Blog Archives

Labouring over Technical GLITCH. FLP goes into overdrive questioning who is real Fiji High Commissioner to Australia, Ajay Bhai Amrit or David Kolitagane. 'Confusion, sheer incompetence …or something else, PM???

30/9/2023

30 SEPTEMBER 2023. A photo of the sacked Fiji High Commissioner to Australia, DAVID KOLITAGANE presenting his credentials to the Australian Governor-General David Hurley, resurfaced on the Fiji Consulate General & Trade Commission, Sydney, website.
The FLP ran with a story on the party's Facebook because the date on the photo read: 30 September 2023.
However, a bit of simple sleuth work would have revealed that the same photo appeared on the Fiji High Commission's official Australian website on 21 December 2022 when Kolitagane presented his credentials.
AJAY BHAI AMRIT's appointment to Australia has been rushed because Sitiveni Rabuka will be making an official visit to Australia in October.
We would have liked to see FLP questioning whether Ajay Bhai Amrit had declared to the PSC and the Coalition government his (Amrit Property Group's) portfolio of properties in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, where his parents reportedly moved to from London.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST?

Confusion, sheer incompetence …or something else, Prime Minister??? What a mess!

Let’s put it bluntly: Has the Rabuka government done a dirty on strong People’s Alliance Party supporter and financier, Ajay Bhai Amrit?

On 22 September 2023 it was publicly announced that Fiji Broadcasting Corporation chairman Ajay Bhai Amrit has been appointed Fiji’s new High Commissioner to Australia. The appointment aroused some controversy but Mr Amrit was invited to Government House and officially commissioned by President Wiliame Katonivere as High Commissioner to Australia. In reply Mr Amrit thanked the government for the appointment “as an important opportunity to advance the Vuvale Partnership to new heights”.

#BUTLoandBehold: The Fiji Consulate General and Trade Commission today put out a posting reporting David Kolitagane presenting his credentials to the Australian Governor General as Fiji’s new High Commissioner to Canberra.

SO WHAT IS HAPPENING?

Who is Fiji’s new High Commissioner to Australia: Ajay Amrit as announced in Fiji seven days ago or David Kolitagane as announced in Australia yesterday? How very embarrassing! Is it just an embarrassing faux pas on the part of the Rabuka government or is something more sinister at work here?

The interesting point is that pretty early in the Rabuka government’s reign Ajay Amrit was appointed chairman of the Fiji Broadcasting Commission. That in itself was controversial as it was largely seen as reward for his huge financial backing for the PAP’s 2022 election campaign. His subsequent announcement as High Commissioner to Australia was the second shocker. Mr Amrit promptly resigned from his chairmanship of FBC. Right on the heels of his resignation, former Fiji TV chairman Isoa Kaloumaira was named to replace him.

How the Coalition government intends to wriggle out of this latest embarrassment/blunder is anybody’s guess?
But as the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Prime Minister certainly has some explaining to do!

December 21, 2022
Fiji’s High Commissioner to Australia, His Excellency David Kolitagane, presented his credentials to His Excellency General, the Honourable David Hurley AC DSC (Retd), Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia. In conveying the greetings and well wishes of the President of the Republic of Fiji, Ratu Wiliame Katonivere, High Commissioner Kolitagane informed the Governor General that it was an honour for him to represent the Government and people of Fiji in Australia and he looked forward to working closely with the Australian Government.

Who is AJAY BHAI AMRIT? We don't know much about his London days but on his LinkedIn profile he tells us:

BTEC National Associates Degree in Travel and Tourism is a vocational qualification offered by Pearson. It is designed to provide students with the skills and knowledge required to pursue a career in the travel and tourism industry. The course covers a wide range of topics, including customer service, marketing, and event management, among others. The course is available at Level 3, which is equivalent to A-levels: West London College prospectus

Ajay Bhai Amrit during London days

SEX SCANDAL AT BRITISH ARMY BARRACK: Corporal ISIMELI SERU accused of plying fellow female soldier alcohol and moaned the drinks weren't taking effect before forcing himself on her, court martial hears

29/9/2023

A British Army corporal bought a female soldier alcohol and then complained the drinks were not taking effect before 'forcing himself on her', a court martial has heard.

Corporal Isimeli Seru, 40, sent WhatsApp messages to his comrade and 'pushed' her to go drinking with him at the on-site bar at the Invicta Park Barracks, in Maidstone, Kent.

He bought her two Strongbows and a Jack Daniels and then moaned 'they weren't having an effect', the hearing at Bulford Military Court, in Wiltshire, heard.

After three drinks she decided to go back to her room, but Cpl Seru followed her and offered to do her ironing and admin before he 'grabbed her' and started touching her body, the court martial was told.

It is then alleged he 'forced his tongue down her throat' and was 'rubbing her in-between her legs', only stopping when she burst out into tears and then offered her some food.

