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WELCOME to Holiday Inn Quarantine Designated Hotel: In the three days you are with us, you can dump your luggage in your ROOM, walk out of the hotel as far as the Green Zone - Tappoos - and come back to the hotel

18/3/2022

A relative of our Editor-in-Chief relayed the above when she returned last week to Australia from Suva. Here is what the relative conveyed to us
'What kind of quarantine is this 3 nights in a hotel? Just, a bloody money-making scam, not to mention the $59 per person Covid test. We were told that we couldn't take the visitors into our room but they could come to the hotel and sit, eat, and scream in the hotel's foyer. We even saw relatives bringing cooked food to the hotel for their families and scores were watching rugby in the foyer. When we asked the hotel manager why should we accept such quarantine nonsense, she said, Isa, ask the FFP government. Worst, when we were picked up at the airport on arrival by a designated taxi, we refused to get in after the taxi driver asked if it was ok for another passenger to jump into our taxi to Suva. We flatly refused, for we were observing all strict Covid travel and vaccine rules. We had made an emergency trip to visit a very elderly and frail relative admitted to the CWM Hospital in Suva. We are so angry that we were cheated out of $2,0000 by the FFP government and Holiday Inn. If we could meet relatives in the foyer, eat their homemade food, and roam around the so-called Green Zone, we could have just gone to our relatives and quarantined in one of their rooms for three days. Shame.'

The Ministry of Commerce, Trade, Tourism and Transport is reviewing the requirement of a three-night stay at a Care Fiji Certified hotel. This was according to the minister Faiyaz Koya during the Fiji Chamber of Commerce and Industry panel discussion yesterday. ”

Instead, we are now looking at visitors – particularly returning residents and those coming to visit family – to have the option to go straight home, so long as they have a pre-booked COVID-19 test within 48 hours of landing in Fiji,” he said.

“This will make us even more competitive. We are finalising the logistics for this and we expect an announcement very soon.

“When the tourism sector recovers – so do other supporting ones like agriculture, construction, retail, transport, arts and entertainment.

“More money flows into the economy, more jobs are created, more MSMEs grow.”

Mr Koya added the recovery they had seen was primarily based on the US and half of Australia markets alone.
“Since then, we have seen more of Australia open up,” he said.

“And as of March, New Zealand, our second largest visitor market has opened.

“So we’re looking at more visitors.”

Since re-opening of the international borders to Travel Partners Fiji has seen around 39,728 international visitors in December and January according to the minister.

Mr Koya said that was an incredible feat considering the country was also dealing with the global impacts of the Omicron variant, and by a Tropical Cyclone (TC Cody).

“From the initial 14 Travel Partners, today, we have 66 – including almost all our key trading, especially our Pacific Island neighbours,” he said.

These numbers, according to Mr Koya meant more Fijians could return back to work, businesses could recover and new ones could open up as well as restore nearly third of Fiji’s GDP sector.

CONGRATULATIONS, Mereseini Rakuita: She jumped and joined FFP, got elected to Parliament under 2013 Constitution, and now elected Principal Strategic Lead – Pacific Women by the Pacific Community. COUPS PAY

18/3/2022

She had entered Parliament in 2014 under the rotten d'Hondt Electoral System with a meagre 1,167 VOTES, rising to become Cabinet Minister. In 2013, she was Aiyaz Khaiyum's right-hand woman (one of the many enablers towards dictatorship), as the Registrar of Political Parties, prompting Professor Yash Ghai to state the following in his 'Notes on Fiji's Political Parties Decree':
'It is introduced by an unelected regime to establish rules for the formation, regulation, and dissolution of political parties.'
She had not intimated that she will run and join FFP as a candidate. Sadly, like many before her, her departure from Government has been portrayed as standing up for i-Taukei on the Land Bill 17. She had joined FFP in the full knowledge that her political leader and coupist had dismantled the Great Council of Chiefs and taken over the i-Taukei Land Trust Board as chairman. She became Lands Minister before moving to Women's Ministry. It acted as a springboard for the current new position.

Ghai: Neutrality Questioned

Former Minister for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation Mereseini Rakuita has been appointed as the Principal Strategic Lead – Pacific Women by the Pacific Community.

SPC Director General Dr Stuart Minchin says that Rakuita will be taking on the new role from the 4th of April, bringing with her a wealth of experience leading national and regional efforts for gender equality.

Minchin says as the Principal Strategic Lead, Rakuita will be a member of SPC’s Senior Leadership Team and work across the organization, in collaboration with the Executive Office and Human Rights and Social Development Division.

