Former Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka’s statement last week, in his capacity as a member of the Cakaudrove Provincial Council, claiming that the province of Cakaudrove fully supports the Peoples Charter should be taken with a grain of salt. Rambo has jumped the gun in assuming that he speaks for the province of Cakaudrove when the Fiji Times reports that the Tui Cakau has barred any Interim Regime team from entering the chiefly village of Somosomo to propogate the Peoples Charter. Read the full story below.
Charter Team Cannot Enter Somosomo
Thursday, November 01, 2007
THE team appointed by a northern provincial council to disseminate the groundwork of the People’s Charter has been barred from entering a chiefly village.
The highest chiefly clan of Lalagavesi of the province of Cakaudrove yesterday said the team would not be allowed to enter Somosomo Village to consult villagers about the Charter awareness.
Speaking on behalf of the Tui Cakau Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu, the traditional spokesman, mai ka vula, Epeli Matata said the chiefly village would not accept the team as it had not changed its initial stance about the Charter and the proposed Great Council of Chiefs.
“Ratu Naiqama and the province of Cakaudrove remain adamant that we need to return to constitutional status before introducing the People’s Charter and the taskforce of the GCC,” Mr Matata said.
“The high chief of the province together with its people will never change their stand on these two objectives.”
Interim Minister for Fijian Affairs Ratu Epeli Ganilau preferred to have questions emailed in order to comment on the matter.
Any credibility Rabuka might have had previously has been completely lost ever since he started flip flopping on every issue of national importance. It smacks of desperation and it is embarrassing to see someone who was once held in high esteem by a large majority of the Fijian People practically grovelling to regain some of his former glory.
As with Kadavu and their Provincial Council’s self designated spokesperson, Jo Nawalowalo, just because one member of the Provincial Council comes out in support of the Peoples Charter does not mean that the Provincial Council and people as a whole unanimously endorse the controversial piece of paper.
If I recall correctly there was talk by Frank of a referendum to amend certain parts of the constitution. Apart from being illegal I have one question. If they can go that extent to gauge the national opinion why can’t we have elections earlier and just rid ourselves once and for all of the Constitutional conundrum and economic meltdown these Band of Idiots have placed us in?
Ironically this coup and the one before have educated a large segment of the population on their constitutional rights. But do you think they’ll be answering my question anytime soon ?……….Fuuuuuugggeeedaaaaboooutit!!!!
We could even without hesitation add the Merry Rev Yabaki to this list of wanna-be-opinion-shapers based on his recent comment in support of Frank re: methodist church. His own rocky history with the church makes his opinion unobjective and even vindictive. He must be taking his cues from his good pal The Shyster.
The same applies for Rambo who is probably pulling this stunt to retain his life-long membership status with the GCC.
Comment by Keep The Faith — October 31, 2007 @ 9:32 pm |
I hear that the illegal AG’s dad has gone to NZ.
It appears that NZ has relaxed the travel ban as dad has expressed a desire to get out of Fiji before his son and his looney maggots stuff it up big time.
Comment by ex Fiji Tourist — November 1, 2007 @ 9:39 am |
One morning after a very groggy night at the officer’s mess, bananasinpyjamas was awoken by his security guard. [Mary doesn't sleep in the same room anymore as bananasinpyjamas has his guards sit at the end of the bed].
bananasinpyjamas’ clothes were scattered all over the floor.
Guard: You seem to have red wine on your mess jacket.
bananasinpyjamas: Ahhhahhhh! It was that useless failed diplomat, colonel dimwiti. He just can’t control himself. He spillt red wine everywhere. I will have to give him a week on guard duty.
Guard: But sir, there is vomit on your good shirt.
bananasinpyjamas: Aaahhhaaahhaa. It was that useless dimwiti again. When he has had a few drinks, he can’t conrol himself. He vomited all over the place. I’ll have to double it and make it two weeks on guard duty.
Guard: Sir, I think that you should make it a month.
bananasinpyjamas: Why?
Guard: Well dimwiti seems to have sh*t in your pants too.
Comment by ex Fiji Tourist — November 1, 2007 @ 11:10 am |
I suspect there might be health issues involved EFT!!
Comment by Keep The Faith — November 1, 2007 @ 8:41 pm |
Frank’s comments to the SMHerald sounded like Fiji’s version of the arrogant paternalism that led to Aussie’s “stolen generation”.
As far as Fiji’s problems are concerned though, the SMH had Frank confused with someone who actually knows what he’s talking about. But Frank is not in the political driver’s seat because his opinions are compelling, or expert, or insightful, or popular, or promising, or even logical. He’s there for one reason – that he arrogated the position to his own dumb self by the barrel of the gun!
The real problem here is not that Fijians are helpless peons whose real opinions are forever subjugated under church and village conformity. The real problem is that most Fijians SIMPLY HAVE A DIFFERENT POLITICAL PERSPECTIVE AND OPINION to Frank and his cronies. Differences of opinion like that are otherwise unremarkable in any democracy. However due to serious social and psychological flaws in Franks’ personality, he just cannot or will not accept those differences!
That is not to say that Fijian politics is perfect or even right most of the time. But Frank simply needs to accept the plain and clear evidence that Fijians see things differently to him. That is the only sensible way to interpret their continued and robust indifference to his long series of overtures to get them to change their political views and allegiances.
