Tuilaepa's Joke, Lift Part of PER, No Complaints to Human Rights Commission, Anon

Next N223. JOKE OF THE WEEK.  Radio NZI reports that a Samoan high chief and his family have been banished from their village for not voting for the village candidate endorsed by PM Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi.

PM Tuilaepa is reported the same day, also by Radio NZI, with these words of advice for Bainimarama:“If he goes back to the barracks and leaves the politicians to do what they are good at, then Fiji would be a better place to live.” He says "the Commodore should leave politics alone." We see what he means!

N224.  LIFT PART OF PER.  The Citizens' Constitutional Forum (CCF) has again called for the lifting of the public emergency regulations (PER) to allow the Media Industry Development Decree 2010 to be tested. CEO Rev Akuila Yabaki says PER results in "the muzzling of free speech and expression of opinion which will lead to the emergence of blog sites as the only resort for political opinion and news for the citizens, the state and political opinion makers ... A free, fair and open media without the constraints of censorship will  allow for freedom of expression for all citizens to debate issues reasonably and openly.”

At least one readers agree. She writes: "There is NO NEWS anywhere and my daily F$1.60 spent on purchasing the two newspapers is  almost money down the drain - really, they aren't worth reading; they get worse and worse by the week. NO-ONE knows what on earth is happening in the government (if anything is!)  and the Govt isn't saying. Worse though, is that no-one seems to ASK: so what hope is  there for "informed debate" on a national level before elections? Perhaps on numbers of  acres under dalo, or cost of a new hydro scheme ... but nothing of a 'national, Fiji-in-the-world' level."

I'm surprised Government does not lift that part of PER that applies to the media (and so allow the Media Decree to be tested) while keeping in place that part of PER that places limited on free assembly.  This is not to condone this aspect of PER but to recognize that there are people in Fiji who would resort to any measure to overthrow the government.

N225. FIJI HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION. The Commission says it is aware of recent media  reports and its staff are on the alert for complaints from victims of torture and abuse at the hands of the military but it hasn’t received any recent complaints of alleged abuse, detainment or intimidation. However, the Commission is investigating earlier complaints of brutality and ill-treatment by other members of the disciplined services.

The anti-government blog Fiji Today says the public has no confidence in the Fiji regime’s Human Rights Decree and the Fiji Human Rights Commission. I wouldn't presume to know what the public think.

N226. ANONYMOUS COMMENTS. Readers will see I now allow anonymous comments although I'd still prefer all readers commenting on posts to use their real name or a pseudonym because this makes the exchange of opinions easier.

The previous requirement has been relaxed because some readers keep changing their pseudonym (making them no different from anons) and because readers can now respond to individual postings by number (e.g., N201). All other previous requirements remain, namely: "Impolite comments, and comments that attack the person and not the argument,or are irrelevant, repetitive or unhelpful to further discussion will be DELETED. All genuine comments, of whatever political persuasion, will be published if they follow these rules."

NZ Earthquake, Treason Trial, Tui Cakau, SDL Offices, Tourism Initiatives, CCF, PER

N0173. EARTHQUAKE CONDOLENCES. The PM signed the condolence book for victims of the Christchurch earthquake at the New Zealand High Commission yesterday. His visit to the High Commission follows his sympathy letter sent to his counterpart  John Key last week.  A formal reply is expected later when one also hopes Fiji's condolences will be reported by the NZ media. Confirmed deaths  from Christchurch now total 155 and could rise to 240. New Zealand's worst earthquake death toll was 256 in Napier on 3 February 1931.

N0174.TAGIVEIKATA TRIAL UPDATE. Monday

N0175.PM TELLS TUI CAKAU NO MORE TALKS.  In earlier talks Ratu Naiqama told the PM to step aside and reconvene the Great Council of Chiefs to appoint an interim government.(see N014).

N0176.SDL PARTY OFFICES SEARCHED. SDL senior executive Mataiasi Ragigia  says police searched the SDL headquarters and the staff was ordered to leave. Ragigia described police manners as aggressive, but “None of us were taken in for questioning. We were just told to leave. They got into the office with a copy of the search warrant and a list of the items they wanted to take. They’re looking for some documents that will lead to some charges being laid against some people.”

