Finally, the Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka – in a very public act – personally exposes the sacked education minister, Aseri Radrodro, on CFL-Fiji Village as a man who almost killed his daughter in an act of domestic violence when they were married and “showed no remorse”.
It is extraordinary confirmation of the story that Grubsheet has run for months as we campaigned for the removal of Aseri Radrodro from the education ministry for the savage attack on his former wife, the PM’s daughter. It was a call that was studiously ignored by the Fijian mainstream media. Indeed they never covered any of it. And worse, members of the Fiji women’s rights movement who knew the intimate details of the story also remained silent.
Well, now it is on the public record in a way that can no longer be ignored. And it is time for the mainstream media to finally tell the Fijian people the true story and for the women’s movement to face up to its shameful negligence in allowing a monster to preside over the education of the nation’s young people.
Let’s see what Shamima Ali and the rest of these women now have to say about their failure to take a moral stand against evil. I get absolutely no satisfaction in seeing the story I pursued so vigorously for so long finally going on the public record. All I can say is that it has taken far too long for this to surface in the mainstream and, sadly, it speaks volumes about the moral vacuum at the core of national life.
Wake up, Fiji! It is not acceptable to have domestic violence perpetrators in positions of responsibility, just as it is not acceptable to have hypocrites who say one thing and do another, who lie and cheat and still expect to be respected and fawned over.
The Prime Minister deserves credit for what must have been a painful and confronting decision to finally address publicly what happened to his daughter at the hands of a man who is totally unfit for public office. Though he clearly should have done it a lot earlier and taken a stand for principle rather than using the disclosure now as a political weapon to stand up to his Coalition partners and be rid of Radrodro once and for all.
Let’s have no more enabling or excuses from SODELPA or anyone else. This weasel now wants to use a matanigasau – a traditional indigenous apology – to try to get himself reinstated. It is a cynical abuse of traditional protocol and there is only one credible course of action that must now be followed.
It is for Aseri Radrodro to be driven from public life altogether. And for Fiji to seriously have a period of soul searching on all sides of politics about what is wrong and what is right. Because turning a blind eye to Radrodro’s unforgivable conduct – not only the attack on his former wife but his affair with Lynda Tabuya and the lies that have accompanied that – has been a monumental moral failure.
As for Shamima Ali, the head of the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre has displayed more concern for what is happening in Gaza than what is happening in Fiji. She is paid by donor countries to look after the interests of Fijian women and those countries have a right to question her abject moral failure by refusing – on political grounds to protect the Coalition – to speak out against the appointment of a woman basher as Minister for Education.
Even with the Middle East, Shamima Ali has been woefully selective, saying nothing about the systematic rape and murder of Israeli women and girls by Hamas terrorists on October 7. But turning a blind eye to such a glaring instance of domestic violence in Fiji calls into question her own personal integrity as well as the integrity of the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre.
To restore that integrity, she too must go. And her glee club of enablers in the women’s movement – the likes of Nalini Singh, Imrana Jalal, Virisila Buadromo and Makareta Waqavonovono – should also hang their heads in shame.
As the old adage goes “three things that can never be hidden – the sun, the moon and the truth”
The pursuit of truth is always a good pursuit
Do I read that Aseri wants to manipulate his cultural traditions for his own benefit? More non-remorse? That he cannot see matanigasau to the PM is not appropriate here but wants to use it as an attempt at a suck up? And he is using his children as messengers for parliamentary business? Does the PM not have a secretary? If he wanted to make a traditional apology, he needs to first know who he is apologising to, not go through the back door of family ties. This guy is an asshat and a disgrace.
It’s time to get rid the maggot for good.
Shamima Ali is the failure.
So is the PM.
They all know what was happening.
Ali chose not to say anything.
Unacceptable.
Ali and her clowns should stop preaching about safe spaces and gender based violence. Full stop.
Aid agencies must immediately stop funding these NGOs and their well paid CEOs and dodgy trustees.
I am gutted for the women and girls in Fiji.
The PM is ultimately responsible for his cabinet and he endorsed a brutal woman basher to lead the largest ministry in Fiji.
The PM sold his soul for power.
Graham, you have been the voice for many Fijians. And we have waited for this day so a woman basher is no longer a leader.
The media in the country has the freedom to be silent. You have fought hard to expose this. We hold no trust in Fiji’s media.
Fiji’s coalition government leadership is now exposed and in shambles. They will sell their soul to be in power. Even if it came at a cost of having their own brutally beaten up and near death. I see this making international news in few hours time.
Ali and all feminists – what have you to say now? Oh, don’t say anything. It is better you all don’t exist. You fail our women and girls. You have failed the nation.
Finally!
This is personal for Rabuka. He’s using this moment to get his revenge on the man who nearly destroyed his daughter.
He’s using the guise of the cabinet sacking to get his revenge as the flames of his anger are stoked even further by the news about Aseris affair with Lynda.
I am told that Australia is a generous benefactor to Shamima Ali’s outfit.