The Principal Strategic Lead will champion gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, ensuring these tenets are central to SPC’s work, to bring about the transformational changes required to improve the status of women and girls in the Pacific region. Source: FijiVillage News

As a former Registrar of Political Parties, she had no hesitation to hitch
a ride on the stolen FijiFirst party name

APRIL ELECTION SHOWERS: Elections Commission give parties nod to begin their election campaigns. But Opposition parties have tied their fortune to Coupist Rabuka, bogus Opinion Polls - Too late to Break Free

17/3/2022

Fijileaks: It beggars belief how NFP, led by the so-called PROFESSOR, ran and handed its political fortune to Coupist and self-confessed RACIST Sitiveni Rabuka and his PAP
But, then, the NFP traitors just cannot forego the political alliance they had forged with Coupist in 1999 and got a drubbing at the election. In 2001 and 2006 elections, the NFP got further drubbings and became irrelevant in Parliament
* Savenaca Narube, WHO? As for Unity Fiji, its leader, intoxicated with the desire to form a grand opposition coalition, is still asleep, with occasional press releases
* We had privately urged both BIMAN PRASAD and SAVENACA NARUBE to look to history, cut themselves loose from Coupist Sitiveni Rabuka, and ignore Fiji Sun Opinion Polls, in which we had never placed any trust or faith.
Our Editor-in-Chief has first-hand knowledge of those polls
We told these two leaders that a vast majority of voters are looking to parties and political leaders who are NOT COUPISTS but these two leaders bought into Fiji Sun's opinion polls favouring Rabuka, began wetting in their underpants - one sneaked up into Rabuka's sulu and the other is still hoping to join him, or persuade Rabuka to join his Unity Fiji
If we give the gullible the benefit of doubt, their leaders are trailing in the so-called Fiji Sun* opinion poll because they allowed Rabuka the political space rather than distancing themselves from him and attacking him and Frank Bainimarama, the two coupists. In Prasad's case, he believes all he needs to do is win enough Indo-Fijian votes so he can go into coalition with Rabuka's People's Alliance Party.
We were equally shocked that Narube formed a loose coalition with FLP's Mahendra Chaudhry, who joined Bainimarama's Interim Cabinet as Finance Minister and was later convicted for foreign currency violations
We told them that Rabuka should not be described as a former Prime Minister, for he was elected twice in 1992 (with Chaudhry's FLP votes) and 1994 under a racist 1990 Constitution which had barred non i-Taukei Fijians from becoming Prime Minister. Under his rule, non i-Taukei were second class citizens, barred from scholarships and top civil service jobs
Under the 1990 Constitution, the President, Chief Justice, and heads of the Military, Police, and Public Service were prescribed exclusively for i-Taukei Fijians.
His government's financial track record is atrocious, and as soon as the voters got the opportunity, they chucked him out in 1999
Since 2000, he has been wandering in the political wilderness, accused of inciting mutiny at the barracks, and double-crossing every party he either founded, joined or led: SVT and SODELPA
SODELPA. Now, it has got rid of extremists and coupists from its ranks, we are inclined to believe it has better prospects at the poll
* We also argued that if Rabuka manages to con a vast majority of i-Taukei voters to vote for his PAP, his victory will provide the RFMF, under the 2013 Constitution, the perfect excuse to remove him, for Fiji cannot return to his rule from 1987-1999, where i-Taukei reigned supreme. And, his alleged role in the mutiny could put RFMF unity at risk
Sitiveni Rabuka is a Duna* and will remain a Duna - Rabuka!
FFP is vulnerable and can be defeated but not with Rabuka's help
A COUPIST IS A COUPIST
Rabuka has Apologised: President Joe Biden has branded Vladimir Putin a War Criminal. What if Putin apologises, does that mean he should be forgiven and rewarded? Excuse us, Fiji's Racistputin is hiding behind the Immunity he gave himself in 1988 and that was extended to the 2006 Coupist Frank Bainimarama
The Opposition parties should have turned, and it is still not too late, on Rabuka and his PAP. Instead of trying and sleep in bed with him - the lesser of two evil syndromes so pervasive in post coups Fiji
HISTORY, you gullible fools, HISTORY!
In 1986, another Professor from USP, PROFESSOR VIJAY NAIDU, had released an Opinion Poll claiming the late Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara's Alliance Party will win 36 seats in
May 1987 election.
*Who won? Dr Timoci Bavadra, only for Rabuka to end his rule with coup

OFF THE MARK: Vijay Naidu

Fijileaks: We need and are waiting for a similar press release from Unity Fiji on Sitiveni Rabuka's Financial track record from 1987 to 1999

The Leader of Unity Fiji and former Governor of the Reserve Bank of Fiji, Savenaca Narube, said that the recent glowing statement of the economic management of the Minister for the Economy by the CEO of the Fiji Airways was a show of public appreciation for the government’s financial bailout and his appointment as the Chairman of the Fiji Development Bank.

Mr. Narube said that while the CEO was forced to make the right noises with the Minister for the Economy
by his side, his praises were misplaced, hollow and needed to be corrected.

The former Governor said that this incident sadly reflected what was happening across the country because
of fear and intimidation. In his view, companies and individuals were singing false praises that the Minister
wanted to hear in the fear of a backlash if they did not do so.

