. In Fiji, Shalend Scott, a Fiji-born and Australian citizen, Air Pacific pilot and secretary of the Fiji Airline Pilots' Association, was arrested and charged with unlawful access to documents that disclosed Air Pacific's purported involvement in the drafting of the Essential Industries Decree. Second, Sri Lanka-born and NZ citizen IT specialist Jagath Karunaratne is in police custody for questioning. No charges have yet been made but it is thought they could relate to his alleged part in the recent graffiti campaign against the Government.  And, last and somewhat less reported, here in NZ veteran left-wing radio commentator and TV host Martyn “Bomber” Bradbury has been banned from Radio New Zealand for what RNZ said was his “over the top” criticism of Prime Minister John Key.

The Fiji arrests are not good news because they will be used to back up other accusations against the Fiji government.

Arrest No. 1 Shalend Scott

One downstream affects of Shailend's arrest include a threat by the Australian and International Pilots Association,already in a dispute with Qantas that owns 46% of Air Pacific, to break off negotiations. Qantas says it plays no part in the day-to-day operations of the Fiji airline and has declined to reply to ABC enquiries.

And from Fiji, Secretary of Fiji's Council of Trade Unions, Pramod Rae that has been critical of the Essential Industries Decree, has stepped in with his own comments. He told ABC Scott's arrest “had something to do with some leak of some confidential documents.” He said he had not been able to get access to Scott but some close relatives may have seen him. 

Air Pacific, however, say the arrest was due to the theft of a number of sensitive and confidential documents. They do not deny the company assisted Governnment with the Essential Industries legislation. 

"The vast majority of Company confidential documents that were accessed and removed without authorisation had nothing to do with the Essential National Industries (Employment) Decree. The Company’s preliminary investigation has revealed that the confidential documents that were improperly accessed and removed were wide-ranging in nature and included: individual pilot and flight attendant salaries; individual employee contracts; Board material; and other confidential Company financial and commercial documents."

Scott has been remanded in custody until the next hearing scheduled for October 21 and the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs says he is getting consular assistance. Australia's acting high commissioner in Suva has made representations to senior Fijian authorities regarding his detention, a departmental spokesperson said. "Consular officers are providing the man with consular assistance and have visited him on a number of occasions," the spokesperson said.

In normal circumstances, the arrest would deserve no special mention. A crime seems to have been committed and the alleged culprit has been detained. But these are not normal circumstances, and the arrest will be seen, with a little encouragement from the media, to be a further example of the oppressive nature of the Bainimarama Government. 

It comes as no surprise that the anti-government blog Coup Four and a Half blog was the first to publish the leaked document and news of Scott's arrest.

Arrest No. 2 Jagath Karunaratne and his “relative” Rajesh Singh

Anti-Government sources say Jagath was arrested for speaking out against PM Bainimarama and being involved in the recent political graffiti campaign. He was the managing director of Clariti South Pacific Limited,an IT company and subsidiary of Fiji Holdings Ltd.

Relatives in NZ  said he has a medical condition and has not been allowed to see a doctor while in detention, a statement denied by Assistant Commissioner of Police Henry Brown who said Jagath is being well looked after and has been seen by NZ consular officials.

TVNZ reported that brother-in-law Rajesh Singh says they are concerned for the IT professional’s safety and feared he had been taken to the military barracks in Suva. Listen to the video.

I was surprised TVNZ gave Singh any space on the programme. He added nothing substantial. They could have recorded the relatives' concern, noted that Jagath said he was not mistreated, and finished with Minister McCully's statement that the High Commission has had access to Jagath. This would have been a balanced coverage of the arrest.

Instead, they allowed Singh to say he feared Jagath could “end up dead” and then to appeal to people in Fiji to mount a general strike and rise up against the Bainimarama government. Guileless TVNZ was being used by a devious maverick with a questionable political history.


Had TVNZ enquired a little deeper into Singh's background they would have seen he had good reason to use the window provided by TVNZ to make a political statement.

