discombobulated bubu

Fiji Regime desperate grasp for funds causes tourists to bolt

2012-01-20T16:21:00.000-08:00

Fiji's interim government has increased airport departure tax by a third

The rise of $FJ50 brings the total departure tax to $FJ150 ($NZ105).

NZ's Flight Centre executive general manager Mike Friend said the increase came into effect on Friday without any notice to travel agents.

He said his agency is giving customers who no longer want to go to Fiji an alternative.

"We're offering anyone that's paid a deposit to go to Fiji, if they want to look at another destination, we'll move that deposit over, and in effect start the booking again for them."

However Fiji Tourism Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says the increase was announced in November by the Finance Minister and he cannot understand why people are up in arms about it.

Mr Friend said that when countries such as Australia and Britain increased their departure tax, a period of 12 months notice was given.

Young People of Fiji respond to Junta's justification of "Shoot to Kill" Decree

2012-01-19T00:14:00.000-08:00

On the 19th of january, 2012, the Young People's Concerned Network (YPCN) of Fiji released a Press Release with a rejoinder to the regime's accusations against young people.

"If long standing Democracies like the United States and Australia, decide to have Anti-Terrorism Laws that are labelled discriminatory and repressive, this does not mean Fiji can to do the same, as it is unreasonable to compare the POAD2012 with other Anti-Terrorism Laws given Fiji's Human Rights track record"

so says Young Peoples Concerned Network President, Peter Waqavonovono,

"Even in the USA and Australia, critics often allege that anti-terrorism legislation endangers democracy by creating a state of exception that allows authoritarian styles of government and they challenge the Law in their courts every day.

For this Decree to work, we should have had a generation worth of Human Rights and Civic Education programs already in place".   

Responding to an earlier press release by the YPCN , the Regime's toxic (dis)information sporangium, Mrs Sharon Smith Jones (an Australian national employed by Bainimarama's regime) labelled the young peoples opinion as "ignorant", and accused the YPCN of attempting to manipulate public sentiment.

Miss Smith-Jones (not known for her abilities as a Historian) sibilates that young people have "misread" Fiji’s recent political history .......

and - further claims that her latest Decree is a step to :

..." prevent and Combat domestic and international terrorist threats in all their forms“.

Waqavonovono says that the Government Press Release is also the first time a Government Official has revealed the type of "terrorists" they are keeping an eye on, which seem to include Politicians and Religious Leaders who have or continue to engage in their daily activities.

Says Waqavonovono,

"To also suggest that people who do not believe in interfaith and multicultural values can now be seen as Terrorist and isolated is a far cry from the amount of red tape and legislative rationale behind terrorism-like Laws adopted by The United States of America or Australia, whose judicial systems also provide much checks and balances to ensure misuse is meet with remedies" (not present in Fiji)

The YPCN is also very mindful of the Human Rights track record of the regime - which includes :

Arbitrary Detentions
Inhumane Treatment and Abuse of Human Rights Defenders (Journalists, Politicians, Religious Leaders and Pro-Democracy Activists)
a couple of well publicized Deaths occurring whilst in State organized Detention.

..... and does not see much changing under the decree.

Waqavonovono, who has also been detained on occasions by the Junta for his pro-democracy values said that, the regime could not realistically compare the Decree to the Anti-Terrorism Laws of other nations.

"This is because in Fiji, the necessary awareness and education in understanding, human dignity, Civil and Political Rights are not even understood."

In the YPCN press release, Waqavonovono points out that the regime's poor human rights track record and inability to defend human rights defenders, politicians, and pro-democracy advocates whilst in arbitrary detention is a compelling reason to seek a re-look of the powers and provisions in this Decree to provide for more checks and balances.

If their Decree's cannot consider human decency, and recognize a separation of powers, he says, Youth of Fiji cannot possibly take the Regime's promises seriously.

He also says that in the opinion of the YPCN, it believes that that in the wrong hands the POAD2012 can turn people away from engaging in future consultations with the regime to deliver Constitutional and Electoral Reform.

As if to draw attention away from the heavy-handed dismissal of the young David, the Goliathan Jones, perfidiously said the regime "valued" youth and praised their own Junta Youth programme.

But Waqavonovono was quick to remind the hubristic Jones of the regime's audacious acts as follows :

Downgraded the Ministry of Youth to a Department
Cut its budget
Removed National Youth Day
Shelved the National Youth Service Scheme

Followed by a full break down of the State's Value of Youth as indicated in the 2012 Budget :

National Youth Band - $100,000
National Youth Day - $50,000
Youth Devp : - Food for course pax - $28,000
National Youth Advisory Board - $15,000
Adult and Community Education - $20,000
Voluntary youth organisation training program - $100,000
DEAP - $30,000
Youth Capacity building - $400,000

GRAND TOTAL for Youth development is $743,000.

If this sum is divided amongst the 308,000 youths living in Fiji, each youth will receive $2.41.

Therefore the Regime's value of the Fijian Youth is $2.41 per youth.

Woopeee dooo. ... (very touching and very valued indeed.)

Waqavonovono asks for more voices to hold the regime accountable and remind them of their promises.

"As the nation moves towards restoring our Democracy, let us never lose sight of our responsibilities and roles in shaping this nation"

YOUNG PEOPLES CONCERNED NETWORK  www.ypcnfiji.com - ypcn.sec@gmail.com  The Young Peoples Concerned Network FIJI is a group made up of strong minded and strong  willed young people of Fiji who are concerned about issues that affect them and understand the importance of having their voice heard and taking direct action to shaping positive change.

Foreqe's Vogonsphere

2012-01-12T20:56:00.000-08:00

Sooo ...... what have we here luvequ's - oh its only yet another lowdown nefarious decree (yawn).....

Gee, I do wonder what we the multitudes are doing to Generalisimo Frankistein that frightens him so ?

And, oh I also see here in the newspaper that Cranky Voranky and his so called Attorney General ayrse-wipe wish to bestow a new Constitution on the great unwashed ... wippeee whoo !

Well first I just want to say this to Voranky ...... Constitutions (please pronounce this carefully- it's not "conti-shoeshine") are usually ordained and established by the people.

Patrick Henry , the man who once said : " GIVE ME LIBERTY or GIVE ME DEATH" also said :

"The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government......."
__________

"Bad men cannot make good citizens. It is when a people forget God that tyrants forge their chains. A vitiated state of morals, a corrupted public conscience, is incompatible with freedom. No free government, or the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue; and by a frequent recurrence to fundamental principles.

But of course Voranksky won't understand this because his version of his (very own) conti-shoeshine will be "ordained and established" not by the people, but by only 2 people - himself 'The Tyrant', and his Aiyars-kick.

See I am a simple housewife and grandmother . The way I see it is like this. We have 2 forces pushing and shoving each other on an everyday basis in Fiji. First we have the power-hungry military regime bullies, who operate like they have to show their power everyday (and bugger everything else including the economy).

Mark Tokarski (Amercian Philosopher) said about power :

"Power is as power does. Power does not exist on its own or sit there like toothpaste on a shelf waiting to be grabbed by a shopper. Power is grown, taken by force, nurtured, exercised and used to to grow more power."

The decrees that Aiyarse-wipe puts out almost on a daily basis is the basis for the junta's power-grabbing Vogons who do this on Vorenky's instructions solely to atomise and isolate the Fijian population from each other. Like Hitler's regime, Bai and Arsi's sole aim is to strike petrified fear into all and sundry & get abject compliance in all things. All that does not serve the regime's purpose must be expunged.

Because of this we see fear in the populace, and this makes the regime happy because the power is growing (together with the paisa , and the arrogance) as fast as jungle wabosucu.

However, I am reminded of why the regime is continually vomiting decree after draconian decree. It is simply because they are afraid of the people and what they think.

For this reason I am secretly nourished by the great writer Terry Pratchett who wrote "Small gods" when he said:

"Fear is strange soil. Mainly it grows obedience like corn, which grows in rows and makes weeding easy. But sometimes it grows the potatoes of defiance, which flourish underground."

What amazing truth he speaks ... one only has to look at the recent uprisings around the world to bear witness to this reality !

In 1978, a science fiction comedy series created by Douglas Adams, called , The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was released, told the story of The Vogons, a fictional alien race from the planet Vogsphere

Vogons are horrid and slug-like but vaguely humanoid, are bulkier than humans, and have green skin. Vogons are described as mindlessly bureaucratic, aggressive, having "as much sex appeal as a road accident" and the writers of "the third worst poetry in the universe".

Here is a picture of what one looks like, and my Guide Description of what to expect each time you see a Vogon:

Here is what to do if you want to get a lift from a Vogon: forget it.

They are one of the most unpleasant people on Earth. Quite evil, also bad-tempered, bureaucratic, officious and callous.

They wouldn't even lift a finger to save their own grandmothers from the Ravenous NurBano Beast of Baal without orders signed in triplicate, sent in, sent back, queried, lost, found, subjected to public inquiry, lost again, and finally buried in mangrove for three months and recycled as No.1 Commerce Commission price-regulated prescription drug for diarrhoea.

The best way to get a drink out of a Vogon is to stick your finger down his throat, and the best way to irritate him is to feed his grandmother to the Ravenous NurBano Beast of Baal. Also, on no account should you allow a Vogon to read decrees at you.

The series tells that, far back in prehistory, when the first primeval Vogons crawled out of the sea, the forces of evolution were so disgusted with them that they never allowed them to evolve again.

Through sheer obstinacy, though, the Vogons survived (partly by adapting a misplaced, badly malformed, and dyspeptic liver into a brain). They then emigrated en masse to their own star cluster where they form most of their bureaucracy, and patrol the galaxy demolishing planets wherever they go.

Hmm .. sounds familiar ..

Just so you recognise a Vogon when you come across them .. they are roughly human-sized, although much bulkier, with green or grey skin from drinking too much kava. Their noses are above their eyebrows from wanna-being-highfalutin all the time. Because of the severe bureaucracy they operate under this is the reason their noses are so flat - from being repeatedly smacked in the face by the paddle creatures under the sand on Vogsphere whenever they had an independent thought.

"The frightening thing about the Vogons was their absolute mindless determination to do whatever mindless thing it was they were determined to do. There was never any point in trying to appeal to their reason because they didn't have any."

_______

Well I don't know about you but I for one refuse to belong to Foreqe's Vogonsphere, and as Bubu ramps it up for 2012 , the power of the pen beckons once more.... let's hear it again from Patrick Henry:

"for this is the only way we can hope to arrive at truth and fulfill the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings."

All aboard ragone's .. let's make this year we take the Vogon mothership DOWN !!!!

Young People in Fiji speak out against latest draconian decree

2012-01-09T03:22:00.000-08:00

Press Release:

Youth Activist speaks on PUBLIC ORDER (AMENDMENT) DECREE 2012

A Fiji based youth and human rights activist has issued a word of caution as the announcement of the lifting of the Public Emergency Regulations (PER) was made over the weekend and replaced by the Public Order Amendment Decree 2012 (POAD2012).

"There are a few irregularities in the POAD2012 and possible clauses that can be taken out of context and force the current regime into a Human Rights Disaster. As we move towards reinstating Democratic values and processes, we cant afford to limit the access of information, movement and gathering of persons, and curtail further the freedom to speak"

says youth and human rights activist Peter Waqavonovono.

The Youth Activist who was awarded in 2010 for he's work in Human Rights by the Frontline Human Rights Defenders Organization claims that "in the wrong hands, this Amendment Decree can be used to term any individual or organization as a terrorist, hinder free thought, censor our media, and prevent the participation of citizens in Fiji on the Constitutional and Electoral reform processes that are planned.

This is contrary to the comments made at the 14^th SESSION OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL ......

where Fiji promised to: ..........

...... set in place necessary legal instruments and vital processes necessary to the holding of fair and truly democratic elections and show a firm commitment to upholding and protecting human rights including that of human rights defenders. Waqavonovono says that,

"The fact that human rights violations committed under the POAD2012 cannot be judicially questioned, compensated or challenged is a sign for caution."

Waqavonovono has also questioned the relevance of the Decree in time where there are no signs of Public Unrest or desire to cause any harm to the nation.

"I would imagine that the decree should have gone further to suggest remedies to the insecurities of the regime, like investment in peace and human rights awareness and education programs, promotion of civic education, demand anti-violence models and culture within all state run agencies and departments (including the Education system), promotion of Inter-cultural awareness and sharing programs, and the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation type model."

The Youth Activist also is encouraging Fiji young people who make up more than 60% of the nations Population, to prepare for the Electoral and Constitutional Reform processes that are set to happen. Waqavonovono concludes:,

"We must ensure that our voices are heard and that they are seriously taken into consideration.

We will be the generation that defends this Democracy and need to know how it works and evolves, therefore we need to be involved from the very beginning and not brought in as rubber stamps.

The time to sit back and let others lead and negotiate on our behalf because of age is gone, now we need to take hold of our own destiny and make purposeful contributions and demand fair engagement / participation models"

Ho-hum and Tinkle-doo in the Kingdom of Pu

2011-12-22T23:02:00.000-08:00

Ho Ho Ho
What have we here ?
a potlatch pow-wow for all we know
a Casino deal for a trinket and a beer

Hau Hau Hau
in 2001, Larry Claunch great American Brave
first smoked a pipe and dug a howl
at Nukudrau with Sour Kai Yum as knave

Pow Wow Wow
in 2011 , Apache Larry waves dollars in the air
Running Frank tosses him the Casino plough
I am Chief Wella Wella - he says ... hehehe .... Dough-Me - Multi-millionaire.

Ho Ho Ho
Surprise Surprise - Sour Kai Yum is quite the Apache's chum
With Aunty Num Bum sitting pretty like Chief Crow
What has Running Frank & the Red Indians dealt Fiji on the jungle drum ?

Fiji Junta suspends Provincial Council Meetings for anti-govt speech by Chief

2011-11-17T23:36:00.000-08:00

ABC RADIO : November 18, 2011 16:37:20

Rewa province leaders say the interim Fiji Government has suspended its council meetings after anti government speeches.

In a speech at the meeting Ro Teimumu Kepa - who holds the Roko Tui Dreketi title- again made clear the Rewa Provincial Council did not support the Bainimarama regime.

The speeches also included claims the military government had threatened to withhold three million dollars in development funding unless council leaders supported the regime.

Presenter: Cameron Wilson
Speaker: Jese Sikivou, spokesperson for Ro Teimumu Kepa

Listen:
Windows Media
_____________

Courageous , from-the-heart, powerful and succinct was this speech and Ro Teimumu Kepa has the solid backing of many citizens all over Fiji for her firm stance.

Our support, solidarity, prayers and unflinching resolve for ridding Fiji of the curse of the coup mindset, must be felt and heard by the rest of the nation, fellow Pacific citizens and the world.

New democratically elected PM for the Solomons

2011-11-15T21:40:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to Gordon Lilo - elected democratically by his peers in the Solomons Parliament as the new PM of the Solomon Islands. Lets hope this man's policies and foreign policy vision better assists the Melanesian Association in the Pacific.

Unrest follows those sniffing noxious Fijian Junta gas

2011-11-10T21:29:00.000-08:00

(Click image to enlarge)
And so it goes ... the Solomon Island Government has fallen today .
Dan is as corrupt as his heroes Bainikaiyum.
Moce Dan.

New decree bans Fiji workers’ basic rights to collective bargaining and representation

2011-11-07T13:17:00.000-08:00

Illegal Fiji Junta tries again with unlawful decrees to silence it's citizens

08 November 2011

The rights of Fijian workers have deteriorated further following the start of a draconian decree that effectively bans collective bargaining.

ACTU President Ged Kearney said the Essential Industries Employment Decree, which has now come into full effect, denied workers many fundamental rights, including to freely organise or collectively bargain.

“This is yet another example of the continued attack on workers’ rights by the Fiji military Government,” Ms Kearney said.

AWU concerned about systematic campaign of persecution

The Australian Workers' Union is one of many unions monitoring what is happening in Fiji, AWU National Secretary, Paul Howes, said.

“Australian unions are increasingly concerned at what appears to be a systematic campaign of persecution by the Fijian Government of workers and their representatives," Mr Howes said.

"We have many members who have family in Fiji and I've been in close contact with our sister unions there to see what we can do to support them.

" Right now the regime's police force are literally hunting down their own citizens simply because they hold a union card and are active in their workplaces demanding respect and decency," Mr Howes said.

Unions targeted by military because they stand for human rights and democracy

The decree’s implementation comes immediately after Fijian Trades Union Congress President Daniel Urai was charged with sedition and accused of political violence, and follows the arrest of FTUC Secretary Felix Anthony.

“Unions are among the few Fijian institutions still able to campaign for democracy and human rights, which appears to be why they are being targeted by Fiji military leaders," ACTU President Ged Kearney said.

