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FijiFirst Party takes parties by the horns: 'There is no place for the GCC in modern Fiji, and Christianity and native Fijian land ownership is safe', Bainimarama tells prospective voters as his party kicks-off its campaign

8/7/2014

9 Comments

 
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FijiFirst Party For Us:

Lokia couple Petero Kaveni, 40, and his wife, Alisi Kaveni, 35, says on any given day, their government of choice would be one that "walks the talk". And out of all the political parties and governments they have lived under, FijiFirst embodies the idea, they said. "Their assistance is wholesome, benefits everyone and not just a group of people," Petero said. With five children, all of whom are girls, the couple's main concern is to ensure a better future and better Fiji for all them.

And according to the couple, the free education provision to all primary and secondary school students, introduced by the government this year, is a move in the right direction, and an initiative they welcome with open arms.

"We have three children who are attending school this year so the free education grant was a great help to us. We were able to focus what we could save on their stationery, their daily well-being and ensure they attend school daily with healthy lunches.

"Every parent wants the best for their children and we are no different," Petero said. He said previous governments would talk the same talk, but when it came to delivering "it was a different matter."
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Bowled over: Lokia couple Petero Kaveni, 40, and his wife, Alisi Kaveni, 35 say they will vote for FijiFirst Party in the September elections
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"We had been asking for our roads to be developed. We had past governments come in to see, but none came back to act on it. "The Bainimarama government however, their approach is different.

They see what needs to be done and they do it. "He (Bainimarama) had come over to Lokia to watch one of the rugby matches featuring the Army team. He saw the state of the road and bridge and before we knew it, he sent back people from the army to work on it. So, if there is a party we will vote for, it'll be FijiFirst."

The Kaveni couple was among more than 350 people who attended the FijiFirst party's first campaign drive at Naikakogo Primary School last night. Source: Fijilive, 8 July 2014.

FROM THE ARCHIVES: Fijileaks will, from time to time, reproduce relevant and controversial opinion columns that were penned by VICTOR LAL in the Fiji Sun before the deportation of the then Fiji Sun publisher Russell Hunter in 2008. Lal's opinion pieces have been removed from Fiji Sun archives by the present pro-regime SUN team.


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RATU SIR LALA SUKUNA AND NLTB: FACT AND FICTION

‘Where will you find in Fiji the Indian sitting under the tree
his father planted.’ - Governor Sir Arthur Richards

PictureGovernor Richards
BY VICTOR LAL (Fiji Sun, 2005):

It was one of the wisest of Fiji’s colonial governors, Sir Arthur Richards (later Lord Milverton), who first offered to Ratu Sukuna the seed of an idea that produced the Native Land Trust Board. But it was Ratu Sukuna who planted the seed, nourished it, and gave the resulting plant sturdy growth and permanent form.


The preceding statement is how the NLTB has portrayed the great Lauan chief to us on its official website. In other words, if it had not been for Ratu Sukuna, the Fijians would have been a ‘people without a land’. Now, a row has broken out between Professor Ron Duncan of USP and NLTB general manager, Kalavati Bakani, on the role and function of the NLTB in Fijian society. Bakani’s robust response also smacks of ‘Hello, what do you know, Professor Duncan, about the NLTB and its role as a guardian of native lands in Fiji’.

What is the truth about NLTB and Ratu Sukuna? The answer will not be found in what has been written and perpetuated by the historians, the NLTB, the Fiji Government, and Fijian nationalists on Ratu Sukuna but what has not been written on the NLTB and the Lauan chief.

It lies in the examination of the private papers of Milverton, the initial architect of the NLTB, which has been gathering dust in the University of Oxford’s Rhodes House Library, the former depositary library of colonial studies. Milverton’s private and family papers are off limits to researchers. I was however recently granted permission to revaluate his private papers, especially those pertaining to his governorship in Fiji nearly 70 years ago.

Let us see how Ratu Sukuna came to be involved in the creation of the NLTB.

The NLTB was created in 1940 by the Native Land Trust Ordinance (also known as the NLTO). Governor Richards landed with his family in Suva on 28 November 1936. By early February 1937 he was confronted with a major ‘Indian problem’ which was visible on the horizon:

‘What are 200,000 people in a country which could easily support ten times that number? However at their present increase the future lies with the Indians. The Fijian is so far behind.’

