True to form, the Fiji Sun has tried to please its political masters in government by burying the latest results of the Fiji Sun/Western Force research poll published in today’s edition of the paper. It leads with the relatively unremarkable news that the Fiji Labour Party has “leapfrogged the smaller parties to secure third place after FijiFirst and SODELPA” when the truly big news is the collapse of the government’s vote, along with a 10 per cent fall in personal support for the Prime Minister, Frank Bainimarama.
In an “analysis” piece that reeks of the customary Fiji Sun spin – some of it directed against Grubsheet – the white haired Rewa sage and sometime New Zealand resident, Nemani Delaibatiki, attempts to play down the significance of the poll result. But the numbers speak for themselves and even he is obliged to acknowledge them.
“SODELPA is the other big performer. It has for the first time overtaken FijiFirst in responses to the question: “Who do you think will win the (2022) election?” It has polled 41 per cent to FijiFirst’s 37 per cent”.
“The economic crisis backlash also continues to have a detrimental impact on Voreqe Bainimarama’s standing in the preference for Prime Minister stakes. He has dropped from 43 per cent to 33. It correlates in the movement in the party ratings. This is the lowest he has polled in Fiji Sun opinion surveys since the return to elections”.
“SODELPA caretaker party leader and opposition leader Sitiveni Rabuka has been the beneficiary of the swing in opinion. He has jumped from 18 per cent to 27 per cent”.
So a ten per cent fall in support for the Prime Minister to his lowest ever number and a nine per cent increase in support for his opponent, Sitiveni Rabuka. Plus a four per cent lead for SODELPA over FijiFirst when voters are asked to pick the likely outcome of the 2022 election result. All buried in the body of the story on page 2.
So who is to blame for all this unpopularity? Well partly me, apparently. Because this is the extraordinary “analysis” by Nemani Delaibatiki of why the government is now in a losing position and the Prime Minister’s support has collapsed.
“This is predictable at the moment given the economic impact of the pandemic and the constant strident negativity promoted by anti-Government media elements and social media keyboard warriors.
FijiFirst, like governments in many parts of the world, is being hit by the economic impact of the global pandemic. This despite the proactive initiatives quickly rolled out by the FijiFirst Government to address the economic pain. People are still blaming Government for the job losses and the hardship many businesses and families are going through.
But the Prime Minister’s decisive comments in yesterday’s Fiji Sun directly address some of the negativity, especially his description of Australian blogger Graham Davis. Mr Davis and his anti-government followers made much of his supposed inside knowledge. This from a spell working in Fiji for the American public relations firm Qorvis, which does work for the government.
The PM makes it clear Mr Davis was neither a significant player nor an insider, and was prone to making drama when there was none. He was also scornful of the Davis claims about leadership and divisions within FijiFirst.
Yes, Nemani. Anything you say. Correction. Anything the Prime Minister and his Attorney General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, tell you to say. Despite the fact that I am Fiji born and a Fijian citizen, I’m an Australian blogger, as if this somehow makes me less qualified than you to make pronouncements on events in Fiji when you are a New Zealand citizen having worked for many years in NZ until you were brought back to play for the pipers who call your current tune.
Not once in his statement about me did Frank Bainimarama deny a single thing I have written in the past few weeks. Not one. Ergo, they are the facts. The truth. The Military Council has asked for changes to be made to the government, including the removal of the AG. The cabinet is divided, largely along ethnic lines. And the Prime Minister has also told the Military Council that his choice to succeed him is Inia Seruiratu.
You know all this, Nemani. It’s just that you are not a journalist but a government propagandist. And the difference between you and me is this: When I was at Qorvis, everyone knew it. But with you, it’s clandestine – the dirtiest secret in the Fijian media.
Your paper receives money in the form of exclusive government advertising and in return, has surrendered control of its editorial pages to the AG. It’s an arrangement kept from Fiji Sun readers while the paper trumpets the quality of its “journalism”. That, Nemani, is corruption and a breach of even the most basic journalistic ethics. And you and your fellow “journalists” should hang your heads in shame.
Hang on to your heads in shame, Nemani Delaibatiki, Peter Lomas and your lawyers.
As taxpaying citizens of Fiji and the region, we pay your salaries including FFP PM Right Hon. Bainimarama and Hon. A.S. Khaiyum, AG and Minister for the Economy et al.
Here is another example of shameful one sided-reporting.