“The detention of union officials in recent weeks is evidence of the Government’s repression and Australian unions are concerned that other Fijian union activists have been forced to go into hiding with their families.”

How workers' rights are restricted

The restrictions on worker rights under the Essential National Industries Employment Decree include:

Banning unions from representing workers in negotiating collective bargaining outcomes;
Making void all current collective agreements;
Banning overtime payments, including for weekend work, work on days off, and work on public holidays;
Removing minimum wages, terms and conditions of work in designated industries;
Banning all strikes, slowdowns, or any action that may negatively impact the employer;
Requiring that all members, office bearers, officers and executives of the union shall be employees of the designated company.

Australian companies cannot wash their hands of responsibility

Ms Kearney called on Australian companies operating in Fiji, including ANZ and Westpac banks, to publicly denounce the Government’s decree and commit to workplace rights consistent with International Labour Organisation obligations.

“Australian companies cannot wash their hands of the repression, while continuing to profit from the labour of Fijians,” Ms Kearney said.

Fiji churchman urges soldiers not to obey illegal government

2011-11-03T01:44:00.000-07:00

Pacific Beat Home

ABC: RADIO AUSTRALIA

Updated November 3, 2011 17:10:59

A senior figure in Fiji's influential Methodist Church has urged the country's soldiers not to obey the coup installed military government.

Former Methodist Church President Reverend Josateki Koroi, who used to be the army's senior chaplain, says soldiers are obliged to obey a legal government, but he doesn't believe the present one fits the bill.

He made the call by reissuing a seven page letter he originally published just before the 2006 coup which installed military commander Frank Bainimarama as interim prime minister.

Presenter: Bruce Hill
Speaker: Reverend Josateki Koroi, Former Fiji Methodist Church President

Listen:
Windows Media

What we get when the Military tries to run our Rugby Union

2011-10-27T01:31:00.000-07:00

ARTICLE FROM PLANET RUGBY.
Click to enlarge ..... read then weep

BUSTED - Fiji Junta caught lying

2011-10-26T23:03:00.000-07:00

Click to enlarge image.
... and its not the only thing the dictatorship lies about..... read Wadan Narsey's excellent article about Lies, Loans and Money grabs here.

And you can listen to veteran journalist Sean Dornney talking about this here.

Failing Fiji Dictatorship falling into Failed State status

2011-10-26T23:00:00.000-07:00

Bainimarama's shadow darkens Fiji's economy

by Danielle Romanes - 27 October 2011 1:04PM

Danielle Romanes is an intern with the Lowy Institute's Myer Foundation Melanesia Program.

Since taking power in 2006 Commodore Frank Bainimarama has made much of his plan to eschew 'neo-colonial' development partners and to adopt a Look North foreign policy premised on engaging emerging economies in the region. While the new relationships are undoubtedly good for Fiji, it's clear that emerging interest in Fiji is too limited to fully rescue its flailing economy.

At present Fiji is benefiting from a moderate level of emerging economy investment into its infrastructure and across a wide range of its industries. Russian mining giant Rusal is looking to explore its bauxite reserves, and this year China has opened a hotel and financed a $4 million fishing vessel, a $20 million government data facility, and a number of roads and ports.

India is present in Fiji as both a creditor and an investor, with Bollywood set to film three productions in Fiji this year, and India's EXIM Bank in talks with the government to revive the Fijian copra industry. Georgia recently held a series of bilateral talks with the Fiji Government about enhanced cooperation, and Indonesia has made noises about doing the same.

While foreign investment is more important to the Fijian economy than official development assistance, it's worth noting that Bainimarama's preference for non-traditional donors is selling the Fiji people short. Aid from emerging economies has primarily come in loan rather than grant form, and left Fiji indebted by a US$50.4 million line of credit from India, and a total of US$253.4 million in Chinese loans (the latter accounted for 8.35% of GDP in 2009).

Development loans are valuable if they actually yield development, but Bainimarama is no Lee Kuan Yew. GDP growth over the last few years has been marginal if not negative. The Asian Development Bank has warned that Fiji's government debt is dangerously high. Rather than diversifying the economy, Bainimarama's leadership has led it to become increasingly reliant on tourism, a sector vulnerable to exogenous volatility.

Bainimarama's intransigence on democracy and human rights has led the Fiji people to miss out on multi-million dollar post-sugar protocol aid from the European Union, and on ongoing financing from the Asian Development Bank, which hasn't approved any new projects there since 2006. Even China is reportedly wary of engaging too extensively in Fiji lest it upset Australia and New Zealand — though this wariness speaks far more to the relatively low marginal gains to be had from engagement in Fiji than it does to China's fear of Antipodean wrath.

Beyond relatively limited mineral resources, its vote in diplomatic wrangles, and a booming but low-profit tourism industry, Fiji just doesn't have that much to offer in its present state. The Commodore's heavy hand isn't helping, with a recent World Bank report showing increased difficulty in every evaluated aspect of doing business in Fiji. That the regime felt the need to falsify its ranking in the report is unlikely to inspire much further investment interest.

Bainimarama's 'Look North' foreign policy offensive is driven by a lack of options in the region and a need to justify authoritarianism at home, but the regime has failed to sell Fiji's people on the relative value of the new emerging economy relationships over the old ones.

Bainimarama may find this task increasingly difficult if his administration doesn't yield tangible development gains soon, because there are clearly limits on emerging economy interest in his regime. For all the rhetoric about South-South cooperation, developing economy donors have their own poverty problems to address and any development assistance they shell out internationally is going to be strongly premised on mutual gains.

Fiji has geo-strategic and infrastructure advantages it should be leveraging in this 'Asian century' to stimulate record economic growth and opportunity for its people. That it is failing to do so is an indictment of Bainimarama's leadership.

Continuing suppression of Religious Freedom in Fiji highlighted

2011-10-25T04:32:00.000-07:00

From : British Parliament Hansard

House of Lords
Thursday, 8 September 2011
Commonwealth Parliamentary Association

Debate - 11.38 am
Moved By Baroness Hooper

Westminster House of Lords, London, SW1A 0PW
Tel: 020 7219 5489
Fax: 020 7925 0625
hooperg@parliament.uk

To call attention to the "Century of Excellence" of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and to the continuing role of the Commonwealth; and to move for papers.

Baroness Hooper:My Lords, the modern Commonwealth is a unique and powerful force in the world today. Its 54 member nations are linked by shared values, democratic aspirations, a common colonial history and, not least, language.

________

Lord Griffiths of Burry Port

Westminster House of Lords, London, SW1A 0PW
Tel: 020 7219 8313
griffithslj@parliament.uk

: My Lords, I, too, add my word of delight to the noble Baroness for bringing forward this timely debate and offer congratulations, for what mine are worth, to the parliamentary association for surviving this long. Perhaps I might also say how much I respect the role of Her Majesty the Queen as an ingredient in the curious chemistry that has kept that body going, and being so lively for so long.

It is under the part of the Motion about the continuing role that I wish to offer my remarks. .......

In the few minutes available, I want to concentrate on what ongoing role the Commonwealth has towards countries that it has suspended from its membership. Suspension cannot be a self-justifying end in its own right.

I have in mind particularly the case of Fiji.

The Fijian Government have been suspended, until they meet certain norms. Sanctions by Australia, New Zealand, the European Union and others have been placed on the present Government.

However, they have taken terrible measures against the Methodist Church.

They have refused to allow its annual conference to meet for three years and only gave 24 hours' notice this year in ordering the church not to meet in conference. This takes away the economic basis of the Methodist Church in Fiji, where the finances for the whole year are gathered at its conference.

Not only that, but women's prayer fellowships, choir practices, house groups, midweek communions and youth fellowships have all been banned. The Methodist Church is the only church against which the Fijian Government have taken such draconian measures.

Your Lordships may have a certain view of the minority place of the Methodist Church in Great Britain, but I bring the matter to your attention to remind you that, in Fiji, Methodism constitutes pretty much the DNA of the country.

I myself preached at the institution of a president of the conference on the princely island of Bau not so long ago, in the very place where chief Cakobau was converted to Christianity in 1853 and where the baptismal font was carved out of a rock upon which previously the heads of those about to be eaten were crushed. Methodism has been part of the emerging Fijian country, and a wonderful place it is.

However, at the moment, Methodism is being suppressed.

This is important because it means a very important part of Fijian society is being marginalised.

The fabric of society is being weakened.

Many of the council of chiefs, which operates alongside the legislature in Fiji, are themselves drawn from Methodism. The indigenous peoples are dominated by Methodism, too. Methodism has played a large part in bringing the Indian population, who are still landless-and that is another problem that has to be addressed at some stage-into the mainstream of life.

I wonder what the Commonwealth can do to put further pressure on the Government of Fiji.

The Pacific Islands Forum has already sort of excommunicated Fiji from its fellowship. I am hearing messages-texts and the rest of it-that, on the streets of Suva in Fiji, there are beginning to be the sorts of demonstrations that, who knows, could lead to things that we have seen in other parts of the world in recent times.

Prevention is better than a cure. Are there ongoing relationships?

Does the Commonwealth have a continuing role?

Should we be trying to do more and to be more proactive in creating conditions out of which conversations and pressure can be placed upon the Government of Fiji? All this is urgent. The Commonwealth must, therefore, be congratulated not only on the very proper range of activities it fosters and relationships that it engenders, but also on the role it might play in keeping peace in troubled parts of the world.

The Fijian Government are setting up an alternative Methodist Church to do their will, just as President Mugabe has done with the Anglican Church in Zimbabwe.

Let us put in the cautionary note.

Let us delight ourselves in the presence of the Commonwealth, and hope and pray that it can play some part in bringing decency and dignity back to the people of Fiji.

What is Bainimarama REALLY doing in Switzerland?

2011-10-22T22:12:00.000-07:00

In an article by Paul Richter a couple of days ago , it is reported that Muammar Gaddafi secretly salted away more than $US200 billion ($A196 billion) in bank accounts, real estate and corporate investments around the world before he was killed, according to senior Libyan officials.

That's about $US30,000 for every Libyan citizen and double the amount that Western governments previously had suspected.
The new estimates of the deposed dictator's hidden cash, gold reserves and investments are "staggering", one person who has studied detailed records of the asset search said Friday.
"No one truly appreciated the scope of it."
If the values prove accurate, Gaddafi will go down in history as one of the most rapacious as well as one of the most bizarre world leaders, on a scale with the late Mobutu Sese Seko in the Democratic Republic of Congo or the late Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines.
Revelation of the stunning size of the portfolio may stir anger among Libyans-about one-third of whom live in poverty.... During his 42 years in power, Gaddafi steered aid and investments to benefit his own family and tribe, but he denied support for much of the country, especially the eastern region that historically resisted his family's despotic grip on power."

_____

Cut to Fiji.

I have recalled that at the end of March 09, Arsi went to Geneva as Fiji's Attorney General supposedly to speak at a World Trade Organisation meeting.

Hmm.... Acha.....

Also at the beginning of September 2010 , around about the same time that 200 million Fijian dollars supposedly en route to the Reserve Bank of Fiji, went missing off the wharf in Suva, Lautoka or Singapore (depending on whose investigation you believe), Arsi Saudi Kaiymuri went on a 10 day tour through Switzerland .

Hmm.... Acha.....

At the same time, Bainimarama went for a free ride with family members and body guards to New York whereafter his movements were not known (however, it only takes 7 hrs to fly to Geneva from NY) .

And on December 8th, 2010, Arsi made a point of meeting with the Swiss Ambassador Marion Weicheilt Krupski where the ususal yadiyadi press release was issued.

Hmm.... Acha.....

So here we are , a year later around the same time as last year , Arsi has gone quickly and come back from Switzerland (supposedly this time to attend a Telecommunications seminar) , OR perhaps to smell the money?

And isn't it interesting that when Arsi arrives back from his so called "Trade Meeting, Baini immediately took it's wife , merry Mary, plus his entourage of bodyguards to speak (allegedly) for 5 minutes at some Telecommunications meeting .... but we know who went / gone to Geneva to sniff his money.

Hmm.... Acha.....

Just saying ......

What befalls Dictators

2011-10-20T06:00:00.000-07:00

Permanently gone.
R.I.H

We announce to the world that Gaddafi has been killed at the hands of the revolution,'' Abdel Hafez Ghoga (A National Transitional Council commander) said.
"It is an historic moment. It is the end of tyranny and dictatorship. Gaddafi has met his fate,'' he added.

NEXT : Bainikaiyum

Rugby - reflecting the State of a Nation

2011-10-16T17:57:00.000-07:00

Fiji Independance Day

2011-10-10T02:42:00.001-07:00

Any resemblance is unintentional.

Jenny-Tinker-Bell's Take II on the Lowy Fairy Poll

2011-10-04T01:51:00.001-07:00

Jenny Hayward-Jones of the fairy-poll Institute has published yet another article justifying that Institute's highfaluting Poll taken a couple months ago in Fiji justifying Bainimarama & Aiyasi's Alice in Wonderland existence in Fiji as it's illegal rulers.

Here'a little excerpt from that article which shows Jenny's absolute ignorance about the nature of the Fijian people ......

Bubu's comment is in the box.

Click to enlarge image.

Air Pacific decrees Fijian Aviation Law

2011-09-29T05:18:00.000-07:00

David Pflieger , the CEO of Air Pacific (just for now) has been flush of late, with the success of his dream employment decrees as he very much enjoys being in the "inner sanctum" of his new best-testis mates - Bainimarama and Kaiyum (aka ASK).

So confident is he that the idiots in the Fiji military will accept any new law that will keep the good citizen down and prevent them from causing mischief, that he has dreamed up new Fijian flight regulations.

After suffering recent massive jet lag on a leg from Nausori to Suva, he presented his latest Decree :

It will now be an offense for instance to enter a plane while it is flight.

Further, no one can leave an aeroplane while it is in flight – unless you wish to make a parachute jump - and only unless it is over Kiribati.

And anyone found jumping without a parachute will be committing an offense and is liable to prosecution.

Pflieger has also decreed that before any flight, all passengers must get together and elect a pilot. Any passengers not electing a military officer will be severely punished.

Any loss of altitude granted by the Fijian Military will allow a unique close up perspective of the local terrain especially over Naisoso in Nadi - all part of Air Pacific's new commitment to make tourist flights a sight seeing extravaganza.

And in the event of the loss of an engine, it will be noted (prior to it happening) that the reduction in weight and drag will mean Air Pacific will be flying much more efficiently - which of course will please Pflieger's friend Arsi Kaiyumi very much and earn aforementioned many more brownie points faster than Frequent Flyers.

BUBU'S ADVICE TO DAVID :
Luvequ, it’s always a good idea to keep the pointy end going forward as much as possible, and gravity is not just a good idea. It’s the law. And it’s not subject to repeal.

Aust Govt to Qantas - Please Explain Anti-Union Decree

2011-09-29T05:09:00.000-07:00

ABC NEWS : Qantas linked to Fiji anti-union decree
By Jeff Waters

Qantas is distancing itself from the scandal ... but the Federal Government is calling on Qantas to explain its role in an anti-union crackdown by Fiji's military government.

Documents appear to show a company part-owned by Qantas, Air Pacific, paid for the drafting of Fiji's new Emergency Industries (Employment) decree.

Qantas owns 46 per cent of the Fijian airline, which is accused of paying a US law firm to draft Fiji's new decree which bans unionism in some sectors.

The decree has been widely condemned by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and human rights groups.

Two Qantas directors also sit on the board of Air Pacific, which is 51-per-cent owned by the Fijian government. So the question being widely asked is whether Qantas executives knew about, or had a hand in, Air Pacific's involvement in drafting the anti-union law.

Australia's parliamentary secretary for Pacific Island affairs Richard Marles calls the decree a "disgrace" ...

"I'm aware of the reports that Air Pacific engaged lawyers to draft the essential industry's decree; obviously Qantas is a near-half shareholder in Air Pacific.

"Qantas's engagement in Fiji is obviously a matter for Qantas, they're a private company, but I think all Australians and Australian businesses that are engaging in Fiji need to be exercising their own judgment about whether or not their actions benefit the people of Fiji." Mr Marles says Qantas should explain any potential involvement in drafting the decree to the Australian public.

"In this circumstance, I think it is completely appropriate that the Australian public hears from Qantas an explanation for how they've exercised their judgment in this case around the essential industry's decree," he said.

Air Pacific did not return the ABC's calls or emails.

'No excuse'

ACTU president Ged Kearney says she also wants the situation explained.

And she says that when Qantas's own Australian unions hear about the possible link, it may make matters much worse for an airline which is bracing for strike action on Friday.

"There's no excuse whatsoever," Ms Kearney said.

