Seven months after he last appeared in the opinion columns of the Fiji Times (aside from an obituary of Barrie Sweetman in December), the paper’s lawyer, Richard “I have the means” Naidu, is back singing from the same song sheet as his proprietor, Mahendra “Mac” Patel – the FT’s “Chairman Emeritus”, the first Fijian criminal never to have served his sentence and the reported source of the Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka‘s, gold Rolex.
What is it about Richard Naidu and his eagerness to please those who bankroll his affluent lifestyle? Wearing his hat as Chair of the government’s Fiscal Review Committee, he recommended a seven year corporate tax holiday for his Munro Leys client, Fiji Water, which was accepted by the Finance Minister, Biman Prasad, who Richard Naidu has also helped avoid a FICAC charge of abuse of office. (There may be more on that from Justice David Ashton-Lewis).
Now as lawyer for the Fiji Times, he has returned as a Saturday columnist for the first time since August 10 2024 to support “Mac” Patel’s campaign to persuade the Coalition – of which Richard Naidu is inarguably part as an NFP stalwart and advisor to Biman Prasad – to change the Constitution.
Yep. “Mac” Patel and the Motibhais pay Richard Naidu for legal advice and Richard Naidu suddenly appears today to support “Mac’s” position on the Constitution after saying not a word for seven months about anything. And as with Fiji Water, no declaration whatsoever about their financial arrangement and the inherent conflict of interest.
As opposed to “Mac’s” hysteria about the threat to the iTaukei and everyone else about the “wicked” 2013 Constitution, Richard Naidu is more measured but he supports change just the same. And with the usual digs at Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum and Frank Bainimarama about their roles as architects of the document and their temerity to champion equal rights.
No mention, of course, that they introduced the first non-racial constitution in Fijian history with the common and equal citizenry (equal votes of equal value) and the common identity ( everyone “Fijian”). And no mention that Richard Naidu’s fellow travellers in the Coalition, including Biman Prasad, refuse to say whether those provisions will be protected in any review of the Constitution. No, that wouldn’t meet with “Mac” Patel’s approval at all.
Instead, we get the risible proposition that it’s a good thing to refer the 2013 Constitution to the Supreme Court for an opinion on its validity and we can all trust it because we finally have a “stronger, more independent judiciary”. Never mind the glaring violations of the Constitution by the Chief Justice, Salesi Temo, and the ongoing assaults on the institutions of state. It’s all ticky-boo, Fiji, according to Richie Rich.
Kaila! Have we all stopped laughing, Fiji? Because there’s a second part to the joke.
Richard “I have the means” Naidu ( thanks to Fiji Water and the Fiji Times), says we can also trust the parliament to protect our rights.
Er, aren’t you going to mention, Richie, that the current government already has a two-thirds majority in the parliament and can push through whatever change it wants if the three quarters majority needed to alter the Constitution ( which was defeated this week) is ever abolished? No, of course not.
Richard Naidu’s selective reporting is as flawed as the man himself. Always adopting a posture of rectitude but totally compromised across a broad front, and none more so than in his glaring conflicts of interest in relation to his clients, Fiji Water and the Fiji Times.
Want to know what the real agenda is in relation to the Constitution, Fiji? Well put aside the Fiji Times and Richard’s Naidu’s preposterous article and have a look at page 2 of today’s Fiji Sun.
There it is in black and white – the deputy President of the People’s Alliance, Ratu Josefa Dimuri, telling us something Richie Rich studiously avoids – the PAP’s desire to return to the 1997 Constitution and its paramountcy provisions for the iTaukei and once again render the minorities second class citizens in their own country.
So that’s the agenda of the majority party in the Coalition. And if they can get the Supreme Court to alter what they didn’t have the numbers to do in the parliament this week and we eventually get two thirds and not three quarters of MPs voting for change – plus the abolition of a referendum – the provisions of the 1997 Constitution are what we are going to get.
It will be the end of the common and equal citizenry and the common identity – the votes of the minorities will be worth less than those of the iTaukei, only they will be Fijian and the rest of us will be “Fiji Islanders”. And that will be OK with Richard Naidu and “Mac” Patel and the whole sorry conga line of enablers and appeasers willing to surrender our rights to maintain their own positions.
This includes the two ex-FijiFirst dogla (traitors) and naga (snakes) who have joined the Coalition and betrayed the rest of us. Indo-Fijians joining those who would have their own people disadvantaged for their 30 pieces of silver.
It is all as sickening as the Prime Minister’s $150,000 “plus” gold Rolex. No mention of that (of, course) from Richard Naidu. And why would he when the piper who pays for his own tune – “Mac” Patel – also allegedly pays for the Prime Minister’s tune.
