OPEN LETTER
WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Dear Prime Minister
A great many people who have unnecessarily been illegally put to the sword by the FNPF,(eagerly facilitated by your Minister for Everything who appears totally bereft of compassion) were supporters of you and your aspirations for Fiji when you were in need of support, they now stand abandoned by you. 

I myself stepped forward when asked, not because I supported the coup, but because I supported your stated aspirations for Fiji, and still do. But those initial aspirations of yours did not include, denying pensioners basic civil rights nor writing decrees to deprive them of basic contractual rights. They did not include the discrimination against the aged that you now appear to condone. 

The pensioners are not the culprits here, the monies that are required to pay them for their remaining years is a pittance when compared to the money the FNPF management has wasted and continues to waste and allows to be misappropriated. 

Our Fiji is a beautiful country with a great many beautiful and wonderful people in it and people come to our shores from every part of the world for what for most is a holiday of a lifetime. 

Sadly the majority of the older generation of Fiji are now so worried about how they will be able to meet living expenses in a country once labeled “How the world should be” that some are now contemplating suicide. Others suffering illness have already had their lives shortened by the stress of the situation being imposed on them. 

I recall a few years ago when we were having dinner you stated that you “Pitied” me because I could not eat seafood, I replied then that I did not want your pity, and that has not changed, however I ask that you do have sufficient pity for the aged of this nation that you currently rule, by implementing a full independent inquiry to consider all the issues, contradictions and discrepancies that surround the actions of the FNPF in its reform agenda. 

It has been written “The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones”. 

The extreme measures taken by the FNPF Board and management together with the proven manipulation of figures to justify these measures, are evil, and whilst you as Prime Minister are not directly responsible you are accountable because you approved these actions albeit on a false premise. 

You have the ability and the authority to instigate a full inquiry and I respectfully suggest that in the future interest of every citizen of Fiji and your conscience as a man of the people, you should do so. 

Yours faithfully,

Rick Rickman

We Fiji Pensioners hope this letter reaches the Prime Minister and that he spares the time to read it.
Greybeard