Reports are emerging that during the prolonged beating of Jone Vakarisi at the Queen Elizabeth Barracks that led to his murder, one name was continually being cried out as he begged for mercy. Lynda Tabuya. Why?
Was Vakarisi pleading with his torturers to contact the Minister for Information, Environment and Climate Change in the hope that she might intervene to end his ordeal?
Were they friends or associates? What, if any, is Lynda Tabuya’s connection to the drug trade which led to the arrests and detention of Vakarisi and others, including Kelepi Komaisavu, who has given an account of his ordeal to the Fiji Times ?
One allegation on Facebook by a former SODELPA candidate, Faith Grace, has it that Jone Vakarisi mentioned the names of two lawyers who are PAP ministers in the Coalition government. One is Lynda Tabuya. Who is the other? Filimoni Vosarogo? Siromi Turaga?
Whatever Faith Grace knows, word had already reached Grubsheet that in his death throes, Jone Vakarisi, had continually cried out Lynda Tabuya’s name. Imagine. You are being beaten to death. Why would you mention Lynda other than in the belief that invoking her name would spare you?
Lynda herself says she is amused by Faith Grace’s posting. Not that she is angry or offended or regards the allegation as defamatory. She is amused.
Well the rest of us aren’t amused at all. This is an allegation – along with other reports from the Camp – that warrants the most serious investigation. What was or is the relationship between Lynda Tabuya and kingpins of the drug trade?
This takes on a particular resonance when we know that the Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, and the People’s Allliance he leads found Lynda Tabuya guilty of a”sex and illicit drug scandal” during a parliamentary visit to Melbourne in August 2023.
The details are well known to Grubsheet readers because along with Victor Lal at Fijileaks, we published extracts of leaked text messages between Tabuya and her then lover, the Minister for Education, Aseri Radrodro, which referred to her smoking “weed” (marijuana) in Room 233 of the Windsor Hotel.
Where did the drugs come from? Were they brought from Fiji in a diplomatic bag – as some have alleged – or obtained in Melbourne? To this day, there has been no apparent investigation into these sensational revelations by either the Fijian or Victorian authorities. And given that the Prime Minister himself pronounced her guilty, it is an astonishing lapse of proper process.
It is a matter of record that while Lynda Tabuya was removed as PAP deputy leader, Rabuka kept her on as Minister for Women, Children and Social Protection. Incredible.
But then came another astonishing scandal – the leaking of a pornographic video that Lynda Tabuya made when she was joint head of the government’s Anti-Pornography Task Force.
This finally cost Tabuya her ministerial position. Yet after a period on the backbench, the Prime Minister brought her back as Minister for Information, the Environment and Climate Change.
Why?
Some people are now making an astonishing connection.
Was Lynda made Environment Minister to deliver the controversial Waste Disposal Facility at Saweni? Reports have it that both she and the Prime Minister indicated to the developers that they supported the project. What has been Lynda Tabuya’s role in this entire affair?
Answers please. Because amid other rumours that her husband Rob Semaan’s construction firm, Pacific Buildings Solutions, may be a beneficiary of the Saweni project, Lynda Tabuya has considerable power as Environment Minister to decide whether it goes ahead.
And another question. Is the Prime Minister’s $150,000 gold Rolex – the source of which he refuses to disclose – linked to the Saweni project?
Lots of questions and precious few answers. Yet none of this is going to go away.
None of the magic that Lynda Tabuya can try to weave as Information Minister to spin her and the Coalition out of this PR nightmare is going to work.
We are months away from an election and barring another coup that deprives the Fijian people of their rendezvous with the ballot box, all this is going to be raked over time and again.
These questions are going to have to be answered. Because as sure as the sun sets over Saweni, Lynda Tabuya and the Coalition are going to be held accountable whether they like it or not.
The RFMF Commander, as the overall head of the RFMF, should be immediately removed from his position to bring integrity to the organization – and to allow independent investigations.
At present, there are thugs and murderers at RFMF who are killing and torturing civilians – and their Commander is quick to cover it up with lies, as was seen from Vakarisi’s medical report evidence.
If claims that the victim cried out for Lynda are true, it’s possible that she was a friend he was hoping would rescue him. It doesn’t mean she’s involved in any way. I’m sure that had Lynda known, she would’ve have tried to rescue him. From what I’ve read about her, for all her faults she is a compassionate person.
