It is decidedly odd that it has taken so long for Colin Deoki “of Australia” to respond to Grubsheet’s criticism of his call for the paramountcy of the iTaukei to be reestablished in a revised Constitution and for non- indigenous Fijians to again be known as Fiji Islanders.
Yes, I hit him hard in these columns for his attack on the common and equal citizenry and the common identity provisions of the 2013 Constitution because they are an attack on the rights of every non- indigenous person. And good ‘ol Uncle Col has hit back with all the force of a child’s handbag, not in the comments section of Grubsheet but in the letter’s columns of today’s Sunday Times (Fiji Times), where he is a long-standing contributor.
It is all very strange. Uncle Col doesn’t mention anything at all about the point of my original criticism – that it is wrong for someone who has been absent from Fiji for more than three decades (it turns out to be more than four decades) to advocate that minorities still living in the country should lose their existing rights. Or for anyone to argue that what was finally granted in the 2013 Constitution to level the playing field in Fiji should be rescinded.
The timing of his letter is also strange. I first criticised him on August 18 and then again on August 27 in a second article also attacking the “Chairman Emeritus” of the Fiji Times, the fugitive, Mahendra “Mac” Patel for an article in his own paper calling for the 2013 Constitution to be declared “null and void”.
Question: Why would it take Colin Deoki 14 days since my original criticism of him to respond (Is Uncle Col still keeping vaka malua Fiji time in Melbourne?). And why would that response not be in these columns – where you’d imagine it might be sent – but in the pages of the Fiji Times, which didn’t mention my original criticism of him over the Constitution – a fact that will inevitably puzzle anyone who hasn’t seen my original article?
I’m naturally grateful for the free promotion and if any reader of the Fiji Times is visiting us for the first time this morning, here’s a link to the original article (August 18) and the second article on August 27 so that you at least know what this contretemps is all about. Or has Mac Patel – who can’t respond to my criticism of him without again having his criminal record highlighted – encouraged Uncle Col to come after me?
Anyway, here is Colin Deoki’s missive in today’s paper flailing Grubsheet in a manner that brings to mind what a British politician once said about being savaged by a dead sheep.
Dear Uncle Col, I’m sorry that I got some of the details of your family history wrong. It isn’t exactly plastered all over the Internet and I had to rely on memory, which is invariably imprecise half a century on. But why didn’t you correct me in these columns two weeks ago so that I could correct the record for the benefit of my own readers?
So you didn’t leave Fiji “after 1987”. You left in 1983. That means you have been living in Australia – a country that provides you with equal citizenry and a common identity – for an extraordinary 41 years. Did it not occur to you when you advocated that the non-Taukei people you left behind should not enjoy the same rights in Fiji that you do in Australia that this might cause some upset? No, I didn’t think so, judging from the contents of your letter.
Uncle Colin’s response in the Fiji Times is an entirely personal rant against me. For being a “paid propagandist” for the FijiFirst government (yes, and I also played a big part in their downfall) and for getting some relatively minor facts about his family wrong. But, Colin, why have you not said one word about the original point of my articles? No defence of your argument for the restoration of indigenous paramountcy and stripping non-iTaukei Fijians of the right to call themselves “Fijians”? Isn’t this the main game here?
You can say all you like about me, mate (and after 41 years living in Melbourne, it is “mate”, not “bro”). But I have stood up for the rights of the minorities in Fiji now and when I wrote speeches for the FijiFirst government and you have betrayed them. That was the accusation I made against you 14 days ago and the accusation I make against you now. And your response is to use your position with the Fiji Times to score some minor points and ignore the elephant in the room altogether.
Par for the course, regrettably, for the Fiji Times in these dark times. A lot more on that to come.
Vinaka. And Happy Father’s Day to all my readers.
There were many Indo Fijians who caught the first available flight out of Fiji in fear of their lives when Rabuka did 87 coup. Deoki was one of them. Now in their comforts of their own homes overseas, they are supporting Rabuka hoping to achieve some kickbacks. I have been searching for a video where Mr George Speight in his interview to foreign journalists said, ” Some Indians can’t be trusted and they betray their own people” How correct was Speight?
Sanjay, he is keen to say that he left in 1983, four years before Rabuka’s coup. Which is all the more reason to ask why he has no problem with enjoying equal rights in Oz and calling himself “Australian” as part of a minority there and yet argues against the right of the minorities in Fiji to enjoy the same benefit.
Anywhere else someone would be tapping him on the shoulder and saying “listen, Colin, pull your head in. You look like a dill”. But not in his little clique of moral and intellectual pygmies at the Fiji Times.
Him and all the itaukei everywhere..especially in the United States.
Almost wish it was the 60’s again so they could have felt the wrath of Jim Crowe and seperate but equal.
What a bunch of hypocritical arrogant snobs.
So sick of this shit and ashamed to be a Christian and itaukei on account of some of my own kind.
I do not think that people who live abroad should interfere in the politics of Fiji. Unless you can make a positive contribution ,keep quiet. There are too many ordinary people infix who are suffering financially. Many of us here send them cash, clothes etc. Just because a person has a once famous name does not give him the right to dish out advice
Colin Deoki should just shut up and stop interfering in Fiji business as his views after 40 years abroad are totally irrelevant.
It is a myth that you can sacrifice the safety of one marginalized group to liberate another. For as you negotiate the death of another people you are laying the foundation for your own demise.
The problem with Colin is that he is a bigotted Christian and a cut above the rest of the vulagi in Fiji or anywhere for that matter. Just ask him.
And at his age, he is a lost cause, just like Rabuka. No use flogging a dead horse.
The author of Colin’s article, be it himself or a lawyer, is using a common legal tactic to impair the credibility of Grubsheet on minor or immaterial details regarding facts about his (Colin’s) family to discredit the substantive issues raised. Yes it’s a crafty and devious method to ignore the elephant…perhaps M Leys took some time writing it in response!
The idiom “A fool always finds a greater fool to admire” perfectly fits this useful idiot.
Bobblehead is so lost in his own ego, he fails to realize he is doing the bidding of butt times and its ownership.
A fool’s folly are pride, ignorance, and ego, a lust for recognition. How true is the statement for this bobblehead: ‘A fool at 40 is a fool forever.’
Bobblehead has no constructive ideas, is obviously being used by vile, mean, caste system driven bastards in the shadows.
Bobblehad nows not he celebrates poor judgment rather than challenge the vile, mean and corrupt people he speaks for in his zeal for validation and acceptance.
Being a bobblehead he is oblivious of this reality as being a fool is one of the great pleasures in his sad life.
Hmmmm, I like the bobble head label. Sounds and looks appropriate. Good job bobble head, at least give the FT some rubbish to write about.