It has now been seven weeks since Justice David Ashton-Lewis and Janet Mason handed their Commission of Inquiry Report into the Barbara Malimali affair to the President and Prime Minister and they have sat on it like two hens refusing to yield their eggs.
Sitiveni Rabuka has flip-flopped between promising that the report would be made public, withdrawing that undertaking, making it again, and is still unable to make a decision what to do. In the meantime, multiple copies have been distributed across government and the offices of state – to FICAC, the Police, the RFMF and reportedly even to some of those named in the Report in a leak from the President’s office.
With all those copies floating around and the Prime Minister continuing to flap his arms like a drowning man, is it really any wonder that one or more of those copies have surfaced publicly seven weeks later? This is Fiji, for God’s sake, where Lynda Tabuya can’t even keep her sext messages and porn videos confidential.
It has been a strategic failure that is symptomatic of everything the Coalition touches. And it is entirely self inflicted. Janet Mason tells the Fiji Times today that if they can find the source/s of the leak, there can be prosecutions under the Crimes Act. But why the hell would they bother? The cat is out of bag or the horse has bolted. Take your pick.
Now the leak itself and the revelations that have broken like a thunderclap over Suva have given the Coalition the mother of all headaches. People at the top of government are now wondering what would be the point of releasing a redacted version of the Report when the full version, names and pack drill , is all over the Internet. And again something that has been totally self-inflicted.
This is what is causing that headache:
- The revelations from the COI Report about the conduct of the Chief Justice means that Salesi Temo’s position is now totally untenable. The President is said to be apoplectic that his relative by marriage clearly has to go no matter how much he wants to save him.
- The problem is that the Coalition was relying on Justice Temo to help deliver a verdict in its favour in its Supreme Court action to overturn the 2013 Constitution. And Temo is furiously playing this card to avoid suspension.
- No-one has the wit to call Temo’s bluff and explain that whatever he does, there is a brace of other Supreme Court judges and someone from the Federal Court of Australia who will decide the constitutional challenge and they will do so on its legal merits. So the chances of a stitch-up are zero.
- Given the allegations of criminal conduct against him, Salesi Temo cannot occupy the top post in the judiciary and especially when as head of the Judicial Services Commission, he has chosen the top people in FICAC and the ODPP and has effective control over them. What hope is there of any investigation going anywhere when it involves the Chief Justice himself and those he has handpicked?
- Blind Freddy can see that there is no point in sending a police docket on any of the matters raised by the COI to the ODPP when Christopher Pryde is still being kept at bay and the current chief prosecutors, Nancy Tikoisuva and John Rabuku, have been mentioned adversely in the Judge’s Report.
Ergo, we are a long way from this dog’s breakfast being unraveled. And again, Blind Freddy knows that Salesi, Nancy and John have to go and go now for anything that remotely looks like justice to be served.
That is the nightmare at the top of government. Yet instead of the Prime Minister tackling the fundamentals head on and making the tough decisions that have to be made, he is wringing his hands, kicking the cat or this week, breathing oxygen at 35,000 feet on his way to and from the Land of Oz. With the PM playing not the wizard but the cowardly lion.
In the meantime, everyone in Fiji with access to the Internet knows who is facing possible charges – including Rabuka’s Deputies, Manoa Kamikamica and Biman Prasad – and can read all about what they’ve done on Grubsheet or any number of other sources.
It is a political, legal and public relations catastrophe and there is no other way to describe it. And again, it is all self inflicted. A government totally unable to govern itself let alone govern the country. And the ship of state sailing steadily towards the abyss.
More details to come.
UPDATE 1000 FIJI TIME:
Good old Vijay Narayan over at CFL-Fiji Village continues to sing for his supper – the $1.7-million dollars in public funding “Poo-poo” Parkinson’s mob got from Biman Prasad – to discredit the COI Report.
In almost every story Vijay writes, he dwells on the following offhand remark made by Justice David Ashton-Lewis in his Queensland radio interview to cast doubt on the entire Commission of Inquiry.
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Never mind that Justice Ashton- Lewis heard from a host of witnesses who swore on oath that the evidence they were giving was the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth and that they were cross-examined on their affidavits. Vijay Narayan knows that is precisely what happened and that the Judge made findings of FACT. Yet one casual reference to “hearsay” is all it takes for brave Vijay to dismiss the whole exercise.
He also says that only “sections of the Report ” have been leaked. Grubsheet has published all sections except the annexures so the ENTIRE Report in relation to its findings is now on the public record. It is undeniably authentic but Vijay Narayan is reporting none of it, especially the sections relating to Biman Prasad and Manoa Kamikamica.
The Strutting Peacock of the local mainstream media has become a propagandist assisting the Coalition while being part of an organisation corruptly receiving $1.7-million in public funding at a time when CFL-Fiji Village is making record profits. But that’s the “new era of media freedom” for you under Biman Prasad. The Peacock neutered.
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But, of course, with this government, there’s always a fresh scandal just around the corner waiting to hit it head-on.
