Most people who engage in corrupt conduct make some attempt to hide it but not Mahendra “Mac” Patel – the “Chairman Emeritus” of the Motibhai Group of companies who was recently pardoned by Sitiveni Rabuka‘s government without having to face punishment after being found guilty of abuse of office.
As Grubsheet has detailed in several articles, Mac Patel fled to Australia while on bail and has lived a life of luxury in Sydney for the past decade when he would otherwise have seen the inside of a jail cell in Fiji. He begged Frank Bainimarama to be able to return to Fiji unmolested and Bainimarama refused. But Sitiveni Rabuka has granted his wish, organising through the Mercy Commission for Patel to be pardoned when the notion of being pardoned as a fugitive from justice without being punished is the antithesis of justice. It is a shocking blight on the criminal justice system in Fiji and simply shouldn’t have happened.
Yet worse is clear evidence of the corrupt relationship between Mac Patel and the Prime Minister that as Grubsheet has reported, extends back to 1987, when Mac Patel gave Sitiveni Rabuka a gold Rolex watch after his two coups in the same year which Rabuka turned into cash. Rabuka’s decision to accept the gift immediately created a sense of obligation on his part that echoes down the years to the present. And the passage of time has done nothing to erase the stain of what happened 37 years ago.
Yet it is even more insidious when Mac Patel is now “Chairman Emeritus” of the Motibhai Group that owns the Fiji Times and has turned the paper into the principal cheerleader of the Coalition and Rabuka himself. Unbeknown to the Fijian people, the Fiji Times hasn’t made an independent decision to support the government and its policies on their merits. Mac Patel and his family have decided to do so to suit their own purposes. And the corruption of the nation’s traditional newspaper of record to benefit its owner personally is perhaps the biggest scandal of all in a nation riddled with scandal since Rabuka took office.
Out of the blue in the lead-up to the Mercy Commission announcing his pardon, Mac Patel wrote a series of articles for the Fiji Times praising the government’s policies, including its plan to change the Constitution. It was a clear attempt to curry favour with Rabuka and the government as the Mercy Commission decided his case. In any other democracy, it would be seen as an attempt to influence a decision by a supposedly independent body that we all know is anything but. Yep, bribery. Corruption.
In the wake of the announcement that Mac Patel has become the first fugitive from justice in Fijian history to be pardoned without first serving his sentence (he absconded to Australia on bail and was convicted in absentia ), Mac Patel has gone quiet and we have been spared his Saturday columns. But he returns to the Fiji Times today with an article on Fiji Day that contains the following astonishing extract that underlines the nature of his relationship with the Prime Minister.
How’s that for brown-nosing, Fiji? Mac Patel praised Rabuka before he gave him his “pardon” and continues to praise him now. And in terms that bear no relationship whatsoever to the Prime Minister’s shocking record of chaos and dysfunction in government. Amazing what a gold Rolex can buy you.
But there’s a much wider scandal beyond this bromance between two men locked in a corrupt relationship for almost four decades – the corruption of the Fiji Times. We all know now why the Fiji Times – which Grubsheet has taken to calling the Pravda of the Coalition – is so pro-Coalition and routinely ignores stories that are unflattering to the Prime Minister and the government.
It’s because Mac Patel and the Motibhais control the paper, which they took over from Rupert Murdoch when Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum changed the foreign ownership laws and forced the sale of the paper. And in the nature of these things, they either tell the editor, Fred Wesley, what to do or have trained him to know what to do to remain in their favour.
There is ample evidence for this but the most striking is that while the Fiji Times reported the pardons for George Speight, Shane Stevens and the others, it studiously avoided mentioning that its “Chairman Emeritus” was among the group. There was a passing mention on the Fiji Times website with no declaration of the link between the paper and Mac Patel. But in the print edition, which most Fijians read, there was nothing.
The Fiji Times buried the shame of its multi-millionaire owner being the first Fijian to literally get away with a criminal offence. To escape the country and live in luxury in Sydney while others without the means and the contacts in high places are obliged to serve their time. And then when Sitiveni Rabuka finally returned to power, to use the influence forged with a gold Rolex all those years ago to buy a safe return to Fiji and continue to curry favour and influence with propaganda pieces in his own paper.
Sharp-eyed readers of the Fiji Times will notice that it is approaching three months since the paper’s legal advisor and long time columnist – Richard “I have the means” Naidu – has appeared in the paper with his Saturday column. Is it because the Fiji Times began to use Mac Patel as a columnist in the same edition? Who knows.
Richard Naidu has cause separately to be dying of shame over the dysfunction and corruption of the Coalition government, including the thwarting of FICAC charges against his old mate, Biman Prasad. But the journalist in Grubsheet would like to think that he has stopped writing for the Fiji Times because he isn’t prepared to appear in the same paper as a crook.
