Mahendra “Mac” Patel – the only person in Fijian history to be pardoned for a crime he committed without ever serving his prison sentence – is at it again, repaying the Coalition government that did so with yet another diatribe against the 2013 Constitution as part of its agenda to jettison the current supreme law.
The man who first started to corrupt Sitiveni Rabuka in 1987 by giving him a solid gold Rolex watch that the Prime Minister turned into cash now corruptly uses his own newspaper to continually argue for the Constitution to be changed without ever saying what parts need changing.
It is astonishing that over two full pages in today’s Fiji Times, Mac Patel again rails against the Constitution and its architects – Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum and Frank Bainimarama – without once referring to the changes he proposes. Presumably the whole thing is worthless, which is as preposterous a notion as his depiction of the country’s former leadership as the root of all evil in Fiji.
The whole article is so feeble that Grubsheet is not going to insult your intelligence by breaking it into readable sections. If you want to be insulted, buy the Fiji Times. But let’s get one thing straight. Mac Patel owns the Fiji Times and is shamelessly using the paper he owns to propagate his own opinions.
He is described as “Chairman Emeritus” of the Motibhai Group, which owns the nation’s traditional newspaper of record. It is the same title that Rupert Murdoch has taken since he handed over the day-to-day running of his global News Corporation to his son, Lachlan. But Rupert Murdoch still owns the media giant he built and has a decisive say in its direction. The same applies to the man Rupert Murdoch used to dispose of his Fijian asset – the country’s main newspaper – when Khaiyum and Bainimarama changed the media ownership laws to ban foreigners and Murdoch offloaded the Fiji Times to Mac Patel.
Today, the Fiji Times keeps trying to muddy the waters about Mac Patel’s role in the paper. In its declaration of interest, it never says “Mahendra Patel is Chairman Emeritus of the Motibhai Group, which owns the Fiji Times“. It always says it has “ownership interests”, which suggests that there are other owners of the paper. There are not.
When Mac Patel received his recent pardon for the crime of abuse of office as chair of Fiji Post without ever having been punished because he fled Fiji for Australia, the print edition of the Fiji Times – the one that is added to a century and a half of the paper’s archives – never once mentioned the fact. It was erased from the historical record. There was one brief mention in the paper’s online edition but that was it. Which combined with the obfuscation about Mac Patel’s ownership of the paper, makes the Fiji Times as corrupt as the man himself.
Incredibly, the crook-turned fugitive-turned pardoned columnist in his own paper has the temerity to refer to corruption during the Bainimarama years. Talk about people hurling boulders from glass houses!
As well as a two-page spread to air his pedestrian views, Mac Patel also obliges his Editor, Fred Wesley, to publish a letter that again rails against the Constitution without saying what it wrong with it. And again, rather than identifying him as the owner of the Fiji Times, Fred Wesley says he “is a shareholder in the Motibhai Group, which has ownership interests in the Fiji Times”.
The whole thing is a farce that in any other democracy would see Mac Patel and the Fiji Times referred to a media watchdog and potentially stripped of the paper. But the Fiji Media Council is toothless and under the influence of the Coalition government, for which Mac Patel continues to sing for his pardon.
We learn from the address on his letter that he is still living in Sydney, where he fled on bail to avoid going to jail. Wouldn’t it be nice for the Fijian people to read an article about “Mac” and his eventful life and of being the only man in the nation’s history to escape justice. We’d all be very interested to know more about his gift of the gold Rolex to Sitiveni Rabuka in 1987 and his ongoing relationship with the Prime Minister. And marvel at his life of luxury in the Emerald City.
How about it, Fred? Yeah, sure. Instead we have to endure the musings of a corrupt old man in the newspaper he owns and once again, returning the favour of Sitiveni Rabuka’s pardon with another dose of pro-Coalition propaganda. Scandalous.
And if that isn’t enough, the “Chairman Emeritus” uses his pull to infiltrate the letter’s columns on the same subject.
“Wake up, Fiji!”? Yes, time to wake up to the corruption all around us. Of someone like Mac Patel not having to “do the time” for the crime he committed because the Prime Minister is in his pocket. And he, in turn, is in Rabuka’s debt.
Buying influence 37 years ago and buying influence now. A two-way traffic in influence between two old men that isn’t in the national interest at all.
The lapdogs of the Fiji Media Council. Fred Wesley top left. Never a woof.
NOTICE TO READERS:
On that note I am taking a short break. My ulumatua/eldest son has announced his engagement and we are having a family gathering to celebrate. Back next week.
Mac is one of the growing number in Fiji who are asking for a people’s constitution, not one that was written by two men in a cigar-smoke-filled back room over an empty decanter of Johnny Walker Blue Label….then shoved down peoples throats at the point of a gun by a pliant military.
Let the people of Fiji decide whats good for them please.
If you dont pay tax to the Fji government then you have no moral right to tell us what is good for us.
Moce Jo !
Mate, you are going to have to lift your game if you want to swim with the sharks here.
Mac Patel has been living in Australia as a fugitive from justice for the past ten years. He hasn’t been paying income tax in Fiji, that’s for sure.
Does that make him unqualified to comment on the Constitution? Er, what did you just say about people having no moral right to comment if they “don’t pay tax to the Fiji government”. And yet we have had to endure two whole pages from Mac today plus a letter on the constitution which you say he is not entitled to say anything about.
I can’t work out if you have been born dumb or have become dumb from reading the Fiji Times. But either way, this is a big fail.
GD
1.Mac pays tax through number of his thriving business in Fiji.
More than half of Fijian owned big businesses owned by “Indians/Vulaqis” have dual citizenship.
Many leave overseas and their business is still operating in Fiji.