The female soldier managed to escape and went to a friend's room for help, the hearing was told.

Cpl Seru denies two charges of sexual assault and behaving in a sexual manner.

The court heard the pair were not close and the Sunday afternoon WhatsApp message was 'innocuous', reading 'What are you up to?'

Prosecuting, Rupert Gregory, said: 'She's not a drinker and she didn't want to drink but nevertheless, he pushed her.'

Giving evidence, the woman said: 'I said I didn't want to drink it at first and he was saying I was trying to get away from him. He bought a JD and brought that over.

'He was going around saying the drinks weren't having an effect on me.'

After three drinks, the woman said she needed to go and collect a parcel from the post room and Cpl Seru insisted on joining her.

There, the woman said she felt his hands around her waist but she 'just ignored it and brushed it off'.

She told the military court: 'As I started going back to my room he kept insisting "I will do your ironing for you" and "I will do your admin for you".

'I really didn't know what to think because he really wasn't taking the hint so I didn't know what to say but I didn't want to be rude or anything.

'I said I have admin but he wasn't getting the memo. He kept saying "I will do it".'

The court heard Cpl Seru entered her room and then 'grabbed her'.

Mr Gregory said: 'He grabbed her with both of his hands and pulled her towards him so that she was on top of him. He pulled her around so that she was lying next to him.

'During that, his hands were around her waist and he was feeling her body - specifically her chest area - and up and down her body.

'After a bit she was able to get up off the bed. He still had his arms around her so she pushed herself up and away from him.'

The soldier managed to escape and leave the room but when she came back, he is alleged to have tried again.
Mr Gregory said: 'As soon as she stepped through the door he grabbed her, put his hands around her, and did the same thing again.

'With this assault, he went a little bit further by moving his left hand in-between her legs and rubbing her in-between her legs.'

Describing the events, the female soldier tearfully told the court: 'He started feeling my chest again but then his hands moved down to my private area - in between my legs.

'He was rubbing but it was just outside my tights. That happened, I continually told him to stop but then he wouldn't stop so I got overwhelmed I started breaking down and crying.

'He was still trying to force himself to kiss me and he kept sticking his tongue in my mouth and I told him to stop.
'He stopped when he saw I was crying and was trying to wipe tears away from my face.

'He was asking me why I was crying, I said it was because of the alcohol. It wasn't.

'I didn't want him to feel like I was upset because I didn't know what else he was going to do so I said it was because of the alcohol.

'After he saw me crying again he asked if he wanted to do my ironing and then he asked if I wanted food.'
She then left the room and managed to get away, by going to her friend's room for help.

The trial continues. Source: The Daily Mail, London, 28 September 2023

Minister Charan Jeath Singh, 'I have brought an investor to buy cassava from Vanualevu'. Crikey, the investor will be buying 10,000 tons a week at $400. In other others, $4million a week of cassava to make cassava chips

24/9/2023

The investor is 'Russian speaking business tycoon' ANWAR KHAN, the investor who had promised to start a million dollar oil and diesel project in Fiji.
What happened to his promise of opening petrol stations?
What about the large parcels of State lands that was doled out to him by the Bainimarama-Khaiyum government for fuel tanks and storage?

Good news for cassava farmers in Vanua Levu, as they can supply 10,000 tonnes of cassava every week at the price of $400 a tonne.

In a meeting held in Labasa yesterday, facilitated by Minister for Sugar Charan Jeath Singh, the sale of cassava will begin next week.

Mr Singh said during his campaign leading up to the General Election last year, many farmers asked him for assistance in terms of selling their crops.

“So we had a few options which included setting up a flour mill in Vanua Levu so I approached Anwar Khan in Lautoka who owns the cassava flour factory,” he said.

“He then offered to come and buy the cassava from farmers in the North every week and pay them $400 a tonne and that I why we have organized this meeting.

“This is good for the rural dwellers who can now sell their cassava to the company.”

The company, Tavioka Organics owned by Mr Khan will buy its first lot of cassava next week.

“Meeting with these farmers has been very fruitful and I see there is a need here for the sale of cassava,” he said. “So this is an opportunity for them to plant more cassava and make a good living and we will start buying next week with 10,000 tonnes.

“Our truck will come from Lautoka to Vanue Levu, pick up the cassava and we will buy all sizes as long as it can be peeled and used.”

Mr Khan, who was born in Drasa, Lautoka and moved to Australia returned home to set up his business and has helped Fijians.

“We are here to stay and to help people like these farmers who are in need of selling crops and get an income.”

Fijileaks: In May 2015, Anwar Khan phoned our Founding Editor-in-Chief out of the blue and claimed that big oil companies in Fiji bribed Police and the DPP to charge him

Originally from Drasa, Lautoka

Left Fiji at the age of 17 for New Zealand

Claims to have lived in Australia,Dubai, Russia and Ukraine for the last 40 years.