The Leader of Unity Fiji said that the performance of the Minister for Finance in economic and financial
management was the worst in history. The facts speak for themselves.

a) Over 45% of the population or 400,000 people were living in poverty. Poverty was already rising
to over 30% before the COVID-19 reached Fiji.
b) The steep increase in the debt level of the country to 90% of GDP was made worse by wasteful
expenses and the decision by the Minister to reduce duties on vehicles including luxury cars. Debt
was already over 52% of GDP before COVID-19.
c) The Minister for the Economy borrowed over $300 million last year from offshore to prop up
foreign reserves when there was no need to do so while he continued to waste taxpayer’s money
on such luxuries as heavily tinted vehicles for $30 million per year.
d) The lack of diversification of the economy had deepen the economic recession during the COVID
19. All resource-based sectors had been declining well before COVID-19.
e) The Minister had refused to intervene to ease the rapid rise in the cost of living which placed a
heavy burden on the people.
f) The doubling of the Ministers’ allowances and salaries while the income of many people had
remained stagnant contributing to the rise in poverty.
g) The Minister was withholding $60 million of USP grants sacrificing the education of our youths.

Narube added that the economy was in a deep recession while inflation was rising rapidly. As debt servicing rose to $700 million per year, the Government was struggling to fund essential expenditures.

Sadly, the situation would get worse. The impact of the Ukraine war was bound to hit our economy through higher food and fuel prices, lower tourist arrivals and less foreign investment.

Narube stressed that fear was making people sing false praises when we should be demanding better economic and financial management. This lack of courage and the pursuit of self-preservation were not helping anyone especially the poor. He urged the people to be brave and honest enough to speak the truth

MOHAMMED SANEEM, Never MIND the One Mind One Goal Facebook. Face Up and admit that under Electoral Act you were not qualified for the position of Election Supervisor and still ignoring High Court judgments

16/3/2022

BEYOND COMPARISON: One Mind, One Goal has a readership of over 250,000, and most of the postings come from inside Fiji, by the Fijians.
It's called Citizen Journalism - Fijians on the ground, telling TRUTH. Unlike the FFP government FB page which censors adverse comments, including anti-regime critics who just throw commentators off their pages, and NFP which has even blocked Fijileaks, One Mind One Goal is owned by Fijians of all races, who freely reveal their country's ills. Keep reading it, folks, and keep holding crook peoples and parties to account. One Mind One Goal has more readers than the votes Frank Bainimarama got in the 2018 election. Khaiyum's 13,000 votes not worth mentioning. We notice now he has weighed into One Mind One Goal. Lets FACE IT, Khaiyum, One Mind One Goal is truly the ordinary person's Facebook

WHATS UP, NFP and DR GANESH CHAND? In recent months, Fijileaks has not only been blocked by NFP from accessing its FB site but our Founding Editor-in-Chief is 'fakely' accused of being on QORIVS payroll

15/3/2022

Coming soon: How a former FNU accountant forged former Vice-Chancellor Nigel Healey's signature for a job with Chand in the Solomons
Fijileaks:
* The following exchanges (see below) are excerpted from a WhatsApp Group chat whose membership includes NFP leader BIMAN PRASAD.
* The allegation that our Editor-in-Chief is on Qorvis Payroll is FAKE (LIE).
* Dr Chand is bitter for we nearly sent him to Naboro Prison over FNUGate Scandal.
* As for Prasad, he will do anything to hide under Rabuka's sulu, so he can be a part of PAP-NFP Coalition government.
* We have told Prasad, both privately, and publicly, that by cutting a political deal with Rabuka who raped, robbed, tortured, and disenfranchised Indo-Fijians from 1987 to 1999 that he (Prasad) is a TRAITOR to Indo-Fijians and Rabuka's victims.

The NFP, when we tried and hold its leader to account, began spreading fake lies around Fiji and abroad that our Editor-in-Chief is on QORVIS PAYRoll since 2013. Chand started LIES

Fijileaks: The above exchange took place in response to our story below. We deny the Blatant LIES

No Smiling Matter, Rabuka's Crimes. But then, this 'dark-haired' one, was hiding under the bed at USP in 1987

The Prime Minister-In-Waiting

*As for who will become Prime Minister in the event of Bainimarama's passing, the FFP Constitution clearly states that it has to be one of the three Founding Members. In this instance, it is the party's General Secretary AIYAZ KHAIYUM.

* Alternatively, the RFMF Commander Jone Kalouniwai could step in under the doctrine of national interest, as empowered in Aiyaz Khaiyum's 2013 Constitution of Fiji, to order that Khaiyum continue only as ACTING PRIME MINISTER until the election is held this year or in early 2023

* But, if we follow strict constitutionalism, then Aiyaz Khaiyum will have to be appointed the next Prime Minister of Fiji. There is no need for a Government of National Unity, for in the event of Bainimarama's death, the next person, Aiyaz Khaiyum, must lead Fiji until the election.

