Question: How many ministers does it take to give birth to a Counter Narcotics Strategy? In the case of the Coalition, three - Biman Prasad to announce it, Pio Tikoduadua to say it will need millions to be adequately funded and Siromi Turaga to say he hopes it will be adequately funded. Don't take my word for it. Read the media coverage for … [Read more...] about # HYDRA-HEADED GOVERNANCE ON DRUGS
# MORE DEBT TO PAY FOR FRIDAY’S BUDGET (UPDATED WED)
Biman Prasad has gone cap-in-hand to the World Bank to obtain an extra $214.6 million in "budget support" to pay for the initiatives he will unveil in Friday's budget, including an increase in the national wage and pay rises for civil servants. Funny, isn't it, that in the fancy wording of the announcement, there is no mention that this is an … [Read more...] about # MORE DEBT TO PAY FOR FRIDAY’S BUDGET (UPDATED WED)
# “QUITE HAPPY” PUBLICLY BUT SEETHING WITH RESENTMENT BEHIND THE SCENES
Barely 72 hours since Grubsheet's article on Siromi Turaga white-anting his successor as Attorney General, Graham Leung, Turaga is at it again - parading his resentment at being removed by the Prime Minister as chief law officer of the state. He tells the Fiji Times that his supporters have questioned the reshuffle on the basis that Siromi … [Read more...] about # “QUITE HAPPY” PUBLICLY BUT SEETHING WITH RESENTMENT BEHIND THE SCENES
# LYNDA TABUYA. A CHINESE AGENT OF INFLUENCE?
It beggars belief that the already embattled Minister for Women, Children and Social Protection, Lynda Tabuya, should be enveloped in a fresh scandal on top of her sex and drug escapade in Melbourne and her savage attack on the Deputy Prime Minister, Biman Prasad. Yet she now faces serious questions about her relationship with the Chinese … [Read more...] about # LYNDA TABUYA. A CHINESE AGENT OF INFLUENCE?
# THE COALITION’S FESTERING WOUND
Yet again, the embattled Minister for Women, Children and Social Protection, Lynda Tabuya, has had to be sidelined from the offical photo of an event at which she presided to save the other participants from embarrassment. Readers of the Sunday Times were treated to prominent coverage of Lynda Tabuya's speech at a Pacific Women's Leaders … [Read more...] about # THE COALITION’S FESTERING WOUND
# THE ODIUS RICHARD NAIDU HURLING BOULDERS FROM A GLASS HOUSE.
Saturday’s Fiji Times contains a great deal of hagiography about the former publisher of the paper, the late Hank Arts – who died last weekend in Australia. Some of it is deserved. Hank Arts was an old school gentleman who was unfailingly courteous and was extremely popular, not only with Fiji Times staff but in the wider community. But some of the … [Read more...] about # THE ODIUS RICHARD NAIDU HURLING BOULDERS FROM A GLASS HOUSE.