My Way or the Cell Way…PM

29 Friday Mar 2013

Posted by in Articles & Reports

≈ Leave a comment

FBPeople who do not follow the Attorney Generals 2013 Constitution will be going to prison according to Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe “Frank” Bainimarama.

The people of Fiji have waited six years for a good, fair and enduring constitution and they are doomed to be disappointed.

The Economist summed it up perfectly when they wrote of our Prime Minister “But he has also blown his chance to preside over the creation of a new political order that is durable and legitimate.”

You had all the cards in your hand Frank, but you let your Attorney General stack the deck. You really have blown it…

Opportunity blown

28 Thursday Mar 2013

Posted by in Articles & Reports

≈ Leave a comment

the-economist-logo

Not all will go the strongman’s way

FB DeskIF GUNS were all that were needed to manage countries well, more of the world would be run by military officers. But soldiers tend to be poor at handling their nation’s affairs, and so it has proved in the Pacific island state of Fiji. There the strongman, Commodore Voreqe “Frank” Bainimarama, who seized power in a 2006 coup, announced on March 21st that he was scrapping his plans for the constituent assembly that was supposed to deliberate his scheduled new constitution. Three months before that, Mr Bainimarama had ditched a constitution drawn up by his own appointed commission, asking his attorney-general to come up with a new one more to his liking. This second attempt was published on the very day that the idea of an assembly was scrapped. Continue reading →

Easter Message for Fiji Pensioners

28 Thursday Mar 2013

Posted by in Quotations

≈ Leave a comment

Dylan thomasDo not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Continue reading →

Lest Fiji Airways and Fiji Forgets

28 Thursday Mar 2013

Posted by in Letters

≈ 4 Comments

Harold GattyOur celebration for the revival of Fiji Airways is a great event in our country’s history.
But we are forgetting something — the man who founded the airline. There has been no mention of him.
In his time he was famous. The first man to fly around the world, with the American Wiley Post, in the single-engine Lockheed Vega in 1931. Eight days around the world. He set other flying records, across the U.S.A., and the first effort (unsuccessful) to fly across the Pacific, from Japan to Seattle, with Harold Bromley, a Canadian.
In the late ‘thirties, he was instrumental in selecting Nadi as Fiji’s international airport (built largely by NZ Air Force). He established the first commercial overseas flights to both New Zealand and Australia, with the Boeing 42 ton Clipper flying boats of Pan American Airways. They flew into Auckland and Sydney. And he opened virtually all the airport facilities throughout the South Pacific, Samoa, Guam, Midway, Wake Island, I remember. As a youngster, I often travelled with him.
Then he established Fiji Airways, based out of Nausori. I remember it well, more than sixty years ago.
It was not just aviation. It was a major step in his vision for tourism, as a major industry of Fiji. The notion of the Blue Lagoon cruises was his idea, and he had me sail about to find islands and villages for tourists to visit. He delegated that business to a Kiwi, known as Withers, since he was busy with Fiji Airways.
He also contributed some notions of diversification of Fiji agriculture, namely vanilla, and spices, an effort he charged me with fulfilling. That is another vision that is worthy of recognition.
When he died, Government buildings flew their flags at half-mast, an unusual gesture for the death of a private person. Australia, his country of origin, built a monument for him in Campbelltown, Tasmania, where he was born. And the main road to the Hobart airport bears his name. Australia commemorated him with  postage stamp. But he is buried in Suva, in Fiji that has forgotten him. Let us remember — Harold Gatty. He was a great pioneer, one who helped lay the foundations for our now independent and proud little nation. Let us remember him, and honour him. There would be no Fiji Airways were it not be for him. Lest we forget.
Ronald Gatty 
Wainadoi Gardens

The Final Nail in the Fiji Pensioners Coffins

28 Thursday Mar 2013

Posted by in Articles & Reports

≈ 1 Comment

KHAIYUM FACEBOOKTHE ATTORNEY GENERALS 2013 DRAFT CONSTITUTION IS THE FINAL NAIL IN THE FIJI PENSIONERS COFFINS, BECAUSE UNLIKE THE YASH GHAI DRAFT WHICH 7000 CITIZENS CONTRIBUTED TO, THE ATTORNEY GENERALS DRAFT FORBIDS THE REVIEW OF ANY OF HIS DECREES, WHICH HE HAS ALSO EXTENDED TO HIS TERMINATIONS OF COURT PROCEEDINGS.
“The principles of a free constitution are irrevocably lost when the legislative power is nominated by the executive”. (Decline & Fall of The Roman Empire Ch3).