Frank’s repeated public attacks on Government from 2003 to 2006 didn’t get any significant Fijian support; then his T & J campaign drew an expensive and embarrassing blank; and now the IG’s daily dose of pro-military propaganda on Fijian Radio is simply proving to be a mystifying and forgettable waste of breath.
When will these coup-supporters wake up and just accept the fact that this continued Fijian indifference to their political advances can no longer be interpreted as people not having heard or understood them yet. Rather, it obviously means that the people simply haven’t accepted their explanations or views on the issues concerned! Frank’s pig-headed tunnel-vision on this is exactly what happens when you view people simply as problematic factors to be manipulated, rather than human beings whose collective opinions must be viewed and valued as the “bottom line” informant of any democratic governance.
Whatever the case, it defies belief that anyone’s real political intentions could somehow be thwarted in the privacy of the ballot box.
But even if that obstruction were somehow to occur, surely you’d be able to detect some sign or consequence of it afterward – that is if the person concerned truly believed that they were “robbed” or “duped out” of their vote.
For a start, you’d expect at least a couple of these “oppressed” voters to have complained to the UN/EU/Commonwealth Observers who were here at the time. Or how about now, when any presumed complainants would enjoy the assumed “protection” of political allies in Government? Surely they would have re-lodged any complaints to the FHRC Election Review Hatchetmen – ahhh sorry – Panel.
But there wasn’t a peep from anyone!
Compare this to the post-1999 elections when many Fijians felt “cheated” after their party’s AV preference lists diverted their votes to Labour instead of one of the other “Fijian” parties! There was instant and widespread shock, followed by discontentment, withing the Fijian electorate. There were a deluge of complaints to that effect around the tanoa, and in the print and audio media. And then that grassroots griping quickly turned into a contest of “nationalist” rhetoric amongst the Fijian political parties. That “competition” destroyed the Fijian support of the FA and VLV parties which had joined the Labour coalition. And it eventually and inexorably degenerated into the open insurrection of the Speight coup a year later.
Surely if the Fijian electorate felt cheated or bullied again following the 2001 and 2006 elections, we should have expected to see some kind of repeat of this pattern of dissatisfaction – or at the very least, its underlying tensions. By contrast, what can we deduce from the fact that we are seeing exactly that kind of tension and discontent now post-coup, which was entirely absent from the Fijian electorate post-elections
In fact, the only Fijian post-election complaints we heard were from Frank – whose soldiers co-incidentally voted for the SDL in an overwhelming numbers despite Frank having made it very clear to them beforehand that they should not vote that way. This is interesting because it is “proof positive” right under Frank’s nose that Fijians do not generally comply with political coercion to vote in a certain way – even when that pressure is applied to them by someone who has even more authority over their lives than their local chief or talatala!
Also, I think that to blame the Methodist Church for Fijian nationalism is simply to ignore the evidence. The Bible says ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of Jesus Christ, and Methodist politics is no exception! But if Methodism is the primary cause of Fijian nationalism, then why for example were there also a substantial number of Catholics (or SDAs, or other denominations) amongst the 2000 rebels? If prominent Catholic leaders like Mataca and Ratu Mara openly opposed the ’87 and 2000 coups, why were their examples and guidance not reflected more representatively amongst the many grassroots Catholics who supported the 2000 coup? Surely we should expect to see something like that if religion was indeed the main motivator of peoples’ political attitudes to the 2000 coup? Why indeed is the overwhelmingly Catholic village of Somosomo refusing to even receive a delegation on the Military Charter, which by extension, is now headed by Fiji’s top Catholic? Surely a better explanation is just that some other factor, like ethnicity, is an even stronger determinant of peoples’ political attitudes! So it looks like what we really have here is just another wrong guess on Fiji’s coup culture by Frank’s 104-out-of-400-highschool-dropout, pea-brain!
Yet it is upon those very same flawed assumptions and perspectives that the infamous Military Charter is now being erected! The very same ignorance, the very same tunnel-vision, the same inexperience, the same stupidity and the same populist irrationality!
So even if the Charter ever does manage to get further than the T & J debacle, how long could that last? Haven’t these people ever heard of the word “sustainability”? Don’t they understand that the TITANIC efforts at propaganda manipulation they have already tried just to get some people to change their political views, are unsustainable! And if they ever hope for those minds to stay changed, they will need to maintain that through ongoing interference and micro-management forever after! In other words, we’ll have to stay in a dictatorship for the military’s Charter hopes to stay afloat. That is because the Military Charter is an artificial proposition that simply lacks sufficient intrinsic merit to achieve the standalone acceptance or allegiance from Fijians that it needs to be self-sustaining.
So of course, as long as we’re in a dictatorship, we can forget about any chance of a return to “normalcy”, or of “moving forward”, or of creating a “better Fiji”! This in-built self-destruct mechanism in the Military Charter’s implementation strategy reminds me of what Agent Smith said to the police detective whose men were trying to arrest Trinity at the beginning of the first Matrix movie: “Your men are already dead – they just don’t know it yet!”
Comment by Jean d’Ark — November 2, 2007 @ 6:58 am |
Good analysis of the situation JD…
Vinaka
Comment by ulumaji — November 4, 2007 @ 10:29 am |
JD,
Could you please ask your readers to go to http://goodmenandwomendoingsomething.blogspot.com/2007/11/time-to-make-stand.html
and email their disgust tot he email addresses to the email addresses listed? the idea is to flood the IG with emails, so that they cannot claim the popular support they are fond of referring to.
Comment by FijianBlack — November 8, 2007 @ 6:23 am |