Rajiv Sharma has been one of Grubsheet’s most avid correspondents since we began publishing again last August and also one of my greatest critics, continually objecting to my use of the term ” genuine democracy” to characterise the return to parliamentary rule under the Bainimarama government. While I have suspended writing lengthy political articles until a more cogent opposition emerges in Fiji, it’s worth re-publishing our most recent engagement in the comments section. Because as time goes by, events in Fiji have brought Rajiv and I much closer together in terms of outlook. This is a salute not just to him but to all of my contributors, who have proved to be so much more articulate and reasoned than the normal diatribe and venom that passes for much of the commentary about Fijian politics on social media. Vinaka vakalevu to you all! And read on….
Rajiv Sharma says: March 16, 2021 at 5:38 am: In tough times leaders hunker down and do the real tough work. In Fiji, Frank is cutting ribbons, ministers are visiting market stalls, handing seeds and bullocks , giving out roadside stall leases, crying that infrastructure is 60 years old etc.
So when are they actually doing the real work? PM and Ministers should be working hard to develop and implement new economic policies one that will take away dependency from tourism and development other economic sectors so that the rising tide will lift all boats. A real total lack of leadership in Fiji. It’s so sad to see that Govt is broke with everything now being given as aid.
Is this 50 years of independence progress? AG has mismanaged the National purse.
New younger generation of leadership is needed
Graham Davis saysMarch 16, 2021 at 6:51 am :Couldn’t agree more, Rajiv. The government is in total disarray at the worst possible time, with its principal economic architect out of the country and in post operative recovery as the massive loans that he has secured are the only thing between survival and total economic collapse.
Why the leadership is pushing through such things as the FICAC court, the abolition of assessors and now the Police Bill at such a time is astonishing. But it is a sign of their desperation that they now have to introduce potentially repressive measures to have any chance at all of winning the next election.
They are haunted by the spectre of Anthony Gates, the former Chief Justice, allowing their mortal enemy, Sitiveni Rabuka, to contest the last election at the final hour and will not allow it to happen again.
So you can see precisely what the plan is: 1/ Mohammed Saneem, the deeply compromised Supervisor of Elections, will seize on even the smallest infringement of the electoral laws by the opposition to refer them to a FICAC investigation. The results of that investigation will now be fast tracked not through the mainstream courts but a special FICAC court over which the AG will have a great deal of power. Which makes it much more likely than before that opposition politicians will be convicted and excluded from contesting the next election.
2/ The Police Bill provides a range of draconian measures that can be used for political purposes. In many ways, it gives police the endorsement for conduct that is already routine. But in the febrile atmosphere that is bound to accompany the election lead-up – assuming it happens at all – there is nothing to prevent a brutal crackdown on the government’s opponents
.3/ The leadership are making sure that the most loyal of their supporters occupy the major offices of state. Sitiveni Qiliho is returning to Fiji from his military course in Britain in July to take over the RFMF. And there is speculation that the office of police commissioner will be filled by Brigadier-General Ratu Jone Kalouniwai, another senior military officer whose article for the Fiji Sun last year justifying a media crackdown and putting law and order above civil liberties sent shock waves through the intelligentsia. Here’s a link to that article: https://fijisun.com.fj/2020/04/22/the-paradox-of-our-rights-during-perilous-times/
4/ The Bainimarama cabinet is still restive, as I’ve reported all along. The cabinet submission on the end of the 120 plus years of assessors and the setting up of the FICAC court told cabinet members that there had been consultations with the principal pillars of the criminal justice system. Yes, there’d been consultation but the AG had been told by these people that they opposed his proposals. In other words, he alone wanted these changes made. Did the AG tell the cabinet that? No. So these fundamental alterations to the criminal justice system were railroaded through without proper consultation with the cabinet and with cabinet members deprived of knowing they were opposed by the Acting CJ, the DPP and the Solicitor General.
5/ All this has caused grave disquiet within the cabinet itself. The senior members who aren’t aligned with the AG know what is coming – a landslide defeat at the next election because of the government’s tin ear and total disconnection from political reality. Nothing concentrates the mind better in politics than the prospect of individual ministers and MPs losing their seats and their salaries. So this disquiet is bound to gain momentum as the months tick by. Will it produce defections to the other parties? Perhaps.