He also remembered one grey-haired old Indian coming to him and saying: ‘Where will you find in Fiji the Indian sitting under the tree his father planted.’ He had an Indian cook, Bala.

On 26 February 1937, in a letter to Gerald Creasy of the British Colonial Office in London, he refers for the first time to Ratu Sukuna. At the time when Richards arrived in Suva, Ratu Sukuna was on a trip to Europe paid for by ‘voluntary’ contributions from the people. Richards proposed to ask him if this were true when he returned, but he had no intention of breaking him.

‘He is too potentially valuable and he would be a very dangerous malcontent. He is 49 years of age, a member of Leg Co and votes as he pleases. I have a mind to make him my Adviser on Native Affairs. I propose to gamble a little on him, to trust him and, I hope, to use him for the good of the country in solving the land question.’

His choice was a good one. They became friends with complete trust in each other and together they worked on Richards’ plan for land reform which would radically change the old communal system. The basis of the plan rested on the fact that the Fijian community possessed five times as much land as they could use either then or at any time in the future having regard to their visible population trends, and in pointing this out in speeches which he made to Fijian assemblies in every province throughout the country.

Richards made it plain that, if they insisted on holding back and they could not hope to use, which was their prerogative, the future of their country must be troubled. With diplomatic impartiality, he went on to point out what the Indians had done to bring prosperity to their country.

He wrote to Creasy on 7 September 1937: ‘People tell me that I have the confidence of the Fijians and anyway the name of the King’s representative is still something to conjure with here. The Fijians trust the King and will take from the Governor what they would take from no one else. Perhaps with Sukuna’s help I may be able to solve the problem. My idea is to turn him on to dividing up the country into lands surrendered by them to the Crown to be held in trust and allocated at the Crown’s will on what terms it considers just to anyone, Fijian or Indian or European, but the chief objective is the Indian. No more freehold - only long leases. I should constitute a small Board of which the Governor would be Chairman and would always sit as such, to deal with difficult decisions during the land division, and afterwards to be in general control of the allocations.’

All rent revenue from the land so allocated was to be paid into a welfare fund for the benefit of the indigenous Fijian population.

Ratu Sukuna supported the plan whole-heartedly and Richards warmly acknowledged the lead which he took in persuading the chiefs to agree to it. There were already young Fijians who were impatient with the old communal system and wanted personal freedom from it, but nevertheless the readiness of the chiefs and their people to agree to the proposals was probably the finest act of trust in colonial history.

Ratu Sukuna estimated that he could draw up the most equitable division of land within two or three years.

Unfortunately, Richards was transferred to Jamaica a few months later, and although the scheme was proceeded with for a time, it was hindered by the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 before it could be implemented.       


Professor Spike Boydell: Why Land is Central to Fiji's future stability?

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Read Spike Boydell's feature editorial in the Fiji Times of Saturday 7th June; Boydell highlights that being clear on land issues, having equitable leases that are fit for purpose at market rents, and respecting the paramountcy of iTaukei land – the vanua – is central to long term economic and political stability in Fiji:
http://customarylandsolutions.com/2014/06/07/why-land-is-central-to-fijis-future-stability/

Fijileaks readers may be interested in the piece about the Fiji elections that aired on ABC News 24 ‘The World’ : http://www.abc.net.au/news/abcnews24/programs/the-world/

and a related audio piece on ABC Radio Australia - Pacific Beat - http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/pacific/radio/program/pacific-beat/call-for-land-policies-ahead-of-fijis-elections/1332384?autoplay=1332412

Both are also available on Boydell's  the Customary Land Solutions website: (www.customarylandsolutions.com).
9 Comments
Graham Davis Junior
8/7/2014 02:48:30 am

Victor bhai,

We miss your hard-hitting columns in the Fiji Sun, more so now that Fiji is heading for the polls in September.

But we beg you to throw your lot with FijiFirst Party which is trying to move Fiji forward!

Your support for Sodelpa will take you and your people no where - the day it is back in power, the first thing it will do is chop down your great-great grandfather's "TREE" down.

