(From the Grubsheet Facebook page): Confirmation from high level sources in Suva that Fiji’s Attorney General and effective number two in the Bainimarama government, Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum, has undergone a heart bypass operation in Singapore. He also received surgery to repair a hernia. While the AG had flagged in one of his nightly “budget consultations” that he was to undergo a “major operation” on his current Singapore visit, the nature of that surgery wasn’t disclosed.
With news of the bypass operation on top of the stents that had already been installed to keep the AG’s heart in order, there’s concern behind the scenes about the health of Fiji’s two most senior leaders. The Prime Minister, Frank Bainimarama, also suffers from a heart condition that has necessitated the installation of stents. All of which raises serious questions about the long term prognosis for both men, who show no signs of surrendering power. Of course, none of this is canvassed in the local media, with Fijian voters expected to accept whatever they are told without question.
If your information is correct I suspected that he was in for bypass surgery. All the stress of last 15 years has caught up as stress is the number one cause of heart disease.
However; stents and bypass surgeries these days are cookie cutter type operation and patients do lead a back to normal life. It’s like getting a-rebuilt engine in your car.
Wonder why he chose Singapore over getting the same procedure done much closer to home either in NZ or Australia.
Do you have any research on what a bypass operation costs in Singapore?
My guess is upwards of $100,00 USD
The political fallout if any will be directly tied to the state of medical services in Fiji as the AG had to seek medical attention overseas plus the fact that the elite in Fiji have better access to such treatment over ordinary Fijians struggling to put food on the table.
Medical issues are normally private issue for an individual but in his case being a high profile Minister in Fiji he owes it to the people of Fiji to be fully transparent and tell the people what the medical procedure was for, costs and full disclosure, the likelihood of that happening is ZERO.
Some good old investigative journalism needed but that is also non existent in Fiji.
The Fijian economy is currently also in need of a huge overhaul like the much needed bypass by the AG, what a coincidence I guess.
Anyways wish him , the AG a speedy and full recovery and may the bypass provide him with new realization that life is fragile and one must do good to all especially when one is in a position of power.
Get well soon
Rajiv, unfortunately it’s not quite as straightforward as you depict it, with mortality rates increasing dramatically 8-10 years after a bypass operation.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/06/170607123935.htm
You would agree that compared to 50 years ago medical science technology has advanced so much that in general life expectancy has greatly increased and has provided people with good quality life with breakthroughs in surgical procedures and advances in medicine.
There are studies out there that are directly opposite of mortality rate after 8-10 years of bypass, off course much of that depends on the person if they choose to change their lifestyle after a bypass and not go back to unhealthy lifestyle which caused the heart disease in the first place.
My point was that thousands of bypass surgeries are performed globally everyday and it is indeed a cookie cutter type of a procedure these days and it does prolong life whereby bypass patients in general are always able to go back to a normal life within reason off course.
My grandfather had bypass at young age of 58 and lived a very full life thereafter but passed away from cancer at age of 86.
The AG will be fine after his bypass and he will get back to work but his larger headache will be the ailing Fijian economy and other issues that will eventually be his downfall, not a bypass.
Apparently those who don’t like the disappointing duo would find this welcoming news that they even condemn Khaiyum for all his dodgy tactics and are glad an illness is affecting him.
I’m not surprised if he was doing more than just an operation in Singapore for all his hot air daydreams about putting Fiji on the same status as them but failing miserably over 14 years.
Still wishing him recovery (if he can), although I don’t like him like every other person that’s anti-khaiyum at least if not anti-FFP.
In other words, both of them may not remain in power forever as expected, especially with a controversial bill that would effectively declare Fiji a police state and end up in the same situation as Zimbabwe, Myanmar, Venezuela, and Cuba.
But the AG seems oblivious to how wearing many hats can take it’s toll on him until now, but obviously he may not live long enough to please his daddy with that farcical agenda he’s always had.
As much as I want to wish them hell, might as well hope they don’t kill themselves quickly and share the workload to other capable ministers instead of trying to do and control everything at their own lives’ expense.
David Pickering died whilst undergoing heart surgery in Auckland. I had bypass surgery at 58. Later this month I turn 77. My lifestyle pretty average. It is reasonable to expect the AG can have a strong recovery.
My prayers are with Hon Kyaiyum ..May his beautiful family be comforted by his speedy recovery❤
A leading heart surgeon here in the UK, upon hearing that I am from Fiji, told me of the stint he did in NZ and how the majority of patience in the heart unit where he served came from Fiji.