That does not digress suspicions about her role in the Vuda scandal. Clearly the project was a done deal with cabinet before the public knew. Lynda was in the know from the beginning. This is clear from her behavior. How she is using her position to spin-doctor and facilitate the project.
She was appointed both information and environment minister to see this project through. On social media I can see how she is trying to court the media with taxpayer handouts. She is especially close to Mai TV and Stanley Simpson. This is professionally and ethically wrong.
Lynda may be compassionate but she is not honest. As a reader of GrubSheet, to me it seems she is also greedy and ambitious.
She has a conflict of interest on the Vuda project through her husband’s firm Pacific Building Solutions. There may not be any conflict now but certainly later, once the project is complete, she can be rewarded somehow. This is how corrupt networks at the high level work.
The Vuda deal can make her and her husband rich. That’s why she’s going to great lengths for the project despite public opposition and even risking her political career.
She cannot be a minister if she cannot be trusted.
( She is) A compassionate person:
If as in this case, the same compassionate person is also described to be Dishonest, Greedy and UnTrustworthy, I might be inclined to think that this deceptive person displays measured amounts of compassion to mask and for furtherance of their primary agenda – ambition of power and pursuit of money. Indeed it is one of the tactics of businesses with unethical products to give out sponsorships and being charitable to whitewash their immoral corporate behaviour.
Kookai, the common thread between Cromb, Seaman, Malouf are:
– Rokoseru Nabalarua
– The Wonderful Company
– Munro Leys (Marigold and Nick Barnes are both ex ML).
What sort of agreement is Roko making with Cromb/Malouf? Why is he constantly popping up. He’s an ex-Kookai/Fiji Water so heavily conflicted. Has there been any recorded declaration of his conflict at Board level? FICAC needs to step up and investigate this snake who is escaping the eyes of the public. Very closely connected to Rabuka as well.
Pigs/Trough…enough said.
You forgot to mention Manoa Kamikamica and EFL CEO, Fatiaki Gibson, both recent employees of Kookai. They need to be investigated too for conflict of interest.
Don’t be hoodwinked, you are not wrong about unethical business tactics, including “charitable sponsorships to whitewash immoral corporate behaviour.”
Fiji Water’s Fiji Water Foundation comes to mind. They give landowners a pittance while extracting huge amounts of water, with long term damage to the environment. Their actions are unmonitored and unregulated, including massive plastic pollution of our small island country.
Fiji Water is the most rapacious of corporate companies, typical of American corporate greed, aided and abetted by the two biggest bastards in Fiji — Richard Naidu and Baiman Prasad.
Fiji Water’s rapaciousness is reflected in the insidious manner in which it gained a 7 year tax holiday through Baiman and Ritchie Rich the bitch, who roped in and duped a hapless and clueless PM in Rolex Rabuka in the scheme.
As we all know, the tax holiday is subsided by the landowners of Fiji Water and the taxpayers of the country via the 15% tax proposed by finance minister Baiman’s fiscal review committee, which he of course approved. It was all set up from the beginning, with Baiman appointing Richard, and his (Biman’s) alleged mistress, Kirti Patel, on the committee to vote in favour of Fiji Water and the VAT increase.
The biggest winners were Fiji Water, Richard Naidu’s law firm Munro Leys, and PM, who got a free trip to the US and collected hefty per diem and sold out the resource owners cheaply.
The biggest losers were the landowners, Fijian taxpayers and Fiji’s environment.
Baiman also lost out in the end because karma is a bitch and he is no longer fianance minister or deputy minister. He is consigned to the dustbin of politics from where he will make an ignominious exit as the worst finance minister and deputy prime minister in Fiji’s history.
So far Richard Naidu has escaped except for his reputation which is down the toilet, but his day will surely come.
After Fiji Water we have Vudagate. Lynda should learn from the fate of her good friend Baiman and proceed with caution lest the curse of the citizens befall her.
One can note lots of so called drug raids here and there.
Lets hope its not a cover up to hoodwink the public on Vakarisi murder.
Those who killed Vakarisi must face justice.
Full stop.
Drugs raid can continue in the meantime through proper operation of the law.
Wow! I did not see this connection coming. And Tubuya needs to be investigated.
This story gets bigger and bigger.
Government’s inconsistent position on Saweni rubbish project is worse than the Trump’s hourly updates on the Iran war.
Lynda, in Parliament today, said no decision made whilst Rolex Rambo said Govt approved the project as per radio interview.