*Any coconut wireless whispering from NFP that 'Fiji Is Not Ready for an Indo-Fijian Prime Minister' unless that Prime Minister is an NFP HINDU, must be swiftly dealt with, and the leadership taken into custody in the national interest. We cannot have a repeat of 1977, when two Hindus, Karam Ramrakha and Mrs Irene Jai Narayan, denied Siddiq Koya from becoming Prime Minister because he was an Indo-Fijian MUSLIM.

* Let these historical political Hindu traitors form a coalition with
Sitiveni Rabuka's People's Alliance Party. Its in their political DNA.

*In his autobiography, Children of the Indus (2004) , FLP leader Mahendra Chaudhry claims that 'at the hour of his triumph Mr Koya had been stabbed in the back by his own people'. Chaudhry was talking about the 1977 events.

*But, we have been there before, at the edge of death chamber, only for Bainimarama to declare in 2010 that "I AM STILL ALIVE".

Fijileaks: Someone impersonating Graham Davis on National Federation Party Facebook page. The comment was deleted by NFP

Fijileaks: We remain banned from accessing the NFP site. The taste of things to come if Rabuka's political chambermaid crawls into political bed with him. All are reminiscent of 1987 press censorship and criticisms.

MINIMUM ACCOUNTABILTY: As politicians exploit minimum wage rise for election purposes, when will the poor voter hold PAP leader Rabuka to account for stealing $400million from NBF, Chaudhry over secret $2m

13/3/2022

* And former PONGA professors turned politicians who were on over $250,000 salaries, not to mention the political donations made by big business houses to all parties.
* Oh, also we mustn't forget the FFP Ministers and the Prime Minister
on fat cat salaries and huge daily travel allowances.
* And the trade unionists who ran and joined the FNFP Board after the 2006 coup; disappeared with sitting allowances running into thousands of dollars each. One has become a new darling of PAP, the other must be hovering in the shadows for election ticker ticket
* It is equally shocking how Opposition leaders, like a 'band of thieves, have ganged up together in their sole pursuit to bring down FPP, and share political power with the very thieves who sunk Fiji into poverty in 1987, 2000, and 2006
Get ready to see Ponga Professor and Duna Coupist in Coalition Embrace, perpetuating the fraud that they tried to pull on us in 1999. Maybe, this time around, Sitiveni Rabuka will once again be presented by the NFP as the 'Man of the Millenial' in 2022/23?
* In the May 1999 election, our good friend and NFP's economic expert and political candidate Dr Wadan Narsey, touted as a possible Finance Minister in an SVT-NFP coalition government, presented the party's coalition partner and SVT leader Sitiveni Rabuka at an election campaign in Toorak, Suva, as the leader for 'The Coming Millenium'.
* As the Fiji Times columnist and veteran politician, the late Sir Vijay Singh saw it - 'For many, that was quite a lot to swallow, especially considering the unorthodox way in which Mr Rabuka had introduced himself to us in 1987'.
In the Suva City Indian Communal seat, Narsey lost on first preference to FLP. The SVT-NFP was routed at the polls, followed by Speight's coup, driving the very poor of all races into poverty, with the People's Coalition government claiming that big business houses were behind the 2000 George Speight coup.
Ironically, the Speight Coup made Mahendra Chaudhry a double-digit millionaire. He got $2million from the Indian government to allegedly re-locate to Australia with his family. In 2014, he was convicted for foreign exchange currency violations

Chaudhry’s Australian lawyer had asked Justice Madigan to impose no conviction recording as his client had plans to contest then forthcoming 2014 September general election; said Chaudhry's house was valued at $300,000 and his only other property was his vehicle. And Chaudhry was suffering from diabetes, heart diseases and cardiac conditions.

In the last few weeks and totally out of the blue, the Minister for Economy, Aiyaz Sayed- Khaiyum, has remembered that the Government had promised in 2018 to review the minimum wages every two years.

So for the second time now, an Australian Associate Professor of Economics at Western Sydney University (Dr. Partha Gangopadhyay) arrived in Fiji to deliver a new national minimum wage for Fiji (more on Dr Partha’s credentials below).

From his presentations around the country, it seems that Dr Partha is proposing an increase of the national minimum wage from the current $2.68 per hour to between $3.45 and $3.65 per hour.

But he noted that the “changes would require a collective decision by the major players involved”.

So, what if the employers yet again refuse to accept the new minimum wages? Dr Partha gave everybody a way out, stating “if a consensus is not reached about the national minimum wage it’s nothing specific to Fiji. It’s more globally related”.

So Fiji’s workers will be back to square one, as they have been for 30 years. Dr Partha had concluded “I propose for a review every year…as per the inflation rate.

