News and Comments Thursday 13 September 2012

Ideas for a new design?

PACIFIC DIALOGUE WANTS NEW FLAG and more. I shall be publishing their full Constitution Commission submission, and others,  on Saturday as part of the now customary Weekend  Readings.  Perhaps the media could start a competition for a new flag design.

"THE CHOICE IS SIMPLE: Do we want 1. A return to the divisive politics and elitist leadership of the past which stymied our national development and left too many behind OR 2. Grab this opportunity to create a new state where Fijians share the responsibilities and benefits of a unified modern state? -- Jale O. Baba on Facebook's Fiji Economic Forum.

WRITTEN SUBMISSIONS POSTED on the Constitution Commission's website include those of the Fiji labour party, Sir James Ah Koy, the SDL, Methodist and  Catholic Churches.

PROVINCIAL AND TIKINA COUNCILS. Lau Provincial Council Chairman Filipe Bole has called for the inclusions of all races on the Councils (because their work covers matters that apply to all the people who live within their boundaries); for all citizens to be called Fijians and Fiji to revert to its authentic name of Viti for the implementation of the one person, one vote, one value system; for representation in parliament to be based on merit and not ethnicity; for future governments to rank rural development high in their priorities; for Fiji to remain a secular state, the protection for the rights and freedom of the people and the lowering of the voting age to 18 years.

He said the inclusion of other ethnic groups as members of the councils should improve  their effectiveness and make their business more open to public scrutiny and accountability.

FLP REPEATS. The dialogue process is flawed. And so it might be but few things please all. For the FLP to retain any credibility, it needs to grasp this historic opportunity to say something more useful.

MORE ITAUKEI DAILIES NEEDED, SAYS LINGUIST. With 500,000 iTaukei first language under 5% of Fiji's newspapers are published in the indigenous language, according to Fiji's leading linguist Professor Paul Geraghty at the Media and Democracy conference at the University of the South Pacific last week.

RAJENDRA CHAUDHRY FOUND GUILTY OF  professional misconduct.