"In fact, it's a significant shareholding. They have a responsibility to be influential with what is happening on the board and ... trade unions would be absolutely horrified to think that Qantas had any role in the drafting of the decrees in Fiji and the implementation and indeed funding it. If workers thought that Qantas had any role in what's happening in Fiji, it would simply invigorate the action they're taking against Qantas."

The Dictator and the Vuaka's

2011-09-29T01:55:00.000-07:00

Last Monday, Mr Bainimarama self-imposed dictator in Fiji alighted out of his new shiny Pajero at the military camp in Nabua haughtily carrying a baby piglet under each arm.

The security guard at the officers mess snapped to attention, saluted and said:

"Vuaka totoka (nice pigs) , sir."

The dictator snorted and replied:

"Luveni Bakola ! These are not just any vuakas. These are authentic Aunty Nur Bano Pedigree magiti vuakas bred especially for big chiefs of Kuiva like me.

I got one for Tikoitonga and one for Kaiyum."

The all-knowing guard again snapped to attention, saluted and said,
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
"Excellent trade, Herr Dictator."

Top NZ lawyer criticises Fiji's suppression

2011-09-14T04:23:00.000-07:00

MICHAEL FIELD

14/09/2011

STAY AWAY: Law Society president Jonathan Temm has warned New Zealanders to seriously consider whether they ever visit Fiji under its current regime.

Fiji is a totalitarian regime and New Zealanders need to seriously consider whether they go there, Law Society president Jonathan Temm says.

"People need to know that when they travel to Fiji it is not about sun and sand," he said in an interview.

"There is an overt current which says you are not going to get the same rights and privileges that you thought you might; this country is under military rule."

His comment came as the United Nation's International Labour Organisation (ILO) condemned an anti-trade union military decree imposed Monday on 11 companies including Air Pacific and trading banks.

The Law Society says it is concerned at Fiji's direction.

"This is not a steady progression back to democracy; this is the entrenching of a small cabal of unelected people who are really operating now in complete totalitarianism," Temm said.

The Rotorua barrister said four foreigners, including two New Zealanders, had recently died in unexplained circumstances in Fiji's tourist belt.

"There is a certain degree of lawlessness in Fiji….

"There is no transparency about what happens around these things. There is secrecy by the Fiji regime, the regime tries to keep these suppressed."

New Zealanders need to know rights and freedoms are severely restricted. This includes things like being able to attend a Methodist Church on any day other than Sunday.

"What the regime has done is that the have crushed out the media, then they have crushed out the legal profession, then they did the church and you know they have done it in education, because they have kicked out professors of the University of the South Pacific."

The Fiji Law Society had been closed, its offices destroyed in an arson attack and the regime now controlled all lawyers.
New Zealanders had no rights in Fiji.

"If you behave in the way you do at home, you'll find yourself down at the Queen Elizabeth Barracks in the same way as others ... and it is not pleasant," Temm said.

Fiji has been under military rule since Voreqe Bainimarama staged a democracy ending coup in 2006.

On Monday, the regime's Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum pushed through Essential Industries (Employment) Decree which
ILO director general Juan Somavia described as a denial of fundamental rights.

"By going ahead with this decree the government has demonstrated the same lack of concern for the views of the international community as it has for the rights and aspirations of its own people," Somavia said.

"It was essential Fiji change course now. That means reversing this and other restrictive labour decrees, a return to dialogue with trade unions and employers, an end to assaults on and harassment of trade unionists, and the immediate restoration of basic civil liberties."

The ILO last month sent a mission to Fiji warning the decree had "negative implications" for Fiji's international obligations under ratified ILO Conventions.

The (illegal) decree ends union rights for employees of :

Air Pacific

ANZ

Bank of Baroda

Bank South Pacific

Westpac and,

Fiji Revenue and Customs Authority

Fiji International Telecommunications Ltd

Telecom Fiji Ltd

Fiji Broadcasting Corporation

Fiji Electricity Authority and,

Water Authority of Fiji

The Tale of the Lowy Fairy Poll

2011-09-09T16:21:00.000-07:00

Luvequ's , oh dear ....... I believe we do have a "Pffft Out Laughing Loudly" (POLL) moment today.

Gather around my dears, and I will tell you the story :

And so it came to pass in a small South Pacific Country ruled by a desperate despot called Barny Banana and his sidekick called Arsi Kai-si Vroom Vroom .......

The two stole many millions from the people but pretended like they were doing good for the people. They used to spend much of their time riding around the country in their Donkeys called Pajero , Sunair, and their flying brooms called AirPacific and TaxpayerPaisa.

Along with their many deaf and dumb servants, they used to ride into poor little villages around the country and declare an assortment of decrees and laws that demanded that people must love them or they wouldnt be getting any aid for their schools and their bridges and their roads.

Then one day, when the country was almost at its knees in bankruptcy, along came a fellow on a galloping white horse called Prince Mark Johnson whose best friends, Prince's Frank, Steven and Peter Lowy owned a very famous Highfalutin Powwow Shop in a land far far away that Barny the Despot could not and would not pronounce.

Prince Johnson himself wished to obtain permission to go up into the mountains in search of valuable stones and proved himself a champion at a new curry called Curry Favour.

Barny Banana knew that this was the man that could save his Kingdom and make him look wonderful in the eyes of the world.

But how could he do this ?

As he pondered about this in the mirror one day, he summoned his second banana Arsi Kai-si Vroom Vroom to his court and commanded he wave his Decreedous-Broom to work it out with the new Court consort.

By now Vroom Vroom had become used to having his own servants so he summoned one of them to his own Lilliputian court promising the Colon-y's Golden Tapioca Trophy if she succeeded first.

Her name was Sharon Go Go-Bells who was known for dying her hair bright orange so she could stand out in the crowd. She was so very pleased to be recognised in the Kingdom as she had come from a land far far away that had never appreciated her many stupin-dous talents, so she hurried off in a clangor jangling her cow bells as she went on this great errand.

Go Go-Bells went back to her shack and set about scheming how best she could win the Trophy for best brown-nosed citizen ....

She got on her broom and flew off to the next town to see her best friend Caza Te Butt who was the big kahuna of a convoluting but local highfalutin emporium. She whispered excitedly in her ear and it was agreed that for a few substantial pieces of gold, the graphs would be drawn favorably, to make it seem that people of the Kingdom loved Barny Banana very much .

This would make Go Go-Bells first in line for the coveted Golden prize.

Alas, when the coveted day arrived and the big kahuna of the highfalutin bure released her charts and graphs to the world, the big secret was discovered, and none of the people believed the word of the famous highfalutin shop nor of the local convoluted store.

Kai-si Vroom Vroom got very angry at the discovery of his wheelin and dealin and berated Go Go-Bells who got back on her broom and slunk back to her hovel in the Colon-y of the Golden Tapioka.

And the people became much the wiser in the Kingdom.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep. -Saul Bellow, writer, Nobel laureate (1915-2005)

International Concern over non-existent Rule of Law in Fiji

2011-09-08T22:11:00.000-07:00

More pressure on Fiji over rule of law

Updated September 8, 2011 16:56:16

A prominent Australian legal figure says sanctions on Fiji might have to be tightened in order to pressure the interim government over the rule of law in the country.

John Dowd, the President of the Australian branch of the International Commission of Jurists, was responding to a report backing up claims that some people in Fiji have been prosecuted for political reasons. Ratu Tevita Mara, a former senior Fiji military officer says he was at meetings of the ruling Military Council at which political opponents of the coup installed military government were targeted for prosecution.

Presenter: Bruce Hill
Speaker: John Dowd, President of the Australian branch of the International Commission of Jurists

Listen:
Windows Media

European Commision Chief sees little progress in 'repressive' Fiji

2011-09-07T22:53:00.000-07:00

AFP September 8, 2011, 10:32 am

Auckland (AFP) - - European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said Thursday he saw few signs that Fiji's "repressive" military regime was moving towards democracy.

Barroso said Europe, which has suspended a total of 80 million euros ($113 million) in development aid for Fiji since a 2006 military coup, intended to maintain pressure on Suva to restore democracy.

The European Union cannot turn a blind eye to issues such as human rights and the rule of law when allocating its aid budget, the head of the EU's executive arm said.

"Today we see little, if any, positive developments (in Fiji), the repressive regime remains in place, the socio-economic situation has worsened," he said in a speech at Auckland University in New Zealand, where he is attending the Pacific Island Forum (PIF).

"Against this background there is an evident need for supporting the Fijian people but keeping the pressure on the regime.

"That is why we will continue our search for a solution that returns democracy to the people of Fiji."

History's Lessons - enforced rule ALWAYS ends in tears

2011-09-07T05:17:00.000-07:00

NEXT ON THE LIST : Fiji's BarnyBanana and his AssKaiyum

Fijian rights activist says Bainimarama is denying basic human rights

2011-09-07T04:31:00.000-07:00

Mark Colvin reported this story on Wednesday, September 7, 2011 18:46:00

Listen here :

Alternate WMA version | MP3 download

MARK COLVIN: Shamima Ali is executive director of the Fiji Women's Crisis Centre.

She says the Lowy poll is not a reliable indicator of support for Commodore Frank Bainimarama.

She spoke to me earlier this afternoon from Auckland, where she's attending the Pacific Islands Forum.

SHAMIMA ALI: I am quite concerned about the manner and the environment in which the poll was done and who did it; I have a difficulty with that.

MARK COLVIN: What do you mean?

SHAMIMA ALI: Because I don't believe this was the right time to do it and I think the people who commissioned the report also are not aware of the reality.

MARK COLVIN: This is the Lowy Institute.

SHAMIMA ALI: Yes. Which is about the fear, the paranoia which is present there. We actually don't have a normal form of governance there in the country so that alone.

MARK COLVIN: You're really saying that people who were polled might have been afraid to say what they really thought.

SHAMIMA ALI: Yes, I would say so because you know what, we're seeing on the ground is quite different from what the poll is suggesting.

MARK COLVIN: What are you seeing on the ground?

SHAMIMA ALI: Well we are seeing the intimidation, the public emergency regulations are in place and people are still being questioned and intimidated and taken in because they have said something somewhere opposing what the regime is doing, or for any comments that the members of the regime might find as offensive and so on.

And there is a fear because people are very scared to talk to each other and to talk openly; they talk in whispers if they have to say things like … if we're discussing anything political. On the phone we are very much aware of being tapped and so on. So the whole culture of fear is quite enhanced in Fiji.

MARK COLVIN: How ethnically divided is Fiji on this issue?

SHAMIMA ALI: I would say that the racial divide is a lot deeper and a lot bitter than ever before, despite the platitudes that are being spoken.

MARK COLVIN: So if there was a poll which you trusted would it still say that the Fijians in the majority were in favour of Bainimarama but the Fijians of Indian or Asian descent would be anti-him.

SHAMIMA ALI: Well they're not actually. No not at all but I believe that any poll conducted at this point in time would show similar results, for the same reasons that I have said.

MARK COLVIN: Okay but what did you mean by saying that the ethnic division was deeper than ever before?

SHAMIMA ALI: Well look a lot of people see this as a pro-Indian crew and I must say that many people on the extreme fringe, you know the nationalistic fringe, they see it as that, whereas people like human rights defenders and so on we just see it as the military taking over power and nobody benefits from that and we can see the results.

But the perception is such that it has been done for the Indians because there's going to be known racism and so on …

MARK COLVIN: You're saying that a lot of people think that the Bainimarama coup was a pro-Indian coup?

SHAMIMA ALI: Yes they did. I mean that was the thinking from the time that it happened but now people gradually there is an understanding coming about that actually everyone is being affected by what is happening in the country and there is a, how shall I say, there is a courting of the indigenous Fijians at the moment going on and the Indian people on the streets are saying well what about us now? Where are we now? And if you look at the Fijian civil service, if you look at the security forces, nothing here's changed.

If you look at the top levels and so on, it's still indigenous Fijians. The army, despite all the platitudes about equality and so on, the military hasn't made any effort to include Indo-Fijians in its ranks and so on.

But I would like to say that the racist fringe, the nationalist fringe is using that, because Fiji has never been devoid of racial politics.

MARK COLVIN: Now there are some Pacific islands which want a much softer regime in terms of the international community's attitude towards Fiji. Australia and New Zealand seem to want to keep up the existing regime; what should we do in Australia for instance?

SHAMIMA ALI: I believe there are universal standards of human rights and governance and so on, so of course I believe that people should be supporting Fiji in getting back to democracy and assisting Fiji to start preparing for elections and so on and I think people are waiting for Fiji to make the first move towards that; you know lifting the PER (Public Emergency Regulation), lifting the censorship and so on.

But I just think that we need to be held accountable for our action and I believe that people should come together to assist but not to encourage what is happening in Fiji at the moment. The encouragement should be to look at 2014, the preparations, lifting the PER and so on?

MARK COLVIN: And what about individuals; should people boycott the tourism industry or should people go there and take their money and hope that some Fijians will benefit from it?

SHAMIMA ALI: Well I think that's a matter of conscience for people; that's choice that people will make.

MARK COLVIN: Shamima Ali, executive director of the Fiji Women's Crisis Centre, speaking to me from the Pacific Islands Forum in Auckland.

Diplomacy of Deceit

2011-09-03T21:02:00.000-07:00

Press Release: From the Fiji Democracy Movement.

Sunday, 4 September 2011, 12:25 pm

Oh what a tangled web they weave when they set out to deceive, to coin a line from the Marmion (1808).

And that is exactly what the Military Junta did, through a propagandist when he spun a make-believe fairy tale to the Representatives of the Pacific Islands Developing States (PIDS) at their Meeting in Nadi on August 31, 2011.

According to the Fiji Sun, the propagandist, a Junta mouthpiece (with tooth decay), told PIDS representatives that their illegal and repressive regime “will lift the living standards of all Fijians.”

The junta has a peculiar way of showing it since, under its power and control, living standards are not being lifted but are spiraling downwards.

Some 45% of the Fiji people now live in poverty.

Hunger and starvation stalk the land.

The propagandist continued to spin more lies and deceit when he spoke of sustained economic growth.

The truth is that the national economy has had annual declines since the illegal Military Coup of 2006.

Not only that, but unemployment has skyrocketed, the cost of living has increased by 20%, and the National Debt is unsustainable. The economy is going down the drain, and so is Fiji.

More lies presented to the PIDS representatives include:

The illegal regime’s stand against systemic corruption in the country. This is perhaps the biggest lie of all. The murderous commander Voreqe Bainimarama who, with his illegal Attorney-General, Aiyaz Khaiyum, pay themselves some $700,000 each annually. They keep their money in offshore bank accounts and refuse to disclose the amount to the people of Fiji.
Corruption in the Fiji National Provident Fund (FNPF), by the murderer Bainimarama and Khaiyum regime, has left it in a state of collapse. The future of 10,000 pensioners is now questionable.
Public Enterprises, including Air Pacific, administered by the junta and their incompetent Permanent Secretary, are collapsing. The motto in Fiji now is: join the illegal regime, fill your pockets, and open offshore bank accounts.
Another big lie spun is the junta’s intention to create fundamental principles in a new Constitution.

It was the junta who, when Bainimarama’s coup took place, publicly announced that it fully supported the 1997 Constitution and that the Constitution would remain in force.

They lied.

Bainimarama abrogated the Constitution as soon as the Fiji Court of Appeal ruled, in 2009, that Bainimarama’s coup was illegal, the regime was illegal, and all acts by it are illegal.

This means that the Peoples Charter is illegal, the decrees are illegal, any new Constitution will be illegal, and the 2014 Elections will be illegal, pursuant to the ruling of the Court of Appeal. So how can anyone believe that free and fair elections will take place in 2014.

What the military junta did not tell you are these facts :

Fundamental rights and freedoms of the people have been removed by the Public Emergency Regulations
The Rule of Law no longer exists
Mass media is muzzled and censored
Many citizens, men and women, have been taken to Military Headquarters and beaten, tortured and the women raped
There is a Decree and Order emasculating the Trade Union Movement
The Methodist Church is being repressed
Their acts to destroy the Indigenous Rights of the Fijian People through scrapping the Great Council of Chiefs and creating a Land Bank to steal ancestral Fijian Land.

What the illegal regime also failed to tell you is that there is now a popular movement internationally, in the region, and in Fiji itself, to remove the Fiji military junta and to restore democracy, parliamentary government, human rights and the rule of law.

In Australia and New Zealand, Freedom and Democracy Movements are operating.

In Fiji, a policy of passive resistance by the people, the Methodist Church, the Trade Union Movement and the Viti Revolutionary Force has begun The murderer Bainimarama and his illegal junta will fall and we, as a region, will need to work together.

