Vinaka, Truth for Fiji, for a brilliant cartoon and a big laugh to stave off the national gloom.
TGIF. Thank God it’s Friday, Fiji. Because I don’t know about you but this week has been the utter pits.
T4F – the veteran cartoonist – has produced a cracker here. What about the photo of Aseri by the bed!
Kaila!
But on a more serious note:
POSTSCRIPT:
Buried on Page 32 of Saturday’s Fiji Times. The bleeding obvious.
What’s next? Buried on Page 97 of Saturday’s Fiji Times, hopefully the weed-smoking harlot’s nemesis. (Well we can dream as well as laugh).
Barbara has been appointed Commissioner FICAC. A local judge will be appointed to the position of EC Chair. Watch Barbara go in and dismiss complaints against Rabuka and his Ministers, cronies and friends. The same complaints that Ana Mataiciwa had been referring to FICAC, will now be dismissed by Barbara. Last week Barbara had given a directive to Ana to let EC determine the referral of any complaints to FICAC. Barbara has held a view about the pending complaints from the start. She will dismiss the complaint against Lynda too!
The whole thing is sad, really. Sad because these people are so stupid and they do not even know it. It must be the iTaukei entitled arrogance in their own country. The vulagi must remember this is “their” country. Or what else is it?
Whoever is born in Fiji is a Fijian. Like if you are born in Australia you will be called Australian similarly in NZ.
And for godsake stop calling Indians Indo Fijians. If they are born if Fiji they are Fijians. What if I called our itaukei family Afro-Fijians would they like it ? noooooo! So please remove the INDO and end the VULAGI we both are vulagis came from somewhere else.
Research shows there were people in Fiji before the arrival of our Itaukei brothers.
Like the body found in the sand dunes of Sigatoka which was claimed 3,000 years old.
Our both ancestors came by Canoe and Ship and they are all perhaps dead. Our new generation should throw away the supremacy claim out the window join hands together to prosper now and in future..
The gravy train of absolute mind boggling appointments and ongoing stupidity is reminiscent of jungle law in Africa. The hunter gatherers and the spreaders. Isa ko Viti.
Anyways, on a brighter note, at least we can still laugh despite the fact that we are surrounded by idiots of the highest degree.
Democracy, Anyone?
The last Government was dishonest and corrupt: the solution to this was to vote for the Opposition, who promised to be better. Have they been, really? So we can have another election, and vote in – who? There are not many candidates among all the present politicians who inspire confidence in their integrity and competence. We will just have another lot of “Fill your boots” until the election after that, and…
The real problem is a form of Government which is unsuited to a small country. Democracy is assumed to mean the Westminster model, with elected Members of Parliament forming a Government and an Opposition. They sit in two blocks and shout at each other, this being known as ‘debate’. It doesn’t change anything – if the Government has a majority of the MPs it will have its way. This system of representative democracy was evolved to suit a large and dispersed population, where more direct involvement of the people would be impractical.
The complete contrast could be a system suited to a city state, where it might be practical for everyone to gather in the Town Hall, and all could present their views, and all could vote on whatever policy seemed best for the state – direct democracy. Indeed, this was the first form of democratic government, as exemplified by the state of Athens, in what is now Greece.
Fiji is a bit bigger than a city state – but not that much. But it has a dispersed population, so it would be quite impractical to get everyone together in one place to make decisions. However, there is no reason why decisions affecting one area could not be decided by universal participation of the people in that area. Sorting out problems affecting just Suva, e.g. local water supply, could well be addressed by all the people affected.
This still leaves the question of how could we deal with matters affecting the whole country. It is instructive to look at how a small and successful country manages its affairs. Denmark is a larger nation state than Fiji, but not enormously so. Their population is about 6 million. They have a working system of proportional representation, where multi-member constituencies have members from the various political parties in proportion to the votes cast in their constituency. There are currently ten political parties. The result is that there is very seldom any one group in Parliament with a majority, and policies have to be arrived at by negotiation and consensus. The parties sit around a horse-shoe layout, designed to promote reasoned argument rather than political points-scoring.
The other major problem in Fiji has been a propensity to self-enrichment by MPs. How can this be addressed? Look to another very successful small country, Switzerland. They do not pay their MPs, other than allowances for expenses. The idea is that one starts in life by saving pfennigs, and becomes wealthy after a life-time of application. Then one can put something back into the country. Not only does this provide a different motivation for people to enter politics, but it also assures that MPs have a proven track record of good judgement and decision-making. It works for Switzerland.
To sum up, our present distressing problems with dishonest and ineffective government are, in large part, due to having a form of democracy unsuited to our country. Change is necessary to remedy this. It is doubtful if any of the present MPs would vote for such a change – turkeys don’t vote for Christmas. It is going to be up to the people as a whole to bring about such a change. Any ideas on how to do this?
Put the Constitutional Assembly back into the Constitution to deliberate on a new system, the present system has failed us these past 50 years.
Love the Swiss model of MPs foregoing compensation!
Being an MP must not be for gainful employment to meet life’s living expenses—pay bills, mortgages, cars, luxury goods, and living large at tax payer expense.
How about a base rate of say, $15,000? Nothing more. No tax free privileges.
No housing, no coconut furniture, no free internet, economy travel, use technology for meetings/conference (Zoom/Teams, etc.). No special luxuries from the public purse. Live on your own money.
ALIEN ideas to thugs and louts, the militants, ignorant chiefs, and the military men.
As alien as democracy is a foreign flower.
Hmmmm, let’s think….ah, what about? Military rule, but, we elect the PM from outside the military? Va cava that? Anyone associated with any previous coup can be selected only if approved by, Mr I will now work harder, and Miss Please Don’t Be Rough With Me. Just thinking outside the box, empty beer box that is. 😂