You are wrong here Mr.GD
2.Aid given to Fiji is from tax payers of Australia.
If you are paying your tax than you have the right to say,but to be mindful of what you are saying.
3.Couple of opportunist who drafted the constitution for 2 men rule and for people of Fiji to follow is a farce.
One of the legal experts has already indicated that 1997 constitution may be still legal.
Those that “manufactured “the 2013 constitution should be liable and be brought to court.
But that ain’t gonna happen with current legal system of Fiji.
I am not wrong at all. Mac Patel was a fugitive living in Australia and as an Australian resident for tax purposes, would have been paying any income tax in Australia, not Fiji.
In any event, the notion that you have to pay tax in Fiji before you can comment on the Constitution is a nonsense. Fijians live all over the world paying tax in any number of places. And as Fiji-born Fijians, of course they have a right to express an opinion about the Constitution.
Actually quite a lot of Fiji residents don’t pay tax or much tax into the govt coffers! If it wasn’t for the external foreign inputs the economy would be dead.
Mahendra patel is a corrupt, selfish, self-righteous rogue and uses money and ownership to direct the Fiji Times on a vengeful agenda against the Fiji First Government.
A significant number of the Coalition Government’s voter base does not pay any tax. By your rationale does that mean their voices should not be heard?
Okay fine, the 2013 Constitution was imposed on us. But the people had no problems under two consecutive elections. Maybe even a third – note that it wasn’t a distaste of the Constitution that brought BaiKai down but their arrogance.
What then is it in the Constitution that gets ethnos and their brown-nosers riled up? Because they know if they cement what we suspect, goodbye Singapore hello Zimbabwe
Mac the Crook is a mean old f$@kwit. Those who have had the unpleasant pleasure of having interacted with him know how demeaning it is and what an arrogant ass of a man he is. In this photo he looks like a dead man walking.
Ni sa bula vinaka Graham Hunt Davis, you are not only an award-winning journalist but also an articulate and ethical journalist, which is what we need in our time.
Being the elder son of the former President of the Methodist Church of Fiji, Graham Hunt Davis, I read about your early years on the island of Lakeba in the Lau Group, later, attended Buca District School, Savusavu, and finally, Drasa Avenue School, Lautoka.
Your upbringing is not only holistic but you are fully aware of Fiji.
A genuine person, who shows empathy and has the best upbringing ever. Yes, we are not perfect, but your messages tell the truth, and I know the GOOD LORD knows what you are telling the people.
I have followed your messages but have yet to comment. I will soon.
Meanwhile, bless your eldest son’s engagement. It is a great occasion, being the first-born. Enjoy the emotion that comes with the first-child’s engagement. Cherish it.
Bula Balavu Ka Kalougata Saka Tiko Nai Tikotiko Vakaturaga e Graham Davies. GOD BLESS YOU, YOUR ELDEST SON AND YOUR FAMILIES.
Jawal Taito Mangal
Vinaka vakalevu for a very touching comment! Much appreciated.
Yes, it is a great occasion. We have been organising the function at our place for tomorrow and are all looking forward to it.
I have three sons but no grandchildren yet. Let’s hope they get on with it! 🙂
Incidentally, my middle name “Hunt” was bestowed on me at birth by my parents, Peter and Betty Davis, in honour of John Hunt, the great 19th century Methodist missionary who translated the Bible into the Fijian language.
My father’s sole surviving brother, Philip Davis, who is 89, will be with us tomorrow. But alas my parents are long gone, though the family name lives on.
Once Graham was part of two men evil dictators who came into power from the barrel of a gun.
He was paid from taxpayers money.
Let’s not forget that Jawal.
Rubbish. I was contracted by a US company to work on their Fiji account. They paid me, not the Fijian government. And they were drawing income from contracts all over the world.
In any event, Frank and Aiyaz were not “evil”. They finally levelled the playing field in Fiji to give everyone the same opportunity. Any evil is on the part of those who want some Fijians to be more equal than others. And guess who they are?
No one worked harder than GD to highlight the nepotism, cronyism and general rottings with FFP. The Coalition edged out only because of his work (no matter how humbly he will spread the credit).
Let’s not forget that, Jone
My tax paying kaindia arse gets up every morning to work. And these dollars finds its way to Fiji through aid.
Mahendra Patel is a leech. Plain and simple. Most of the ethnic Taukeis and the curry mumching NFP politicians already have their filthy mouths firmly stuck on tkere kere tits.
The Constitution is the next convenient excuse which the NFP and PAP can smear now that Bainimarama and Khaiuym are out of the picture.
Go back to Fiji Mac and sit on Gordon Street or wherever the eff the Fiji Times and open your gujji mouth from there.
Has he gone back to Fiji after being pardoned? The PM should have the red carpet rolled out for him. And then what?
Change the Constitution? And then what? All of Fiji’s problems will be solved by magic after changing the Constitution?
But we have already changed the Constitution several times in recent decades. What has been achieved each time? Which other country changes their Constitution every time someone does not like it?
Fiji is a fcuking trashy country with a whole heap of trashy people full of hate.
This man’s diatribe about Bai and Kai is full of hate – nothing else. And there are many hundreds of thousands of like minded people in Fiji – Racist Christian and Hindu imbeciles. The sad part is they do not realise that they are all hypocrites who go to church and pray to Hanuman – like Mac does. The whole thing is really sad.
Congratulations on the engagement and enjoy the family event. Hope that it helps you to recharge and re- energize because writing about Fiji must be both draining and depressing. Hope to see you back soon. The latest is that Junior Deputy Prime Minister Baimaan crowing about how much revenue has been collected from VAT. More money for MPs perks and allowances. Our sushi-loving DPM needs another doze reality.