As the Chief Justice, Salesi Temo, starts hearing the application today from Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum‘s lawyers for the former AG to be allowed to leave Fiji for medical treatment, the bully boys of the Coalition are clearly smarting from a reprimand from one of their own.
The lawyer and NFP stalwart, Richard Naidu, has caused a stir by rightly criticising “prosecutors” – make that Nancy Tikoisuva and John Rabuku – for sending police to the Aspen Hospital in Lautoka to check on Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum’s medical condition.
That Facebook posting hasn’t pleased some of Naidu’s fellow Coalition supporters, two of whom have gone public castigating him for stating the bleeding obvious. First Shailendra Raju, whose support for the Rabuka government has been wavering since he was passed over for the diplomatic post he craved.
And also the oleaginous Pramesh Sharma – another New Zealand émigré with a foot in both countries who also expected to be rewarded handsomely for his slavish support for the Coalition before the last election and has been left disappointed.
So Pramesh Sharma thinks Richard Naidu is “hedging his bets to get brownie points from either side” in the election countdown. Is he suggesting that Biman Prasad‘s legal advisor is deliberately currying favour with Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum’s old colleagues to set himself up for a Coalition loss? It sure looks that way.
FACT: Richard Naidu is totally correct in law to say that the police have no role in deciding whether someone is medically fit for anything. It is patently way beyond their expertise and anyone who thinks otherwise, including Shailendra Raju and Pramesh Sharma, are either idiots or politically motivated or both. (It’s worth reading what Victor Lal has to say about this over at Fijileaks)
For all that, Richard Naidu is certainly hedging his bets about any fall-out from the extraordinary decision by his client, the Fiji Times, to censor last week’s statement by the DPP, Christopher Pryde, in which the following two most critical passages were simply excised:
QUOTE: “Having read the report of the Commission of Inquiry (the Report) into the circumstances surrounding recent decisions made by the JSC, I remain extremely concerned that investigations by the police will be forwarded to the ODPP and examined by the acting DPP, Nancy Tikoisuva and her deputy, John Rabuku. Both these people are subject to adverse findings in the Report and both clearly have conflicts of interest.
I can only speculate that the reason for the unconscionable delay in making any decision on my matter is a deliberate ploy to ensure that I remain outside Fiji and am unable to make any decisions on the results of police investigations stemming from the Report” UNQUOTE
Grubsheet speculated in a stinging article about the corruption of Fiji’s traditional newspaper of record that the “possible, er, make that probable” reason for the Fiji Times Editor to censor Christopher Pryde would have been advice from its lawyer, Richard Naidu.
Not so, says Richie Rich, who took to Facebook at 03:06 am on the morning of July 27 with an attack on Grubsheet and cutting poor old Fred Wesley loose. It wasn’t Richard Naidu’s decision to censor the two most important paragraphs of the DPP’s statement. It was Fred’s.
Take a look at the way the Fiji Times lawyer dumps the Editor-in-Chief right in the doo-doo with the paper’s owners, the Motibhai Patels of Ba. Grubsheet opined that the Fiji Times action had strengthened the case for the family to be stripped of the ownership of the paper by any incoming government.
But Richie Rich wants the world to know that if that ever happens, it wasn’t because of him. And he even gets dumb old Fred’s permission to dump him in the doo-doo by saying that his statement is being issued with his “client’s permission”.
A few things to note here:
- Richard Naidu mentions me by name when he very rarely does so unless he is sending me a letter threatening to sue me.
- He casts me as “foaming at the mouth” when the article was a perfectly reasoned critique of an astonishing decision to censor the two most important paragraphs from the DPP’s statement.
- He tries to smear me by saying that I “enforced the Media Decree” when he knows that I had nothing to do with enforcing the Media Decree through my work at Qorvis as media consultant to the Bainimarama government.
- And whatever I received from my Washington paymasters would have been a pittance compared with the genuinely “lavish payments” Richard Naidu and Munro Leys have received from government over the years .
Now the most important bit:
- If the Fiji Times censored the DPP, it had nothing to do with Richard Naidu.
- “The facts? The Times didn’t bother to send Munro Leys the story for legal advice”.
- In other words, don’t blame me, blame Fred.
- Oh, and Fred is so gormless that I’ve got his permission to say so.
You’ve got to hand it to this guy. Slippery as a…ssss…Prime Minister.
Now, Richard. Never mind about me. What about you?
Still no answer to the list of questions I sent you 10 months ago. About the Fiji Times, your relationship with Fiji Water, the tax holiday you recommended for your billionaire clients as Chair of the government’s Fiscal Review Committee, your alleged part in the 1987 Resistance, your alleged affair and its impact on the national airline etc etc etc.
Good grief, indeed.
Do not be in too much of a rush to give Richie Rich credit for stating the bleeding obvious – something that any first year law student knows, even if it’s being ignored and breached by the corrupt cabal at the DPP’s office. The same cabal linked to Malimali, who is, in turn linked to finance minister Baiman, Richard’s friend and NFP leader, the sexual harasser who was shielded by Malimali until her sacking from FICAC.
Naidu’s Fiscal Review Committee’s recommendation of a VAT increase to 15% paved the way for sexual pest Baiman to go ahead with his plans and in return Naidu was rewarded with that tax holiday for Fiji Water.
The 15% vat also subsided the massive pay rise for parliamentarians. Not only that, Richard’s links to Baiman allowed his law firm Munro Leys to secure the Aspen Hospital contracts.
With Baiman and Richard milking taxpayers for all it’s worth, Rich Man Richard can afford to be sympathetic and shed a few crocodile tears in ASK’s direction while laughing his way to the bank.
GD
I think the current Acting DPP does not know how to do a respond to bail variation reply. The process is simple – to get an independent medical opinion from a specialists and put that witness before the court to be examined by the prosecution and cross examined by the defence.
All doubts will be cleared.
Richie Rich may try to buy some brownie points by this very rare post but his silence over so many other currupt practices and breaches by the monkey government demonstrates that he is not only very selective on what he speaks out about but there may be a hidden agenda.
Either he is desperate to regain some lost fame and popularity or it’s a preemptive act to ensure that his client (Baimaan) doesn’t end up in a similar situation as ASK in due course.
In my opinion, Richie Rich will always remain a rat and betrayer just like Baimaan.
I will predict now that the application by ASK’s lawyers will be denied by the CJ Temo and he will side with his pets from the ODPP.
I applaud Aiyaz ‘s father in-law for not interfering with law and not a single word he has spoken about his son in law to media.
Lot of people need to take a cue from Bill.
Well done Bill,let the law handle everything.
To all you commentators,please learn from BG.
Bill Gavoka is too lamu of Temo and Rabuka. That’s why he’s not saying anything!
For once I agree with Richard Naidu but saddened by the deathly silence from the Fiji Law Society and the Leader Opposition. Human Rights should not be seen with tinted lenses.
Temo is a vindictive bastard who will use any unlawful means possible to get ASK into HIS courtroom so that he can find him guilty and jail him. Why is he bothering with a sham trial? We all know what the outcome will be be. He has decided that already.
Despicable excuse for a human being!!
An elitist speaking for other elites? Richard is playing political games as elections near. NFP under his intellectual backing couldn’t fix hospitals in Fiji. Next best thing to do is seem humanitarian and speak in favour of the enemy. Cheap political points.
Word on the street is that NFP is starting to see why Sodelpa rejected Rabuka.
It appears that the Coalition parasites are turning against each other.
Ritchie probably reading the future better than Mr. 10%, and everyone else.
And the irrelevant Shailendra still trying really hard to be relevant. Some please give him a government post.