So through this statement, we humbly request that the learned PIDS representatives take the time to analyse and assess the accuracy of ALL statements presented to them by the Fiji military junta and its representatives. The oppressed people of Fiji need you to know the truth, and the “truth” will help set them free!

ENDS

International Trade Unions begin Fiji action

2011-08-28T15:52:00.001-07:00

NZ Fijians - Please lend your support to this protest.

Fiji's Dictator and Followers irrational, unbalanced and voilent

2011-08-26T16:46:00.000-07:00

US cables show Bainimarama beat opponents

BY PHILIP DORLING

27 Aug, 2011 12:00 AM

FIJI'S military strongman Commodore Frank Bainimarama is irrational, unbalanced and violent, and directly took part in the human rights abuses that followed his December 2006 coup, according to leaked United States diplomatic reports.

Secret US embassy cables leaked to WikiLeaks, and provided exclusively to Fairfax, allege beatings and intimidation of the military regime's suspected opponents took place with the full knowledge of senior Fijian military commanders and included the direct participation of Commodore Bainimarama, now Fiji's interim prime minister.

One embassy report records witness testimony that Commodore Bainimarama joined in an assault on a senior public servant detained at the Fijian military's headquarters in December 2006, when the commodore ''kicked [the man's] legs out from under him and beat him around the head, telling him, 'Don't f--- with the military'.''

Although Commodore Bainimarama publicly deplored violence by Fijian soldiers following his coup and said he would ensure any excesses ceased, the US embassy reported to Washington he told European Union diplomats that if anyone insulted the Fijian military ''of course we must have them taken to the barracks and have them beaten up''.

The leaked US cables record that both before and after Commodore Bainimarama overthrew prime minister Laisenia Qarase's democratically elected government, American diplomats found the Fijian military chief ''erratic'', ''irrational'' and ''wildly excessive'' in his reactions to criticism.

In one cable sent to Washington shortly before the December 2006 coup, US ambassador Larry Dinger observed that ''a psychiatrist would have a field day with Bainimarama''.

In other reports, the commodore's propensity for ''sabre-rattling'' and threats of violence, including against foreign diplomats, caused the US embassy in Suva to ''wonder more than ever about the rationality of [Bainimarama's] judgment''.

The leaked US diplomatic cables contain numerous reports of human rights abuses following the military takeover, including the arbitrary detention of human rights activists, senior police and civil servants, trade unionists, lawyers and journalists.

Pictured above : Fiji Regime's current mouthpiece by the name of Mosese Tikoitonga threatening innocent Fijians with military paranoia. For non-Fijian speakers, the graffiti on the wall behind him tells us that the man is a great pretender, boasting to be champion of the people, but when he is really challenged it will be obvious to all that his rhetoric is weak & without substance, and he will be backing off as he is on weak moral and ethical ground.

Human rights abuses documented in the cables include beatings, torture and death threats ''with a pistol to the head''.

One senior police officer detained by the military at Suva's Queen Victoria Barracks described how he saw ''several ambulances depart the camp transporting people beaten by military interrogators''.

Other cases reported by the US embassy included deaths in military custody with one victim's body - ''marked by visible bruises'' - dumped by soldiers at a police station. In another case a group of villagers, including a senior police officer, was ''subjected ... to beatings over a three-hour period''.

The US embassy reports also document cases of rape and sexual assault by Fijian military personnel, including at least one instance of a group of detainees forced to engage in group sexual acts. In another case a prominent female human rights activist was ''felt up'' by a senior military officer and was ''warned she would receive worse treatment unless she stopped her activities''.

In discussing the interim prime minister's motivations, US diplomats highlighted underlying insecurity in Commodore Bainimarama's personality.

The US embassy reports quote a former senior Fijian military officer and close colleague of Commodore Bainimarama, together with then chief of the Fiji Police former Australian Federal Police officer Andrew Hughes, as suggesting Commodore Bainimarama suffered from post-traumatic stress arising from the Fijian army mutiny of November 2000.

Although the US embassy in Suva has reported that Commodore Bainimarama has been ''feeling the strain of governing a country that doesn't salute like an army,'' the leaked cables leave little doubt about the Fijian military's determination to only relinquish power on its terms and to never allow its democratic opponents to regain power.

New elections, originally promised by Commodore Bainimarama within two years of the December 2006 coup, are now nominally scheduled for September 2014.

Fiji's Media Whore

2011-08-25T23:12:00.000-07:00

Sharon Jones, Australian Citizen and Fascist - pictured here trying to justify her existence in Fiji on the latest propoganda puke channel.

How dare this woman tell us what to do in our own country.

We, the citizens of Fiji would like you Sharon to go back to where you came from.

Quickly, and soon for you will not ever be missed.

And we are being polite ... for now.

Hark the Death throes of the Methodist Church in Fiji

2011-08-24T21:45:00.000-07:00

Today is yet another sad day in Fiji's history - the day the current Methodist Church leadership in Fiji decided to take the Gold Medal at Fiji's greatest Lamusonas' Awards and rolled over like pitiful little sheep to be slaughtered at the alter of the tevoro.

Today also a correspondent emailed me this submission that the Rev Koroi had written way back in 2006. Unbelievably it is addressed specifically to the same culprits that have allowed themselves to be dictated to and rolled over today. It makes compelling reading for it's relevance to this organisation that is surely quite dead but knows not that it is dead.
______________

Paper addressed to :

President Elect : Rev. L Ratabacaca,
G/S : Rev. A Tugaue
Assistant G/S : Rev. T. Waqairatu

THE “NOW” CONCERNS OF METHODIST CHURCH IN FIJI
By Rev J.F. Koroi August 2006 on the occasion of The “42nd” Fiji Methodist Annual Conference

I speak to the Methodist Church in Fiji as a concerned Christian , and retired President of the Methodist Church in Fiji (1987-1989). In his address to the 12th World Methodist Conference - Denver Colorado 1971 on the topic : “The “NOW” CONCERNS ON CHURCH AND RACE”; Dr. John J. Akar, Attorney for Prosecution of Sierra Leone said:

“All too often, Christians restrict their christianity to the four walls of their church and to the Sunday services only. Some feel that there is no place in politics for Christianity. I disagree. The principles which our Saviour and Master, Jesus Christ, shared with his flock, have as much relevance in politics today, tomorrow, and all times, as they did in His time. And because life is meaningless without principles, that is why I have resigned, I have no regret at all”.

In my observation, “Leadership” in the Methodist Church in Fiji is weak and lethargic.

The clergy in leadership are afraid to take a stand.

They are no longer fearless apostles as of old.

The pulpit has been used from time to time to play up to the idiosyncratic excesses of despotic political leadership, drunk with power, possessed of self-exaltation rather than take a stand.

They neither stand up, nor are they counted.

To that extent the Methodist Church in Fiji by assuming a see - nothing, hear - nothing, and say - nothing attitude is nothing, and has alienated the Fijian intelligentsia and reduced itself to nothing more than a Sunday fashion and a decorative masquerade.

The clergy, I regret to say are neither objects nor shadows; they are nothing; they fear the blinding light of truth and honesty which alone will reveal the magnificence of their presence and cast an inspiring shadow on the conscience of the nation.

The Methodist Church today in all of Fiji is fast becoming, or has allowed itself to reduced to an “irreverent” and “irrelevant” economical social club. No group of people within the Church is more aware of this than the Youth. That is why they are moving away and the Church attendance will continue to dwindle.

I must also admit, though that there are exceptions. There are the lone powerful voices of an extremely small band of dedicated “individuals” shouting in the wilderness of despair. The echo of their ministry will reverberate through out the pages of history. They are few and far between; but they are made of same genuine substance as the original apostles. Because of them, the Methodist Church in Fiji is halting but has not halted. Because of them the dying Methodist Church in Fiji has not died. And thank God, because of them, there is yet hope. But isn’t it fast becoming a dying hope?

If the Church is to be relevant and to be meaningful as Christians, then we must be brutally frank and honest, with ourselves and with our traditional institutions.

The Church in Fiji (Methodist) is incapable today of provoking social consciousness because it has been muted by its self-interest, ineptitude and complacency.

The only thing that seems to sustain the Methodist Church in Fiji these days is “singing” and “fund-raising” festivals at its annual Conference and even that is of an appalling poor standard. Methodist Fijians do love to sing and Church hymns are endearing.

Transistor radios in particular and T.V. have made serious inroads and Church members need not go to Church now to enjoy good hymn singing or good Church service for that matter. A twist of the knob and the entire radio spectrum and T.V. channel is at his disposal.

What really is the function of the Methodist Church in Fiji?

Is it enough to say that it Baptises babies; officiates at weddings and buries the dead?

Is it worth sustaining an institution that does nothing more than perform routine orthodox functions?

And yet, I can see no way out of this impasse unless the clergy are prepared to follow the noble example of the Master and Lord Jesus Christ and lead rather than allowing themselves to be identified with unscrupulous traditional and political leaders.

Is it not true that the Fiji Methodist Church leaders mostly identified themselves with the status quo, the chiefly power structure, the imperialistic, and dictatorial authority?

Is it not true that Church leaders (ministers) reside in the most expensive and exclusive upper class homes only visited by members for special appointment - but never pay pastoral visitations to the flock in their homes?

The Methodist Church in Fiji was no better off in the old missionary days than today. In fact, in many ways it was worse. In one crucial area, which constitute my fundamental observation, the Methodist Church in Fiji allowed itself, whether by design or by accident, to be very culture oriented instead of Christ oriented. This is why the Fijian intelligentsia and/or nationalist finds incredible difficulty coming to terms with the true Christian Church in Fiji. It was and is Christian only in name and only our prayers and our concerns will jerk it out from its present tragic position.

There should be more to the Church than its architecture, however, beautiful and compelling aesthetically. It seemed to me that the Christian Church needs to come to terms now with itself. It seems to have forgotten the “Rock” upon which it was built. Its attention seems to have been perversely diverted into the acquisition of monetary Real Estate; of playing up to the pocket books of its affluent adherents; of preserving the status quo, of rejecting change and revolution which Jesus Christ preached and practised.

If the Church does not know itself, does not rediscover itself anew, it will have many sad lessons to learn, not the least its probable continuous rejection by more and more young people.

There will be no meaningful Christianity until the Church leaders begin to hate their own hypocrisy, their double standards, “racism”, “nationalism”, their impotence to fight against evil injustice, suppression, hatred cruelty and racial discrimination - asking from the depth of their being; how can one become a truly Christian Church?

Heaven cannot mean accepting injustice of the present because we know we have a home in the great beyond. Home is where we have been placed now, and to believe in Heaven is to refuse to accept hell on earth. This is one dimension of the future that the Church should not sacrifice. The Church must not scorn Christian hope, but affirm it. Hope must be related to the present, the individual ethnic community. All individual community should be both liberated and liberating. The Church is and should be “Christ existing as a community”. It not only proclaim the good news of freedom, but actively shares in the liberation of all forms of struggle. To preach the gospel today means confronting the world with the reality of Christian freedom.

Jesus took a definite stand. He was for the poor and not the rich; He was for the weak and against the strong. He must be where men are enslaved. To speak of Him is to speak of the liberation of the oppressed. He was and is the liberator par excellence whose very presence makes persons sell all that they have and follow Him.

Jesus is who He was and the Church must never lose sight of this.

The question of the Methodist Church and its role in the future deals with one’s faith, belief in himself and in his destiny.

Can the Methodist Church or, better still, can Christianity renew itself in terms of its original promise - namely, power over one’s destiny, love, brotherhood and eternal life? In that renewal lies the relevancy, meaningfulness, effectiveness, and the survival of the Christian Church and of Christianity.
-------------------------------
Rev. Josateki F. Koroi
(03.02.06)

Man of God vs Military Junta

2011-08-22T06:14:00.000-07:00

One of many of the ongoing intimidation tactics that go on daily in the Junta domain of Fiji continued in the city of Suva on the evening of 22 August, at the home of the 80 year old past President of the Methodist Church of Fiji, Rev Josateki Koroi.

Rev Koroi has been getting some press lately with his continual barrage against the military regime and its suppressive tactics and policies over the years.

It seemed only a matter of time, like with Wadan Narsey, that the military would try to muzzle this brave man too.

According to the family source, about 6.45pm on the evening of 22nd August, the family saw a twin cab vehicle with GM number Plates circling the family home. It drove away and then another van came back about 10 mins later with 1 policeman and 2 soldiers in it. The policeman talked to a family member and demanded to know where the Reverend was.

The Reverend Koroi arrived to his home a few minutes after the truck and the military personnel and policeman tell him that he has been "ordered" to come to the camp where the Commander Tikoitonga wants to see him for a meeting of all the Methodist Talatala's who were supposedly at the Military camp in Nabua.

Apparently the Rev Koroi asked them to hand the phone over for him to speak to their commander, who they appeared to be busy phoning, but they refused. He informed the goons that he has had a long day , and the only way they will be taking him to see the camp scenery will be trussed up hands and feet and forced physically and against his will into the truck.

At which point the military personnel left .

When I spoke to the source of this news, the talatala was at the time trying to calm his distraught family and grandchildren.

It transpired that at the same time this was happening, news had already broken that the regime has now "cancelled" the Methodist Conference.

My question is then if the regime had decided already to cancel the Conference at the time they were intimidating the Reverend and his family, to what end were their actions intended ?

It is well known in Fiji that the military regime hounds and intimidates Fiji citizens daily. One of their very early victims in March 2007 was ex Major Edward Heffernan, his 40-year-old wife Mere Vulakoro, their 16-year-old daughter Shelly , and their 14-year-old grandson Peni Heffernan, burnt to death in their home after a Molotov cocktail was thrown into their home by goons unknown.

Major Heffernan was speaking out against the regime at the time he was silenced.

Click to view latest video on this news.

Political Debate and the Human Will for Justice and Goodness cannot be suppressed in Fiji

2011-08-21T22:49:00.000-07:00

No matter how hard the Fiji Junta tries to put good men down, political will and the resilience of good men and women will ALWAYS come to the fore.

Just for example, Gaddaffi's regime was FINISHED today the 22nd of August 2011.

He is a dead-man walking today.

Tomorrow he may meet his just deserts at the hands of the people of Libya that he tried to suppress and stamp on like vermin all the years of his despotic rule.

Praise be.

Bainimarama and Kaiyum and your evil band of suppressors - take note ..... lots ... and lots .... of notes .....

Today I note with great sadness also the loss of yet another great academic and wonderful Fijian son from our dwindling ranks of principled good citizens who have the pertinacity to speak out loud and proud about what rankles us and what should concern us all.

I know that Wadan Narsey will continue his great work in other ways and will continue to be a wonderful representative of , and for the real people of Fiji.

Today I also salute the Methodist Church for standing their ground against the Regime. The people are watching . Let's pray they do not break under pressure.

Methodist Church (Fiji) vs Military Junta (Fiji)

2011-08-20T17:54:00.000-07:00

In light of recent rumblings amongst Fiji's placid nationwide Methodist congregation and the fiendish aggressiveness shown by cowardly men attired in military cloth brandishing guns towards their leadership and coming Church Summit this week, it seems timely to publish this sermon once preached by the wise & insightful now-retired President of the Methodist Church in Fiji, Rev J. Koroi.

This must-read homily reveals a down-to-earth and factual reality of what constitutes our christian responsibilities in the landscape of politics in Fiji today.

"Together with me are all the faithful ministerial brethren within Fiji and abroad join me in sending this gospel message to all God’s people in our beloved country, particularly the Methodist Church Hierarchies.

May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.

Two Biblical Texts to be considered :

Mark 12:17

Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are CAESAR’s, and to God the things that are God’s”.

Rev. 11:15

There were great voices from heaven saying: “The Kingdom of this world has become the Kingdom of His Christ and He shall reign for ever and ever.”

Reasons why we Christians should be involved in Politics in Fiji and the world at large ......

1. In the first place “Our Christian Involvement in Politics is inescapable”.

The Bible is from cover to cover, full of politics. The Old Testament is about the call of a Nation, a people and a community.
The books of “Law” give the standard of personal morality, social justice, but they also present the code which regulates the life of the community; this is politics.
When Prophet Amos speaks violently against the rich who sell the poor for a pair of shoes; this is politics.
When Prophet Isaiah tells Ahaz the King of Judea to stand up to Assyria’s threat; that is politics.
When Prophet Jeremiah pleads with the King of his day to come to terms with the Chaldeans (Jer. 21:4, 9) that is politics.
When Prophet of the Exile declares that God is “not” interested in their “fasting” but in “economic justice”, that is politics.

So too the “New Testament” is about the “New Israel”. The natural expression of the first fellowship under the power of the Holy Spirit was to share all things in common - this is a political act.