See that last bit, Fiji? In the election lead-up, Richie Rich is evidently back at the Fiji Times spinning for his paymasters and his Coalition pals.
We can hardly wait.
Yes, nothing about the fact that the Fiji Times is a client or his close ties to the Coalition and Biman Prasad. Richard Naidu’s idea of disclosure.
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The agenda of the People’s Alliance exposed.
And finally a series of questions Grubsheet posed to Richard Naidu last October. Needless to say, I haven’t had an answer.
Like the many boot lickers of Rabuka such as Biman and Sashi, Richard got no swag nor shame.
Painful as it is, the destruction of the basic ethics of society in the last 2 years has no better example than this guy, who has got his head so far up the bowel of Rabuka that he can barely and so rarely show his face now.
You are a disgusting leech, Mr Richard Naidu.
Richard Naidu is as trustworthy and credible as the dogla, Baimaan Prasad, and the snake Sitiveni Rabuka. This guy had the audacity to recommend a seven year tax holiday for Fiji Water, and a VAT increase to 15% for the public at large. Bastardry of the highest order by a bastard of the highest order.
With his tax the poor and save the rich, would you trust him with constitutional amendments? I think not. Heâs too twisted like a snake. Even his writing is twisted. His memory of 1987 and lessons learned are wiped.
Richard Naidu’s Fiscal Review Committee and Professor Baiman have plunged some of us into such incredible hardship. Itâs evil and shameful.
There is a massive Lovo like the 1987 one waiting for these guys when they leave this earth.
May God Bless these evil men who swore oaths but robbed the poor and gave themselves pay rises.
They have sold their souls. They need blessings and prayers to repent and it wouldnât be too late.
What has happened this past 2 years is evil.
I am confused. Maybe someone who is better informed can enlighten us on Mr Richard Naidu.
Is he the same person who was very publicly assaulted by 1987 militant coup members in Sukuna Park? His house burnt and he fled to New Zealand for his own safety?
If he was given such treatment by 1987 coup makers then he has forgotten or has amnesia.
Yes it is the same dickhead. Except we did not realise he was a dickhead at the time. Those who beat him up knew it, bless them. We are all realising only now.
It is like the PM, he was a dickhead in 1987 and nothing has changed almost four decades later.
The people of Fiji are pretty advanced when it come to recyclying idiots. The Americans have done it too, but Fijians did it before the Americans so that makes Fijians more advanced in my opinion.
Seems like he forgot the lovo pit he was put inđš
Richard seems to be suffering from dementia.
For someone who was tormented by Rabuka regime in 1987, does he now suffer from Alzheimers to not recall what his fate was back then? What rights is he now talking about?
Oh yes Richard, itâs rich to talk when your bread is buttered and pockets are full, naturally youâd be inclined to be the songbird of the Coalition.
Any person writing about anything should make full disclosure. What Richard Dick Naidu should really say at the end of his piece is as follows:
“Richard ‘Dick’ Naidu is an independent and prominent lawyer who has his head firmly stuck up the arses of Rabuka and Baimaan alternatively, is highly prejudiced in favour of the government because he is Chair of the Fiscal Review Committee, is highly supportive of a failed judiciary and looks the other way and will change sides and independently align himself wherever there is money to fill his pocket. He has also been let off the hook on serious charges by this government and judiciary. He is kinda stuck because there is nowhere else for him to go, so that is why his opinions are what they are – truly independent and unbiased or prejudiced – the way it should be.”
Full disclosure should also include pecuniary and non pecuniary interests because it is a very tangled web of Mr Naidu.
I understand that he is on the board of chutney and jam ngo and good friends with founder of the organisation. Even though the founder has found a calling for higher office, the board of the said ngo is still controlled through mates to indirectly represent the founder? Has this been declared by the minister?
Both these do gooders were Labor when even Mr Chaudhary was popular…they are like the hanger ons in school yard always trying to be with the popular crowd.
I still find it difficult to comprehend that Richard was once the “spokesperson” for the late PM Dr Bavadra prior to the military coups in 1987.
A once Labourite now a complete capitalist turncoat!
Along with Cheerie Wilson, Richard is now just yet another propagandist for Rabuka.
I would have thought that someone who also has the means to know it all would conveniently omit to make mention of the democratic process which led to the Ghai draft!
This involved country wide consultations with everyone everywhere in the country.
Fiji ought to pick up from where it left off…and like the proverbial phoenix, re-consider the rise of the Ghai draft, which that other idiot Bainimarama, had dramatically burnt back in the day.
Sorry but anyone who thought it was a good idea to have a “national people’s assembly” of chiefs and NGOs second guessing or instructing the elected representatives of the parliament needs their head read.
