IN the Bainimarama Government’s campaign to “spread democracy in Fiji”, the Fijian Elections Office has also been required to supervise elections of union officials.
The justification has been that some trade union officials have not been fully transparent and accountable to the union members, whose fees paid for their allegedly high salaries.
But why is the Bainimarama Government not democratising the most important “legally enforced union”, the Fiji National Provident Fund (FNPF)?
In contrast to unions with a few hundred or thousand members at the most, FNPF has more than 200,000 members, with accumulated funds amounting to more than the assets of all the banks combined.
With not a single one of whose board members are elected by the members, this is the most important institution that should be democratised, next to Parliament.
Given that it is unlikely to happen through parliament, there has to be a movement for democratising FNPF (MFDF) outside of parliament.
National elections
and true democracy
In the run-up to the September 2014 elections, the Bainimarama Government often announced voters were about to enjoy the “most democratic” elections ever, for the government of their choice, rigorously supervised by the Fijian Elections Office.
Indeed, the more discerning citizen has already seen the real “power of democracy” at work under the Bainimarama Government, which two years before the elections, realised they had better serve the voters, if they wanted to return as government.
The Fiji Bureau of Statistics data on Gross Domestic Product, employment and incomes all indicate the economy largely stagnated from the 2006 coup until 2011. Continue reading →
Fiji Pensioners 