6/ Cabinet members know that the government has developed a unique ability to upset practically everyone. Academia, the intelligentsia and a lot of the youth vote has been lost because of the appalling circumstances of the deportation of the Vice Chancellor at USP. The vote of the legal profession and those concerned about the independence of the institutions of state – myself included – has been lost by railroading through the FICAC Court and abolishing assessors. And now the government has turned its attack on ordinary people – publicly canvassing increases in the rents of market vendors at a time when they and most other people not on the government teat are struggling. It sometimes seems as if the government is determined to lose the next election. Because none of it is appropriate for a country that is on its knees. As you rightly say, where is the effort to develop alternative industries or the agricultural sector? If “buy back your bullocks” is any answer at all to the current crisis, then they have totally lost the plot.
7/ All the while, hundreds of millions of extra dollars are being borrowed and Fiji is more indebted than at any other time in its history. The legacy these people are leaving for future generations is truly frightening. Not to mention the army of retirees who will be left destitute because the government has “assisted” them to spend their own money. The only plan the government appears to have is that Covid can be defeated by vaccines and Fiji Airways planes will miraculously appear from the skies again and the good times will return. Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen for a long time, if ever. The Bula Bubble is a fantasy. Australia and NZ can’t even agree on a bubble between them and Australia is now turning to Singapore. And even if a trickle of overseas visitors returns to Fiji, mass global travel is over for the foreseeable future. Even if people can travel again, we have no idea of knowing whether they will. Because Australia and New Zealand have turned in on themselves and their economies are booming as domestic consumption goes through the roof.
8/ And through all of this – as you rightly point out – any notion of proper direction from the top in Fiji has evaporated. The AG is flat on his back having undergone a heart bypass operation and a hernia repair in Singapore. He had keyhole surgery for the heart op which meant they didn’t have to saw into him. But it is still a major procedure and he will have been told that he cannot maintain his present life-style or he will be dead a lot sooner than his young family deserves. For his part, the PM seems totally lost and distracted. Because it will have dawned on him that for all his government’s spin, it is failing on a very basic level and his people know it. The disconnect between what is in the Fijian media and the reality on the ground has never been more stark. So, yes. There are even darker clouds on the horizon. In fact, the national situation in Fiji has rarely been so bleak.
9/ And in the meantime, the other politicians manoeuvre. My information is that Sitiveni Rabuka is getting many more signatures than he needs to launch the Peoples Alliance. Reports from the West say he has around 7,000 from there alone. And that all over Fiji, Rabuka and his people – who now include the seriously smart Keni Dakuidreketi – are being besieged by ordinary people keen to put their names to his party and expressing extreme hostility towards the FijiFirst government. The AG has always been the lightning road for dissent but as the months go by, more and more people are expressing dissatisfaction with the Prime Minister. And unless he is completely out of touch, Frank Bainimarama knows it. Will he use repression and the new laws to stay in power at all costs? He might. But his legacy will be trashed and so will his place in history – dragged down by hubris, arrogance and an almost astonishing inability to keep his finger on the nation’s pulse.
I am so worried that a big economic collapse is in order and massive IMF bailout will come one day soon and the results will be devastating as IMF will demand huge structural reforms and these reforms will hurt the poor the most.
This is how silly their thinking has been , reduce to zero duty on white goods to stimulate demand, REALLY . Hand out seeds to start agri revolution, REALLY.
All this climate nonsense ( while good and I agree climate change is really) and use of the word “build resilience” is all BS talk ,good sustainable strategic economic growth is what’s needed then tackle climate change as when over 40% of your people live close to poverty , climate change does not matter to them but putting food on table does.
Whoever forms the next GOVT will deal with a big mess and it will take years to clean up the mess. And yes, so much for Frank’s mention of genuine democracy when as you have clearly stated he is moving more and more towards dictatorship.
Excellent and a well articulated article on the raw political reality in Fiji. It’s quite astonishing to see how Mr Khaiyum, the master political tactician was able to manipulate and utilized the popularity of Mr Bainimarama to its maximum effects, at the detriment of all opposition parties and ordinary folks who does not share their political ideology. If the Fiji Fascist Party wins again in 2022, then God helps us, Fiji will surely have another Mugabe ruling until he drops👎🏾👎🏾👎🏾👎🏾👎🏾
That’s if “Mugabe Khaiyum” himself doesn’t drop early due to his little trip to Singapore since we’ve literally embraced Chinese ideologies in communism minus the “one-child policy” they got.