To be fair, it is not just the PM and AG’s health fitness we should be concerned about, but every politician and everyone who is overweight.
Heart problems don’t only come from lifestyle and obesity, it is also inherited. Furthermore a large number of Fiji people born in the ’50s now have heart problems due to early childhood rheumatic fever which was highly contagious.
When we speculate on the ability to lead, due to heart conditions, bear in mind that Fiji
has one of the highest rates of heart failure per capita in the world.
Karma?
Ajax, no decent person would wish the AG ill, especially with a young family, and it is to be hoped that he makes a full recovery. But it does raise the question of whether he can continue as “Minister for Everything” and his long-term prospects of continuing to work at the same pace. It is especially relevant if the reports are true that Frank Bainimarama plans to install him as his successor.
I wouldn’t be surprised if we have “state funerals” in the making the longer those two men continue to wear themselves out with their bodies taking heavy tolls.
Heavy toll? Applies to Frank’s ribbon cutting adventures all over Fiji?
The i’taukei are now referring to him as Ratu Daukotireveni
He dines on Waygu beef and red wine. Reflected in his increasing waist line.
Just sayin aye
In tough times leaders hunker down and do the real tough work. In Fiji Frank is cutting ribbons, ministers are visiting market stalls, handing seeds and bullocks , giving out roadside stall leases, crying that infrastructure is 60 years old etc.
So when are they actually doing the real work? PM and Ministers should be working hard to develop and implement new economic policies one that will take away dependency from tourism and development other economic sectors so that the rising tide will lift all boats.
A real total lack of leadership in Fiji. It’s so sad to see that Govt is broke with everything now being given as aid. Is this 50 years of independence progress? AG has mismanaged the National purse.
New younger generation of leadership is needed
Couldn’t agree more, Rajiv. The government is in total disarray at the worst possible time, with its principal economic architect out of the country and in post operative recovery as the massive loans that he has secured are the only thing between survival and total economic collapse.
Why the leadership is pushing through such things as the FICAC court, the abolition of assessors and now the Police Bill at such a time is astonishing. But it is a sign of their desperation that they now have to introduce potentially repressive measures to have any chance at all of winning the next election.
They are haunted by the spectre of Anthony Gates, the former Chief Justice, allowing their mortal enemy, Sitiveni Rabuka, to contest the last election at the final hour and will not allow it to happen again. So you can see precisely what the plan is.
1/ Mohammed Saneem, the deeply compromised Supervisor of Elections, will seize on even the smallest infringement of the electoral laws by the opposition to refer them to a FICAC investigation. The results of that investigation will now be fast tracked not through the mainstream courts but a special FICAC court over which the AG will have a great deal of power. Which makes it much more likely than before that opposition politicians will be convicted and excluded from contesting the next election.
2/ The Police Bill provides a range of draconian measures that can be used for political purposes. In many ways, it gives police the endorsement for conduct that is already routine. But in the febrile atmosphere that is bound to accompany the election lead-up – assuming it happens at all – there is nothing to prevent a brutal crackdown on the government’s opponents.
3/ The leadership are making sure that the most loyal of their supporters occupy the major offices of state. Sitiveni Qiliho is returning to Fiji from his military course in Britain in July to take over the RFMF. And there is speculation that the office of police commissioner will be filled by Brigadier-General Ratu Jone Kalouniwai, another senior military officer whose article for the Fiji Sun last year justifying a media crackdown and putting law and order above civil liberties sent shock waves through the intelligentsia. Here’s a link to that article: https://fijisun.com.fj/2020/04/22/the-paradox-of-our-rights-during-perilous-times/
4/ The Bainimarama cabinet is still restive, as I’ve reported all along. The cabinet submission on the end of the 120 plus years of assessors and the setting up of the FICAC court told cabinet members that there had been consultations with the principal pillars of the criminal justice system. Yes, there’d been consultation but the AG had been told by these people that they opposed his proposals. In other words, he alone wanted these changes made. Did the AG tell the cabinet that? No. So these fundamental alterations to the criminal justice system were railroaded through without proper consultation with the cabinet and with cabinet members deprived of knowing they were opposed by the Acting CJ, the DPP and the Solicitor General.
5/ All this has caused grave disquiet within the cabinet itself. The senior members who aren’t aligned with the AG know what is coming – a landslide defeat at the next election because of the government’s tin ear and total disconnection from political reality. Nothing concentrates the mind better in politics than the prospect of individual ministers and MPs losing their seats and their salaries. So this disquiet is bound to gain momentum as the months tick by. Will it produce defections to the other parties? Perhaps.