The SDL had been distributing an anti-government DVD to Fijian villages as a means of countering growing government popularity among rural Fijians.The SDL claim the popularity is misplaced.

N0177.TOURISM INITIATIVES. The PM said several initiatives, such as the highest ever budget for Tourism Fiji, tourist VAT refunds and a tax free zone, have resulted in a dramatic increase of tourist numbers.

Other initiatives include the participation of i-Taukei landowners as equity holders in hotel properties, the relaxation of foreign investment rules, zero rating of tourism items, duty concessions on tourism related equipment such as jet ski’s, yachts and buses, and the introduction of the Super Yacht Decree.

“The equal distribution of land lease monies from i-Taukei owned lands, the modernisation of our penal code, the upgrading of our roads and water systems and the introduction of the Domestic Violence Decree all have either directly or indirectly and positively impacted properties, new tourism development, problems related to staffing and social justice issues.” Tourism now contributes 31% of GNP; it is a major source of employment,business activity foreign currency earnings. -- Based on No:0517 and 0518/MOI.

N0178. CCF CALLS FOR END TO EMERGENCY REGULATIONS. SUVA (Radio NZ International/Pacific Media Watch): Fiji’s Citizens' Constitutional Forum says the Public Emergency Regulations need to be lifted so proper political dialogue can start. The PER were implemented in April 2009, and were to have been lifted when the media decree came in last year, but were not.

The Forum’s head, the Reverend Akuila Yabaki, says the regulations are an infringement on people’s right to participate in the process of reforming the country’s political process.

“I think government could listen to more ideas. And the people have a right to be heard. There’s no civil unrest and I think you cannot prepare people for a new mode of democracy, without opening up and getting rid of the Public Emergency Regulations.”

Reverend Yabaki says while some good work is being done, it needs to continue.

Note:  I support the call in principle but think the timing unfortunate given the uncertain situation this week, but a clear signal from Government to lift PER soon would do much to reduce the rumours and ease the situation.

Incremental Rural Development, Averted Stike & Redundancies, Fiji NAM Membership, NZ Cattle Imports

IMPORTANT NEW ANNOUNCEMENTS. See previous posting. 

N0005. ONGOING RURAL DEVELOPMENT. Work on the Somosomo Hydro plant in Taveuni should begin in earnest this year with the completion of the dam and site designs by Chinese investors.The $20m Chinese aid funded project was a solution to power problems on the island that was  heavily reliant on diesel powered generators. --Based on 2011, No:0005 /MOI.

Another small project is the micro hydro project in Buca, eastern Cakaudrove, that will be commissioned this month. The total cost of the project is $945,000 shared about equally between Turkish International Cooperation and the Department of Energy. It is expected that electricity will help raise local living standards, fish refrigeration, small businesses among women and better study facilities for children. -- Based on 2010, No:2268 /MOI.

And on the "big island" some 300 villagers in remote Taulevu, Naitasiri, will now have safe drinking water  thanks to eight 10,000 litre tanks provided by government at a cost of $22,000. -- Based on 2011, No:0016/MOI.

And so the little things continue to add up all over rural Fiji.

N0006. AVERTED STRIKE; ABUSED REDUNDANCIES. A strike that threatened the Sheraton/Westin resort at the peak of the holiday season was averted thanks to mediation by the Ministry of Labour, Industrial Relations and Employment.

The agreement reached saw  the employer agree to pay wages increments and the Union to not activate the strike mandate. Minister Filipe Bole thanked both parties for acting in good faith to resolve the dispute, adding:" In this new year, we urge all employers and workers to act in good faith, 'come to the table', talk about their differences and resolve them amicably.” -- Based on 2011, No:0020 /LABOUR.