The time is nigh for Australia to seriously look into this on the grounds that Shamima has become very political.
From the uttermost to the guttermost … national governance, media, women’s voices, plus many others including 7s. Time for resurrection!
Vinaka, vinaka vakalevu Graham.
The women’s NGOs groups should hang their gutless heads in shame. Shamima Ali, Nalini Singh, FWCC, FWRM, and all other individual women’s rights activists have demonstrated their selectiveness on what they want to speak out.
If it wasn’t for Grubsheet, these issues would never see the light of day. Fiji Times, Vijay Narayan and his CFL have shown their poor journalism standards and lack of moral and ethics in their failure to report on pertinent issues.
Despite Fiji’s mainstream media not openly reporting the scandal, Shamima, Nalini and the lot have explicit knowledge of these issues. Where are placards and so called women’s advocates and voices for the vulnerable. The donor agencies that feed them need to reconsider their funding for these gutless and incompetent cowards.
So much for advocating the rights of women and children. The 2 ministers involved in the scandal are a direct threat to the wellbeing and welfare of our children. It makes me wonder why there is so much silence from the all the so called human rights activists.
Perhaps their stomachs and mouths haven’t been fed enough $$$$ by donor agencies yet.
If you look at these women NGOs you will also realise who sits on their boards as trustees. Some hold power in the media. They were exposed for their open abuse of children last year. This was during events and in social media.
Yet not a single media agency picked that story up and this one that Graham has been writing about. Now Fijivillage that is part of Communications Fiji Ltd wants us to wait for further stories on Radrodro. Go jump.
AusAid must reconsider funds and investments. Or they can proudly add investments into domestic and gender violence in Fiji as another one of their failed projects in the Pacific. Can’t wait for international media to blow this whole saga up.
BTW, how much is Shamima and her parading workforce and connections paid? Time to expose it all Graham. All taxpayers have the right in Australia where their aid dollar is invested and who benefits from this really.
The accusations of rape by Israel is quite nonsensical and has no equivalent on this discourse. That only plays into the hands of Zionists that are currently in gov’t and are eating the country piece by piece.
That being said, all this drama only serves to show that Fiji needs a snap election, and fast. Fiji needs to get over the wet dream of iTaukei exceptionalism and accept that without ALL its working parts, Fiji will not work. Simple as that.
On the Middle East, you are just plain wrong. Read the evidence, and from a left-leaning source with a tradition of supporting the Palestinian cause.The systematic murder of women and girls by Hamas terrorists on October 7 is indisputable.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/18/evidence-points-to-systematic-use-of-rape-by-hamas-in-7-october-attacks
And the award for Wankers of Jounalism 2024 goes go FijiVillage. LMAO.
There is also a case to be made for Shamima Ali’s support for Palestinian civilians. Not everybody believes in the “chosen people” myths apparently swallowed wholesale by the Jerusalem embassy mob in Fiji. Well manipulated by Israel.
While you,Graham,have played and hopefully will continue to play a very useful role in disseminating otherwise hidden information, I can’t help feeling that you are also a bit tone deaf at times. Please take this as constructive criticism. The whole “outing” of the PM’s daughter’s assault when she had not sought to prosecute it…. Anybody who has lived in a Fijian village and knows the language ,knows too that there are lots of hidden things which people choose not to have revealed, usually well known to most people. Many are of a sexual nature. Lynda’s very human failures are a good example of stuff that,as your father would have said, is highly forgivable in Fijian culture. Sorry,but it seems that the missionary’s son is a bit short on cultural understanding. Though you have amazing connections and background among the movers and shakers.You could have benefited from a bit of recent post colonial studies too,to have a more nuanced approach,not something acquired from your Murdoch press experience I think…I cringe at some of your “defence” of us white people in Fiji. Especially those who have been there for generations without becoming Kai Loma, revealing preferences. And the analogies with Zimbabwe, (re freehold tenure)monkey comments and pictures..mm. What space are you operating in. My Kai Loma kids find you offensive.Maybe because of the white rascism they’ve experienced growing up mostly in Australia.
Anyway, the truth is out now about LT and AS…She appears an angel compared with him.
I’m still a supporter of yours- qualified though. Realpolitik is pretty tough admittedly.
Pita, Aseri Radrodro has been the Minister for Education, for God’s sake, not some ordinary villager. And Lynda Tabuya has been the Minister for Woman and Children.
There is a level of expectation about proper conduct on their part that goes way beyond what is expected of ordinary people. So I utterly reject the proposition you are making.
So you “cringe” about my defence of white people having the same rights as anyone else? Are you for real? We have equal rights under the constitution – which remains the supreme law – and they apply to white people as much as they do to anyone else. And for anyone to be dismissed from the offices of state and the civil service because of the colour of their skin is both contemptible and unlawful.