The Roman Empire did not persecute the Christians out of aimless cruelty; they persecuted because they were “politically dangerous”; and in the midst of a bitter persecution the seer who wrote the last book of the Bible (Revelation) asserted that the “kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ”. This too is politics.

2." Our Master and Lord Jesus Christ lived His life, proclaimed His Gospel , and died his death in a political context”.

This was the context of what we today would call a colonialist situation.

When Jesus told his disciples to love their enemies, He was not merely meaning anyone they happened to hate or dislike. He was meaning the “Roman oppressors”.

The context shows this.

The Roman soldier had the right to force a Jew to carry his pack for one mile. The Messiah was expected to be the leader of a nationalist movement of liberation.

We still call Jesus the Messiah, for that is what “Christ” means. “He was – He is – the Messiah.” But He saw clearly and proclaimed that the way of violence was self-doomed. But it was a way of changing the world none the less. The political leaders of the Jews and the representatives of Rome would not have bothered to crucify a harmless Carpenter of Nazareth.

They crucified Jesus because He was politically dangerous.

3. The work of Christ in our time has become more and more political , not less.

Christians have always seen the enlightenment of the mind as part of our mission. We know that the provision of education in schools and college and universities, and of adequate scholarships, is a political issue. Christians have tried across the ages to follow our Master’s work of healing. The provisions of efficiently equipped modern hospitals, of research facilities into unsolved medical problems, of a national health service, depend upon political action.

Our Master proclaimed in solemn words his judgment upon us if we fail to feed the hungry. Two thirds or may be more of the people of the world are hungry. We cannot meet their hunger by personal alms giving alone. If we are to obey our Master we are committed to political action.

4. In any event, we cannot evade political responsibility.

The act of abstention from politics is itself a political act.

If we do not proclaim God’s way in politics, then we are responsible for what happens.

Politics is simply the art of living together, the ordering of the life of the community.

No community can exist without politics.

It is for us to see that they are better rather than worse. If politics has got into the hands of the wrong people and has become a dirty business, it is “our job to clean it up”.

If politics is an unclean refuse or a “muckheap”, the Christian Church must be a “muckrake”. We do not live to ourselves.

We must not be afraid of soiling our hands. If Jesus, whose body on earth we are, had been afraid to soil his hands, the “Word” would never have become “Man”.

WHERE THEN IS OUR CHRISTIAN CALLING IN A WORLD OF POLITICS ?

It is there, in the New Testament, alike the words of Jesus and of Paul and the practice of the early Christians. It is threefold.

1. We shall fulfill the normal obligations of citizens. We shall render to Caesar the things that are Caesars.

2. We shall go beyond the normal obligation of a citizen; we shall be known for our enthusiasm, our willingness to do more; we shall always be “going the second mile”.

3. If the demand of the community conflict with the “calling” which God lays upon us and the way of our Master and Lord Jesus Christ, then we shall proclaim “a clear, fearless, uncompromising No!”

We shall render to God the things that are God’s.

This means that we shall make our voice heard in politics.

This will for many, perhaps most mean being active members of whatever political party to which they belong. Active, but never uncritical.

We will not be afraid to criticize the evil in our own party or honor the good in others, and we will refuse to descend to coarse reviling in abusive words or unscrupulous campaigning.

Others may not feel able to join a particular political party.They will rather work through voluntary organizations which cut across party lines, such as the “United Nation Associations”. In any case, they will seek to be accurately informed and politically efficient; there are would few things as useless as inefficient goodwill.

They will stand constantly for the things that are good for economic and political justice, for peace and disarmament among the nations, for health and food and education, for an ordered society and for the redemptive treatment of law-breakers, for the independence of the judiciary from political pressure, for the right priorities when the resources of the community are limited.

They will refuse to use wrongful means to these ends. It may cost them power, but it may not.

Integrity can be a political asset.

We are sometimes so frightened that “righteousness” may lose that we forget that “righteousness” may win.

It may seem easy to bribe an electorate, but the people soon find that the man who bribes then goes on to refill his purse from public money, and come to prefer the “man they can trust”.

We must not, and dare not deviate from the way of God for the sake of power, wealth or self aggrandizement.

God wants our witness; if it leads us there; accept it as His will also.

There could be no greater disaster than to identify Christianity, as some would do, with a political theory which happens to attract us for the time, and will finally go the way of every other.

It is indeed one of the first of Christian duties to build up a social order in which the demands of Jesus will be more capable of fulfillment, but He has prescribed for us no definite physical plan which we must follow.

His one concern was with the great moral principle and spiritual interests, and the human organization which He approves is that which will secure them best under the given requirements of our own country and time.

As Jesus concern is always with the inward principles of man’s life, not with the framework, He demanded that on the larger as on the narrower scale, men must act justly and mercifully and respect the worth of each individual soul; but He never tried to prescribe the manner in which this demand should be realized.

Men must here decide for themselves, in view of the special contingencies which they have to reckon with from time to time.

It was never the design of Jesus to recognize the world’s life according to a set scheme which should be complete in all its details and incapable to any change.

Jesus aimed at creating in men the “new will” in virtue of which they would be able henceforth to make their own laws.

May God Bless Fiji"
Rev J.F Koroi

Can We Expect Justice And Independence From Servants Of Military Dictators?

2011-08-20T17:15:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the highlights in an article by Uvindu Kurukulasuriya in Sri Lanka in his take on the continuing decline of the professionalism and independence of the judiciary in that country, and the links to the same MO in Fiji ...

"Judges should behave within the judiciary as well as outside it in such a manner as to consolidate the confidence of the people. Judges have no private behaviour. It should be remembered that when oppressive, criminal, arbitrary, despotic actions are taken against the people by the executive or authorities,it is the judiciary that will be the guardian of the people."

 Chief Justice (Sri Lanka) Hema Basnayake in his farewell speech on July 3, 1964.

TOP : (illegal) Justice Sathya Kada Hettige, left, (illegal)Chief Justice of Fiji Anthony Gates, (illegal) Fiji President Ratu Epeli Nailatikau, (illegal) Chief Registrar Ganga Wakishta Arachchi and (illegal)Justice Saleem Marsoof after swearing in ceremony at Govt House, Fiji.
BOTTOM : (illegal) Justice Sathya Hettige, Fijian Dictator Frank Bainimarama and (illegal) Supreme Court Justice Saleem Marsoof

There is currently a prevalent sense of grave concern and apprehension, one may even say a degree of anxiety, in a section of the legal community that the deeply cherished values of judicial independence and moral integrity among judges are under serious threat and in a state of crisis..............

 Two Sri Lankan Supreme Court Judges are also Judges of the Supreme Court of Fiji, which is under a military dictatorship. Many other Sri Lankans are also judges of other courts in Fiji, making them servants of the Fijian military dictatorship.

The Sri Lankan Supreme Court Judges who sit on the Fijian Supreme Court are Justice Saleem Marsoof and Justice Sathya Hettige. The names of the judges can be read on this website.

Servants of military dictators
 The main issue here is the impact their Fijian jobs have on Justices Marsoof and Hettige when they are sitting in the Supreme Court at Hulftsdorp.

Can we expect justice and independence from servants of military dictators?

What is their judicial mentality?

What is their ethical compass in relation to the judicial function?

What principles of judicial independence do they adhere to?

Do they make a distinction between their Sri Lankan and Fijian judicial roles?

Can someone serving under a foreign military dictatorship, legitimately and credibly, sit at the same time on the bench of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka?

What can be expected of judges in Sri Lanka who serve a military dictatorship elsewhere?

 Some would say there is no difference between a military dictatorship in Fiji and an elected dictatorship in Sri Lanka. But others still have a hope about Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court and judiciary, because there are still judges who have been forthright and dispense justice without fear or favour.

 Fiji is a country where there is no independence of the judiciary.

The president of NZ’s Law Society ...... Jonathan Temm says, “that Fiji’s judiciary is effectively no longer independent”.

The Law and Justice Report issued by the Fijian Citizens Constitutional Forum found that 40 judicial officers were dismissed in the year to April 2010, in addition to the five recently dismissed magistrates.

 “It appears that a government agency – which was purportedly established to fight corruption – is being used in a manner inconsistent with its statutory purpose. The effective dismissal of judicial officers attacks the independence of the judiciary,” he says. “Of most concern is those judicial officers apparently dismissed for rejecting prosecution cases brought by the military government or its agencies.”

........... Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said the Australian Government was concerned about the state of Fiji’s judiciary.

“The state of the Fijian judiciary is a matter of concern, as evidenced by the fact that most expatriate judges, including a number of Australian nationals, have resigned or have refused to renew their contracts,” he said.

 It seems judges in other democracies have refused to accept offers or who give judgments against the military government in Fiji are fired and they recruit judges from Sri Lanka whom they can control. That is the level of Sri Lankan judges. .....

Is it appropriate that a SriLankan Supreme Court judge (Sathya Hettige) should continue to have personal and social relations with the executive branch, especially of a government whose behaviour is extremely questionable from the viewpoint of democracy and the Rule of Law?

Why did he go to work under the Fiji military dictatorship?

How does his Fijian experience influence his high judicial role in Sri Lanka? .........
........... It seems the people of Sri Lanka must contend not only with Sri Lankan practices of corruption, but also with those who are influenced by foreign military dictatorships in the continuing decline of the professionalism and independence of the judiciary.

International Transport Union writes to Fiji Despot

2011-08-18T03:29:00.000-07:00

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Fowl Clown decrees crumbs for Fiji investments

2011-08-04T22:09:00.000-07:00

Fiji's Clown prince and Bainirama's manic second banana, Airykum Saiarse, has been at it again chucking, plucking and shrieking decree, after edict, after proclamation, after commandment.

Enough yapping to make one feel quite nauseous.

First, he hung our FNPF Ma and Pa donor's out to suck air instructing the FNPF bureaucratic-birdbrains to blame the older fund contributors for depleting the fund, and ignoring the fact that the regime has been sucking on the Fund to the tune of 1.7 billion since the coup in 2006 !

This vulgar toady then set about banning the media from letting the public of Fiji know what was really going on with the fund.

The truth is yet to emerge so watch this space, but recently the aforementioned ass ratified the departure of YET another foreign investor from our shores ; this time via a unit of little Hitlers called BAF who have something to do with banning feathers from landing on our forests but are instead cutting employment to 90 persons (who in turn have lost income support to a collective of at least 450 persons in the extended family network).

Excellent work Cock's .....

.... time to show those investors their investments will never be safe in Fiji for the changing of the regime's coop-posts whenever it suits the cockeral's in green, eh?

In the meantime Kaiyum sees no reason why he shouldn't continue feathering his own nest and his family's too, whilst he continues to crow orders from behind Bainirama's skirts.

Does a collective conscience exist with Fiji Junta supporters?

2011-07-30T16:48:00.000-07:00

THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

There comes a point when a man must refuse to answer to his leader if he is also to answer to his own conscience.

Hartley Shawcross, barrister, politician, and prosecutor at the Nuremberg War Crimes tribunal (1902-2003)

Ului Mara's interview in NZ

2011-07-24T05:13:00.000-07:00

You may watch his interview with the NZ Tagata Pasifica programme above .

Workers of the world unite to protect Fijian worker Rights

2011-07-22T23:35:00.000-07:00

Global Unions with a phenomenal 200 million membership have rallied to the plight of Fijian workers and challenged the monomaniacal dictatorship of Aiyasi Kaiyumi and Forex-hic Bainidramas.

Trade Unions world-wide have threatened industrial action that will strike at the heart of our ailing economy, and although seemingly inimical, setting the mise en scene to bring down Fiji's hateful and treasonous dictatorship.

I have received bagfuls of emails some pro and some con in regards to this issue , and have received in response a Press Release from Felix Anthony at the Fiji Trades Union Congress in regards to the core issue .... which is presented below (with some editing on my part)

_________________________________

The illegal junta in Fiji, has been actively pursuing trade unions for the past few months and the recent (illegal) Decree No. 21 of 2011 dated 16 May 2011 that has been issued grossly curtails the Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining .

This (illegal) Decree was not reported in the media nor have many affiliates and the public any knowledge of it.

The (illegal) Decree basically does two things :

1. It excludes all public sector workers (Government Employees) from the provisions of the Employment Relations Promulgation.
2. It terminates all matters and proceedings before the Mediation Committee, Arbitration Tribunal and the Labour Courts with effect from the date of the (illegal) Decree.

The implication of this (illegal) Decree is far reaching and takes away all fundamental rights of workers in the public sector. This includes the civil servants, unestablished workers, teachers and nurses.

These workers no longer have the following:

1. Fundamental rights at work
2. Valid contracts of service
3. Protection of Wages
4. Rights to minimum Conditions of work like holidays and leave, sick leave,
bereavement leave, maternity leave etc.
5. Protection from redundancy and unfair treatment.
6. Protection from sexual harassment
7. Protection from any form of discrimination
8. Right to challenge any decision of the employer
9. Right to report any dispute or be heard by the Arbitration Tribunal or
Labour Courts except OHS and Workman’s Compensation issues.
10. Right to Collective Bargaining
11. All Regulations related to ERP no longer apply to Government Workers.

In short, these workers and their Unions no longer have any rights.

The (illegal) Decree also violates all ILO Core Conventions and Fundamental Rights of all workers.

It is unclear if the Unions in the Public Sector legally exist as there is now no law that deals with Unions in the Public Sector.

We are now advised that another (illegal) decree listing critical industries is in the making which would extend the coverage of Decree 21 to all Government owned entities and the Sugar and Tourism industry.

Government has said that workers in the Public Sector still have excess to the Disciplinary Committee set up within the PSC. This is only a Disciplinary Committee to review disciplinary matters only. It is not independent nor does this Committee deal with other grievances.

This development has been a serious AND DIRECT attack on the Trade Union Movement thus on the workers of Fiji.

There has NOT been any consultation with the Unions.

The FPSA had written to (illegal) Government seeking a meeting. Instead the (illegal) Attorney General acknowledged the request and sent a copy of (illegal) Decree No. 21.

The Trade Union Movement cannot be seen to be sitting idle while workers’ fundamental rights are being violated. Intimidation of workers is also rampant particularly in the sugar industry. These rights have been a result of decades of struggles by past and present generations and should not be allowed to disappear with a stroke of a pen.

These rights are universally recognized and FTUC calls upon (illegal) Government to respect and promote these rights as its obligation to the ILO and under the Cotonou Agreement.

International Union Action enable Fijian Voice of Dissent

2011-07-17T05:04:00.000-07:00

If you holiday in Fiji, you will only be supporting the illegal and treasonous Fijian Junta. Thank you to our neighbours - NZ's, Australian's, American's and Europeans for NOT holidaying in Fiji.

And thank you to the Unions overseas that are forcing regime change on behalf of the workers.

Fiji - the land of lousy options

2011-07-14T22:02:00.000-07:00

Recently our beloved country was coined the 'land of lousy options'.

In keeping with this occurrence, it seemed apt to bring back the "finger of death' poster that a few of my correspondents have been asking for. First posted in the Fijian language just after the coup in 2006, correspondents have pointed how how prophetic this poster was , as it had predicted amongst other things, the use of the FNPF as the regime's cash cow.

Double click to see clearly, to reproduce, print out and to distribute. The English translation sits on my blog as a side poster.

Dictator Millionaire takes family for Singapore jaunt

2011-07-02T04:42:00.000-07:00

On July 1^st the Fijian dictator, now also millionaire, Bainimarama flew from Nadi airport on Korean Air on his way to Singapore.

He of course was flying first class with all of his family.

Funded by our pensioners.

For him the choice was not whether he could afford to put meat on the table this Sunday but which Champagne he should have before takeoff and whether to sip a different vintage with his appetizer.

Taking such a trip now demonstrates Bainimarama has no respect for the people of Fiji. He claims to be Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, but instead of worrying about the poor pensioners and informing them of his plans, he jets off on another expensive jaunt. He could not care less about the people of Fiji so long as they fund his jet set life style.

This trip is conservatively estimated to cost over $40,000. That does not include the security guards he feels obliged to take with him.

The questions I and the pensioners of Fiji want answered is how can a man who claims to be only earning the Commander’s salary of the RFMF ($96,276) can afford to spend nearly half on a holiday.

We already know the answer. He can afford it because he and his puppet master, Khaiyum, are both earning more than $700,000 a year in salaries secretly paid to them by Khaiyum’s Aunty, Nur Bano Ali.

This little snapshot of a day in the life of Fiji highlights exactly what is wrong in being ruled by a dictator. The contrast is clear between the rich and the poor, the oppressor and the Oppressed. Bainimarama should remember Fiji belongs to all of us and not just to two people.

It is time for a change. We will have democracy, we will have a new government and we will have them soon.