THIS DRAFT CONSTITUTION DEPRIVES THE PENSIONERS OF HOPE, JUSTICE AND BASIC CIVIL RIGHTS AND IT SEEMS OUR PRIME MINISTER COULD NOT CARE LESS !!!!! HIS ARSE IS SAFE AND HIS FUTURE SECURE….HE HAS GIVEN THE PUBLIC INADEQUATE TIME TO RESPOND, AND IT MAKES NO DIFFERENCE WHAT THE PUBLIC SAY, THERE WILL BE NO CHANGES TO THE ATTORNEY GENERALS DRAFT CONSTITUTION.. A CLASSIC EXAMPLE OF A TRAVESTY OF JUSTICE. 

Any amendments to Fiji’s new constitution will have to be approved by majority of the registered voters and parliament.This is a major proposal in the draft constitution as it states that if a bill for the amendment to the constitution is passed by three quarters of the members of parliament, then it will be referred to the Electoral Commission to conduct a referendum for all registered voters to vote on the proposed amendment.


If three quarters of the registered voters who have participated in the process have voted in favour of the bill, then the President must assent to the bill.

However, the draft constitution prepared by the government legal team which is now out for the views from the public states that immunity granted under the 1990 constitution should continue and there should be further immunity for December 2006 and the events following that.

The draft states that the immunity provision should not be reviewed, amended, altered, repealed or revoked. Continue reading →

Governments; they are all the Same

27 Wednesday Mar 2013

Posted by in Daily Humour

≈ Leave a comment

Mentally CThe Newfoundland Department of Employment claimed a boat owner wasn’t paying proper wages to his help and sent an agent to Burin to investigate him.

GOVT  AGENT: “I need a list  of your employees and how much you pay them.”

Boat Owner: “Well, there’s Clarence, my hired hand; he’s been with me for three years. I pay him $200 a week plus free room and board. Then there’s the mentally challenged guy.  He works about 18 hours every day and does about 90% of the work around  here. He makes about $10 per week, pays his own room and board, and I buy him a bottle of Lamb’s rum and a dozen Labatt Lite every Saturday night so he can cope with life. He also gets to sleep with my wife occasionally.”

GOVT  AGENT: “That’s the guy I want to talk to – the mentally challenged one.”

Boat Owner: “That’ll be me.  What’d you want to know?”

Looking beyond the headlines and blogs about Fiji

26 Tuesday Mar 2013

Posted by in Articles & Reports

≈ 1 Comment

grandpaPUBLISHED IN NZ TRUTH …30-01-2013
David Farrar recently wrote a post on his Kiwiblog and linked to a story by Michael Field about the alleged burning of the new constitution by Fiji Police, then he linked to another story, again by Michael Field about a troublesome priest being asked to leave Fiji.

Michael Field is banned from traveling to Fiji. It is likely that he sourced both of his stories from the anti-government blog Coup 4.5, who are almost all exclusively Auckland based.

What is particularly galling is that the major media and gullible bloggers simply repeat what Michael Field and the anonymous bloggers at Coup 4.5 have to say. They invariably do not read more widely and find out the exact details of what precisely happened and when in Fiji.

With regards to the alleged burning of the new constitution you can’t really go past getting the true story from Graham Davis and some additional facts about the Ghai document. Compare and contrast the reporting from Michael Field and wonder how he manages to keep his job. 

Now to the meddlesome priest article. Again this appears to have been a manufactured story by Michael Field, one that Farrar unfortunately gave more oxygen.  

Regular readers will know that I recently visited Fiji, and also that I maintain good connections in business in Fiji. The story concerned me and so I made a few calls.

What I found out about the situation is in stark contrast with what was reported by Michael Field.

My government contacts refused to comment on the record and their off the record comments were that this was a storm in a tea cup unhelpfully stirred up by journalists with agendas. There won’t be an official statement from the government.

As I stated previously this story appears to originated from the anonymous bloggers at Coup 4.5. If you read Graham Davis’ story about the Ghai documents then you get some understanding of the dishonesty of those who write for Coup 4.5.   Continue reading →