Comment by Dr Shaista Shameem

19 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by in Letters, Press Releases

≈ 5 Comments

Comment by Dr Shaista Shameem on the highlighted portion of Ro Teimumu’s speech (attached) delivered on 26th January 2013.
 
I was interested to read Ro Teimumu Kepa’s comment that the Fiji Labour Party was responsible for the Chandrika Prasad case in 2000 and 2001 (CA) which restored the 1997 Constitution. I have written to Mr Mahendra Chaudhry to ask him to have this part of Ro Teimumu’s speech corrected.
 
But for the avoidance of doubt, I need to make an explicit correction and hope that the (new) SDL Party will also note it for the record:
 
The Chandrika Prasad case was never a Fiji Labour Party action. The case was initiated by Mueniweni farmer Mr Chandrika Prasad himself who was a victim of Tomasi Vosalevu and others of the Mueniweni area (see decision of the High Court of Fiji in The State v Lasarusa Benu and Ors Criminal Appeal No HAA041 of 2003) during the height of the 2000 takeover of Parliament by George Speight. It was reported in that case that Speight himself was apparently sighted in Mueniweni during the violations that took place there night after night.
 
The people of Mueniweni were assisted by a number of individuals, myself included, to seek refuge in Lautoka, initially relocated to the Sanatan Dharam Primary School and later moved to the Girmit Centre. They eventually returned home to Mueniweni when peace was restored there – facilitated by the RFMF and the Police. However, Chandrika Prasad was himself still a target, as were some others of his community, because of his court case, and they were moved to New Zealand for safety. 
 
The Chandrika Prasad case was never a Fiji Labour Party action for the good reason that it was not a political case. It was a simple human rights redress matter. Mr Prasad’s appeal to the Lautoka High Court and later the Court of Appeal was to have his Constitution restored because without the Constitution his rights were demolished. In this application he was hugely successful because not only was his Constitution given back to him (and was current until 2009), but his right to human dignity and citizenship as an equal member of Fijian society was restored and assured.
 
The Labour Party, along with many other organisations, supported the action in the Appeal Court by providing some funding and affidavits to state that the 1997 Constitution was a widely accepted law that could not be removed by anyone other than the people themselves. In this sense this case is significant for current circumstances in Fiji. It is also well-known internationally as one of the few court cases that actually restored a constitution after it had purportedly been abrogated.
 
The lawyers who took up the case free of charge at my request were the following: Neel Shivam, Anu Patel, George Williams, and Geoffrey Robertson. All these lawyers strictly followed my instructions on the conduct of the case. Mr Justice Sailosi Kepa, who was Ombudsman and Chairperson of the Fiji Human Rights Commission at the time, was kept fully briefed by me during the course of the activities after Mueniweni violations and the subsequent hearings. However, it appears from her recent speech referred to above that Ro Teimumu Kepa was not made aware of the facts at the time. 
 
The very first decision of High Court Judge Justice Anthony Gates at page 1 of his Lautoka High Court decision reveals how the case was conducted from day 1 in the Lautoka High Court and the people involved.
 
It is important for the sake of our constitutional history- especially at this particular time- that the record is corrected. The evidence is available for anyone who wishes to view it.
 
Dr Shaista Shameem
Auckland.

Daves Pfliegers Silver Lining ??

15 Friday Feb 2013

Posted by in Link Information

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DF2Rumours are rife that Dave will be joining Silver Airways, a restructured airline operating small aircraft, Beechcraft and Saab from Florida. (It was previously Gulfstream International Airlines )

If true, perhaps he is looking to his future  and  has aspirations of convincing them to buy a few Airbus Aircraft. We wonder whose pension fund he will raid next.???