Thumbs up for Democracy

2^nd July

Ratu Tevita Mara

Pension Tensions in Fiji

2011-07-01T05:08:00.001-07:00

A fascinating series of emails (thanks to the Intelligensiya blogspot) between Ross McDonald, Fiji pensioner and the powers-that-be , have emerged, showing the attempts by the Sri Lankan Chairman of Fiji's Pension Funds to :

- cast blame and aspersions on those that went before him
- disregard any responsibility befalling his position
- cow-tow to the military regime by hiding the various reports that the public have a right to see
- ignore pensioners' grave concerns & questions regarding their hard earned savings
- deliberately fudge figures and percentages that need to be public knowledge.

Intelligensiya has also asked a very pertinent question :

How has our NATIONAL PENSION FUND ended up under the control of a Sri Lankan expatriate, one Ajith Kodagoda, while he is still an official consul of Sri Lanka to Fiji, and a migrant on a temporary visa working for a private company ???

See the emails here.

Fiji junta's Cash Cow rort

2011-06-28T20:26:00.000-07:00

The on-going FNPF Saga is a very sad state of affairs.

David Burness, a senior citizen, has decided to go in to bat on behalf of some 11,000 pensioners in this country .... very admirably, but his choice of lawyer, a most heinous person and very firmly in the class of 2006 coup-plotters, has raised many eyebrows.

Her mere involvement seems to have etiolated the case before it has even begun. Call me skeptical but I also cannot help but wonder about the laodicean timing of the affidavit.

You can see all of Burness's Court Documents here.

And you can also see Ross McDonald's letter and subsequent comments by Wadan Narsey in relation to this topic here .

I also thank one of my regular correspondents who has sent in a prayer to illustrate his deep sadness in regards to his now impoverished pension:

Our paisa, which art in nowhere.
Thieving by decree be thy name.
Thy Taito rushed us to the town hall,
Thy wish to silence us by galloping change.
Give us this day our pensioners rates, and entitlements we have contributed all our lives,
as we forgive those who blame our hard work for their crappy data & management.
Lead us not into insolvency and hardship, and deliver us from FNPF rascals For theirs is the 9% rort, undue haste and our early deaths,
forever on their heads.
Amen.

Tha Vailima Solution

2011-06-25T04:36:00.000-07:00

Prime Minister of Samoa Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi has had a coup of an idea .... and a wise solution to the fractiousness in Fiji .

This is part of what he said recently in response to his endorsement of Mara's pro-democracy campaign ......

" I do not know anything about coups. We don’t have coups in Samoa, unless, it’s a chicken coop.
My support for Mara is solely on his and others’ efforts in returning Fiji to democratic government and free elections. If that is the aim of the democracy campaign in Fiji and elsewhere, then I support it too.

Any measure to support the military regime in Suva is denying the people of Fiji democratic right and I will not be a party to it. Bainimarama’s promise of holding elections in 2014 is not taken seriously by Forum leaders. That is because he has been consistently dishonest with his dealings with the leaders and, thus, cannot be trusted.

His latest election promise also, is not consistent with his actions as he continues to fill up the top public service ranks with his cronies in the military and otherwise.
When Mara might wish to visit Samoa is solely up to him. We are not in the business of barring anyone from visiting our shores. We have also received official delegations from Fiji in recent months for regional meetings.
May I also take this opportunity to renew my invitation to my friend Bainimarama to come to Samoa.
Even better, if his visit coincides with that of Mara in Apia, then the three of us can enjoy cold Vailimas under the swaying coconut trees. Perhaps that’s what the situation in Fiji requires, a cold Vailima solution.

All this climate change is making many people in the Pacific warm in the head."

Time to disband the Fiji Army

2011-06-22T20:30:00.000-07:00

Since 2006 the UN has frozen the bulk hiring of Fiji troops to serve on it's peacekeeping missions.

Today we see an article placed in the papers and over the radio by the regime propogandists to imply that the UN is almost desperate to have Bainidaramas drum up the numbers of soldiers needed.

And the lemmings all believe him ? And how pharisaical the last comment in this clipping !

I say it is time the people of Fiji disbanded the Fiji Military entirely .

In an article written by Andre Vltchek author of political novel “Point of No Return”, he explains that the history of the Fijian military had seen it serving in many conflict zones as a UN peacekeeping force with some of its active or retired members contracted directly by foreign governments. He says , Fijian soldiers are very familiar with Arabs and their culture having served in Lebanon, the Sinai Desert and elsewhere.

"Foreign Security companies often directly contract retired Fijian soldiers who then serve in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere and it is tremendous business.”

" It is a well known fact that Fiji is a major recruitment ground for mercenaries. But at home, the issue is taboo or at last free of criticism. With the money continuing to come back to Fiji, there is little public questioning. The Fijian military is ‘marketing’ not only its active duty soldiers and reservists, but also more than 20,000 unemployed former troops. Remittances are essential for the survival of many families where a soldier stationed abroad can send up to 2,000 dollars a month, a huge amount in Fiji, yet a great bargain for the UK or the US where the military personnel with similar experience employed in combat zones can easily cost 50,000 dollars or more a month."

He quotes Lieutenant-Colonel Mosese Tikoitoga, 46, senior goon in the junta led by Voreqe Bainimarama: "We made a conscious decision to create an army bigger than we need to generate foreign currency. Our economy has no choice but to build armies, and it's a good business… There are few other foreign investments. If we didn't do this, our people would be in the street creating havoc." He added that more than 1000 Fijians were stationed throughout the Middle East for private armies under the corporate command of Global Strategies, Triple Canopy, Armor Group International, DynCorp International, Control Solutions and Sandline International.

"For years, the Fijian military has been given carte blanche by the local population.

But now the price is being paid as the army brings its combat-zone practices and morals to the streets of Fijian cities and villages."

Shortly after the latest coup, the Executive Director of the Fiji Women’s Rights Movement (FWRM), Virisila Buadromo and her partner were arrested and taken to the military barracks. “I was threatened and insulted, beaten and humiliated”, she recalled. “Eventually, soldiers threw me on the floor and began jumping on my stomach. Since the coup I have been receiving anonymous phone calls; some of them openly threatening members of our organization with rape.”

"Outright opposition and outspoken critics are being intimidated and sometimes humiliated...... People are suddenly scared to speak out, to make a comment and be overheard by a passer-by....."

"After each coup d'état, the Fijian military took over the streets of the capital and began erecting roadblocks. There was no real use for the roadblocks, but that’s what the military had learned during its service in the Middle East and that is what it began implementing at home."

"Fijians went to war for money and eventually they stopped questioning whether their involvement in the conflicts was right or wrong. War became their lucrative business."

"What kind of society can be raised on such ethics?

What can one expect from an army that fights for a fee?

It was only a matter of time before it would bring its cynicism and twisted morals to the doorsteps of its own home."

"A tiny nation of 900,000 inhabitants, Fiji does not need an army.

It faces no external threat."

I agree Andre. It is time Fiji dismantles its military and removes this monstrous den of iniquity, of would-be wanna-be's and power hungry idiots.

We want to become once again the respectful, democratic and peaceful nation we once were and in harmony with each other and our neighbours.

Time to think Ethical Tourism and Fiji

2011-06-13T19:42:00.000-07:00

I have thought long and hard about this, but 5 years on, is now time to actively discourage tourists from visiting our islands in Fiji, as the great majority of the tourist dollar goes straight into the Dictator's military coffers propping up Bainimarama's soldiers, paying for his bribes to keep their loyalties, expending tax-payer funds for their guns and boot-polish & encouraging his oppressive and corrupt regime. And in the process liquidating Fiji.

Just last week , a couple of vocal human rights activists were taken to the military barracks and slapped around. Their identities cannot be made known at this time as threats have been made against their person and their families if they are suspected to have talked about their interrogation.  

Whilst there, the activists saw soldiers dressed as if they were going into battle. Ordinary soldiers were also driving through the barracks in rental vehicles and other's in brand new vehicles.  

Who provides the funding for these excesses ?  

By coming to Fiji , tourists are not only funding these profligacies, but also continuing to prolong ordinary citizens' pain and suffering.  

We need tourists to stop supporting this regime.

  Frank has actually made that decision easier for heaps of tourists by even putting up the departure tax from Fiji to $100 each person. And it doesn't help that price-gouging at the resorts has seen a can of soft drink fly to $12, and a dinner bowl of soup to $22. Air-fares for 4 may be cheaper than the cost of one's actual holiday.  

Enough is enough.  

Tourist operators and business folk - it's time to get tough.  

Quite a few Tourism Operators I have talked to in the past month have not even realised that the Fijian Junta have passed yet another illegal decree forcing a Capital Gain Tax of 10% on our people, which has sounded the death warrant for Operators who have been wanting to sell their properties, and for would-be-investors that have 'seen-the-light" just in time.

Enough of the solimaka and the tabetabe - you owe it to yourselves and future generation's of Fijians to demand this country get OFF it's knees, and you are the only one's that can force change .

Franksta's paradise hides a dark side

Ged Kearney
From: PerthNow
June 13, 2011 1:28PM

With more than 333 islands Fiji is an amazing tropical island paradise.

WHEN it's this cold many of us think of escaping to a warm island paradise, but when it comes to Fiji the postcard images of warm water lapping pristine beaches mask an uglier picture.

Many travellers have been able to ignore the fact that Fiji is under a military dictatorship, but when the government is using their absolute power to stifle free speech and attack the rights of the workers who are serving you, it’s time to ask some serious questions.

The problem is what do we do? Making calls on how we treat developing nations, especially our neighbours, is always tough. Tourism keeps the Fiji economy afloat and is vital to the living standards of all its people. Fiji is far from being North Korea with palm trees – there is still some civil society and freedom left.

But the military regime that has been in power since 2006 is steadily eroding basic freedoms and crushing any democratic opposition, in particular journalists and unions.

Military strongman Commodore Frank Bainimarama heads a government that has no democratic legitimacy. At a time where people across the globe are embracing democracy, most recently seen in the uprisings in the Arab world, it is tragic that a nation like Fiji is sinking into this type of dictatorship.

Fiji is not the worst dictatorship in the world, but it is in our neighbourhood and the one where Australia and Australians have the most influence.

Bainimarama may sound like an 80s all-girl band but he is guilty of human rights violations in the first degree. In May this year proposals surfaced for new laws which would effectively outlaw unions and neuter any effective representation of Fijian workers.

A report released last week by the International Trade Union Confederation has found that repression of unions in Fiji is worsening.

The regime had already adopted tactics to intimidate union leaders. Earlier this year the head of Fiji’s trade unions was detained twice and assaulted once by the military. Senior union members in Fiji have been harassed, arrested or threatened with the sack if they maintain involvement in their union. Other critics of the military regime have been detained and beaten.

The regime has implemented a set of Public Emergency Regulations that limit freedom of speech, expand police powers and curb media freedom. Interim administration personnel accompanied by police have been placed in all major news outlets, which may be shut down if they publish stories deemed ‘negative’.

Courts are increasingly biased and cowed by the military regime and many judges owe the positions to the military.

Military personnel have the power to use arms to break up gatherings and have detained individuals without charge.

Many Fijians with the ability to leave have chosen to emigrate, taking their skills and money with them.

The victims of all this are ordinary Fijians, 40 per cent of whom live on less than $1.25 a day - and for them the role of trade unions has never been more important.

Stopping unions from representing ordinary Fijians will only make their situation worse, while the wealth of the country goes to cronies of the regime.

The Australian Government has introduced high-level sanctions against members of the military regime in Fiji, stopping them from travelling to Australia. We have also suspended defence co-operation with Fiji.

And this is where it gets tough: should we call for a tourism boycott? While I know it would cause pain to the regime, further sanctions would also hurt ordinary Fijians who rely on tourism or sugar exports as their main source of income.

Instead I want Australia to renew diplomatic and political pressure on the Fijian Government and hold it up to the scrutiny of the world. In particular I want Australian companies that do business in Fiji to demand respect for human rights.

But we must keep the idea of a tourism boycott in our back pocket if all else fails.

And if you are still tempted to travel to a resort in Fiji this winter, talk to the locals working there, find out what they are going through – and know that although the smiles are real there is pain in this island paradise.

How to tell you might be a dictator

2011-05-31T04:53:00.000-07:00

Lately, all ofa ta worlt, ta ratio and ta news has been filled with news of uprisings & ordinary folks taking to the streets to overthrow their long-time dictators.

Despite holding a deck-hand's position for a few years , one tictator in particular did not start out that way. He thought he was just another Aristotle before he kaba-waqa'd up the military stern and rowed his eensy-weensy waqa (up cassava creek) to his goal of countrywide superiority.

So, to avoid this happening to you, how would you realise if you are on the road toward despotic rule over your own duchy ?

Here is one of the warning signs, and we have decided to post it here for your own safety.

When another sovereign country sails at random into your waters and 'snatches' one of your citizens in danger of being swallowed by giant salala, print and distribute, quickly and at massive expense, THOUSANDS of GIANT GLOSSY photo posters of yourself to all the citizens of your enclave, declaring some kind of Campaign or anything else you can think of, so as to draw attention away from the other son-of-a-gun.

And hope that your loyal citizen's - or the makabuna's - do not draw all over it - like in this example (oh dear) :

Bainimarama revealed as the Stomper and Basher of Pro-Democracy Activists

2011-05-27T05:29:00.000-07:00

Watch video for revelations of this first hand confession .. and read Laisa's own statement below ...

LAISA DIGITAKI'S STATEMENT

& SEQUENCE OF EVENTS

RE – PRO-DEMOCRACY GROUP OF FIVE ROUNDING UP AND BASHING, BY THE RFMF ON
DECEMBER 24th ‑ 25th - 2006.

On Christmas Eve night of 24th December, 2006, a group of soldiers came to our home at I2 Kavika Place, Muanikau, Suva at around II.20pm in a rental car registration number LR627.

Members of the family who were at the property at that time were myself, Laisa Digitaki, my partner, Sitiveni Weleilakeba, our son, Mosese Qionibaravi (I9), and three daughters, Susana Qionibaravi (I7), Fiona Weleilakeba (I3) and Natasha Weleilakeba (8). A security guard was also on duty.

According to the guard, Marau Vakaloloma, of Matrix Security Company, the soldiers advised him through the closed electronic gate that they were there to take me to the camp.

The guard told them to wait outside the gate so he could advise us.

He rang the door bell which was answered and opened by our son Mosese.

My partner Sitiveni, who was asleep with me heard the door chime and also went downstairs to the front door to check. He said the guard told him of the soldiers presence and he told our son to go back to his room and that he would talk to the soldiers. He walked over to the closed electronic gate and was informed by the soldiers that the order from their superior was to take me to the camp for interrogation.

My partner then came back into the house to our bedroom and woke me up saying that a group of soldiers were outside waiting to take me away. I went downstairs in my sleeping gown and - asked them why they wanted to take me at that ungodly hour.

One of them said that I needed to be taken to the camp immediately.

I told them that I needed to speak to my lawyers at Munroe Leys as I wanted to be escorted by them too. The guy mentioned that I need not speak to my lawyers as it would only complicate matters and that they needed to take me peacefully and that I should not fear as they claimed that we were all related anyway.

He also said that another group of soldiers was on their way and their job is to forcefully remove me from my home if I resisted. The gentleman who seemed to be their spokesman looked familiar to me as the SDL Nasinu Branch Secretary. I do not know his name.

I asked their spokesman if I could change into decent clothes of which he said yes. I went back to our bedroom and changed into a mustard Marcs three quarter pants, a “Fiji Me” bright green round neck T‑Shirt, pink golf cap, and brown leather Hush Puppies slippers. Before I walked out of the house, I called my Munroe Leys lawyer, Mr Richard Naidu, to advise him of what was happening.

I then walked out peacefully and into the yellow rental car with the soldiers.

I was introduced by the spokesman to each of them and he mentioned that the one sitting on my left was from Vanuabalavu, Lau, and the one on my right was from Namosi. The Namosi lad looked like the person who headed the Namosi soldiers who presented an apology to Commodore Bainimarama for their part in the 2000 coup. I do not know his name.

The other two soldiers were calling him Sir so I can only assume that he is a high ranking officer.

Their spokesperson did not elaborate on the driver, who was also an indigenous Fijian.

They mentioned that they were also after Imrana Jaial, Virisila Buadromo and the rest of our pro-democracy youth group. Imrana's home is two houses away from mine and I told them to leave her family alone and that there was no point in going to Imrana's home since she was away overseas for business anyway.

The four soldiers were very friendly and we were even cracking some jokes on our way to the camp. They said that most of the soldiers were SDL supporters and that I shouldn't be afraid. I told them that even-though I helped with the SDL election campaign, I was totally against most of the things they came up with soon after the election and that I was not supporting SDL but was doing what I was doing not for the restoration of the SDL government but for the restoration of democracy and law and order in Fiji.