The Minister was less pleased with the increased reporting of probable employer abuses of the law's redundancy provisions. Under Part 12 of the Employment Relations Promulgation (ERP) 2007 on unfair employment terminations, he reminded employers that they "must provide the workers, their representatives and the Permanent Secretary not less than 30 days before carrying out the terminations, with relevant information including the reasons for the termination contemplated, the number and categories of workers likely to be affected and the period of which the terminations are intended to be carried out." 

The law also requires employers to give workers or their representatives an early opportunity for consultation on measures to be taken to avert or to minimize the terminations, and on measures to mitigate the adverse effects of any terminations on the workers concerned such as action to attempt to find alternative employment or re-training." The Minister warned that employers not following the social responsibility requirements under Part 12 of the ERP will be taken to task.-- Based on 2011, No:0021 /LABOUR.

N0007. FIJI SOON TO BE NAM MEMBER. Fiji expects soon to be endorsed as a member of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) that aims to represent the political, economic and cultural interests of the developing world. The purpose of the organisation, that comprises  118 developing countries, as stated in the Havana Declaration of 1979 is to ensure “the national independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and security of non-aligned countries” in their “struggle against imperialism, colonialism, neo-colonialism, racism, and all forms of foreign aggression, occupation, domination, interference or hegemony as well as against great power and bloc politics”. NAM members represent nearly two-thirds of the United Nations’ members and 55 per cent of the world population.

N0008.  FIJI TO IMPORT NZ CATTLE. Two shipments of 350 Friesian Cross cattle whose big feet make them well suited to warmer climates will be imported from New Zealand from February. The shipments included 150 impregnated heifers, followed by about 180 heifers and 20 breeding bulls.

The cattle are one of the rehabilitation strategies employed by the Ministry of Agriculture after the devastation wreaked by brucellosis. Government will spend $1.3m on the project that also includes the renovation and upgrade of the the Koronivia Research Station between Suva and Nausori that will initially receive the livestock. -- Based on 2011, No:0008/MOI.

N0009. FARMER OUTRAGED AT MILL BREAKDOWNS.  Fiji Times.

Unless there is urgent breaking news, the next posting will be on Wednesday at noon.

Grassroots & Democracy, Fiji Times & PER, Village Bylaws Dialogue

KEEPING THE PEOPLE IN THE DARK. CCF's* Mosmi Bhim is at ANU (Aust. National University) in Canberra for a month on a human rights and governance scholarship awarded by either ANU or the Australian Government, I am not sure which. She is spending most of the month examining the Fiji Government Decrees. 

Mosmi's general position has always been opposition to the 2006 coup while recognizing shortcomings in the former government. She is, in my opinion,  part of Fiji's "middle ground" that Government needs to win if its plans for the future are to be sustainable.  

In a recent Radio Australia interview she said that both the current military regime and past Fijian leaders had successfully prevented the grassroots population from protesting the lack of democracy in the country. She thought this could be because of the problems of infrastructure and development that we have, which prevents people ...receiving enough critical information to make up their own minds whether what the leaders are saying is right or wrong." * CCF Citizens' Constitutional Forum, a prominent NGO.
 
FIJI TIMES'S FUTURE. Seona Smiles, communications consultant for the Fiji National University but also a popular contributing columnist for the Fiji Times,  is concerned for the future of the paper.“The government is wrong to think that by some magic it can change the Fiji Times into a non-critical publication by forcing its sale,” she said. “I am very concerned at the future of a very small newspaper that has a 141-year history in Fiji."

Fair enough, Seona, there are sound grounds for concern about the future of responsible but independent journalism but I fail to see how the Fiji Times's  transparent political agenda over the past few years (starting sporadically from the lead up to the Chaudhry-led government in 1998-99) gives it any claim to honest criticism, independence or responsible journalism. It is better it starts with good intentions and a clean slate.

Seona said something similar in another interview: “Now that the sale has been forced by the government perhaps these extremes will be lifted. Perhaps we’ll have a second chance to establish ourselves as a newspaper of record.” She said there was general relief that the paper had found a local buyer to keep its valuable archives and 140 years of institutional memory going.

