An update on the parambulations of Sitiveni Rabuka‘s less than loyal Deputy Prime Minister, who since our last story, has left Rome for the New Zealand capital to deliver a speech to potential Kiwi investors at the Fiji-New Zealand Business Forum.
The message from the Coalition is precisely the same highfalutin message Grubsheet used to write at the behest of the last government. In fact, some of the words in this speech could have been lifted straight from Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum‘s playbook for his own trade minister, Faiyaz Koya.
Fact: Any investor will tell you that if you come to Fiji with a credible project, you will find the same bureaucratic impediments and frustrations with this government as the last. But with one important difference – the added frustration of a government mired in scandal, infighting and constantly undermining the rule of law on which sound investment ultimately depends – the confidence that when you get into a scrape with the authorities, you will get a fair hearing in the courts.
All of which will have left existing investors listening to the next portion of Brutus’s speech figuratively rolling around the aisles in stitches.
Consistence? Stability? A country that honours its commitments? Yeah sure.
Kiwi businessmen don’t have to look far to see a fellow Kiwi in the form of the substantive DPP, Christopher Pryde, whose seven year contract with the Fijian government has been trashed, has had trumped up charges of expense fiddling reinstated from the same file which three High Court judges had already dismissed when they exonerated him of misbehaviour and is still fighting for justice. Get into trouble with this crowd and the same thing can happen to you.
As for stability, forget it. The bloke in the checked suit in front of you is facing corruption allegations (perjury and perverting the course of justice) at the same time as he is white-anting the incumbent Prime Minister in a less-than-subtle tilt for the leadership.
The man who presides over the judiciary – the Chief Justice, Salesi Temo – has also been accused of perjury and perverting the course of justice by the same Supreme Court Commission of Inquiry that has leveled the allegations against Kamikamica. But the government is refusing opposition demands to suspend him and now the CJ is using public money to apply for a judicial review of the CoI findings through a judge he has chosen personally to hear the case. Yep, incredible.
So stability in Fiji is an illusion. And next, the country faces a period of heightened instability as a weak coalition government comes under further strain, with its three components – the People’s Alliance, the NFP and SODELPA – each trying to compete for votes at an election just over a year away.
There are multiple factions in the main Coalition party alone, the People’s Alliance, one of them headed by Manoa Kamikamica. So even the PAP is unstable, quite apart from the Balkanisation of Fijian politics generally, and the prospect of the next government being a coalition of even more parties. More infighting. More instability.
Yes, Fiji is at the crossroads alright. But not in the manner depicted in the Minister’s speech.
Finally, some facts about the guy in the checked suit. Facing such serious corruption allegations that if proven, could see the grey checks give way to an orange jumpsuit.
NOTE TO MY READERS:
Doubtless Grubsheet will be accused of “treason” – of undermining investor confidence in Fiji. It’s the accusation that Biman Prasad and others have already leveled against domestic critics, reading from the same playbook as Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum.
Too bad. Nothing I have written here isn’t fact. So rather than shoot the messenger, how about the onus being on the government to clean up its act. To establish genuine investor confidence rather than its empty hype.
Implement the recommendations of the CoI, suspend the Chief Justice, bring back Christopher Pryde to work with the police to bring alleged wrongdoers to justice, restore confidence in the rule law and start enforcing discipline and proper standards of conduct in the government, civil service and offices of state.
From that, genuine investor confidence will flow. Because as it is, Fiji is a house of cards and any investor who bothers to scratch the surface and do their due diligence knows it.
POSTSCRIPT:
Come to think of it, orange would be more flattering than the checks.
Rome one day…
Wellington the next…
Next…
Fiji Fashion Week?
Looks like Manoa didn’t have a shower in between the two countries. I wonder if he changed his sapo!
As it is, he has difficulty walking properly. So much so that he can’t even buckle his sandals cos of his swollen f**ked up feet. Come to think of it, most evil c**ts from Fiji end up getting the accursed swollen f**ked up feet syndrome. The curse of the people for people who f**k up the country.
After Wellington, Manoa should high tail it to India on the heels of the Pedo to get some world class medical attention. Hopefully he too drops and dies there…double irony!😁
Dear oh dear. You’re clearly in an even worse mood this morning than I am.
Integrity aside- WTF is it with these politicians traveling like there is no tomorrow and an unlimited budget.
Snout out of the trough, 1 shuffle to the right, snout back in. Meanwhile back in the real world…….