As we arrived at the camp, I was told to walk into a room situated on the left hand side of the main gate which I will call the guardhouse. The Namosi soldier gently requested that, I hand over my cap, Sony Ericsson mobile phone and Raymond Weil watch, which I did. They told me to sit awhile on a white plastic chair and after a few minutes, I was led into a passage way from where I was sitting and realized that they were cells. On my left, I noticed two young men asleep in the first cell in their underwear snoring and noticed another figure in the same cell but couldn't figure out whether it was a person as it was quite dark.

On my right, I noticed my business partner, Imraz lqbal, lying on his back on the cold cement in his red underwear. I greeted him before they locked me in the cell opposite Imraz's. After a few minutes, they opened the cell again and led me further down to the last cell where they locked me up again. The cell was darker than the one before. An indigenous Fijian soldier in civilian clothing came to me and started accusing me for talking against the army takeover. He ordered that the mattress I was sitting on be removed so that I could sit on the cold cement floor.

More indigenous Fijian soldiers walked over to my cell to peek with some saying their Bulas' while the others did not utter a word.Overall, the soldiers at the guard house were pleasant and not intimidating except for that gentleman who was angry about my pro‑democracy stand. After about 20 minutes in the cell, the Namosi soldier came and freed me and asked if we could go together to get Pita Waqavonovono, another pro‑democracy advocate. He was very apologetic and told me that he was very sorry with all that was happening and the inconvenience it was causing.

I told him it was ok and that I fully understood that he was only doing his job for his family's welfare.

As I walked out of the guardhouse, I saw a man that looked like Meli Bainimarama, Commodore Bainimarama's son in full uniform and watching me walk out.

The Namosi soldier led me to a four wheel drive parked outside the guardhouse.

He sat at the front passenger seat with the driver on his right while I sat alone at the back seat.

They drove me to Pita Waqavonovono's dad's house, Mosese Waqavonovono, opposite the St Agnes Primary School at lower Mead Road. The gate was locked and there were dogs barking from inside the gate.

By then, I noticed another white car with more soldiers park next to the car I was in. I deduced that it may have been an unmarked escort. The Namosi soldier then asked me politely to call Pita and to explain to him that he needed to come out and to join us peacefully.

I called Pita who advised that he lived with his mum and step‑dad at 58 Pathik Crescent Place in Namadi Heights. I explained to him that the soldiers wanted to talk to our group and that it was important that he adhere to their orders and to join me peacefully when we get to his place. He agreed. Our entourage went straight to Pita's house where I was again requested by the Namosi soldier to call Pita to walk out peacefully.

His step‑dad, Ratu Timoci Vesikula, came out first and asked the Namosi soldier what he wanted in the Fijian language. The soldier explained that they were there to take Pita to the camp. Ratu Timoci asked the soldier as to what type of leadership the army was doing for demanding his child's removal from their family home to the camp. The soldier replied that they only wanted to ask him some questions.

Ratu Timoci asked the soldier whether it wasn't enough for the army that his child was already taken to court for his peaceful protest and why the army demanded further interrogation when the matter was in court.

The soldier replied that he was only caring out orders from his superiors.

Ratu Timoci then asked for Commodore Bainimarama's number to tell him how disgusted he was with the way the military was treating his son and their leadership style. The soldier and Ratu Timoci exchanged angry words and the soldiers admitted that he did not know Commodore's mobile number. Ratu Timoci then invited the soldiers in for a cup of tea but the soldiers rejected his offer. He then sought assurance from the soldier that if they were to take his son, the army will have to make sure that they return him in one piece to their home. The soldier agreed.

Ratu Timoci then walked back into the house and walked Pita to the car I was in. Ratu Timoci and his wife said their hellos to me and we were transported back to the camp where I was dropped off again at the guardhouse. Pita was asked by the Namosi soldier to accompany another group of soldiers to pick Jackie Koroi as they were not sure where she lived. The soldier made some calls on his walkie talkie. He than advised me to run with him to a place he called the officer's mass which was about I00meters away from the guardhouse. He led me to this semi open hall which was in total darkness.

As we entered I noticed the silhouette of I person standing in the hall which turned out to be Virisila Buadromo. As I moved closer to talk to her, I heard a man's voice call out that Virisila move some I0 meters away from me.

I saw another silhouette of a man standing across the hall from me. I could not see their faces as it was very dark.Both man started asking us in Fijian language why we were making their lives miserable by talking against the military. I did not answer and one of them asked us to give them a reason why they should keep their soldiers out at the check‑points during Christmas. I answered that they were doing their job. They then demanded an answer from Virisila but she did not answer.

One of them asked me whether I was intelligent of Which I answered no.

One of them moved closer to me, he would be the same height as me but with a bigger and firmer built.

He wore a hat pulled down to about eye level but I couldn't make out who he was as it was too dark. His voice sounded familiar to that of Pita Driti.

He lifted his arm and cocked a hand gun on my face and asked me whether I knew that sound. I answered that I did.

I could see the silhouette of the hand gun from the spec of light from a far off tube light at the top left hand corner of the building we were in. He then ordered me to sit on the floor at the spot where I was standing.

I scratched my hair and he yelled why I was scratching my hair.

I told him that a bug crawled up my hair of which he screamed that I am not allowed to scratch my hair as it could not be a bug since there was no light.

I kept quite and remained still.

After being interrogated for about 30 minutes, we were then ordered to run to the ground directly opposite the officer's mass. We were led down the road onto the steps to the ground up to a cement pitch which I presume is the cricket pitch.

We were told to lie face down with our arms beside us and chin up.

One of the soldiers asked me whether I was pregnant of which I said I was not sure. A pair of boots immediately jumped onto my lower and middle back and bounced on it for a few seconds.

The soldiers started calling us names and were swearing at us.

One of them walked to our faces and told us to kiss his boots which we did.

One of the soldiers started accusing me personally and mentioned Naisoro (a friend and colleague during the SIDL election campaign), Chang (a friend and a business client of my PR company) and Weleilakeba (my ex‑husband and now a live‑in partner) and asked, "so how many other men have you f*&

He accused me of stealing money from Chang and blamed me for corruption.

I could feel boots running over my body followed by kicks on my sides and slaps on my face. Another soldier slammed my neck and than my face against the cement with his boots. I turned my head to the right in pain while he trembled my face on the ground causing my cheek to graze against the cement ground.

I felt a toad placed between my thighs and I heard a soldier say that a toad be given to Virisila to hold.

She was lying face down next to me on my right and Imraz on my left.

Imraz was then told to crawl a distance forward and back again while they kicked him.

I than heard Pita and Jackie marshalled in forcefully and told to lie on the cement and the same treatment was also given to them.

The soldiers said that from the camp we should go straight to our democracy shrine in Lami and dismantle it and that they do not want to see any shrine when day light breaks because they did not want their soldiers to see any more of it.

The torture and verbal abuse went on for about 45 minutes until one of the soldiers ordered that we get up and run to the gate. We ran across the ground and jumped over a ditch. Virisila fell in the ditch since she couldn't see too well after the soldiers smashed her glasses while we were lying at the cement pitch.

She managed to scramble out quickly. We stopped at the guardhouse by the gate to ask for our belongings but they told us to keep on running towards the main road which we did.

Pita Waqavonovono began to fall behind as he was very tired and I slowed down to be close to him.

Imraz, Jackie and Virisila were ahead of us as I was worried about Pita. After a while, I did not hear his footsteps behind me and when I turned back, I saw two soldiers pulling him back and beating him up so I decided to go back and help him but the soldiers angrily ordered me that I continue running forward or else I was going to get it too.

I caught up with the rest of the group at the main entrance to the camp at Mead Road and saw Ms Shameema Ali and other members of the Fiji Womens' Rights Movement and Mrs Gina Pickering of RRRT.`

They hugged Virisila and asked us what happened when the soldiers told us to keep on running along Mead Road.

We continued running while the NGO car followed, together with two military van packed with armed soldiers who were shouting out, "Toso, toso". We ran a while, walked and ran again when the soldiers shouted us to run. As we were nearing the turn off to Namadi Heights, the Namosi soldier appeared in his rental car and told us to walk as he could see that we were all very tired. We walked up the Mead Road hill and took the left turn off at Lovoni St, through Bureta St on to Princes Road.

We were passing Howard Place along Princes Road when Virisila's partner got off a car to join us.

Further down at the Indian Ambassador's Residence, Angie Heffernan, a member of an NGO got off a cab and ran towards us to find out what happened but we told her that we couldn't talk much or stop as soldiers were behind us in their vans. As we turned off to Reservoir Road, I noticed Imraz's twin cam parked opposite the Australian embassy together with the Namosi soldier's rental car.

He stopped us and gave us our belongings and told us that we were free to go.

We bade farewell with merry Christmas hugs and kisses before Jackie, myself and Imraz left in Imraz's car.

Virisila and her partner decided to find their own way home from there.

We were driving to our Lami office and democracy shrine when we were stopped by soldiers at the Delainavesi checkpoint. We waited in the car for about 5 minutes before they gave us the ok to proceed.

When we reached the office, we noticed that the pro‑democracy banners were stripped off, the main door to my top floor office was broken together with the door to the middle floor office. Both offices were trashed with graffiti on the wall saying Merry Xmas Happy New Year Laisa Chang.

I picked up the spray cans strewed on the ground and sprayed over my name.

Jackie was picked up by her grandmother and aunt while Imraz dropped me home at around 3.30am.

What an eventful X‑mas !

God Bless Fiji and its peoples and may democracy and law and order be restored soonest.

Laisa Digitaki

Announcement for all Lauans and People in the Lau Group

2011-05-22T00:28:00.000-07:00

This is a very important announcement received this evening by Fijian Elders (Matua) who for obvious reasons shall remain nameless. It details the reason why the Lauan people should not accept Bainimarama and his gun-boat manoeuvrings in the provinces of Lau.

Translation : Advice to the Vanua of Lau regarding Bainimarama's proposed visit:

_____________________________

NAI VAKASALA BIBI
NI QARAUNA! NA GATA VARASA ‘O VORE!! BAINIMARAMA – ME SOKO WASA TAUMADAYANI KI VANUABALAVU, CICIYA, LAU-E-LOMA, QAI MURI SARA KI YASAYASA MOALA – OQORI NAI I LOKU NI NONA VEISIKO RARABA.

E Vica Na Taro Au Na Taroga Taumada Vei Iko Vore Bainimarama.

1. Ni ko sa qai vakasivoya walega oqo na Gone Turaga Bale Vakatubu ni Vanua ko Lau ko Roko Ului ena “Coup 2006” – okoya ‘o a liutaki ira kina, ‘o beitaki koya vakailasu, sogoti koya ki vale ni veivesu, qai vakasasataki koya ki Kadavu me yacova ni qalowasa yani oqo ki Toga me bula kina mai na nomu vere vuni.

TARO : A cava na i “Naki” ni nomu mai “veisiko”? Ko cei na wekamu e tiko e Lau ko via mai sikova? E tawa tiko beka na nomu “koroturaga” se lala tu? Ke tawa tiko, ia e rairai era vakatawa tu ga na “KUTU” era “NO SCHOOL” ‘okoya ‘o taura “loto” tu kina na “RANK” kece ni Navy & RFMF ‘o sakitaka tu ena gauna oqo?

2. KEMUNI NA TURAGA-BALE MAI NA VANUA KO LAU. Eso na vuna bibi e sega kina ni dodonu moni ciqoma na veisiko nei Frank Bainimarama sa lavaka tiko yani vei kemuni mai na Yatulau taucoko. A nona sa valuta tiko qo ko Frank Bainimarama me vakarusa, vakamaduataka, vakararawataka ka vakadredretaka sara na bula vei iratou yadudua na Vuvale Vakaturaga-Vaka Tui na Yau na sala me ratou bula vinaka ka vakadeitaki talega kina.

3. Sa vakacevatataka ko Frank Bainimarama na nodratou dui (Bank Account) – tekivu mai vei ratou na marama Adi Koila, Adi Ateca, & (others).

4. Sa beitaki Roko Ului vakailasu tu ki na mataveilewai.

5. E sega sara vei Frank Bainimarama na veidokai kei na vakarokoroko baleti kemuni na lewe ni yasana ko Lau – ena nona veitaliataka tu na nonai valavala ena i tikotiko vakaturaga rokovi, dokai, okoya e dau kilai tani kina na vanua ko Lau :- mai vei ira na Turaga Bale na Tui Nayau, na Tui lau. (Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna kei Ratu Sir K. K. Mara).

6. Sa vakasabusabutaka tu na noda i yau levu e Lau, ko ya na nona veisoliyaka tu vei ira na vulagi na “Leiseni” ni qolivi ni noda wasawasa – e bau talega kina vakasisisi ena dela ni ua ni vei baravi eso.

7. E na nona sega ni kila se doka na bibi ni veiwekani, sa laki beitaka kina na Matanitu ko Toga me curuma vakaveitalia mai na wasawasa ni Matanitu ko Viti ena nona rogoca na kaci ni veivukei nei Cl Roko Ului. E na ca ni lomana kei na vere ni yalona me baleta na nona bula, era sa biuti koya kina na Turaga ni Valu era sa raica rawa tiko na vunau ca ena tinia kina na Matanitu Vakaivalu nei Frank Bainimarama na nona i lakolako.

A CAVA MONI CAKAVA KE SA MANI YACO YANI KO FB?

1. Oqori, e i lakolako vakamatanitu ki vei ira na nona vakailesilesi era tiko ena NOMUNI VANUA. Me vakataki ira na Roko Ovisa, Vuniwai, Qasenivuli, ka so tale.

2. Ko ira na vakailesilesi oqo vakamatanitu era na tavaki koya, qaravi koya, ka veivosaki kei koya me baleta na nodra cakacaka, kedra i sau, nodra i tikotiko kei na nodra veilesiyaki kina veivanua tale eso.

3. E sega ni dodonu moni cakava vua e dua na veiqaravi vakaturaga vakavanua, ka ni “sega” ni turaga bale ni nomuni Vanua, ka segai vakatale ga kina ena nona vanua ko Kiuva.

4. Ko Frank Bainimarama e lako tiko yani “vakavulagi” ki na nomuni veiyanuyanu vakaturaga mai Lau. E dodonu mo ni namaki koya me laki sevusevu kina vanua, me na soli kina vua na galala me qarava na nona cakacaka vei ira na nona vakailesilesi mai Yatu Lau.

5. E tu talega vei kemuni na i taukei ni veiyanuyanu yadua na dodonu moni ciqomi koya se sega ena rarama se butobuto ni ka sa cakava tiko kina noda vanua e daidai. E na sega tale ga ni dua na leqa kevaka ko ni na sega ni ciqomi koya.

Sa dri yani
Na Matua.

Fiji Regime strong arm tactics in full view

2011-05-21T01:28:00.000-07:00

Click to watch Police CID Gestapo Cici on his witch hunt for the "insignificant and secondary concern"

TV3 News NZ Barred from Filming in Fiji - Click above picture to view newstory.

Click on picture for latest video from One News Barbara Dreaver in NZ.

Guerilla Bainidrama recruiting military Mercenaries

2011-05-20T23:01:00.000-07:00

The idiotic buffoons at the Fiji Military have produced a notice (published on Coup 4.5) to Fijian military mercenaries to come running into Bainidrama's arms at Taxpayer Expense.

What for ?

To invade Tonga ?

Is this where our FNPF money is drifting away to ? Enough of this nonsense already !!!!!!

Click to enlarge

Fijian Citizens regularly tortured under Bainimarama

2011-05-20T17:11:00.000-07:00

Fiji army fugitive claims civilians are tortured

Rowan Callick, Asia-Pacific Editor
From: The Australian
May 21, 2011 12:00AM

COLONEL Uluilakeba Mara, a "fugitive" from the military regime in Fiji, which is seeking his extradition from Tonga, says civilians are regularly tortured at the Queen Elizabeth barracks in Suva.

The youngest son of Fiji's founding father Ratu Kamisese Mara and the brother of the President's wife, he also said the elections were "very unlikely" to happen in 2014 as foreshadowed by military ruler Frank Bainimarama, and that even if they did take place, only approved parties would be allowed to participate.

Colonel Mara, who was the fourth-most senior military officer, was charged with sedition before he was rescued by a Tongan navy vessel.

The Prime Minister of Samoa, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, has thrown his support behind Tonga in the stand-off: "Commodore Bainimarama should be thanking the Tongan government for rescuing Mara," who claimed he had been in trouble on a fishing trip when the Tongans picked him up.

The Samoan Prime Minister said: "Perhaps that's what happens when (Bainimarama) spends all his time in politics, leaving the navy headless."