(Warning: 🎶Long and winding road that leads to your door 🎶) Just connect the dots JD:
– 2 x Lebanese-Australians (Semaan and Malouf): one with a ‘marriage’ of convenience to a drug-addict Fijian woman politician that’s got PM Rabuka by the balls (literally & figuratively) and the other, an Australian billionaire with a Dial-a-Dump failed business concept trying to export waste colonialism to a Vuvale partner, Fiji, with deceptive green technology, blah, blah, blah markers.
– Another wealthy Australian (Cromb) with maternal Fijian chiefly links to Bua brought into the equation. Both Fijians (aka, useful idiots), Lynda Tabuya-Semaan and Rob Qativi Cromb) do high-profile (“watch-me-donate/employ”) PR stuff. Jobs for the boys and gals, keep them dependent and loyal. Make them look like good Samaritans to stupid naive Fijians.
– Two decades ago,Tabuya-Semaan couple conned American Go Fig clients in Maryland. Took many, many, deposits from unsuspecting clients, $million loans from unsuspecting banks and absconded to Fiji with those millions to launch a political career and business for their next chapter of criminal activities. Deposited legal amounts monthly into various credit cards to avoid currency border restrictions months before they finally absconded to Fiji.
– PDP got Lynda so-so votes. Not enough. She did a coup within the party but meh..nothing. Still low prospects of getting into Fiji’s parliament. Next move, habibi Rob?
– Joined Sodelpa – money talks, bullshit walks. Stupid easily impressed Fijians bowed and voted. She got higher # of votes this time. Finally some light at the end of the tunnel. At this point, already a long-time addicted drug user, you can imagine the rest. In parliament finally, but not in government.
– PAP got her into government, and even bigger PBS contracts start flowing in. Perfect cover for people most likely playing a key role in the drug trading business and the critical Australia-Fiji supply chain. Go figure. Dig further, GD!
– Fast forward to major Vatia drug bust. WtE proposal in Vuda-Saweni periphery is the perfect cover to mitigate this loss. Location, location, location! Port facility, close to other yachts berthed around Wailoaloa beach and of course, Denarau where the kingpins roam. Nalawa? Maybe, but not as good as Vuda-Saweni coast.
– This is what will happen. Australian waste in 🚢⚓️ drugs out, under the perfect cover of a green WtE pie-in-the-sky concept (where’s the evidence btw?) fully bought by an ageing compromised weak leader, Rabuka and other weak, silent, complicit PAP politicians and supporters who need to ride on Rabuka and Tabuya-Semaan’s coattails in the upcoming elections to keep getting their benefits.
– The only problem is: Their voters are already voting with their feet in large numbers to other parties. Unity Fiji or Fiji Labour Party. The land has eyes!
– Let the games begin!!
Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future” is a famous quote by Oscar Wilde from his play A Woman of No Importance.
A quote often used by PM Rabuka. And we can infer who the woman is (The Lying Scamming Divorced and/or the Lying Scheming Married woman). Only contention is whether we are still in the past as the woman is yet to behave like a Saint to claim redemption by repentance!
In most civilized and developed societies fraudsters and scammers as the “money and power couple ” would not be elevated to the status they enjoy here in Fiji – elected parliamentary representatives. This probably reflects the values of her voters. And where ethnicity covers past fraud – because the naita don’t mind as long as the victims were Americans or rich white investors.
What a sick so called Christian nation of hypocrites. ( Yes a concession that there are still good souls in Fiji and that’s a hope that they will multiply to become a majority rather than the few that are preventing the good Lord from making the whole nation into a pillar of salt in His disgust. )
Talks of declaration of ‘State of Emergency’ by PM, outside Parliament today.
In Parliament Lin-dah accused the media of “ma-information” for reporting honestly about the disgraceful and disgusting state of the CWM Hospital.
Lind-ah and her equally dumb advisors should have let the matter rest instead of raising it in Parliament.
The wonderful Judy Compain reacted immediately and proved that it was Lin-duh, her stupid advisors and government practicing mal-information, not the media.
Judy’s response exposed Lin-duh for the pathetic, two-faced, greedy, self serving and hypocritical politician she is.
Pretended to care about the poor voters, but once she got votes, turned completely against them and started acting against their interests.
Besides downplaying the CWM mess, let’s not forget superficial Lin-duh moved the MPs salary increase bill and is behind the Vuda scam as well where they want to dispossess the landowners.
Read Judy’s response in full as reminder of Lin-duh and Rolex Rabuka’s treachery and why we need to get rid of both urgently:
“Minister Tabuya, when was the last time you visited CWM Hospital? Not for any handover of anything. Just because.