Click on the following link to read a detailed report of the current state of Air Pacific:

FJ – Was Pflieger Pushed or did he Jump

Anonymous said…

Can someone publish the email address of Matthew Ray, Chairman of Silver Airways? Dave, the man with the silver tongue, has invented his own version of greatness and it needs correcting by people who really know Mr. Pilferer. The guy is a psychopath and compulsive liar. 
Silver has small regional aircraft and they hired Dave whose spiteful incompetence led to the disastrous Twin Otter acquisition. He dragged out the replacement decision Jimmy Sampson, the GM made for way too long and then rushed and bought the 2 crappy Otter without industry standard due diligence. Now we have the half wrecks and are wasting millions rebuilding them. Of course Dave publically put all the blame on Jimmy and fired him. And then put lawyers on him when others escaped the repressive Dave regime and joined him at airlines PNG. He enjoys screwing people. But easy to do in our dictatorship. Sick guy. 
Rather the dealing with the AP unions, he spent several hundred thousand on US layers to write a repressive essential employees decree and got his keeper. Frank’s strongman the AG to simply passed it as a decree. 
He systematically fired core leaders and replaced them with yes men (and woman). He needs constant worshiping of the great Dave and since competent people have too little time for that, he puts in weak yes men. 
His farewell letter by the board, every word written by Dave, twists the truth beyond recognition. He is an impressive boldfaced liar. 
Mr. Ray praises Dave for his people skills and empathy!!! Dave played him like a fiddle. He is quite an impressive performer when he wants something. I feel for the Silver people. God have mercy on them, Dave will not. 
Now let’s clean shop and send his useless lackey consultants packing with him. He’ll be lonely at Silver otherwise. 

Matthew Ray’s Email address is : mray@vpcadvisors.com

Pflieger Has Flown

08 Friday Feb 2013

Posted by in Press Releases

≈ 3 Comments

Fat Dave-Pflieger-s2Dave has pulled the plug and jumped (or was he pushed) with his Golden Parachute.

The AG’s Golden Boy, will not be here to see the Airbus restructure completed, the big spender is now the Big Sprinter, what will the AG do now ??
Pflieger’s record as CEO needs to be contextualised on the basis that he could not get commercial banks to fund his plans but from a pension fund, with help from an illegal regime. It seems normal market forces had no faith in his plans.
So Pflieger has nothing to show for during his time as CEO except perhaps an impending disaster waiting to unfold in the wake of the mess he left behind if comments on this blog from seemingly well placed sources are anything to go by.

Fiji Man February 10, 2013 at 9:37 PM

Claunching at Straws ?

01 Friday Feb 2013

Posted by in Articles & Reports

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roulette

Fiji casino project raises $400m

August 5, 2012 by Simon Liddle

The first phase of Fiji’s casino project is to get under way this month, the company behind the scheme has confirmed.

According to local media, One Hundred Sands managing director Larry Claunch revealed that $400m in financing had already been raised for the project in just six months.

Construction work will begin shortly, he said.

The resort, which will feature a 500-slot, 57-table casino, is due scheduled to open by October 2013.

Please please Frank do not piss any more of FNPF money up against the wall by pumping it into a gambling project where the supposed investor has failed to keep to promised schedules. 

Just because you have been taken for a ride Frank, there is no need to do the same to Fiji Pensiors

 

Dog Food Diet

31 Thursday Jan 2013

Posted by in Daily Humour

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driver (1)

Yesterday I was at my local Coles store buying a large bag of Chum dog food for my loyal pet and was in the checkout queue when a woman behind me asked if I had a dog..

What did she think I had, an elephant? So, since I’m retired and have little to do, on impulse I told her that no, I didn’t have a dog, I was starting the Chum Diet again.  

I added that I probably shouldn’t, because I ended up in hospital last time, but I’d lost 2 stone before I woke up in intensive care with tubes coming out of most of my orifices and IVs in both arms.

I told her that it was essentially a perfect diet and that the way that it works is to load your pockets with Chum nuggets and simply eat one or two every time you feel hungry. 

The food is nutritionally complete so it works well and I was going to try it again. (I have to mention here that practically everyone in queue was now enthralled with my story.)

Horrified, she asked me if I ended up in intensive care because the dog food poisoned me. 

I told her no, I had stepped off the kerb to sniff an Irish Setter’s arse and a car hit me.

I thought the guy behind her was going to have a heart attack he was laughing so hard. 

I’m now banned from Coles.  

Better watch what you ask retired people. They have all the time in the world to think of daft things to say.