Everything that is wrong with modern-day Fiji is encapsulated in one story in today’s Fiji Times – the nonchalance of our authorities about running a brand new naval patrol boat onto a reef in Lau because someone else is going to pay for it.
Never mind the chronic blame game in national life in which it is always someone’s else’s fault. The modern-day Fijian also lives in a beggar nation propped up by foreign grants and loans and the generosity of their kai vata living overseas. Plus the expectation that if anything goes wrong, someone else is always going to be there to mop up the mess.
The big power rivalry for influence in the region has made all this much worse. There is a distinct cockiness that has taken hold in certain circles about the growing ability for Fiji to play off the democracies and China and prise as many goodies as possible out of them.
A friend tells Grubsheet he was startled when a member of one of Fiji’s biggest merchant families said it didn’t matter how much debt Fiji wracked up because the democracies couldn’t afford for the nation to fail. Australia, New Zealand and the other democracies would always be there to meet the shortfall.
This is the mentality of a teenager with a limitless supply of pocket money intent on playing one parent off against the other, knowing that neither of them will say “no”, let alone cut them off. 53 years after Independence in which we were supposed to at least try to stand on our own feet, we are in an era of unprecedented dependence. And instead of that being a source of national discomfort and embarrassment, many Fijians seem to think it’s just fine.
This “we’ll be OK , they will fix it” mentality has reared its head in the drama being played out on Fulaga Reef. While the Commander of the RFMF, Major General Ro Jone Kalouniwai, has promised an independent inquiry into the debacle of the RFNS Puamau, the maritime authorities are adopting the posture of “we’re alright, the Aussies will fix it”.
Think that’s harsh? Then read this story and the tenor of what is being said. It’s the mentality of a teenager given a speedboat by his wealthy parents who crashes it into a reef three weeks later and is totally unconcerned, knowing that they will send someone out to retrieve the wreckage and then buy him a new one. Sadly, it is an attitude that has become ingrained in Fiji. But let’s not pretend that it’s the conduct of grown-ups.
Fiji is already a beggar nation totally dependent in one way or another on outsiders – whether through tourism or remittances – and chronically dependent on the largesse of wealthier countries. Our leaders at Independence would have found that very uncomfortable. Because true independence – for nations as well as teenagers – means making your own way in the world and earning your own living without being dependent on handouts.
When that develops into a cocky certainty that someone else will always be there to pick up the tab – an entire nation treating big powers and global funding agencies like the “Bank of Mum and Dad” – then we are on a very slippery slope. Because, yes, Australia will give us another Puamau. It is in its wider interests to do so. But it will never treat Fiji as an equal.
True sovereignty has become just an illusion. We are a dependent nation and a troubled one at that, just like the delinquent teenager who crashes his new speedboat. His wealthy parents mutter “not again” and quietly seethe. But then they say “never mind, Jone, we’ll get you another one”. Tragic.
Geez….Fiji got a shellacking in this article.
I am in Fiji…there is genuine shock and dissappointment…indeed embarassment at the grounding of the Puamau. There is no cockiness …just deep dissappointment and embarassment. People wants heads to roll…the resignation of the head of the Navy is the least people expect.
What a fantastic Vuvale relationship. Vinaka Australia, Vinaka Fiji govt. Vinaka Australian taxpayer and treasury.
That’s what friends are for… You’ll be on our side forever more, we keep smiling knowing we can always count on you!
Have a blessed day.
The Australian tax payer, already suffering under mounting cost of living pressures has to ask the government what it is doing with their tax dollars – this is an absolute disgrace and disrespectful. You are right though GD, Fiji has developed this arrogant view that its strategic position is so strong( that it give behave in absolute arrogance and display a level of entitlement never seen before. An desperate nation, reliant on grants, remittances, budgetary support, loans and still begging for climate financing on the global stage.
@Guru
Absolute rubbish. What you smoking bro?
Vili – why rubbish in what Guru said?
In NZ the other key regional player the economy is in doldrums recession, govt is cutting spending across the board…can’t fund promised cancer drugs. Yet splashing money on aid and support to Fiji. That is rubbish. To give pearls to swine.
https://amp.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jul/01/serious-defects-discovered-in-patrol-boats-australia-supplied-to-pacific-islands
We (Fiji) demand that unless Australia and the other democracies do not pay off all our national debt , around $10M FJD, by 4pm 27 June 2024, we will hand ourselves and our territory to China, Russia, and Nth Korea.
Accepting this offer is a great opportunity for Australia to strengthen our Vuvale relationship even further.
Our negotiation team led by Simpson and Partners have a deal with our non democratic suitors just waiting for our signature…please do not delay. The deadline will not be extended.
From hereon every day before June 27 that a deal is not sealed with Australia and the democracies, a token $8.1 million per day will be added to the final amount.
In the meantime the Fijian govt is contemplating a new name for the replacement Navy patrol vessel we are expecting. Vinaka
It puts paid to the rhetoric that we are a seafaring nation that only need the stars, the wind and the waves to navigate. Embarrassing
The name of the new navy patrol boat Australia will give us is
RFNS FREE.
This name is a reminder of the word REEF when the letters are played around with.
RFNS Freebee is reserved for the next boat…it has a closeness to Fiji (FeeJee). Not to be taken as vessel and nation both being on the reef.
Very similar to the time the Aussies (I think it was them) gave Rabuka a helicopter way back when SVT was alive and the military guys crashed it a month after receiving it.
The chopper was then hauled back to base and the engine was used by FIT mechanical students for their lab experiments.
When will Fiji stop going for handouts and kerekere’s? They want independence. They dont want anyone to tell them what to do. They believe they’re marginalised.
Yet, they have no hesitation sticking out their grubby hands when it comes to handouts and like Oliver, saying “please sir, can I have some more?” But let no one criticise them for asking for handouts. They have no problems passing the bill Down Under because after all, why should the people of Fiji take any share of responsibility for a mess they created in the first place?
Whats the worst that would have happened if Australia told them to bugger off? Would Rabuka have taken off his sulu and gone to the Chinese begging them pay for the salvaging or, just left the boat to float there until it rusted and sank to the bottom of the ocean?
Fiji is a cesspool of corruption, ethnic discrimination and lawlessness. Its no wonder that hard drugs such as cocaine are so prevalent everywhere and the fact its supported by people like Tabuya, etc. shows how far the drug kingpins have infilitrated the country.
It was the French who gave the Fijians two helicopters and a whole lot of vehicles. One of the helicopters crashed into a reef (sound familiar?) and while the Renault military trucks were ubiquitous on Fiji’s roads for a number of years, they gradually broke down for want of spare parts.
Australia is one one the beneficiarys of coups in Fiji
Brain Drain
Thousands of people migrated to Australia and most of them were and are skilled people
99 percent are doing very well in Australia and contributing to Australian economy
And what would Fiji be like if there were no coups and all those had stayed back
100 percent
No doubt
PM’s commissioning speech exactly 1 month ago.
https://www.pmoffice.gov.fj/hon-prime-ministers-remarks-at-the-commissioning-of-the-rfns-puamau-18-05-2024/
Australia is giving so much to Fiji. It will be better if Australia makes Fiji a part of it. That way Australian resources won’t go to waste.
What’s the quickest way to sink a patrol boat?
Give it to the Fiji Navy 😆 🤣 😂
Talk about entitlement for these lot. Yes, Australian taxpayers are footing the bill because you lot have no footprint that shows integrity.
I hope Aussies are reading this and questioning their government hard on this.
Well said…..