This is to ensure the real value of the national minimum wage is unchanged [but] it could be more acceptable to have it reviewed every two years”.

All workers would be asking: more acceptable to whom? But more importantly, they should be asking other serious questions:

will this new minimum wage actually work? (I suggest, no);
did the last minimum wage set by Dr Partha actually work? (no evidence has ever been offered);
why should workers depend for their living standards on ad hoc determinations of “minimum wages” which can never be made to work?; and
why were the far more effective 10 Wages Councils, industry by industry, abandoned by the Bainimarama Government in 2011?

Will new minimum wages work?
First, minimum wages, even for unskilled workers take no account of the harsh reality that there are certain industries or sectors in Fiji whose employers simply do not have the ability to pay even $3.45 per hour.

Second, there are industries and employers in Fiji who are doing extremely well (even in this COVID period).
These industries could afford to pay even $3.45 per hour, but will happily pay the lower minimum wage set by Government.

I suggest that any National Minimum Wage is just another game that Fiji’s employers are happy to play along with. This delays increasing wages as long as they can, and by as little as they can get away with. As the public and Opposition parties ask, is this just an elections gimmick by a government which has ignored declining real wages and increasing poverty for more than a decade?

Dr Partha’s credentials
For the Economy Minister to hire a foreign academic might suggest that he is some kind of expert in the field of labour markets and wage determination. But is he?

Dr Partha’s biography on the University of Western Sydney website says that he is an Associate Professor (one rank lower down from Professor) of Economics, Finance and Property.

On his webpage Dr Partha claims “In my capacity as a professional economist, I have created the current labour market architecture in Fiji”. Wow. Any labour economist would be surprised to hear that declaring one minimum wage for all of Fiji, once, is creating “labour market architecture”.

The public can ask: did Dr Partha do a thorough study of wage rates in Fiji industry by industry?

Has Dr Partha looked at any audited accounts of employers who allege they cannot pay the suggested minimum wages?

Has Dr Partha produced any reports of wages paid before and after his determination of the minimum wage last time? I would be pleasantly surprised if he has and have written to ask him.

Far more effective Wages Councils
So the media needs to ask Dr Partha if he bothered to read the first real study of the “labour market architecture” and wage determination in Fiji (by a mere local Professor, Wadan Narsey) before he began his minimum wages exercise?

I remind the Fiji public of the 2005 ECREA-financed 2005 study (Just Wages in Fiji: lifting workers out of poverty) which was launched with glowing words by the then Vice President of Fiji (the late Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi).

You can find it on Youtube. That study pointed out, with solid data and reading of all the records of meetings in the Ministry of Labour for 30 years, how workers’ wages had lagged behind the cost of living because employers kept alleging, without any proof, that they could not pay the wage increase according to the rate of inflation.

The ECREA study recommended that there be separate Wages Councils for different industries, but with one Chairman, empowered to set different minimum wages (Wages Regulation Orders or WROs) depending on the conditions within the industry.

The Councils would also be empowered to set differential rates within industries depending on the size of the employers, with small employers being allowed lower minimum wages.

Above all, there was a real protection for employers who were genuinely not able to pay the wage increase stipulated by the WROs.

All they had to do was to show their audited accounts to the Independent Chairman of the Wages Councils or the Minister of Labour, who had to keep the information confi dential.

The ECREA study was accepted and implemented by the Ministry of Labor during the Qarase Government. It was also initially accepted by the military Bainimarama Government when it took over in 2006.

It resulted in the far more effective 10 Wages Councils, industry by industry, under the passionate chairmanship of the late Father Kevin Barr.

But they were so effective that the employers successfully lobbied for them to be stifled and not implemented, year after year.

And in 2011, they were eventually abolished and replaced by one minimum wage.

The killing of the 10 wages councils
Fiji will remember that the late Father Barr sadly related on Fiji TV that he had not even been consulted on the decision. He publicly lashed out at Bainimarama’s “crony capitalism”.

He was then abused over the phone by a very powerful person and informed that his Fiji resident visa was not going to be renewed and that he had better start packing.

Father Barr said that not a single employer who claimed “inability to pay” ever showed their accounts to him or even the Minister of Labour.

The Bainimarama Government quickly gave in to the pressure from employers who just kept asserting that “times were hard”, as they had done for the previous 30 years.

So when the Bainimarama Government’s own Minister with a PhD in Economics (Dr Mahendra Reddy) in 2013 allegedly “scientifically” set the Minimum Wages at $2.32 per hour, even that low level was opposed by employers and not implemented.

Eventually in 2014 another Minister set the minimum wages at an even lower $2.00 per hour, with totally unknown impact.

Dr Partha’s first go
The Fiji public should remember Dr Partha’s statements on his first minimum wages exercise after “consultations” around the country.

He had at that time said that lowest paid workers were “not affected by food prices”, arguing that having looked at the “actual consumption baskets” (i.e. what people are actually consuming), he concluded that “many food prices remain unchanged” because they are price-controlled.