And make no mistake. Mahendra “Mac” Patel is a crook. A crook who beat the criminal justice system in Fiji and escaped justice because of his corrupt relationship with one man. And the newspaper he owns is corrupting journalism by abandoning all notion of fair and unbiased reporting. And in doing so, is corrupting the minds of the Fijian people who read it, not knowing the corrupt relationships that have produced the newspaper they hold in their hands or access on line.
Until Mac Patel stops writing for the Fiji Times – using his own paper to push his own personal and political agendas – other columnists like Richard Naidu and Professor Wadan Narsey would be well advised to give the Fiji Times a wide berth. Because their own credibility is also clearly on the line when they share a platform with a crook.
Where is the Media Council? Nowhere to be seen. Lapdogs who haven’t said woof since they assembled around the Deputy Prime Minister, Manoa Kamikamica, and sent an immediate message to media consumers that they aren’t independent at all.
Anywhere else in the world, there would be uproar about what I have detailed here today, a clamour for an official investigation and calls for the Motibhais to be stripped on their ownership of the Fiji Times. But the media in Fiji has been corrupted in the same way government and the principal offices of state have been corrupted. And no-one is doing a damn thing about it.
The lapdogs of the Fiji Media Council. Fred Wesley top left. Not a woof.
The lapdogs of the Fiji Media Council, pausing so proudly with the useless DPM. The pic says to me “Hey y’all look at us, we are so proud to be dickheads”.
Only in Fiji!
I dont think Richard Naidu has any shame. If he did then X is a free platform to voice his views. He cant make z hole in the same pot he eats from.
Richard Naidu also turned out to be a charlatan after all with a dickhead sized ego: “I have the means”. Good Lord! That was one of the most arrogant and stupidest remarks I’ve come across in my life. Especially from a media lawyer specializing in defamation. So full of himself.
I don’t understand why there was such a rush to give a tax holiday to a single company. Anyone have any ideas there?
All this reminds me of Warren Buffet’s quote:
“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”
People like Mahendra Motibhai (Mac) Patel have always been lucky as businessmen.
He enjoyed airport concession to run the only duty-free shop at the Nadi International Airport for many years without any competition. He had close contact with Ratu Mara, then he changed his allegiance to Rabuka when he first became the Prime Minister and again now. In between, he also was in good books of Laisenia Qarase.
There are many more like Mac Patel. Some enjoy special favors from the Rabuka government, such as tax holidays, while the poor continue to suffer with an increase in VAT rate.
Now Mac Patel is supporting Rabuka to change the constitution after he got support for his pardon – a pardon that he got without serving his sentence.
People like Mac Patel don’t even care. Their goal is to make money at any cost. They all have one foot overseas, having mansions and offices in Sydney or Auckland’s CBD. Do they care about our people? No.
The 2013 constitution is good for everyone and more so for the decendants of girmitiyas, most of them were compelled to leave the country because of Rabuka’s and other coups. Surely, there are areas that could be strengthened in the constitution, but what else can be changed for everyone remains to be tabled by those shouting for change.
Such is our system now that the government doesn’t care but does things for themselves and the rich. They are not sensitive to the plight of our people yet claim that Fiji is free now.
Mac Patel’s Fiji Times has compromised its quality of reporting it used to do before he took over. This over a century old paper is deaf to the wrongdoings of the Coalition government and illegal appointments in the judiciary and other arms of government. Perhaps Mac Patel and other media organisations that are sympathizing with the Coalition Government have vowed not to speak against the government of the day in return for favors.
Who to go now to get justice? Are we really free, as the Coalition government claims? Or more oppressed?
“Its the Economy, stupid”, Bill Clinton.
“Its the system, stupid”, Ian Simpson
350 candidates vie for Parliament.
55 enter Parliament.
It costs money to enter Parliament.
The risk is roughly 1 in 7 chance.
For those who make it, they must have a return on investment ( ROI ).
What a lovely system the monied, entitled elite have in place.
A make believe “democracy”.
This system is a sick cancer on our society ! It requires corruption to sustain itself.
Its always been this way since Independence.
54 years. Over and over again. Insanity!
We inherited a multi party Westminster System that fails our nation consistently. both economically and socialy, other than for the moneyed and elite.
It is impossible to succeed for the people, it only works for the elite, the people get 50% poverty level and rising.
Every four years, there is an opening for the “people”. There is a savage, feral, lolly scramble for 55 seats in Parliament. There are rules, you must form gangs to compete, and then its game time.
Evil unleashed. Narcissists, psychopaths, sociopaths stalk the land for votes with
promises, embellishments, lies, all the while contempt runs in their veins for those who
have humiliated them to conform to this undignified beggary. They will pay!
These people like Mac deliberately and intentionally align themselves with whoever is in power. It’s not luck or chance. Their ‘ friendship ‘ with those in power is fake. It’s to use them. Isn’t that obvious? They have to operate in the same system as the snake or crocodile. There is no escape. So they will make sure they feed the predators in cash or kind (like Rolex) so that the predator is in their control as much as possible.
Bula GB, are you back from walkabout yet?
Trust you and your Marama are in good spirits.
Looking forward to your return and please don’t give up on Fiji.