AUT Journalism head and veteran Pacific commentator, David Robie, fresh back from Fiji, wondered why the paper had published so little about it own takeover: "Apart from a banner headline in The Fiji Times, “Motibhai buys Times,” on a story bylined by a local reporter but based on a News Ltd handout, the forced sale of the country’s oldest newspaper has been remarkably under reported.Fiji Times's future. No serious analysis, no editorials and certainly no backgrounder. Another sign of the times post-censorship. "

It is natural to be concerned and to suspect the worst  about the future in troubled times, but I'll wait until  Motibhai announced the new publisher and, presumably, the fate of editor Netani Rika. We will then have a better sense of where things might be heading. 


PER AND THE FIJI TIMES. Changing Times has left a new comment on your post "Rumours, PER, Commonwealth Games, Chinese & Thai ...":

Re any lifting of the PER: The regime has always said it's conditional on a change of behavior at the Fiji Times so let's see precisely what Mac Patel is planning to do with the paper. We'll have a better idea on Wednesday, when he names the new publisher. If it's someone with close ties to News Limited, you can expect the same problems to continue. Because central to a better relationship with government is the removal of the FT's current senior editorial team and especially Netani Rika. If Patel can demonstrate to the regime that the bomb throwers at the FT are gone, it's far more likely that the PER will be lifted, or at least the media restrictions component of the decree.

I can understand many people taking Rika's side in this long-festering stand-off and it's a shame he has to go. But you just can't begrudge the country's leader the title of prime minister in your editorial pages and expect anything else but trouble. When that's coupled with an explicit threat by Rika to eventually publish 2000 stories that the censors have banned, then it's clear his position has been untenable for a long time.

Let's face it. From a reader's point of view, the Fiji Times has been way off the mark all through the turbulent years of Rika's stewardship. The wonder of it all is that successive Fiji Times publishers sent from Sydney allowed things to deteriorate so badly. Not only did they fail to properly manage the relationship with government, they allowed editorial standards to slip. Yes, media freedom is important but the first rule is that newspapers exist primarily for their readers. For Netani Rika, it seems to have been all about him and what he wanted for the country, not about us. Please give us a good read first and foremost, Mr Patel, and make the FT worthy of its rich history and a paper Fiji can be proud of again.

CONTINUING DIALOGUE ON VILLAGE BYLAWS. The Itaukei Affairs Board has  prepared an amended draft on the proposed village bylaws which include submissions from the 14 provinces. A workshop will be held  next month involving all government departments and NGOs that work closely with Itaukei Affairs. The outcome of the workshop will then be sent back to the 14 provinces for further deliberations and consultation with district representatives. A further draft will then be prepared. The Board has ruled out a recommendation that village leaders be allowed to cane children.

(O+) Media Tussle, Some Recent Cabinet Decisions, Corruption, Volunteers

GOVERNMENT AND THE MEDIA

Fiji Times and AG Tussle before Media Decree consultation at two levels

Photo Fiji Times, (l-r) Anne Fussell, police spokesman Ema Mua and lawyer Richard Naidu 11 April 2009.

Yesterday's reported tussle between Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum and Fiji Times publisher and managing director Australian Anne Fussell prior to the Media Decree consultations should be read at two levels, for what was said and for what was inferred. The tussle was reported in full and uncensored by the Times.

Level one: Fussell thought more time was needed to study the decree draft before consultations commenced. Two and one-half hours is too short.  I agree. But why, in reporting the tussle, did the Times not include the AG's statement that last week's advertisement contained the bulk of the decree? Not quite the same things but participants will have had far longer than 2 1/2 hours to consider the main items.

Still on level one, I also agree with Fussell that her remarks on the economy were not explicitly positive or negative,  but why express this implied concern now when the whole anti-government stance of the Times since December 2006 has acted to deter investment. Sayed-Khaiyum is correct in saying "The Fiji Times is the purveyor of negativity as far as Fiji has been concerned at least for the past three years."

Level two reveals what they were really saying.


Sayed-Khaiyum: "This is the media organisation that does not recognise the government, that does not call the Prime Minister the Prime Minister, that does not recognize various other members of the government..."