Even the Fiji Bureau of Statistics experts on household income and expenditure could have told Dr. Partha very differently.

But Dr. Gangopadhyay pronounced “That is why I am not giving them the full benefit of the cost of living” but “only giving them 50 per cent (or 2.6 percent)”.

The intelligent public can well ask: what is the science behind awarding only 50 per cent of the increase in cost of living? Or is it simply a cosmetic compromise?

Was that not yet again reducing the workers’ real wages because the increase was half that of the cost of living?

Indeed, one progressive employer (Kelly Hart) said that her company was already paying $3.70 an hour and even willing to work towards a $4 an hour rate, but her board had instructed her to hold off because “the Government has said we don’t have to.

This is where Government is holding things back” (The Fiji Times 1 June 2019).

Ms. Hart sensibly advised that all the parties need to “be locked in a room until they reach an agreement that is sustainable for business and effective for workers”.

Which was precisely the mechanism at the heart of the 10 Wages Councils which operated under one Chairman supported by technical staff and statistical data.

But that sensible mechanism was abolished by the Bainimarama Government in 2011.

Reinventing a square wheel
There has never been any report backed solidly by industry wide wages data, by either Dr Partha or Government, on how successful (or unsuccessful) his first minimum wage-setting has been.

So once more in 2022, and again after a series of “consultations” around the country and “expertly” observing “the increased rural poverty” and the global effects of COVID, Dr Partha is planning to set a new National Minimum Wage of between $3.45 to $3.65 per hour.

Employers will be so happy that Dr Partha has announced that even this minimum wage will be by “consensus between all the parties”. Ha ha ha.

The employers are the only party that really matters. They are already digging their heels in knowing that there is no systematic mechanism to enforce whatever minimum wage Dr Partha recommends (on whatever basis).

They also know that they can hold out for another review in two years’ time.

But unions, workers and voters at the next elections can ask the Opposition parties if they have any plans to revive the 10 (or more as was once recommended) systematic Wages Councils.

These can operate to regularly adjust workers’ minimum wages, industry by industry, employer by employer, based on the capacity of employers to pay as shown by their audited accounts, so that the wages of the poorest workers can keep up with the cost of living (CPI).

But oh dear, then there would be no need for any intervention by any strutting Minister of Economy who can pretend to throw elections carrots at gullible voters.

Or perhaps they are not so gullible.

WADAN NARSEY is a leading Fiji economist and commentator on political and economic affairs. The views expressed in this article are not necessarily those of The Fiji Times.

Fijileaks: Dr Partha Gangopadhyartha Gangopadhy below is yet to respond to our questions

RUNAWAY LASULASU AND UNFIJIAN RABUKA: When he lost the 1999 election, he ran away from SVT and became chairman of GCC. When he lost leadership to Gavoka, he ran away from Parliament and formed PAP

11/3/2022

GROW OUT OF IT: This Duna has never grown out of his lies since 1987

ISLAND CHILL: We wonder why Islands Business didn't bother to search its archives from September 1987 and confronted the Lasusalu-Jhooth?
Sa noda na qaqa - You have won - he told his misguided cheering i-Taukeis in 1987. Now, he is back with his PACK OF LIES, even blaming the late Mara. But here is what he had told the world in September 1987:

UNFIJIAN LASULASU AGAINST THE LAUAN CHIEF RATU MARA:
* We have dug up our archives from 1987 (remember there was no internet) and found that Rabuka is lying when he is now claiming that the late chief Ratu Mara was behind his 1987 racist coups.
In September 1987, he told one of Mara's Lauan subjects and journalist JALE MOALA of Islands Business to the question:
Moala: Did Mara have prior knowledge of the coups?*
Rabuka: NO!

Moala, now!

In a separate interview to Pacific Islands Monthly, on his second
KUTTU (Coup Two) on 25 September, Rabuka to question:
But you didn't tell him [Ratu Mara]? Re-the Second Coup
Rabuka: No, I didn't tell him. It would be unfair to him

People’s Alliance Leader Sitiveni Rabuka says what is unFijian about asking about the Prime Minister’s health as being Fijian is about asking about each other’s well-being and welfare.

Rabuka was responding to Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum saying that Rabuka’s comments about the Prime Minister’s health was extremely unFijian and lacked decorum and finesse.

Rabuka spoke in the iTaukei language where he said being Fijian was about asking about how someone and their family was doing.

LEAP FROG: We wonder what porky Ashwin Raj told the Commonwealth Forum of National Human Rights Institutions for FHRC to be re-admitted after 15 years. Criteria is for FHRC must be independent of Government

9/3/2022

UTTER SECRECY: Raj never revealed that he was secretly negotiating for re-admittance, for if he had done, we would have argued against the re-admittance of the Fiji Human Rights Commission, a howling lapdog of the FijiFirst Party government

Fiji has been re-admitted to the Commonwealth Forum of National Human Rights Institutions after a lapse of 15 years.