Commodore Bainimarama said investigations were being conducted into whether others helped Colonel Mara escape.

But the Fiji government has said it will not respond to Colonel Mara's latest claims about torture and about elections. The government is drafting a decree, according to the Australian and New Zealand trade union councils, to outlaw unions in what it views as "critical industries" -- including airlines and sugar, two of the country's biggest employers. The union organisations both say they have been informed that such companies and sectors will be covered by the imminent Critical Industries Employment Decree.

Ged Kearney, the ACTU president, called on Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd to "express alarm" about this development.

"A series of decisions introduced by (the regime) have curtailed human rights and suppressed dissenting views," she said. "The regime has adopted intimidation tactics to instil fear in workers and trade unions."

Legislation outlawing unions in the sugar industry would seriously undermine the power base of former prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry, the Labour Party leader who although an early supporter of the regime, has recently become a leading critic and is facing court charges.

Mr Chaudhry is the longtime leader of the Fiji National Farmers Union, which represents most growers of sugar, a crop whose future is under severe threat.

By contrast, Brian Anderson, the president of the Australia Fiji Business Council, recently called on Canberra to lift sanctions barring people who accept roles in the Fiji regime from travelling to or through Australia.

Gone Fishing but whats next at the Cassava Patch ?

2011-05-19T21:33:00.000-07:00

Click pictures above to watch the latest from Mike Morra (TV3 NZ) Barbara Dreaver (TVOne NZ) reporting from Tonga.

Fa'aSamoa and Togafisi

2011-05-18T04:18:00.000-07:00

Talofa Lava PM Tuilaepa is always welcome on the Fisi Democracy Blogs, with his refreshing witticism, his latest badinage seeing global warming imputed to the hot air rising in Fisi.

We will remember that it was he who once advised Frank to stick to planting cassava and then called him a scrawny chicken.

On Franks frequent outbursts and rants, Tuilaepa also famously quipped :

"I'm curious if he was sober or perhaps there was a full moon out that night”

In the same interview :

"And why does Fiji need an army for anyway", Tuilapea asked.

“Perhaps Bainimarama fears a combined canoe attack from Tuvalu and Kiribati, its closest neighbours. That must be it.”

Nods head.

And adds.

“This is a region known for friendly people and its pristine environment- a paradise on Earth. Having a (interim) Prime Minister dressed up in army beret and full military garb is a bit ridiculous.”

Tuilapea says that he has been told that Mr Bainimaramna is part Samoan... that he has a Samoan grandmother.

“I'm tempted to go down to the Lands and Titles courts and look up his family genealogy in Samoa. Then I'll send for his family matai (chief) in Samoa and tell him to reprimand his long-lost descendent in Fiji. To give him (Bainimarama) severe censure for being cheeky, being ill-disciplined and having no manners."

And what of Bainimarama's People's Charter?

“It's utter rubbish. He's trying to replace Fiji's Constitution with that People's Claptrap, or whatever it is. The Constitution is the cornerstone of democratic government and democratic governance. You only get democratic government by holding free and fair elections and having citizens elect their leaders in Parliament. That's how the system of democratic government works.”

Fijian Military Junta kidnaps Mara's wife

2011-05-18T00:45:00.000-07:00

Click picture to watch

Fiji Military Junta must return Fiji to Democracy

2011-05-17T23:07:00.000-07:00

Click to watch

His Royal Fugitiveness talks to Barbara - preview

2011-05-17T22:12:00.000-07:00

Click to watch Barbara

News Article from Radio NZ
May 18 5.45 pm

Click picture to watch

Patriotism develops a conscience ?

2011-05-16T04:24:00.000-07:00

Watch YouTube video above

We need a miracle in Fiji. Dare we hope for good sense, unselfishness, and morality to prevail ?

Mara's latest interview with Radio NZ can be heard here

Kings Court vs Cassava Patch Court

2011-05-15T23:08:00.000-07:00

Fiji's great embarrasment

2011-04-15T06:13:00.001-07:00

Right click, or double click to enlarge.

Fiji meeting would be a farce if it were funny

2011-03-29T20:59:00.000-07:00

EDITORIAL : Reproduced from The Canberra Times

BY HELEN HUGHES

30 Mar, 2011 04:00 AM

The Prime Minister (unelected) of Fiji, Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama, has succeeded in attracting the leaders of the Melanesian Spearhead Group to an unofficial summit in Suva. The state dinner tomorrow would be merely a burlesque Gilbert and Sullivan scene if Papua New Guinea, Fiji, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu were not the poorest and worst governed independent states in the Pacific.

Bainimarama, the incipient Colonel Gaddafi of the Pacific, is seeking regional and international endorsement. Indonesia and East Timor have been invited to be observers at this summit.

Indonesia is attending to shut down the Spearhead Group's support for Papuan independence in Irian Jaya. Vanuatu, the Papuans' sponsor, is not happy, but will be attending.

The Solomons Government, beholden to Australian aid for its very existence, tried half-heartedly to postpone the summit, but Derek Sikua has already arrived in Suva together with Michael Somare, who is enjoying a two-week holiday while suspended as Prime Minister over the filing of incomplete or late returns on his assets and business dealings.

Bainimarama's summit agenda is clear. He wants to annoy Australia. He also wants to gather enough international support to maintain Fiji's participation in United Nations police actions because these are not only a major source of income for his armed forces, but also enable them to proceed to lucrative private policing jobs wherever violence reigns.

Being denied aid has become secondary because China has stepped in to support Bainimarama's regime.

''Melanesia'' is an anthropologists' construct that has no economic and little other sense. In the arcane world of United Nations politics, it was promoted as a ''region'' to create jobs for bureaucrats, academics and other consultants. A trade agreement covers negligible actual trade. Pacific islands export raw materials to more developed economies and import manufactures and services from them.

Small elites in governments and the public services, expanding into business, have become wealthy. They live in modern houses, travel and educate their children so they can pass on their wealth. But more than 80per cent of Papua New Guineans, Solomon Islanders and ni-Vanuatu exist at subsistence. Women work gardens, but most men are without income. Education is minimal. Women die in childbirth in the bush. HIV/AIDS rages in Papua New Guinea. It is almost the only country in the world where average lifespan is declining.

The Bainimarama Government, meanwhile, is reducing Fijians' living standards toward subsistence levels. Vanuatu is relapsing after a brief boost from a US aid grant. Australia cannot be absolved from the disaster of which these four states are the leading edge. It played a major role in structuring post-independence parliaments and public services that have played a major role in the failure of development. It has been the dominant aid donor, but has subsidised international aid agencies such as the World Bank to lead programs that paid for the elites at the cost of islanders' living standards. This is the cause of government dysfunction.

Most islanders have seen nothing of the more than $100billion of aid the highest per capita that has flowed to the Pacific. Aid has widened the gap between the living standards in the independent Pacific states and the rest of the world. Only a few countries in Africa have done as badly.

Australian aid has created multiple organisations such as the Melanesian Spearhead Group. Where one modest council would have sufficed, these organisations and their many offshoots provide hundreds of highly paid positions for skilled islanders, denying their services to their economic, health and other ministries. Their many meetings provide travel, hotel and shopping opportunities for politicians and officials.

It has been evident for years that Pacific meetings deflect energies away from development.

Under Bainimarama's leadership, yet another meeting is turning ugly.

The Spearhead Group's new headquarters in Vanuatu is a present from China.

China's advisers to Bainimarama will be keeping a watchful eye on the proceedings in Suva.

If Australia has any interest in the South Pacific not becoming a Chinese lake, the Department of Foreign Affairs should be paying greater attention than collecting votes for a temporary seat on the Security Council.

Emeritus Professor Hughes is a senior fellow of the Centre for Independent Studies.

Thought for the day

2011-03-04T15:43:00.000-08:00

For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people. - John F. Kennedy

Military Dictatorship in Fiji showing febrility

2011-02-24T23:02:00.000-08:00

Tic Toc .....tic tok .....

Yessiree 3 cheers for McCully

2011-01-29T16:53:00.000-08:00

Fiji Needs a Revolution

2011-01-25T22:18:00.000-08:00

Sent to Bubu by a Fijian Youth Activist for publication ..
Suva, 26th January, 2011

A revolution is needed in Fiji

Since the illegal abrogation of the 1997 constitution in April 2009 by the Military Government in Fiji, the mood within the nations's borders have been clearly under-reported and severely downplayed by the regime and the conforming / suppressed media.

The Economy is facing a precarious future, as the censored media provide State-run-propaganda that is supposed to boost consumer spending and investments .

However, these propaganda tactics are not working, hence the flood of debt Fiji is acquiring to support its militarization of the State and win the hearts of communities.

Once again, IT's NOT WORKING

We have a Attorney Generals Office that churns out a multitude of Decrees with no solid support or back up mechanisms in place to guarantee it is followed.

In addition our Judiciary is falling apart from the helms, with most magistrates and judges sitting under the new order with less experience and little or no memory of Fiji.

Many NGO's and stakeholders in the return to Democracy in Fiji have censored themselves after a short history of intimidatory and abusive State run tactics that are fueled with a atmosphere of impunity.

The Fiji Democracy Movement based in Suva has decided to stay quiet while Fiji slips into a deep abyss.

As a young person, I have had enough of all the rhetoric.

It is time to act, FIJI needs a PEACEFUL REVOLUTION that involves the changing of our MINDSET and realization that we must peacefully react AGAINST the direction its Military Dictators are forcing us down.

It pains me to see how so much lies and propaganda has been laid, and so many of our freedom fighters have been hunted down and crucified in our media and judicary by this regime. I am deciding to speak out and say it out right ... THIS IS NOT WORKING - we need a change in direction NOW.

I will be pushing for more DIALOGUE and more peoples peaceful actions in the coming days. I know we will get much support in this.

In Solidarity
Youth Activists - Fiji

Merry Christmas Fiji

2010-12-24T03:34:00.000-08:00

Let us pray for a dictatorshipfree Fiji from 2011.

Amen.

Jalal nominated for Human Right's Defender Award

2010-12-05T15:47:00.001-08:00

FIJI ISLANDERS WORLDWIDE CONGRATULATE JALAL ON NOMINATION FOR HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDER AWARD

How proud are we ?

One of the Fiji Women’s Rights Movement’s founding members, Imrana Jalal, is one of the 16 nominees for the Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand’s annual Human Rights Defender Award.

The recipient of the Human Rights Defender’s Award will be announced at a reception at the Auckland office of the NZ Human Rights Commission on International Human Rights Day - 10 December – to celebrate the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

FWRM's Executive Director, Virisila Buadromo said

“We at FWRM are proud that Imrana’s tenacity, respect and commitment for human rights, especially women’s human rights, are being recognised and acknowledged.”

“ For over 24 years, Imrana has used her knowledge of international human rights law and her feminist beliefs, to advocate for the advancement, protection and promotion of women’s human rights in Fiji, the region and even internationally. This has resulted in the enactment of the Family Law Act in Fiji, and the Family Protection Act in Vanuatu.”

The same sentiments have also been expressed by FWRM’s sister organisation, the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre. FWCC’s Deputy Coordinator, Edwina Kotoisuva, said :

“Imrana's contribution to women's rights issues in the Pacific extends beyond the formulation of such legislation but includes the discussion and debate around these issues within the corridors of justice departments and court rooms in the region. This is due to her training for emerging lawyers as well as her push for the recognition of the issue at a regional level. “

“Her advocacy for and commitment to the rule of law has been unwavering and has posed many challenges and risks to her personally."

Now in its second year running, the Human Rights Defender Award celebrates the achievement of one person who has made an outstanding contribution to the defence, promotion, and/or advancement of human rights in the Asia-Pacific region.

Jalal is one of the 16 nominations that have been received for the award, spanning a diverse selection of grassroots to global activists from around Asia, the Pacific and New Zealand.

“I am honoured (and staggered actually) to be nominated for this prestigious award. Even to be one of a number of nominees is profoundly moving for me,” said Jalal.

Other nominees for the Award include: Contemporary artist Shahriar Asdollah-Zadeh; Singapore opposition leader Chee Soon Juan; New Zealand civil liberties lawyer Tony Ellis; No Right Turn blogger Idiot/Savant; Defence lawyer for the ‘Waihopai three’ Michael Knowles; Maire Leadbetter of the Indonesian Human Rights Committee; TVNZ’s Sunday correspondent Janet McIntyre; Burmese activist and refugee Naing Ko Ko; NZ peace and disarmament campaigner Alyn Ware; West Papuan activist Yan Christian Warinussy and AIANZ local activists Dolores Flynn-Edge and Elena Wrelton.

Jalal has been an outspoken critic of the Fijian military Government. She is involved with numerous human rights organisations within the Pacific and worldwide, including having served as a human rights advisor to the Suva based, Pacific Regional Rights Resource Team (RRRT).

Jalal is also a Commissioner of the Geneva based, International Commission of Jurists, and is long associated with the networks, Asia Pacific Forum on Women Law and Development in Thailand and Women Living Under Muslim Law in Pakistan.

Earlier this year, Jalal was acquitted of charges related to Public Health Regulations which Amnesty International believes were politically motivated to punish her for her strong public stance against human rights violations committed by the military Government. Jalal left the country to avoid further persecution.

Both Jalal and her husband Ratu Sakiusa Tuisolia have been prosecuted by Fiji’s military regime in a range of cases, but have managed to win all so far. The regime is appealing all the cases won by both.

discombobulated bubu

Fiji Regime desperate grasp for funds causes tourists to bolt

Young People of Fiji respond to Junta's justification of "Shoot to Kill" Decree

Foreqe's Vogonsphere

Young People in Fiji speak out against latest draconian decree

Ho-hum and Tinkle-doo in the Kingdom of Pu

Fiji Junta suspends Provincial Council Meetings for anti-govt speech by Chief

New democratically elected PM for the Solomons

Unrest follows those sniffing noxious Fijian Junta gas

New decree bans Fiji workers’ basic rights to collective bargaining and representation

Illegal Fiji Junta tries again with unlawful decrees to silence it's citizens

AWU concerned about systematic campaign of persecution

Unions targeted by military because they stand for human rights and democracy

How workers' rights are restricted

Australian companies cannot wash their hands of responsibility

Fiji churchman urges soldiers not to obey illegal government

What we get when the Military tries to run our Rugby Union

BUSTED - Fiji Junta caught lying

Failing Fiji Dictatorship falling into Failed State status

Bainimarama's shadow darkens Fiji's economy

Continuing suppression of Religious Freedom in Fiji highlighted

What is Bainimarama REALLY doing in Switzerland?

What befalls Dictators

Rugby - reflecting the State of a Nation

Fiji Independance Day

Jenny-Tinker-Bell's Take II on the Lowy Fairy Poll

Air Pacific decrees Fijian Aviation Law

Aust Govt to Qantas - Please Explain Anti-Union Decree

'No excuse'

The Dictator and the Vuaka's

Top NZ lawyer criticises Fiji's suppression

The Tale of the Lowy Fairy Poll

International Concern over non-existent Rule of Law in Fiji

European Commision Chief sees little progress in 'repressive' Fiji

History's Lessons - enforced rule ALWAYS ends in tears

Fijian rights activist says Bainimarama is denying basic human rights

Diplomacy of Deceit

Sunday, 4 September 2011, 12:25 pm

International Trade Unions begin Fiji action

Fiji's Dictator and Followers irrational, unbalanced and voilent

Fiji's Media Whore

Hark the Death throes of the Methodist Church in Fiji

Man of God vs Military Junta

Political Debate and the Human Will for Justice and Goodness cannot be suppressed in Fiji

Methodist Church (Fiji) vs Military Junta (Fiji)

Can We Expect Justice And Independence From Servants Of Military Dictators?

International Transport Union writes to Fiji Despot

Fowl Clown decrees crumbs for Fiji investments

Does a collective conscience exist with Fiji Junta supporters?

Ului Mara's interview in NZ

Workers of the world unite to protect Fijian worker Rights

International Union Action enable Fijian Voice of Dissent

Fiji - the land of lousy options

Dictator Millionaire takes family for Singapore jaunt

Pension Tensions in Fiji

Fiji junta's Cash Cow rort

Tha Vailima Solution

Time to disband the Fiji Army

Time to think Ethical Tourism and Fiji

Franksta's paradise hides a dark side

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Gone Fishing but whats next at the Cassava Patch ?

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Fijian Military Junta kidnaps Mara's wife

Fiji Military Junta must return Fiji to Democracy

His Royal Fugitiveness talks to Barbara - preview

Patriotism develops a conscience ?

Kings Court vs Cassava Patch Court

Fiji's great embarrasment

Fiji meeting would be a farce if it were funny

Thought for the day

Military Dictatorship in Fiji showing febrility