Are you saying the lift broke down once? At 2.30am, was fixed by end of day, and that was the story? Because that is what it sounds like. And if that is your understanding of the situation, then you are not across the facts.
That lift has broken down repeatedly. Over and over again. This was not a one-off incident that was unfairly reported. This has been an ongoing, chronic failure that affected real people every single time it happened. It is not mal-information to report that!! It is the truth and the full truth!! Not the version that is convenient for you or the Ministry of Health.
Imagine mums and dads. Grandparents. Admitting their sick children to the CWM Children’s Ward over the last 8+ years. Lugging all their bags, their belongings, everything up the stairs because there was no working lift. I shouted about it. I screamed about it. And everyone else should have. It took so much time and energy to get the children’s lift installed. And I really do not care one bit who looked bad in the process. Our children, their parents, their families and our doctors needed that lift. That’s all that mattered.
Should we not talk about the mould in the ceilings? The leaks in all those buildings? Broken taps. Missing louvres. Toilets not working. Shortage of medicines, consumables and basic equipment?
I invite you. I invite the Minister for Health. I invite the whole Ministry team and everyone in Parliament. Visit. Use that lift. Walk the corridors. Look up at the ceilings. Look at the floors, look at the spaces, look in the bathrooms.
And while you’re there, please sit in the emergency department. Because I have.
A few weeks ago I made 23 telephone calls on the evening of the medical emergency at the GPH. As I was on the phone, you walked past me and asked, “Miss CWM are you calling for an ambulance?” to that effect anyway, as though caring about our hospitals is something to mock! Yes, I was speaking with a doctor at the time, and I was on the phone trying desperately to get help!!
That evening, I sat in the emergency room and watched our incredible doctors and nurses fight to resuscitate two patients while dragging a single vital signs monitor back and forth between two beds. I found out last week that our Emergency Department has 3 vital signs monitors! Three. For approximately 20 beds. Did you know that EVERY bed should have its own monitor in our ED?
Sadly, both patients passed away. In front of me and others.
Did you know that our Intensive Care Unit (ICU) does not have a working transport ventilator? A transport ventilator exists so that when a critically ill patient needs to be moved to surgery or another ward, they remain on mechanical support the entire time. Without one, doctors have no choice but to manually bag them. By hand. And when THAT lift isn’t working? Those same doctors are manually bagging critically ill patients while carrying them up the stairs to surgery.
I am telling you this now because maybe nobody wanted to say it out loud in case it made the Ministry look bad.
So don’t talk about context.
Go to the maternity ward. See mothers on beds so small they are terrified of rolling onto their newborns because there are hardly enough (or any) cots or bassinets. Ask why pap smear screening isn’t happening right now? Ask what’s missing.
Watch nurses on 12-hour shifts. Ask the doctors doing 24-hour on-call how they’re holding up.
Then come back and tell us you’re more concerned about the Ministry “looking bad.”
How anyone looks is the least of my problems. Because while it seems you are worried about your image and that of the Ministry of Health, people are suffering in conditions that could be improved. You are more concerned with how the Ministry looks than with the changes that could be made for the benefit of other human beings?
Most of the staff inside those walls work themselves to exhaustion every single day compensating for failures that are not of their making. They deserve better. The patients deserve better. Every Fijian deserves better.
Do not threaten journalists. Do not threaten citizens for speaking their truth. Because from where I sit, that is exactly what this is, a warning to stay silent. That is not going to happen.”
The above sentiments shared by a passionate and concerned person should be put in front of every minister in government and an acknowledgement sought from them on how they can stand by and not have a priority to fix this abomination.
On the rare occasions that I have visited two hospitals, one was the CWM one in Suva, I saw ants running up and down a wall just inches away from the bed head of a patient I was visiting. The second one, Navua where I have taken people for treatment I have had to go to a pharmacy in Navua to buy items that the hospital needed to be able to treat the people that I took there. Seen the condition of the hospital and had a cockroach run up my leg whilst waiting alongside a friend requireing treatment.
This is clearly not an out of the ordinary event and should not be possible to see in any medical institution. And happening whilst the ministers are voting to give themselves a pay rise shortly after gaining power.
These people are out of touch with reality and despicable. They need to go and be replaced with people who can care about an do something about the abominable state of the medical facilities in this country.