6/ Cabinet members know that the government has developed a unique ability to upset practically everyone. Academia, the intelligentsia and a lot of the youth vote has been lost because of the appalling circumstances of the deportation of the Vice Chancellor at USP. The vote of the legal profession and those concerned about the independence of the institutions of state – such as myself – has been lost by railroading through the FICAC Court and abolishing assessors. And now the government has turned its attack on ordinary people – publicly canvassing increases in the rents of market vendors at a time when they and most other people not on the government teat are struggling. It sometimes seems as if the government is determined to lose the next election. Because none of it is appropriate for a country that is on its knees. As you rightly say, where is the effort to develop alternative industries or the agricultural sector? If “buy back your bullocks” is any answer at all to the current crisis, then they have totally lost the plot.
7/ All the while, hundreds of millions of extra dollars are being borrowed and Fiji is more indebted than at any other time in its history. The legacy these people are leaving for future generations is truly frightening. Not to mention the army of retirees who will be left destitute because the government has “assisted” them to spend their own money. The only plan the government appears to have is that Covid can be defeated by vaccines and Fiji Airways planes will miraculously appear from the skies again and the good times will return. Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen for a long time, if ever. The Bula Bubble is a fantasy. Australia and NZ can’t even agree on a bubble between them and Australia is now turning to Singapore. And even if a trickle of overseas visitors returns to Fiji, mass global travel is over for the foreseeable future. Even if people can travel again, we have no idea of knowing whether they will. Because Australia and New Zealand have turned in on themselves and their economies are booming as domestic consumption goes through the roof.
8/ And through all of this – as you rightly point out – any notion of proper direction from the top in Fiji has evaporated. The AG is flat on his back having undergone a heart bypass operation and a hernia repair in Singapore. He had keyhole surgery for the heart op which meant they didn’t have to saw into him. But it is still a major procedure and he will have been told that he cannot maintain his present life-style or he will be dead a lot sooner than his young family deserves. For his part, the PM seems totally lost and distracted. Because it will have dawned on him that for all his government’s spin, it is failing on a very basic level and his people know it. The disconnect between what is in the Fijian media and the reality on the ground has never been more stark. So, yes. There are even darker clouds on the horizon. In fact, the national situation in Fiji has rarely been so bleak.
9/ And in the meantime, the other politicians manoeuvre. My information is that Sitiveni Rabuka is getting many more signatures than he needs to launch the Peoples Alliance. Reports from the West say he has around 7,000 from there alone. And that all over Fiji, Rabuka and his people – who now include the seriously smart Keni Dakuidreketi – are being besieged by ordinary people keen to put their names to his party and expressing extreme hostility towards the FijiFirst government.
The AG has always been the lightning road for dissent but as the months go by, more and more people are expressing dissatisfaction with the Prime Minister. And unless he is completely out of touch, Frank Bainimarama knows it. Will he use repression and the new laws to stay in power at all costs? He might. But his legacy will be trashed and so will his place in history – dragged down by hubris, arrogance and an almost astonishing inability to keep his finger on the nation’s pulse.
He’s pretty much doing nothing else besides posing for the Fiji Sun cameras alongside Khaiyum since the latter is trying to make himself look like a god. Frankie having a sedentary lifestyle while expecting everyone else to do things for him is a no-brainer since he pretty much is more into his own family and nobody else.
I wouldn’t be surprised if their declining health has other ideas since they seem to be sitting back and watching the country burn courtesy of their 14-year mismanagement.
Real leaders I know would take action and try to invest locally somehow, but I just can’t see that with these two since they’ve been badly exposed.
You have summed it very well Graham, just really hurts to see the country in such a big mess.
I am so worried that a big economic collapse is in order and massive IMF bailout will come one day soon and the results will be devastating as IMF will demand huge structural reforms and these reforms will hurt the poor the most.
This is how silly their thinking has been , reduce to zero duty on white goods to stimulate demand, REALLY .
Hand out seeds to start agri revolution, REALLY.
All this climate nonsense ( while good and I agree climate change is really) and use of the word “build resilience” is all BS talk ,good sustainable strategic economic growth is what’s needed then tackle climate change as when over 40% of your people live close to poverty ,climate change does not matter to them but putting food on table does.
Whoever forms the next GOVT will deal with a big mess and it will take years to clean up the mess.
And yes, so much for Frank’s mention of genuine democracy when as you have clearly stated he is moving more and more towards dictatorship.