Exactly one year ago, on 20 Sep. 2019, USP Staff and Students Concerned with good governance at USP asked Nemani and Peter to publish their Rubuttal to an Opinion piece titled ‘Report vindicates me’ written by former USP Vice-Chancellor Professor Rajesh Chandra. The ‘Fiji Sun’ published it on 14 Sep. 2019 and devoted two pages to Chandra’s response to a summary report of the Auckland BDO Accounting firm on a paper authored by VCP Prof. Pal Ahluwalia titled ‘Issues, Concerns and Breaches of Past Mismanagement and Financial Decisions’.
On behalf of over 500 Staff and Students from across the Pacific region who had signed a petition in support of good governance at USP, Concerned Staff and Students prepared a rebuttal to Prof. Chandra’s opinion piece. It was submitted exactly one year ago to Nemani D and Peter Loman of the the Fiji Sun on 20 September. They sat on it for four weeks without saying whether they will accept or decline the rebuttal for publication. Despite regular follow up emails and calls to the Fiji Sun editor-in-chief and publisher, the routine reply was, ‘our legal team is considering it’.
Having waited in vain for a month, Concerned Fiji tax paying staff and students distributed its Rebuttal to mainstream media in the USP region including Australia and New Zealand.
The shameful one-sided Fiji Sun reporting continues, with Fiji First government appointees on USP Council Pro-Chancellor Winston Thompson and Audit and Risk Committee Chair Mahmood Khan dishing our statements (via Fiji and FBC) against a USP Council resolution when they were neither present at Council meetings nor authorized to make any statements.
Shameless Fiji Sun (aka Fiji Skunk)
Dr Morgan Tuimaleali’ifano
That I think sums up Fiji Sun ” journalism ” in post coup Fiji! Thank you Morgan for putting that across so succinctly. Keep well my old USP friend.
You are part of the USP Pasefika wide regional fraternity Rajend and you and alumni there in Oz know exactly what’s going on. Stay well my friend and family.
https://m.facebook.com/groups/213488875757629?view=permalink&id=1081695118936996&sfnsn=mo&extid=bwe1kU5tiePtJbKz
There are some who actually thought, in 2006, that instead of dictatorship we would get a true liberal democracy – free from military interference in governance, free from cronyism and nepotism, transparency (a favourite word) and a free media – so I think that the link above asks questions that are on the lips of a lot of people in Fiji – enjoy our new national anthem
I am one who thought that way. But I thank God for my good critical thinking acquired at USP ( when it was a university in the true sense ) which allowed me to very quickly see through the lies of the usurpers and realise just how wrong I was to put my trust in the mob who carried out the ” clean up ” coup to deliver ” true democracy ” to the people of Fiji.
They are rogue rulers. No two ways about it!
I, me and my “good critical thinking”? Really? How about you let others judge your “good critical thinking” …well most of us just skim and scan and pass over the garbage but wow boy…”my good critical thinking”, a new norm from the left garbage machine. …ps I don’t support the Islamic State of Fiji and neither the left/liberal garbage.
” Know thyself is the beginning of wisdom ” ( Socrates ).
A prostitute knows he/ she is a prostitute, a military thug knows he is a military thug, a sycophant knows he is a sycophant, an arsehole knows he is an arsehole. So why can’t a critical thinker be a critical thinker?
Why should that rest on others’ judgement?
https://m.facebook.com/groups/213488875757629?view=permalink&id=1081695118936996&sfnsn=mo&extid=bwe1kU5tiePtJbKz
There are some who actually thought, in 2006, that instead of dictatorship we would get a true liberal democracy – free from military interference in governance, free from cronyism and nepotism, transparency (a favourite word) and a free media, better healthcare, better education , affordable housing – so I think that the link above asks questions that are on the lips of a lot of people in Fiji – enjoy our new national anthem
The Rise of the Fourth Estate : Toso Viti!
The PM literally denied everything you said… called you a gossip queen which implies you don’t use facts.
Really, John? Tell me where in the statement does the PM deny the truth of what I’ve reported – that the Military Council called for reform of the government, including the removal of the AG, and that he designated Inia Seruiratu as his successor?
He didn’t because he can’t because it’s true. It was from impeccable sources in the first place and cannot be denied.
The PM has literally been lying to the people of Fiji from day one of his takeover of the government of Fiji ! Graham is telling the truth . If you prefer to believe the lying PM then that’s your perverse choice.