Even I heard Frankie himself is feeling ill although that’s just news and gossip from around the grapevine.
The TRUTH will PREVAIL…even if it take years …
Should we be proud of having front page headlines that we have borrowed millons of dollars again or seeing vehicles on our roads with signs “with aid of EU or friends of Japan or some other country. In the words from Tales of the Tikongs “we have shelved our original sense of self repect and assumed another, more attuned new permanent role as a first rate beggar.
Fifty years of independence has culminated in an outstanding list undesirable achievements.
We have dispensed with the GCC and the Senate and facilitated a one man band government the seems incapable of taking any form of logical decisive action while the the main organ grinder of the party is having his organ supplemented.
We have been guided into chaos and as a nation the majority have blindly followed.
However it is inevitable that the winds of change will blow with greater force in the coming months, the danger is the potential danger of destruction that those winds of change will bring, leaving the poor of the nation to clean up the results of the chaos and destruction for years to come.
Well said Graham….can you please have someone translate this in the I Taukei language and have it shared around on social media so that people can understand the reality of the matter like the AG always say..
Whoever worked for Voreqe and Aiyaz must take responsibility for the consequences. When you need to torture, murder and lie to prevail, you make it clear from the start where you stand, don’t you? Whoever supported these evil kids supported evil.
It comes a time when it’s just too late to jump the ship…
Tsk….tsk….So Frank is no.longer the preferred candidate ?
His commitment to multi-culturalism and democracy etc were buzzwords put in his mouth by his speechwriters. The guy had no idea what they meant. He was there to read the script, not explain the fancy concepts in the text (he didnt even know the meaning of GDP saying “na GDP na dinau”).
Since Dec 2006 Fiji has been the victim of the biggest con job in its history. The politicians in the Fiji First are only there for themselves only. They have failed to show moral courage and leadership by standng up to Bai and Khai. They too deserve to be put in orange jumpsuits and go learn tilapia farming in Naboro.
Isa Viti
Vinaka Graham
We have always agreed to disagree and have done so in good civil discord.
Let’s continue to engage in ongoing good dialogue
Loving the “constructive banter” between you and Rajiv in addition to acknowledging your correspondents. I wouldn’t be surprised if Aiyarse himself doesn’t live to see his “socialist state” dream be realized for all his farcical daydreaming about “Fiji becoming the Singapore of the Pacific.” Frankie is utterly useless and its showing through his “high school dropout” experience expecting Khaiyum to fix everything even at the expense of his own life.
There are smart people there within FFP but the party just doesn’t seem to get in touch with reality like you said GD, they’re just slowly but surely building up to their own detrimental defeat in the next elections that it’s not surprising that Rambo is getting more signatures than he thought for his new party.
Its a real cheap shot taking it out on the public by telling them to “get their own fish” which just adds more fuel to the fire alongside the draconian measures that will sorely backfire on them in due course. It’s quite a letdown for not investing domestically into a subsistence economy or something like that since FFP has clearly lost the plot a long time ago.
Well written article GD, although the Appalling General himself might want to consider putting his health above his egoistic pride if he doesn’t want to end up deceased by trying to do and interfere with everything like he has severe paranoia.
Besides, we might even have a state funeral before the actual elections in my opinion if certain individuals don’t take care of themselves properly.
Interesting twist PM withdraws draft Police Bill saying it was not endorsed by Cabinet. Does he think that people are stupid? or is he clueless and leading a Govt in name only.
How was the $9.2 million spent on this bill?
Another hallmark oh how his Govt has lied to the people of Fiji past 15 years to stay in power.
If this statement by the PM was prepared by Qorvis then they have really done a poor job as this excuse really falls flat on the face of the PM.
And another one, Koya now acting Minister for Economy , so one can actually not win an election then sneak in through the back door become a Minister and also temporarily manage the purse strings.
A truly laughable “ genuine democracy”
Perhaps the most enlightening post published on this blog supporting what you said was the one about the failed Fiji flag change. It clearly showed who was running the show behind the scenes! For Frankie to go from “Queen’s Boy” to eventually rejecting all symbols of the past was beyond irony!