Exactly, GD. There cannot be and never should be parallel governments in any proper functioning democratic country.
Only elected representatives. No hereditary rulers GCC (Fiji is not a kindgom), no appointed or nominated ‘senate’, no ‘advisory’ bodies, no faith groups.
Election results determine government by the ballot by the people and for the people. Peoples voice. End of.
Agree.
Looks like a lot of noise to me thatâs surely working to keep people off the COI! Rabuka has met the COI yet?
I donât think so !
And guess what the President of PAP the idiot Dimuri said in todayâs Fiji Times! PAP is changing the constitution because thatâs want they have in their manifesto and thatâs what will get people to bore them again !
Itâs not about serving people GD but itâs about making sure rosi regain power!
Why am I not surprised!!
Richie Rich Naidu is the most overrated lawyer in Fiji. I suspected as much from some his writings and silly attempts to be witty, which fell flat on its face. I became utterly convinced of his stupidity after his dumb threats against GD
Imagine trying to intimidate a seasoned journalist like GD with âI have the means to sue you.â A stupid statement from a stupid person. Even those without any legal training could see that GD was making a fair comment and that people like Naidu, who hold chairmanship of national organizations,, should expect to come under greater scrutiny.
GD was totally within his rights to say what he was saying but Richard was too arrogant, entitled and stupid to know the obvious.
It was a pathetic and feeble attempt to try and intimidate GD and stop legitimate questions directed at him. It exposed Naiduâs mediocrity.
I canât understand why people are fawning over him and inflating this 3rd grade self serving lawyerâs gigantic ego, even further. What he needs is a kick in the ass, not fawning over.
Not a prominent lawyer but a gold digger. And more irritating to see is his side kick that goo goo Apted. Richard Naidu’s potential charges are abuse of office in Fiji wWater tax case and perverting the course of justice in Barbwire case plus of course contempt of court.
Rabuka and Baimaan have got their weiners so deep inside Richard’s throat that the only thing he can do is move his head in the motion of a “yes” nod.
This self proclaimed “expert lawyer” is nothing but a dickhead serving his own self interest and advancing the interests of the government.
Taxpayers in Fiji have a right to know how tax holidays are granted.
The problem with a 7 year tax holiday is it creates a perception that something is off.
As Richard isnât explaining, we have to piece together his version which seems to be:
1. The fiscal review committee was giving a recommendation to government.
2. Richard was the chairman of the committee.
3. The committee decided to raise VAT,
4. Separately âthe governmentâ gave a 7 year tax holiday to Fiji Water.
So based on the above is Richard saying it was the decision of the Minister of Finance?
But who was advising the Minister of Finance? Or did the Minister just come up with this idea on his own?
Answers required on behalf of the beleaguered tax payers of Fiji?
Indo Fijian Dogla list grows – Richard Naidu, Biman Prasad, Pramesh Sharma, Shalend Kumar, Sachida Nand, Nitya Reddy, Ahmed Bhamji, Div Damodar, Dakshesh Patel, Sashi Kiran, Pramod Rai, Shailendra Gopal Raju and Mr Charan Jeath Singh – new party 2026? Doglas..
Can I add candidates for the Dogla Party – Mark Chand NZ, Parmesh Chand, Himmat Lodhia, Hari Punja, MAC Patel, Harish Lodhia NZ, Ajay Bhai Amrit, Tarun Patel, Praveen Patel, Rohit Reddy, Kamini Reddy, Dr Ganesh Chand and Sanjay Punja – note this party will have a hard time electing a leader because they all full of themselves – All chiefs, no actual Indians!
Parmesh Chand, the former PS for Civil Service who was rewarded with that post after losing as PAP candidate saw the writing on the wall with what is happening and has been rewarded as the Ambassador to Japan. I think he got out while he could.
Fiji Water used their lawyers and political connections to get the huge and unusual concession, which is against the interests of the resource owners and the country at large.
Fiji Water has access through Richard Naiduâs NFP connections to Baimaan. Thatâs how a meeting was set up in the US between the owners of Fiji Water and our hopeless PM, Rabuka.
The owners of Fiji Water wowed the village idiot Rabuka with their âhospitalityâ – and perhaps the golden Rolex – unless Rabuka confirms otherwise.
The Rolex has come to symbolize modern day trinkets. In the olden days, it used to be beads, alcohol and guns were used as enticements to steal vast tracts of native land.
So Rabuka was set up by Munro Leys, Richard Naidu in particular in what could be described as going beyond lawyer-client relationships and dangerously close to the realms of corruption by granting concessions for trinkets.
This is how our stupid Prime Minister and gutless and self-serving finance minister, Baiman and Richard Naidu, are compromising the national interest of Fiji and the assets of resource owners. Itâs vile.