I have said it before, and repeat, you and Wadan Narsey are the only two who have consistently stood up against this regime, all others had been cowardly waiting for the elections, chiefs, thieves, and wannabe politicians of the old and new - bhai, join FijiFirst in moving Fiji forward!

Our great leader Bainimarama and Khaiyum know the true value of your worth to FIJI!

God bless!

Reply
8 years of dictatorship
8/7/2014 04:18:15 am

Cheap talk. Warden and Victor aren't the only ones who've been consistently opposed to Fiji's dictatorship.

Reply
Talk Talk
8/7/2014 05:38:40 am

Cheap Talk

If you mean others - yes - where are they now - all wanting to sit on their backsides in Parliament

8 years of dictatorship
8/7/2014 07:17:19 am

Cheap talk indeed: ask n answer your own questions. Tut...tut...

CHOR khaiyum
9/7/2014 01:09:31 am

What nonsense - Your so-called great leaders are so unimaginative and unoriginal that they could not even come up with an original name for their FijiTheft Party. They are just a bunch of cheap two-penny impostors and chors who would never win no elections - by stealing another party's name - Shame really.

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Fijian Commoner
8/7/2014 03:32:45 am

Where is Bakani now - waiting for a possible spell in Naboro?


Bakani pleads guilty

Shalveen Chand
Tuesday, June 24, 2014

FORMER Native Lands Trust Board general manager Kalivati Bakani was convicted of five counts of abuse of office by the High Court in Suva yesterday.

Bakani, 63, pleaded guilty to five counts of abuse of office.

He admitted to using extinct mataqali funds and government grants to finance businessman Ballu Khan's IT company Pacific Connex through Vanua Development Corporation Limited (VDCL), a limited liability company of NLTB.

VDCL is the investment arm of NLTB.

According to the summary of facts for the first charge Bakani approved a $2million loan for Pacific Connex by VDCL on March 19, 2004.

Bakani instructed financial institutions to allow the release of the term deposits so money which belonged to extinct mataqali was provided to Pacific Connex as a loan.

Of this amount only $135,000 was repaid by Pacific Connex.

On the second count Bakani admitted he facilitated another loan to Pacific Connex for $900,000 by using extinct mataqali funds without the approval of NLTB on September 24, 2004.

Of this amount only $40,500 was repaid.

On the third count, Bakani admitted to using a $1m government grant to VDCL as security for a loan for Pacific Connex without the approval of the NLTB in March 2005.

On the fourth count, Bakani admitted receiving the government grant money back with interest from a financial institution and then used the same money as security in April 2005 so Pacific Connex could be provided with a $1m overdraft facility from ANZ.

Two years later, ANZ set off the overdraft with a VDCL term deposit leaving VDCL with $108,939.19.

On the fifth count, Bakani accepted having NLTB act as surety for a $350,000 Credit Corporation loan to Pacific Connex in July 6, 2005 without NLTB approval.

And then on September 28, 2005, he offered another loan of $1m to Pacific Connex through VDCL.

FICAC prosecution stated on each of the counts NLTB and indigenous Fijians were prejudiced.

Justice Janaka Bandara said the court would sentence Bakani after the conclusion of the trial of Keni Dakuidreketi who was also charged with five counts of abuse of office arising from dealings between VDCL and Pacific Connex.

Bakani was released on bail and told to return to court on July 11 while Mr Dakuidreketi's trial starts tomorrow.

Reply
sunset
8/7/2014 04:22:51 am

Shame on Bakani et all on Board!

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Franks $185k Leave Pay
16/7/2014 03:34:08 am

Bakani found guilty for approving loan without NLTB's approval. I guess despite being the GM, he had no authority to approve such loans, hence he pleads guilty.

However who approved Frank's leave pay of $185k odd dollars?

Anyone charged for that yet? Or are they excempted for being President's thieving gang?

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Roads and Past Governments
8/7/2014 04:55:36 am

Some of these or majority of them wearing FijiFirst t-shirt do not know what budget the previous govt's had to spend on roads and bridges that their roads were neglected for so long.

Does this mean those Nasinu side roads that are now full of pot-holes should say we never had so many potholes as much as we have seen in thelast 8 years, so we shall vote FijiFirst out!!!

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