In an article on my blog published earlier in the year soon,  after he launched the so-called NZ Chapter of the Fiji Democracy and Freedom Movement (that in Australia is an ethnic Fijian front for the ousted SDL party and seems to have no Indo-Fijian members) —and after he declined to join the already well-established Coalition for Democracy in Fiji movement headed by Nik Naidu — I gave a brief biography.

“In the 2001 election he stood unsuccessfully for the National Federation Party against the FLP and SDL.  In the 2006 election he stood for the SDL  against the NFP and FLP.  He was one of two Indo-Fijians in the SDL government in which he was appointed Minister of Youth and Sport, but six months later he was dismissed by Qarase.  Following the Bainimarama Coup in December 2006, he resigned from the SDL and sought, again unsuccessfully, to attach himself to the Bainimarama Government. "

What I did not say is that he was also a protégé of Ratu Inoke Takiveikata, the Qaranivalu (high chief) of Naitasiri province who supported the Speight 2000 Coup and was behind the Army mutiny which almost resulted in Bainimarama's assassination in November the same year.

So, at once time or another, Singh has supported the NFP, the FLP, the SDL, the Bainimarama government, and the so-called Fiji Freedom and Democracy Movement. He is far more than a mere "relative" by marriage to Jagath Karunaratne. If  TVNZ viewers had had an inkling of his past, they would have been able to draw their own conclusions about the balance of the TVNZ programme.

The banning of Martyn Bradbury

Martyn Bradbury's dismissal is important for two reasons: because Singh said Jagath had been arrested for criticising the Bainimarama government, and because we too often assume that our media is politically neutral and not subject to pressure from politicians.

Bradbury's “over the top”comment referred to in opening paragraph was:

“What does a $43 million loan to Mediaworks buy you on Radio Live? Apparently an hour of John Key avoiding answering any questions on politics. Why pay Mediaworks $43 million for that, when John Key can appear on [Television NZ's] Close Up and not answer questions for free?”

Following the ban, Bradbury asked: “If you can't criticise the Prime Minister on state radio, and the private radio give him free air time during the credit downgrade where he doesn't answer any criticisms, then where the hell in a democracy can you criticise him?

“In the same week as I was banned from RNZ for criticising the PM, the Herald was banned from Parliament for 10 days and Key got his Radio Live freebie. If Helen Clark had pulled any of this in her time as leader, the voices from the right so quick to denigrate me, would be in full voice for the support of freedom of speech. Their hypocrisy should surprise no one.”

He said he was “more disappointed for Radio NZ and the ideas of public broadcasting that I always held them up to. Banning someone for criticising the Prime Minister is a terrible look, not just for RNZ, but for us as a democracy.”

What may be concluded from all this? 
The two arrests were unfortunate for Fiji's image, compounding images already created by the media, but they are arguably justified since both men allegedly broke the law and, according to Australian and NZ officials, they were being treated properly. Secondly, TVNZ should conduct quick checks on its informants; not allow itself to be used by people with devious intent, and not air views that call for civic unrest in this or any other country. Finally, Bradbury's dismissal points to a form of voluntary censorship by our media that is little different from the self-censorship they criticise in Fiji. 

Readers may also recall that I was “dismissed” from  the RNZ Nights with Bryan Crump programme for expressing “opinions” on Fiji when what they wanted was “facts.” Our media is far from free..

UPDATE. Jagath Karanaratna and four others were in the Suva court yesterday
charged with "writing of seditious words in public places and billboards along the Nausori and Suva roads with a seditious intention and thereby purported to bring into hatred or contempt or to excite dissatisfaction against the Government of Fiji." Bail was refused. They will appear again in court on Friday

RadioNZI reports that Shalend Scott has been charged with four counts of serious computer offences, a crime for which the penalty is life or a maximum of two years, depending on which section of the Act he is charged under. Prosecutors want the former; Judge Paul Madigan says he should be charged under the latter. He is scheduled to appear in the Lautoka court next Friday.