Graham
You have repeatedly promoted as a truism the notion that a) Richard Naidu never declared any conflicts in relation to his work on the FRC, and b) that Richard (apparently acting single-handedly) in his role as FRC chairman”recommended a tax holiday for his client, Fiji Water”. Almost all of your readers seem to have accepted this notion as true, as if it were handed down from on high on stone tablets.
You say you are a journalist: you should therefore be able to easily point to your sources that verify these assertions. Specifically, could you please answer the following:
1. Which part of the paragraph below (paragraph 1.12 from pages 10-11 of the FRC Final Report dated 31 May, 2023) suggests anything other than that Richard, and the other 13 committee members, did *not* declare any conflicts?
“Conflicts of interest
Some Committee members are in business and own companies; some members earn incomes which are subject to high rates of tax on personal incomes (including Social Responsibility Tax); and some are professional advisers whose clients have made submissions to the Committee. These explicit conflicts have been declared to the whole Committee in its deliberations to ensure, as far as possible, transparency in those deliberations and balanced recommendations.”
2. Where in the two paragraphs below (from pages 79-80 of the report) is there *any* mention of a “tax holiday”, “tax break”, or any other reference to corporate tax at all?
“Recommendations
a) Government should explore, with industry participants, a more progressive [water resource] tax rate incorporating no more than three bands. This is with the aim of encouraging industry growth but not compromising WRT as an important source of revenue for Government. The top WRT rate of 18 cents per litre may need to be marginally increased to compensate for losses arising from a more progressive tax rate.
b) Government should evaluate the pros and cons of WRT being applied only to water extracted for the purposes of bottling or other modes of packaging for sale vs extraction for other uses to determine the most appropriate WRT mechanism.”
3. Where, in the entire section on Water Resource Tax (pages 78-80 of the report), is there *any* reference to corporate taxes *at all*?
The government may well have decided subsequently to implement other tax arrangements affecting the corporate taxes of domestic and international water producers, but there appears to be no evidence suggesting that this is the (undisclosed) “fault” of Richard Naidu, or indeed any of the other distinguished committee members who signed the report. If you have any such documentary evidence, you should provide it. If you don’t, like much else of what you write, these remain unfounded assertions, not facts. To quote the late US Defense Secretary, James R. Schlesinger, âEverybody is entitled to his own views. Everybody is not entitled to his own facts.â That includes you.
In case you have not read the actual report (and it appears you havenât, or have chosen to wilfully ignore and / or distort large parts of it) itâs available here:
https://www.fiji.gov.fj/getattachment/834ca037-330c-4eb7-816b-cb41c5c61fcd/Fiscal-Review-Committee-Report.aspx
Thank you, Richard. (Or your matanivanua).
Stating in the report that you have declared potential conflicts of interest to the Committee is not the same as declaring to the Fijian people, as Chair of the Fiscal Review Committee, that Fiji Water is a client of Munro Leys earning you millions. Please provide evidence that you did this. Because as far as I can ascertain, you did not.
What arose from your deliberations was a seven year corporate tax holiday for the Wonderful Company, the makers of “Earth’s Finest Water”. I have asked you a series of questions about this and other matters that you have chosen to ignore. Indeed you have specifically threatened to sue me.
It is open to you to answer those questions and clear the air, if that it what you would like to do. But it is more than fair for me and others to draw certain conclusions if you do not. Like not declaring your blatant conflict of interest as legal advisor to the Fiji Times in your latest piece on the Constitution.
Hoo roo.
1. I am not Richard.
2. I am not his âmatanivanuaâ – he seems to do just fine speaking for himself, just evidently not to you.
3. You have, as expected, failed to answer the three simple, objective questions asked of you as the âjournalistâ making the allegations and by your deflection simply demonstrated my point.
Cheerio
Actually he doesn’t “do just fine” speaking for himself. He perennially fails to declare his glaring conflicts of interest and I repeat: I have asked him a series of questions that he refuses to answer.
https://www.grubsheet.com.au/please-explain-an-open-letter-to-richard-naidu/
We are entitled to draw on own conclusions about his silence on the Fiji Water issue and the other subjects about which I posed questions. So the “deflection” is his ( and yours), not mine.
Some facts might help: If you are not Richie, nor his matanivanua, you must be Richie’s rear image.
Conflict of interest aside, Richard âI have the meansâ Naidu clearly used political connections with dogla Baimaan and snake Rabuka for Fiji Water concessions, to the detriment of Fiji and native resource owners. Predatory practices by Fiji Water in a small developing country involving political assistance by the likes of Richard, Baimaan and Rabuka. They are selling out Fiji.