Public Dissent

Every morning my makabuna goes to the shop and gets our matavuvale the daily papers to read. We listen to the radio and watch the news and of late the clamour of Public dissent against the Military junta and the Charter has been deafening. I was glad to see this letter published in the Times this morning which said it for the rest of us.

"The Fiji Police Force spokeswoman has advised the general public to be careful when publicly voicing their opinion on the proposed Peoples' Charter lest they be found accused of making inciting statements, contravening the Public Order Act.

The only inciting statement is by Ema Mua in telling us, the general public, how to make our opinion known on a document that many of us did not even ask for in the first place but which we have had to pay for with our hard-earned taxes.

We are also given slightly veiled threats not to speak against the Peoples' Charter. An example of this is the arrest of Savenaca Komaisavai and Saula Telawa for allegedly making inciting comments on a Fiji One news item about the charter proposal to have a common name.

Yet, the police did not arrest Rajendra Chaudhry for the same offence where he allegedly made comments of an inciting nature on the same television channel albeit on a different program (of which the general public of Fiji has not seen as the alleged interview is allegedly in police custody). Why employ double standards for two separate offences of the same nature?"

Meli Maivusaroko
Lami