How hard is it to find out who has written one of your main features? Insurmountably hard for the dear old things at Butt Street led by editor Fred Wesley.
Today’s front page tells us that Professor Wadan Narsey is going to give us his wisdom on “The Father of all Coups”. But turn to page 34 and the author is Dr Subhash Appana. Oh well. I guess one academic is much the same as another.
No sign of a column this week from “Mac the Crook” – the corrupt Fiji Times “Chairman Emeritus”, Mahendra Patel, giving us all a break from his slavish adoration for those who have pardoned the unpardonable – the first convicted criminal in Fijian history to get off scot free without ever serving his jail sentence. The Coalition’s idea of justice for its friends.
Maybe Mac has realised – like one of Pavlov’s dogs – that whenever he bursts into print with the kind of rubbish he peddled last week that Grubsheet will be there to give him a kicking and remind everyone about his appalling record.
And we are still waiting for the return of Butt Street’s most famous columnist, Richard “I have the means” Naidu.
Once ubiquitous in the Saturday edition, Richie Rich hasn’t appeared for an astonishing 16 weeks, not since August 10 when he joined his criminal client, Mac, in promoting changes to the Constitution.
Where’s Rich? He doesn’t say. The Fiji Times doesn’t say.
Just another ghost of times past.
Fifth column tactics wont change the people of Fiji’s wish to craft a new Constitution and…most importantly…have a say in its design….a role that was denied to them by the Talibans of Fiji.
Mac Patel, Richard Naidu, the GCC et al are simply voicing the peoples concerns…and the PM is gonna make good his pre-election pledge to review the Constitution. Let the people decide.
The people already decided in December 2022. Most of them voted for FijiFirst. In other words, they were quite happy with the present Constitution.
BTW, I assume you have heard of the old adage that you can tell a man by the company he keeps? No, I didn’t think so.
Army vet what people’s concerns, people like naidu and your chiefs are busy milking the cash cow .. be thankful the taliban with bainamarama cane up with free education. What have your lot to show for it the past two years..sex, drugs and rock n roll(odpp) meanwhile close to 6000 year eight children failed their exams. The constitution doesn’t need changing your mindset needs changing currently iys filled with your chiefs crap.
There seems to be a perception amongst the small brains in Fiji (and there are a lot of them) that changing the Constitution, appointing a Commissioner of Police and bringing back the GCC is going to solve Fiji’s problems.
Just like the coups of 1987 and 2000 were going to lift the iTaukei out of poverty and hand them their land back and put money into their pockets and give them all 4WDs.
I think the scattering of the ashes of a deceased acedemic in Tabia, Labasa with great pomp and ceremony was also going to help solve all of Fiji’s problems. But the realities are totally different.
These things do not increase the size of the brains of people like Army Vet.
And that is the main problem, not the Constitution. The Constitution has already been changed many times…….idiots. How many idiots are there in Fiji? I think they should bring back George Speight as the next PM. He may fix everything because he has sacrificed so much for his people. Or maybe the fcukers are not praying and fasting hard enough.
The people have a right to decide whats’ best for them, at any point in history.
Many believe the December 2022 elections that was famous for that ‘glitch’, was rigged.
We need a Constitution that is the result of public consultations and agreement, not one that was shoved down our throats by the taliban.
The 2022 election was rigged? What, rigged so your lot won and they lost? You really are as dumb as you sound.
I do not understand why people like Wacol want the Constitution changed when his ob won the election under this Constitution. If it was any other Constitution NFP and SODELPA would have been annihilated, and there would be no coalition.
Wacol is an idiot but just as many like him, they are totally unaware and oblivious.
And that is the main problem in Fiji, they do not know they are imbeciles. Therefore, there is no chance to fix anything until they realsie that first. The prejudice and hate in people like Wacol is ingrained and in their DNA. No one can change one’s DNA. He is stuck being stupid.
https://www.fijitimes.com.fj/businessman-refutes-allegations/
Read this link
Fiji is very sick indeed.
Like an old Karate movie at the Phoenix theatre in Walu Bay.
Australia has become a lucrative market for drug trade.
It has become world’s one of the best revenue earners.
Fiji is an ideal location to push into Australia.
That’s the reason now all you see happening now is real.
Police
Ministers
Lawyers
High profile official and their families
Shipping companies
Airline workers
Custom officials and agents
You name it.
It’s real
“Scary aye”
Tens of thousands of people in Suva have been without running water for days now, while the rain pours. “Too much turbidity” is the reason we’re all hearing. Too little rain, no water, too much rain, no water. My what delicate and seemingly insurmountable water infrastructure we have. But of course this major issue is mostly ignored by our “now free” mainstream media. A now regular occurrence for people in Suva that would be front page headlines in most other countries, and certainly was for the FT during the last government’s reign. Even the wives of sitting Ministers are loudly complaining about the water cuts on Facebook. What was the NFP slogan coined by Lenora and Richard during the last elections? “They can’t even keep the water on!”