Director Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Commission, Ashwin Raj confirms Fiji was accredited on Monday night after months of intense lobbying, submission of documents, and rigorous interview processes.

“It’s been an incredibly taxing journey, but it’s paid off. We are a commission that is recognized in the eyes of the international community. We have a voice of our own, we have a standing internationally and at home. People might agree to disagree with the issues and might disagree with the stance we’ve taken but it does not suffuse the fact that we are a credible, recognized human rights commission.”

Raj says the Commission had to demonstrate its work and achievements as a human rights body as well as engage with international stakeholders to re-establish formal ties.

He says the fact that Fiji has been re-admitted to one of the highest international bodies for human rights issues is testament to the work done locally.

“There are hoards of people who come to us. They have nothing to eat, who have nowhere to go, escaping a situation of violence or discrimination. So for elite lawyers and civil society organizations, it might be a non-issue but for ordinary people, these are serious issues.”

Fiji was removed from the Commonwealth Forum of National Human Rights Institutions in 2007.

National Human Rights InstitutionsNational Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) are mandated to protect and promote human rights at a national level. They are independent of governments and civil society and have the task of ensuring international human rights commitments are effectively translated into action, enabling all citizens enjoyment of their rights.

NHRIs differ in how they fulfil their mandate, but broadly these activities include:

monitoring and investigating human rights issues;
advocating for individuals and groups in need of protection;
engaging with UN human rights mechanisms to hold State’s accountable for their human rights record;
providing education and awareness-raising to inform the public of their rights;
promoting access to justice and legal assistance;
providing recommendations to bodies such as governments and businesses to enhance compliance with human rights obligations.

NHRIs work together to tackle global human rights issues and advance international human rights protections.

Paris Principles

National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) organise themselves around the Paris Principles which were adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1993.

These Principles require NHRIs to:

Protect human rights, including by receiving, investigating and resolving complaints, mediating conflicts and monitoring activities; and
Promote human rights, through education, outreach, the media, publications, training and capacity building, as well as advising and assisting the Government.
The CFNHRI expects all members to strive towards and support each other to achieve full compliance with Paris Principles in the protection and promotion of human rights.

Et Tu Workers, Then Pops Up Anthony. Now, when WORKERS might get Pay Rise, Fat Cat Felix Anthony surfaces to want $5 per hour, minimum

9/3/2022

Fijileaks: It's most likely he is positioning for an election ticket from NFP or even PAP. His side-kick DANIEL URAI we notice has become a shameless cheerleader for Sitiveni Rabuka's People's Alliance Party

Urai had disputed the figures released by Khaiyum. He said they sat on multiple boards. Oh, just like Khaiyum has multiple portfolios?
Anthony says the FTUC dismisses the suggested increase to $3.45 or thereabouts as grossly inadequate to address our poverty crisis.
It looks like these two - 'Tom and Jerry' - have fat bank accounts

Fiji Trades Union Congress National Secretary, Felix Anthony is calling on the Government to seriously consider a minimum wage of $5.00 an hour which ought to be reviewed annually so that a decent Minimum Wage is attained.

Anthony says it is heartening to hear the same consultant talking about the need to increase the minimum wage which he had set at $2.32 and expected people to come out of poverty.

Speaking after the FTUC National Council meeting, Anthony says the past recommendation has resulted in more people falling into the poverty trap.

He says the most recent Bureau of Statistics figures indicate around 30 percent of the population live below the poverty line.

Anthony says the numbers are even greater and that is not to count those on the poverty line or slightly above.
He says the old argument by some employers that the minimum wage will create unemployment without any real evidence is simply a gimmick to keep wage levels low so that profits can be maximized.

Anthony says the FTUC dismisses the suggested increase to $3.45 or thereabouts as grossly inadequate to address our poverty crisis.

The FTUC National Secretary also says that the unions are baffled at the Government’s decision to hold these consultations when both the Minister and the hired consultant have publicly stated what the minimum wage ought to be.

Anthony asks how is it that decisions are already made and then consultations are held. He says the unions see this as nothing more than a public relations exercise and to create some hype in the community amongst workers before the general elections.

Anthony says the meeting also noted that there is absolutely no talk of a review of the various industry Wages Council Orders.

He says these set minimum wage and conditions for different industries.

The union leader says the normal procedure laid out in the Employment Relations Act is for the Employment Relations Advisory Board comprising of the Fiji Commerce and Employers Federation, the FTUC and Government to consider this matter and advise the Minister responsible.

Anthony says no such meeting took place or is planned.

He says this is a breach of the Employment Relations Act.

Anthony also says clearly, the Minister for Economy and everything else wants to take the credit and make an announcement in his Budget address later this month.

We have sent questions to Minister for Employment, Parveen Bala.

