Michael Field Smells a Conspiracy

Inia Seruiratu pn262

A week ago Michael Field wrote an article headed The Face of Military Censorship that took  a swipe at Fiji's new Foreign Affairs Minister Inia Seruiratu on the occasion of his first speech as minister addressing young diplomats at an NZMFAT-funded protocol training seminar. 


Field called the speech an "off-the-cuff affair .. a mishmash of

Michael Field

ethnonationalism, casting back to the I-Taukei stuff his predecessor (Bainimarama) used to justify his roles in previous coups." 

Seruiratu, he said,  is being tipped to replace Bainimarama as prime minister.  

My curiosity was aroused. Field is not known for his objectivity, particularly on Fiji. I wondered just how bad the speech really was.

"The speech," he wrote,  "was posted online by the Fiji Government, without anybody actually listening to it (for Seruiratu tossed aside his prepared remarks)... when (perhaps thanks to me) they realised what was in it, the video was pulled. A day later the opposition National Federation Party released a leaked copy. None of the Fiji media have reported any of it. Not a word. Perhaps they have grown lazy: usually they are given the speech ahead of time and just have to put a by-line on it. But there is now no formal censorship in Fiji, but given the thuggy that is behind Seruiratu's military rank, no one will tell Fiji what was said." (My italics.)

I just had to listen to the video to see how Field reached these damning claims from the Minister's speech.  

If only I could get a copy. Then perhaps I'd be able to see "the thuggery (that Field claimed was)...behind Seruiratu's military rank.... no one will tell Fiji what was said." 

Thanks to Fiji friends who posted me a copy you  can listen to the video by clicking here. 

Seruiratu is giving the opening address to  a three-day seminar funded by NZMFAT for young diplomats .  It's a 15 minutes rambling speech that he clearly had insufficient time to rehearse, having only been appointed Minister a few days earlier.  

He did, however,  offer some good "off the cuff" advice on patriotism (love for country and willingness to serve and defend); on the world's shifting paradigms that means all of us need to change if we are not to become irrelevant; on changing personality and steady character, and on the young diplomats representing Fiji. "You are Fiji wherever you go."

I heard nothing —absolutely nothing—that could justify Field's condemnation. There was nothing on ethnonationalism. Nothing on "I-Taukei stuff his predecessor (Bainimarama) used to justify his roles in previous coups."  And nothing, I would have thought, to cause the video to be withdrawn or the media not to report it. 

Once again "Mickey" Field is caught out leg before wicket. 

I started this blog in 2008 largely because of Field's misreporting of the Fiji situation.  He hasn't changed a bit.

-- ACW