Fiji is like a boat half sunk in the laggoon. We need to bring it up now and give it a direction! Our real problem goes beyond Frankie and Aiyaz. Let’s get real, though perhaps a bit harsh: soon both of them will be no more, their health will break down. OK that’s a fact of life, we all die. But the day that will happen, we in Fiji will still be facing the same fundamental issues: lack of a clear plan, lack of unity, lack of a direction. In a sense (and here I mean it) in a sense, we have a flag issue… but we can’t find the solution to it. Most can’t see it, or don’t want to see it; and those who see it comes with worst alternative. Now in Fiji we are waiting for grants, loans and foreign aid in every forms, while we should be the ones helping our neighbors!
I hope one day soon Fiji will be able to change that!
Yes, the Independent, Fiji used to go out of its way to lead by example in the Pacific and assist its smaller neighbours. Now it wages war on regional institutions like USP, disrespects long held conventions like giving everyone a fair go in leading those institutions and has its hand out permanently as a borrower or beggar incapable of making ends meet on its own.
For all the rhetoric about leading the climate fight and the campaign to save our oceans, what a sad little country we’ve become. We could only take a lead at COP23 because the Germans and a whole lot of donor nations paid for it and we shared the stage with the Swedes at the Oceans Summit. It’s all given the PM and the AG big heads. Rather than accept this leadership role on behalf of all Pacific Islanders, they strut around mouthing platitudes and treat the other island nations as inferiors. So it’s no surprise that very few of the COP legacy items for the region – let alone Fiji – will ever see the light of day.
Not Viti levu. Viti lailai.
There is some dark irony thinking that Aiyaz wanted to change Fiji’s flag before his father dies… now he might be the one going first! Btw, GD, do you seriously think he still want to change the flag? I would love to get more details on that story one day as it reveals so much about our democratic regime. That was your most spicy article ever…
You know the horrible thing wasn’t the “idea of changing the flag”, but the fact that Aiyaz lied big time. One small lie is all what is needed to detroy confidence, and to eventually tear down a country.
At the time, I could see an analogy between those 23 Khaiyum flags and the COP23. Just like with the climate crisis, some in power are willing to acknowledge there is a problem, but are to shy/coward to take proper action. They don’t lead by example to begin with! And those who vote for them seem dumb… When you face a problem, you need to find a solution. In Fiji, we won’t find solutions neither in the Bainimarama camp nor in the Opposition camp! When one dares standing in politics, one should have answers! If Aiyaz had been an honest person, he would have simply said that it might be appropriate to change the flag for a more “independent” design, then asks for suggestions while leaving the door open to keep the current flag. This is the CRUX of the issue here: the door to discussion is closed, and the people can’t see simple “issues” clearly. Perhaps we missed a WONDERFUL opportunity to have COP23 in Fiji (yes IN FIJI!!!) and use that opportunity to change the flag for a design showing our critical concern about our future (I can’t believe 900 000 Fijian brains couldn’t come up with something remotely good…) It would have been instructive for those powerful selfish people to live in Fijian villages, not in 5-star hotels. This is why the world will get much warmer, and sadly in Fiji, the Union Jack won’t be of any help to us! We screw it up all the way.
Well said.
We are seeing that Frank’s commitment to multicultaralism was a sham and a convenient cover for those who went in to milk the mulitiracial cow for what it was worth. These mercenaries owe an apology to the indigenous Fijian population for the damage they have done to them. We will never forget
The cat has been out of the bag for 15 years revealing pretty much everything about what’s wrong with the two goofballs where one of them needs to constantly be babysat by the other.
The state that Fiji finds itself in saddens me. No one speaks the truth and we believe our own lies. Every Govt official I have had any contact with in the past 12 months, is either inept, corrupt, or simply too scared to do anything.
We spend our time creating new acronyms for useless conferences rather than creating a forward thinking strategy that can actually be executed. Our place on the world stage for climate change is a laughing stock. Lets be frank ( yes I get the pun) Fiji’s gift to the world is 500 Million + plastic bottles every year………..that’s 500 Million….and we preach about climate change?
We add zero value to any products the Ministry of Commerce has no idea of how business runs, and Investment Fiji is an atrocity and we hear the same story on agriculture year after year, FSC is bankrupt and has been for years, the Mahogany industry is in tatters, and Fiji Air will be an unmitigated disaster.
There is a way out of this mess but it requires, clear vision, investment in infrastructure, clear and precise guidelines for business but more than ever we need to look inward at what our values are and what we want to be as a nation