RIP: The Fiji Sun Publisher PETER LOMAS passes away. He was a softly spoken gentle giant who cut teeth in SPORTS Journalism but got sucked up and destroyed by COUPISTS. Rabuka's two COUPS saw him leave Fiji

9/3/2022

Fijileaks: Our Founding Editor-in-Chief will look back at his four-decade long association with the late Peter Lomas, starting on the original Fiji Sun. In fact, our Editor-in-Chief was designated by the paper's owners to take over from Lomas in May 1987, for Lomas wanted to return as the paper's Sports Editor. On 14 May 1987, the RACIST THUG Rabuka burst on the Fijian political scene and took over Fiji.

The late Peter Lomas

RABUKA destroyed so many journalists' careers, especially of those at the original Fiji Sun when he forcibly shut down the newspaper in 1987. The same thug is back, wanting to become Prime Minister of Fiji. In the good old days, both the old Fiji Sun and the Fiji Times were owned by veteran newspaper hands, who left us to just get on with journalism. Lomas was brought from Western Samoa to steady the current Fiji Sun ship while the late former publisher RUSSELL HUNTER was challenging his deportation from Fiji after the paper had revealed that Bainimarama's Interim Finance Minister MAHENDRA CHAUDHRY was hiding two million dollars from the Fijian taxpayers in his Sydney bank account. Lomas had to tread very gingerly, to ensure he was not on the next plane out of Fiji. That's why we keep telling Voters, Coup is a Coup. Throw all of them OUT

18 August 2012

Bula Peter

Any progress? I want to lodge the complaint of perjury against Mahend by the end of next week to DPP

Remember we also have writs against us (Leone included) from FIRCA which was slapped at the time of the tax stories but we were proved right

Cheers
Victor

The tax story was in Sunday Sun of 24 August 2008 - pages 1, 2, 3, 4

Legendary journalist and publisher Peter Lomas has been described as a dedicated individual who will be sorely missed by many.

Fiji Sun Board Chair, Ratu Ilaitia Tuisese says anyone at the newspaper will attest to the late CEO’s commitment to his work as he was always the first person in the office and the last to leave.

Tuisese also recalls that even when Lomas would be on leave from work, he would always somehow be in the office.

“But yeah you know it’s really sad, he was such a gentleman. He maintained who he was and the way he addressed us, directors, speaks of the man that he is. So a long history is gone.

Ratu Ilaitia also spoke fondly of his first encounter with Lomas when he was still a rugby player.

“My association with Peter goes a long way back when I used to play, used to be active in rugby. When he used to be on the field taking photos and what not, he was a sports writer at the time, this was way back in the 70’s. But little did I know that we would bump into each other again later on in the years – him being the CEO and publisher of Fiji Sun and me coming in as a Director of Fiji Sun.”

The Fiji Sun Board Chair adds that Lomas has stamped his mark in Fiji and the Pacific’s media history, through his work helping shape some of the media outlets today.

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As a former Registrar of Political Parties, she had no hesitation to hitch a ride on the stolen FijiFirst party name

Fijileaks: We need and are waiting for a similar press release from Unity Fiji on Sitiveni Rabuka's Financial track record from 1987 to 1999

Fijileaks: The above exchange took place in response to our story below. We deny the Blatant LIES

No Smiling Matter, Rabuka's Crimes. But then, this 'dark-haired' one, was hiding under the bed at USP in 1987

The Prime Minister-In-Waiting

Fijileaks: Someone impersonating Graham Davis on National Federation Party Facebook page. The comment was deleted by NFP

Fijileaks: We remain banned from accessing the NFP site. The taste of things to come if Rabuka's political chambermaid crawls into political bed with him. All are reminiscent of 1987 press censorship and criticisms.

GROW OUT OF IT: This Duna has never grown out of his lies since 1987

In a separate interview to Pacific Islands Monthly, on his secondKUTTU (Coup Two) on 25 September, Rabuka to question:But you didn't tell him [Ratu Mara]? Re-the Second CoupRabuka: No, I didn't tell him. It would be unfair to him

UTTER SECRECY: Raj never revealed that he was secretly negotiating for re-admittance, for if he had done, we would have argued against the re-admittance of the Fiji Human Rights Commission, a howling lapdog of the FijiFirst Party government

Fijileaks: It's most likely he is positioning for an election ticket from NFP or even PAP. His side-kick DANIEL URAI we notice has become a shameless cheerleader for Sitiveni Rabuka's People's Alliance Party

Archives

As a former Registrar of Political Parties, she had no hesitation to hitch
a ride on the stolen FijiFirst party name

In a separate interview to Pacific Islands Monthly, on his second
KUTTU (Coup Two) on 25 September, Rabuka to question:
But you didn't tell him [Ratu Mara]? Re-the Second Coup
Rabuka: No, I didn't tell him. It would be unfair to him