You bet the people will decide; however, can the Great Council of village idiots first tell us the people, what are the 33 gripes they have with the current constitution?
The 33 grievances are already in the public domain. If you are too lazy to look it up then go have a chat to Niko Nawaikula and the Chair of GCC etc. Get off the couch bro…go smell the roses.
Where are they? This is nonsense. Send us the link.
Actually, to be sincerely honest in my humble opinion, without being judgmental and of course without offending anyone who thinks differently from my point of view, and without lies to the actual truth, with my clear open mind and clean heart, expressing what ever is embedded inside me for a long time which I didn’t say because I was nervous. But today by gathering all the courage and motivation, I just want to say that I actually feel and think that I have absolutely nothing to say, except don’t buy the Fiji Times.
Hahahha!! @Sanjay.
To that I’ll add real confusion:
I’m begining to believe that with slugs like army vet and wacol inmate kaicolo and other similarly low IQ imbeciles, we should bring all four constitutions to a national referendum to see which one out of the four the natives vote for to ‘shove down their throats.’
We can then invite the “Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Fiji to announce to the Peoples Committees” the endorsement and approval of a “new” fine-tuned preferred constitution on the condition the good comrade chairman removes all immunity clauses.
As for switching to itaukei as medium of instruction in schools and higher education and indeed national life (and at the risk of being a pedant) consider this for a bit of perspective:
English is spoken by 1.5b people
Mandarin Chinese: 1.35b
Cantonese: 74m
Hindi: 500m
French: 320m
Italian: 85m
Urdu: 90m
For more, see https://www.worlddata.info/languages/urdu.
India has 22 official (regional) languages (out of 121 total.) English and Hindi are offical national languages.
https://www.worlddata.info/languages/hindi
Bahasa Indonesia is the official language of Indonesia, an archipelago of 17,508 islands that is the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, with a total population of nearly 242 million. Over 300 different native languages are spoken in Indonesia.
https://asian.washington.edu/fields/indonesian
Papua New Guinea has 839 living languages (not dialects). Tok Pisin, English, Hiri Motu, and Papua New Guinean Sign Language are offical languages. (population estimate: 10m.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Papua_New_Guinea
No question the likes of aimless army vet and kaicolo wacolo will try punch holes in the raw data above and/or come to theor own convoluted conclusions as is their want.
However, being the extremist ethno-nationalist they are, the would agree that less than 800,000 native itaukei speakers will fit right in to this world of widely spoken of languages and be understood the world over.
Suva lawyer and Chairman of the Government’s Fiscal Review Committee, Richard Naidu made some extraordinary remarks when addressing a top executives conference in Nadi at the weekend. Referring to Fiji’s fiscal environment Naidu said
“Things basically haven’t changed” and noted that Government debt post-COVID had hit 90 per cent and was coming back to 80 per cent of GDP.
But he hid the truth from the meeting that the stock of government debt has actually risen under this Coalition Government. He purposely omitted to mention the debt stock which is the size of public debt had ballooned past $10bn under Biman Prasad’s stewardship of the nation’s finances. {Fiji Times June 4th, 2024 p18)
It contradicts the Coalition government’s pre-elections promise that it would reduce the level of debt.
In another lie that Naidu told the Topex that he has been perpetuating since his party leader, Biman Prasad named him as head of the Fiscal Review Committee is that government just doesn’t have money to spend while it has “to urgently invest in physical and human capital and also infra-structure.”
NAIDU’s often repeated remark that “government just doesn’t have the money to spend,” is total nonsense and false.
Average budget deficit in the 40-years prior to Corvid (1980-2019) was 3.4%. In the two budgets of the Coalition Government since coming into power in December 2022 the deficits for both years have been above the average at 4%, or $F600 million — a huge amount by any measure. This $600-million for each year of 2023 and 2024 was over and above government revenues and reveals the nonsense that Naidu keeps peddling that government doesn’t have money to spend.
Governments around the world run deficit budgets, that is, excess incomes over expenditure, in order to make key investments in infrastructure, education, health and sanitation.
The $600-million (in excess of half a billion) the Coalition government has been paying itself each year since it has come into power has instead been spent on excesses such as paying themselves huge pay rises, buying laptops and top of the range smart phones for MPs, business class travel and expensive per diems for Ministers, increased military expenditure for love-in reconciliation events and a plethora of workshops and talk shops this government is known for, among many other useless part times.
NAIDU’s statement at Topex that government doesn’t have money to spend shows firstly, his total ignorance of how a modern economy works, and secondly, his selective amnesia about the excess spending of the past two year’s budgets of his own Coalition Government.
The level of economic literacy in the PAP and SODELPA partners of the Coalition Government is woefully low, so it suits the third partner, NFP whose leader Biman Prasad is Finance Minister and Richard Naidu is a Vice President, as they able to use scare tactics to keep the other Coalition partners in line.