Seriously, who would want to be the Police Commissioner, Rusiate Tudravu, right now?
With having to cope with Salesi Temo, Nancy Tikoisuva and John Rabuku as foxes playing hounds in one corner and yet another sex/ love scandal in the other, Tudravu can be forgiven for looking dazed. Or fazed. Or both.
Wannabe PM Kamikamica has labelled the person who leaked the report as dishonorable; the irony being that the COI report identified Kamikamica and others as dishonorable.
A classic case of the pot calling the kettle black and as usual, Kamikamica jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire, without a sensible plan of action.
The Prime Minister is ultimately responsible for the COI report leak. His delay and indecision in releasing the report have led to the leak.
If the President is the obstacle, he should be asked whether he has the authority to withhold the report against the Prime Minister’s advice.
Almost two months have been wasted. Action should have already begun. Those named in the report should have stepped down or removed pending a full investigation.
The Prime Minister as well as his government’s image continues to suffer. He must now release the report and act immediately on its recommendations to show that it will be taken seriously.
Let’s see if he does this or not.
Can’t people see the PM has run away. Never know, he may never return because this thing is not going anywhere. Normally when he runs away, things settle down and go away. Not this time. All those who have been named and shamed in the COI report are proudly going about their business as if nothing is happening.
Biman is busy saying good things about the budget, Kamikami is too busy banding about numbers pulled out of his arse about the billions in investment, the CJ and those in the ODPP and the FLS are acting as if nothing has happened. Just another normal day in Fiji and going forward.
Everyone is waiting for the PM. That is why he ran away. He cannot handle it, the snake that he is.
Cry, cry mudswipe crocodile tears, my beloved corrupt Fijian crocodiles 🤣😂
Dou sa tobo, dou qai cariba, saa ?!
Get on with programme, CID and FICAC. We’re watching you, very, very closely.
Don’t become another COI 2.0 report in the making under a new government.
Remember, rule of law means friends and family don’t matter in your profession. If they do the crime, they do the time, just like Qarase, Bai and Speight. Man-up!
Tudravu can “launch” himself under sona rolex’s sulu!
Worthless bastard is tudravu, who is prone to misdirect scarce police resources on political witchhunts while the drug dealers –including his own police–have a field day peddling drugs by the tonne.
Investigate Baimaan. Investigate checkered wannabe PM. “Launch” investigations on many many many house break-ins.
Cold murder cases? Domestic violence crimes? Drug peddling? Violent street robberies? Drunk brawling corrections idiot?
Later, if ever, because political expediency must come first.
What happened to your big talk about no one being above the law? Why not charge and prosecute the thug who killed two people in Bau Road? Why is he not in custody?
HE KILLED 2 PEOPLE joy riding, unauthorized use of government property, no diver license, a father with no sense, a father who retains his job still. Two people are dead.
Sa levu ga na vosa levu o iko Tudravu!
Concurrent with the PM and others on mum’s the word tactics their allied media and its selective reporting if at all has shown us all what the new freedom that Shameless Shamima was dancing for is all about. Freedom to do evil and let down us all when it comes to leadership, transparency and accountability. Instead we have CSO’S selectively propping up talkfests and
Coalition Government sympathisers to use academic or policy or legal double talk to obfuscate reality and parlay lies for truth.
The People’s Alliance is in damage control – the founders of PAP are fighting with Manoa faction and Rambo faction, talk that George Speight is now backed by Kundan singh ( also PAP founders) – Speight and Rambo ticket – watch this space. Visit the coffee shop in Tamavua and see who is there most mornings. Manoa must be worried but he has Lynda.
Oilei Turaga, I still cannot get the part where a loose female politician who cried victim (duh! lol) after being blown up showing her 💩😼 to all and sundry could be a good thing for two wannabe PMs, hoiya!! 😹😹😹
Both have gone past their use-by dates. Shitloads of disappointment after disappointment. Politics is more than cheap PR and getting “likes” on social media. People catch up very quickly on how hollow a politician is between the ears. You actually have to sit your ass down and do some real work. In their arrogance, they stripped (literally) and dropped the masks for all to see their real, corrupt personalities. Isa Lord, the cheap politiking in a small island country 👳🏼♀️🤨 Qarauna de na qai ceburaki nomudou veivosaki butobuto.
Put those clothes back on, turn the filters off! 🤣😂 and FO from Fiji’s political scene.
Bastard Baiman was talking about wastage when he was in opposition. Look at how he is squandering taxpayers money for his personal gain to buy $1.7m worth of favors from that numbskull Vijay.
The dogla is treating taxpayers money like his private purse. A corrupt and greedy bastard who is abusing his position and betraying the trust of voters
The end is nigh for this pathetic excuse of a finance minister. If he doesn’t get charged by police, he will certainly suffer a massive humiliation at the next election.
Nothing will happen to Chief Justice Temo. He will declare the 1997 constitution still valid and throw out the 2014 Constitution. PAP will win the election by a greater margin next year. This is Fiji where no one on top is bothered about lifting the standard of the majority of poor people.