Well, it was the drunk excuse as ex-sugar minister who publicly advised fellow Labasians in Auckland that patients go to cwmh to die. Said drunk was not ever and never will be minister for health. Ever.
With that hale and hearty drunk endorsement from a whisky chugging choran singh, we shouldn’t whine too much about local public health services, or lack thereof.
Lest we forget too quickly, this is the change the majority clamored for. Demanded, even. To hell with better the devil you know. Islamophobia went into overdrive and blinded the electorate. Now we all suffer. Votes have consequences.
Choran singh is important to this subject matter as he is the epitome of an imbecile as the entire donkeys in government are altogether imbeciles.
Choran and Baiman are the flag bearers of selling out voter for personal business and profit. And 7-year tax break to the wealthiest class. And 15% VAT.
Combine all the misuse and abuse of government funds over three years, 138% pay increases, additional fringe benefits —unlimited duty-free purchase of vehicles, business class world travels and 5-star hotels, gourmet meals, per diem running in to hundreds of thousands of dollars, double dipping claims, fuel free luxury SUVs with drivers and boc—no, bodi guards, and large scale corrupt practices, all take vital funds needed to improve health services.
Not to belabor the point, but still the electorate cannot be allowed to forget that we the people voted for the Sona Rolex and his committee of vultures waiting in the wings to join the wake to feed on the people. People vote with much pride and chest thumping.
The electorate was overjoyed to usher in the most corrupted government in our short history. Littered with four coup d’état, four constitutions, rampant racism, bigotry, the curse of illicit drugs, HIV, social disintegration, a corrupt judiciary, the corrupt odpp, corrupted police, with an ineffective imbecilic military commander.
To all you racist bigots and hate filled “Christian” ethno-nationalists, the baboons in government, and the GCeeCee, remember this — as much as we all arrived from different directions, following different routes at different times, and in different boats, we are all now in the same boat.
For all our desires for the betterment of our children, for common progress, and prosperity for all, is closely tied to our collective destiny.
If not, to put it mildly, we will all be fecked to glory together in the same boat.
Look no further than the illicit drugs proliferation, the thugs’ strong will and willingness to arm themselves, rampant addiction connected to resultant social ills that blight our society.
With no one in control of the listing ship of debt and more debt. Our next big hope must be for Israel to help us with money and fuel supply to mitigate high and rising costs caused by current oil crisis prices and resulting rising cost of living.
Come on the lost tribe in Fiji, ask and ye shall be given.
Is state of emergency strategy a ploy to delay 2026 Elections? Just like Netanyahu’s continuous endless and self created war to prevent him jailed for corruption.
The incompetency and inconsistency of Lynda Tabuya has no bounds.
She is trying to balance a range of issues, as GOF (or Rabuka’s) spokesperson with a semblance of diplomacy in other issues in which she neither has the maturity, knowledge or the skills.
Her two statements in Parliament are cases worth highlighting.
Her comment on the WTE project, claiming they will be guided by the results of the assessments! She or the Government has yet to address if the Sivendra Micahel appointed ‘consultants’ are truly independent. Who has paid for their services and if there will be independent group of scientists that will evaluate what the consultants recommend. Fiji’s environmental is rife with consultants, generally paid by interested parties and of course singing their tune.
It is also interesting than Biman Prasad has now joined the fray after the brave and enlightened views of his NFP MP Lenora. He was trying to redefine ‘hazardous’ materials under Waigani Convention. Fiji has yet to provide separate outlets for its non cyclable and non-cyclable material, so does he really believe the Pacific countries will provide him with wastes labelled ‘radioactive’, ‘medical waste’, bottles, plastics etc.
Her statement on the pre COP preparations was remarkable for its emptiness and lack of any detail. She failed to address any of the important issues such as who is paying for this event? What will it cost the Government? Given the uncertainty due to the Middle East crisis and impact on our own energy security, what are the plans to deal with travel (including a field trip to Tuvalu), accommodation (much would have been booked by tourists), security, which world leaders are attending, will there be space for civil society, business etc. Moreover, what does the pre COP hosting by Fiji entail? What are the priority issues which will be advanced? What are the intended outcomes? Have these been discussed with fellow Pacific Leaders, or its merely a mask for the usual claim – ‘on behalf of the Pacific’. She seemed to be mouthing something about a digital data platform which is of little interest to MPs and seemed to be designed to confuse or distract No doubt the statement prepared by Sivendra intent, as always, to parade his own achievement. The naive Minister was the perfect platform!