And it enables both of them to go around the country pulling wool over the eyes of the people and business leaders such as Topex las in Nadi last week end.
There has been too much fawning and fainting over Richie Rich, i.e., Richard ‘I have the means’ Naidu. He is totally over-rated. Only a dumb lawyer would say something like ‘I have the means’ in order to intimidate someone like GD. I mean, is he that stupid? How could he even think that such tactics would intimidate a seasoned journalist like GD? Not only is he dumb, Richard ‘I have the means’ Naidu seems morally questionable as well, judging by the tax holiday given to his client, Fiji Water. Him and Baimaan are two peas in the same pod.They are tainted by highly suspicious board appointments, which have never been fully explained, so the public can hardly be blamed for thinking the worse if the two men at the centre are being evasive. Neither assistant librarian Kirti Patel nor junior lawyer Rhea Chand have the qualifications or experience for the boards they are serving in – unless they have some special talents that only these two gentlemen know about. Generally speaking, no one gives a rat’s arse about bonking between consenting adults, but it becomes a problem if sexual favors are rewarded with board appointments.
Totally agree! They can bonk themselves silly for all we care – unless romantic liaisons end up in board appointments. Taxpayers monies should not be used to reward side chicks or flings appointed to crucial boards. What a disgrace. Baimaan makes appointments to Energy Fiji Board. He has a lot to answer for. How on earth was Rhea Chand appointed to Energy Fiji board? By Graham Leung’s definition she is ‘still wet behind the ears’. Is it because of her association with Richard ‘I have the means’ Naidu? As if Kirti ‘assistant librarian’ Patel’s appointment wasn’t scandalous enough!
GD is the only one who raised this since the dumb Fiji media are too grog doped to notice a story even when it hits them in the face. Hopefully, GD, you will resurrect this rather than allow it to die prematurely since Naidu has not answered any of the valid questions that you raised. Please name and shame, with pictures, these 4 shameless hypocrites who think they can take us for a ride.
The question I asked Richard Naidu was: “Did you recommend that Rhea Chand be appointed to the Board of Energy Fiji Limited and to whom did you make that recommendation?”
I am not aware that Rhea Chand has actually been appointed to the Energy Fiji Board. A google search has yielded nothing. Can someone please clarify?
By the time my aunt was born in the early 1960s, she was incapable of using the pit toilets outside because she feared falling over. So my aunt did her business on the Fiji times paper growing up in Lami.
How apt that nearly 40 years on, the shit show continues.
The government on the recommenadtion of Richard Naidu increased VAT on everything to 15%.
They have increased departure tax on everyone
They have slugged mums and dads with duties if they bring in ore than $1000 of stuff after returning from overseas
I am sure there are many other things they have slugged people.
We receive unlimited direct budget support from Australia and NZ
We receive patrol boats and upgrades to hospitals
We receive charities without any limits all the time
We receive aid from the Japan, China and USA and European Union
Every time someone from another country visits they come bearing gifts
I do not know exactly what we receive from India but I know we receive a lot from them
We receive interest free loans from ADB and I do not know where else
The conclusion is simple, Baimaan and Richard are useless money managers.
One thing is for sure, all this “no money” is someone else’s fault.
The “no money” does not apply when it is time for their salary and allowances.
Have you seen the PM and his ministers scramble over each other to receive gifts from overseas when a dignitary visits? It is laughable but they seem to enjoy receiving charity. It is like Fijians are entitled to charity, eh Wacol?
It has been dawning on me, of late, that Fiji is like a friend with a terminal disease. You ardently hope and wish that they will get better. But in reality, you know they won’t. It’s very sad.
Richard is at a ground breaking ceremony for some Google ICT facility. Spotted along with his associate Bhumika Khatri in FBC’s photos of the event.
Well, a lot has been said about Richard Naidu. He doesn’t understand how an economy is run for sure. As someone commented, he is an overated lawyer who uses connections to get by.
GD is right he has gone very quiet for a while. Probably, he knows what he did as Chair of self-proclaimed independent Fiscal Review Comnittee (FRC). This committee is full of cronies of NFP and failed candidates. So where is its independence?.
Richard will start coming out of the sand when his leader Biman starts preparation for 2025 -2026 national budget and will look towards Richard for advice.
On Fiji Times, it used to be respected as a paper that kept the government of the day in check but under Mac Patel’s Fiji Times, it has turned a blind eye on the ineffectiveness of Rabuka’s government. We all know why? Other media outlets, with the exception of Fiji Sun, are the same. Where is the much talked about media freedom?
People look upon GD’s blog for analysis of the wrongdoings of the Rabuka government. But people are now realising what’s going on.
Where is Fiji heading to with ineffective government and a lame and compromised media?
Bula Graham. I know you were disappointed that the article was not by Professor Narsey. I hope you were not disappointed with what I wrote.
It was no reflection on you Subhash. And I wasn’t disappointed at all. It was a comment on the editorial standards of the FT and nothing else. 😉