You couldn’t be more accurate about 2006. Then came the Sayed Khaiyum family after hiding in NZ before and after the coup once the dust settled, where they’re citizens of and took over a take over of government on the advice of Tony gates and Nazhat Shameem. These two Indidivuals are directly responsible for the Shit were now in Gullible Voreqe thought he was being advised by intelligentsia, alas how wrong he was.
If the verbal between Nemani Delaibatiki and Graham Davis was a boxing match, Graham Davis has come out clear winner with a knockout counterpunch.
Nemani and his sycophantic FFP mates in the Fiji Sun need to go back to the training gym to learn the ropes on ethical journalism the essence of which is to present the truth to the public. Not government propaganda!
I think Graham has more credibility then the Fiji Sun
When will the blinders come off Nemani? and how do you sleep at night Nemani when you lie to the people of Fiji everyday , where is your conscious and sense of journalistic responsibility to the people of Fiji . Nemani you should stop analyzing and do some soul searching instead.
Rajiv, You put that so succinctly . An anonymous second century writer wrote ” If an offense should come out of truth,it’s better that the offense comes out than the truth be suppressed “. Some conscientious journalists approach their journalistic work from that perspective. Not shying away from stating the truth. Not shying away from speaking truth to power. Not the mob in the Fiji Sun. For them it is better that the truth be suppressed or distorted rather than offend the mob in power in Fiji. This Fiji Sun ” journalists ” are too deep in the cesspool of political sycophancy too ever pull themselves out of it, to their shame.
Well done and well said!
Thank goodness for your life Mr Davis. We are so appreciative of your truth telling.
The Sun was doing well when the likes of Russell Hunter and Company were journalists. Now they are rather sad and tragic!!!
Where is Samisoni Kakaivalu? we need investigative journalist.
Malo vakalevu
Ofa
A typical broken record the dumb AG and PM are peddling through the Fiji Snub.
Scoreline: Graham 10-0 Nemani
History has shown in Fiji that Military Commanders who enter Parliament through the muzzle of the gun; supposedly as “there is no other way to save Fiji”; easily gets corrupted (mata ni ta ta boka ), ego inflates and they last only two elections; Bainimarama is no different, that’s why he has the foresight to legalise military takeover under the 2013 Constitution.
I have always wondered what motivates Nemani D to become a sycophantic echo for the FFG. That he echo’s the PM’s statement re Graham D’s revelations, say a lot about the ‘gossip’ that they themselves appear to embrace by talking about it. It is sad to hear a PM of a country sprouting what he is being spoon-fed by QORVIS and the AG. That he stupidly cannot discern fiction from fact. This is a sign of someone who now lives in his own ‘bula bubble’ cloud. One that is so far removed from the ordinary daily struggles of the people he claims to rule. the very people who now see through the crap they are being fed and have decided that they are not taking the crap any longer, come 2022. As the tongue-in-cheek variation of Plato’s quote states; ‘If we do not vote wisely in 2022, we will continue to be governed by idiots’!
When will Fijian economy be similar to that of Singapore?
Only in the fanciful imagination of Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum the ” Minister for Everything ” in post coup Fiji. Any critical analysis will show that coups like we have been having takes a country backwards.
We were just a day to it when COVID19 came. 😂😂
If Fiji First loses the 2022 elections people like Nemani et al will pull out their NZ passports from their knapsacks and flee the country. I wonder who else will be the same flight ? Lol
The toxicity of politics today can be attributed directly to the the ffp leadership. Straight out of the blocks after the 2014 elections they turned it up on the opposition and anyone who opposed their ideas. Thats not to say they hadn’t been behaving callously towards anyone who disagreed with the 2006 and their so called work of righting the wrongs. I mean who remembers ever seeing scenes of chaos when the incumbent PM was met with loud and confronting protests when overseas. We had differences in the past but it never manifested into really viceral dislike of an incumbent PM. This one storm alone is of their own making. They played the card that looking authoritative would project them as being committed but forgot to temper it with humility. Remember when hearts are scarred the mind will look elsewhere.
Sa sega na veirokorokovi (no respect). The indigenous Fijians have been sidelined in their own country. This is Frank’s legacy
“Yes, Nemani. Anything you say. Correction. Anything the Prime Minister and his Attorney General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, tell you to say. Despite the fact that I am Fiji born and a Fijian citizen, I’m an Australian blogger, as if this somehow makes me less qualified than you to make pronouncements on events in Fiji when you are a New Zealand citizen having worked for many years in NZ until you were brought back to play for the pipers who call your current tune.” Thank you Graeme, this is what makes the difference between you and my Naita, Sage from Rewa!