Fussell: "The Fiji Times [is] 100 percent pro-Fiji and ... completely behind the economic and financial development of Fiji's people." She then went on to say her paper was "completely in favour of anything that allows the people of Fiji to have access to all the information they require to make decisions concerning their future".  [my emphasis. ]

This is a fair enough swipe at government censorship but it ignores the fact that what it published before censorship was imposed was decidedly anti-government, and what it has published since has deliberately, in protest, made almost no mention of anything the government has been doing.  In other words, before the censorship, mainly negative reporting, and since, virtually no reporting on any government activity. They have not lived up to their claim  on allowing the people access to all the information required to make decisions on their future. Their position is unchanged. The Fiji Times sidesteps its non-recognition of government by reference to the people. What purpose is served therefore in its participation in government consultations?

I see no easy way out of this impasse. Backed by Rupert Murdoch money, Fussell, Editor-in-Chief Netani Rika and the Times can ride out falling circulation numbers, and government will not relent until the Times ceases to be so blatantly anti-government. On only one thing can we  be sure: having insisted on Fiji Times participation, the anti-government blogs and mainstream media will dismiss the consultations as a farce. Whatever it does, government is damned if it does not and damned if it does.

Pacific Islands News Association V-P John Woods, who also edits the Cook Islands News, has called for PINA to  relocate from Suva and for more transparency in the administration and finances of the organization. "I'm so frustrated by the inaction and inefficiency of our organisation, and I mean at the administrative level and from the president down." he said.

Funded mainly by Ausaid and other agencies, Woods complained he has seen no financial reports for over a year. He thinks the Suva location, and "kowtowing" to censorship, is preventing the association from doing its job. PINA has rejected repeated calls for it, and the wire service, to relocate. President Moses Stephens could not be contacted for a response.

CABINET DECISIONS

The Child Welfare Decree 2010, endorsed by Cabinet for approval by the President, makes mandatory the reporting by all health authorities of child abuse cases  to the appropriate authorities. Health Minister Dr Neil Sharma said current legislation lacks this requirement. Failure to report cases will be a breach of professional conduct and an offence under the Decree.

 FEA restructuring. Cabinet has  announced an independent adviser is to be appointed to advise government on restructuring FEA. The move, aimed at better and more affordable services, is likely to see some private sector involvement in electricity provision. 

Council of Sugar Cane Growers. Cabinet has  approved the establishment of an appointed 11-member CSGC comprising eight grower and three government rperesentatives.

Counter Terrorism legislation. Cabinet has also  endorsed the urgent need to have a Counter Terrorism Legislation to protect Fiji’s interest from both internal and external threats. The decision recognizes the need for a 'total and whole government integrated approach' to be able to respond to any threat. Minister for Defence, National Security and Immigration, Ratu Epeli Ganilau, said it is a UN requirement under the UN Global Counter Terrorism Strategy that countries have a Counter Terrorism Legislation.

EU Centre to be based in Suva. Cabinet has also approved the request from Brussels to establish the Centre for the Development of Enterprises (CDE) Pacific Regional Office in Suva. Minister for Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation and Civil Aviation, Ratu Inoke Kubuabola, said that the CDE is an ACP-EU joint institution created under the framework of the Cotonou Partnership Agreement and is funded under the European Development Fund (EDF). The Centre will facilitate ACP-EU business partnerships, and support services, assist technology transfer and management skills.

*****

Alleged price-fixing and anti-competitive practices in the hardware industry are being investigated by the Commerce Commission. Chairman Dr Mahendra Reddy said the commission has written to the hardware outlets informing them of the investigation, the process involved, the data required, the timeline of the investigation and the powers of the commission.

The National Volunteer Centre, established last December, is calling on people in the North to volunteer in an effort to help Northern farmers. Project officer Neil Maharaj says volunteers will follow up needs assessment, relief distributions, and emergency social services started by government and other agencies. The Centre has 350 registered members in the Central and Western Divisions. Recruitment in the North follows the damage incurred by Cyclone Tomas.