Cogito, ergo sum. I think, therefore I am. (René Descartes, mathematician and philosopher,1599-1650)

Monday 18 January 2021

Fiji's town councils still managed by administrators, not by those elected by ratepayers (pn669)


 
This is a copy of a letter Jone Dakuvula wrote to the pro-government Fiji Sun  on January 6th but was not published. It raises the important question of why, so many years after Bainimarama's 2006 takeover, local urban governments are still managed by those appointed by government, and not by those elected by ratepayers as was formerly the case. It would be sign of government's good intent if they were returned to the people, and no longer managed by appointed administrators.  See also pn639. -- ACW

The Editor

Fiji Sun

Dear Sir,

I refer to the article by Salveen Chand headed “Nasinu Owed $9 Million:, Fiji Sun 5/1/2021. The report said, “The Nasinu Town Council has come out saying, they do not have the money to carry out those services and others. including enforcement and health checks”. Only 57% of 11.252 registered ratepayers pay their rates, the article says.

Identifying Nasinu as a “Town Council” is an Orwellian term because the reality is quite the opposite. There has been no elected Town Council in Nasinu for the last 13 years as provided under the local Government Act 1972. This is the situation in all urban councils. If there were elected town councils, the elected members would have the interest in the collection of rates to fund the services of the Councils for the last 13 years. These “Councils” have been under the management of administrators who are not accountable to the voters and ratepayers and, their interest is only just collecting enough rates so their salaries can be paid to maintain them in their jobs.

The newspapers used to publish lists of ratepayers who had not paid their rates, to publicly pressure then to pay up. There is no democratic transparency that could expose what other interests collude with the administrators in non payment of rates. The Fiji Sun needs to publish the state of arrears of rates in all the Urban Councils.

The Minister of Local Government, Mrs Premila Kumar, has stated that she is happy with the current situation of having no elected Councils. Why?

I read in social media recently that India has just held local government elections in all states and in Kerala state, a 20 year old University student has won the Election for Mayor of the Capital City and she is looking forward, all prepared with her political party’s programme for improved services for the city. Will the Fiji Sun Jyoti Pratibha   editorially ask the Minister: Why can’t we be like the largest democracy in the world and have a local government election so our young aspiring leaders can have experience in democratic leadership at the local level? Blaming ratepayer for not having civic pride is not the answer to this problem.

Jone Dakuvula

Suva

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