If anyone finds me offensive, they have the choice of not reading me. But I will not join the collective acceptance of unacceptable conduct that is the prevailing attitude of far too many Fijians. Or the appalling double standards and hypocrisy that have become routine in public life. It isn’t a question of the “missionary’s son” not meeting your own standard of “cultural understanding”. It is about upholding basic standards of behaviour on the part of those in public life that apply in democracies the world over.
I am sorry that your kailoma kids have suffered instances of racism in Australia. But it is not the institutionalised racism that we are now seeing making a comeback in Fiji under this government. There are complaint mechanisms in Australia for those with grievances. But where is the complaint mechanism for non iTaukei currently being purged from the offices of state and the civil service?
You too are displaying anti-Israeli bias, which is very disappointing. As I have said right from the start, we should be siding with the innocent on both sides, not holding up one side as being more righteous than the other when the crimes of both against the innocent have been so egregious.
Please read the article from The Guardian – the bible of the global left – about what Hamas really did to Israeli women and girls on October 7. It is not “Zionist propaganda” but the truth.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/18/evidence-points-to-systematic-use-of-rape-by-hamas-in-7-october-attacks
Why shouldn’t he expose this guy when no-one else will? It doesn’t mean he doesn’t know the culture.
Unless you have been sexually assaulted or violently assaulted in Fiji, you might not know what it’s like. It’s not very easy to speak up when you have been abused, especially when the norm is to keep it quiet. Handling it quietly does not mean that the victim got justice. It also doesn’t mean that the attacker has the right to a job in government.
Just because silence is in the culture does not make it a good thing. To help to advance women and children’s rights, somebody has to speak up. There is a lot of sexual assaults and violence that happens to kids in villages in Fiji that never gets mentioned to anyone. Often it’s kept quiet because it’s a family member. Often there is no justice. Often the system of corruption is not trusted.
There is a lot of domestic violence that never gets reported because they also know that no-one is going to defend or make arrests and it’s normalized. There are many crimes that occur and the police do nothing.
So because it is cultural as you say, it’s wrong to attempt to raise the standard out of the brutal dark ages for the rights of others?
If anything people need to find their voice. Especially after 16 years. Look how easy it was to fall into suppression. Fiji cannot afford any ” bad apples”. One bad apple can become the next tyrant.
Graham is the only person I can see exposing domestic violence and discrimination in Fiji.
Tabuya appears just as power hungry as the rest. They will not expose anyone if it means their careers will be effected. To be in that position but to remain silent is wrong. It doesn’t matter if no charges were pressed.
Also these positions require strong, outspoken people for the role.
And it should be obvious but you cannot have a Minister of Education if there is any shadow of a doubt about his integrity. And Sodelpa members showed that they have no integrity by supporting him. There is no way they care about children and women.
Totally agree with you.
Unfortunately, Shamima Ali of the Fiji Women’s Crisis Center has long been a huge disappointment. She’s done squat regarding the brutal physical abuse case which Rabuka’s daughter suffered at the hands of a man who was later chosen to lead the nation’s education sector. Nonetheless, it’s positive to see Rabuka finally make mention and acknowledge that past predicament.
Grubsheet had constantly made this case known to the public at large. If not for him, many would be still in the dark about it. In saying so, the lack of credibility concerning that issue has set a dangerous precedent in the sense that government ministers hold zero responsibility and accountability on the issue of abuse of women.
Today, we, the tax payers witness a similar plight just in a different context concerning the Minister of women AND children. A female official embroiled in a scandalous extra marital, sex, drug and alcohol affair with the same man and in full denial mode to Government and to the nation. Utterly shameful. What tone does that set for the mandate of her voters and her female voters at that? Go out and do likewise?
Will this issue also be swept under the ibe for a time? God forbid.
Please credit fijivillage News for the article used in your blog
With pleasure. And perhaps you could start crediting me with reporting stories like this long before you deign to report them yourselves.
Frankly amazed that you would have the temerity to send me an email like this when you have been so negligent in your own reporting on this issue and others in the past.
You have your credit in the first paragraph. Journalistic wankers. A total waste of space.
Haha Fiji Village- why don’t you folks try investigative journalism proper? Report on what the public are entitled to know and not what you deem “acceptable” to your masters in Government and at Communications Fiji. You owe it to the public who keep your website up and running. Man up!
Good to see you all onboard here nonetheless
Personal revenge against Radrodro for beating his daughter and having an affair with his side kick, Lynda. It’s high time Sodelpa starts negotiating with FijiFirst. Then we’ll see the fun and how the tables will change.
I was wondering when Aseri would present the matanigasau to Lynda’s husband.
The best thing would have been to present both the matanigasau in the same run. One he would save fuel and second he would have had a 50% chance of success.
If this behaviour continues, soon matanigasaus will start being presented by drug traffickers, rapists, murderers etc. And who knows with the idiot Attorney General what may be incorporated into our laws.
Today’s comment by PM “The Turaga na Qaranivalu understood the difference between the “Matanigasau” and the law.”
Did the PM understand this when his daughter was almost killed. The law should always be above the matanigasau. Hmmm how many have been saved from serving time in prison because of the matanigasau.