Claims to have built a refinery in Ukraine which is shown in his website Diesel Refinery Fiji.

Khan even is helping the regime to change to Euro Standards of Diesel in Fiji.

Khan wants to import black diesel which will be banned for use after 2016 to refines in Fiji to convert to diesel.

So many local businessman have invested in his service station and refinery that are to be built in Fiji.

Khan is always seen in company of Abdul Khan (FSC), Zarine Ali (Aunty's husband) also advisers for his project.

He has leased Vatia wharf in BA.

Given 20 acres of Crown land to develop a refinery in Natabua seaside prime land.

Name suppression for what reason?

Khan is also involved with the largest Madrasa (see photo below) located next to his factory

"A Lautoka businessman who allegedly imported 5.4 kilograms of pseudoephedrine has been allowed to travel abroad by the Lautoka High Court this morning. Aaron Anwar Khan’s lawyer made an application in court today to release his passport and to allow him to travel overseas. Khan was charged last year in August for illegally importing the drugs into the country. The parcel was sent from Ukraine and addressed to him before customs intercepted it at Nadi Airport. Khan’s lawyer had asked for name suppression but this was later squashed in the high court." FBC News, February 2015.

Listen to the 'Russian speaking business tycoon' ANWAR KHAN

FEASTING ON TAXPAYERS: Christian fanatic Bill Gavoka charters Fiji Airways to take a delegation with him to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Tabernacles from 26 September - 6 October, before new embassy in 2024

22/9/2023

The Feast of Tabernacles or Sukkot (or Feast of Booths) is a week-long fall festival commemorating the 40-year journey of the Israelites in the wilderness. Along with Passover and the Festival of Weeks, Sukkot is one of three great pilgrimage feasts recorded in the Bible when all Jewish males were required to appear before the Lord in the Temple in Jerusalem.
We wonder what the hell will GAVOKA and his delegation (names, please) be celebrating in Jerusalem. Throughout the holiday, Jews will observe this time by building and dwelling in temporary shelters, just like the Hebrew people did while wandering in the desert.
This joyous celebration is a reminder of God's deliverance, protection, provision, and faithfulness.
As for Gavoka and his delegation, the only recorded 'wandering' of the i-Taukei was on the high seas, when Chiefs Lutunasobasoba and Degei fled with their tribal subjects from Tanganyika in East Africa and landed in Fiji.

Fijileaks: One of the Faustian coalition pact demanded by SODELPA was the building of a new embassy in Jerusalem.
Another sickening demand was for the election loser and Rewa chief Ro Teimumu Kepa to be appointed PRESIDENT of Fiji in 2024.
Who the hell does she think she is to demand the PRESIDENCY?
*As for Gavoka, we are told that under the Sodelpa constitution, he will be booted out as party leader in March next year, and the Jerusalem embassy plot could see him become the FIRST Ambassador to Israel, soaking up and feasting on his Christian fundamentalism

SCAMMED: No Competition, No Announcement or Press Release. Fijian Competition and Consumer Commission CEO JOEL ABRAHAM accused of secretly employing one Jai Kumar as Chief Communications Officer

20/9/2023

Dear Jai [Kumar] and Joel [Abraham]
"We have to let you know that FCCC has employed you as a Senior Communications Officer since April 2023. Was the job advertised, and if so, when was it advertised? We also noticed that your LinkedIn page regarding your USP qualification is at odds with your CV, which we have on us. Which one is the correct one? We also notice that you have omitted your four years at Vatis, when in 2019 you had applied for a position with them. I am sending you, separately, your CV. I look forward to hearing from both of you ASAP."
Yours,
Founding Editor-in-Chief

Jai Kumar's CV and LinkedIn Qualifications at Odd
In his CV, he states that he was enrolled at USP from 2002-2004, reading for a BA in Psychology/Literature & Language. He did not complete his degree.
On his LinkedIn page, he stated he obtained a DOUBLE MAJOR in BA, English Language and Literature, General Psychology

As his contract reveals, Kumar was employed by VATIS from July 2020 to July 2023. However, he left the company in January 2023.
He was employed as a Research and Content Officer
*Intriguingly, Kumar omitted any mention of Vatis in his CV or LinkedIn page. Instead, he listed his last job with Greymouse Virtual Workforce.
Below, application to VATIS:

Greymouse Fiji is located in the capital city of Suva. It started its operations in 2005 providing online IT support to small and medium sized businesses. Back then, there were only two people working in the office. Today GM-Fiji has 32 skilled and experienced people in the team serving clients for their VA, IT and online Accounting needs.
The Fiji Team is especially apt for work that requires voice interaction with clients since the South Pacific Accent is readily understood by the Australian Market. With Fiji’s high service orientation, we are able to deliver exemplary service to our clients.
Being two hours ahead of Brisbane, the Fiji Team is able to help Australian entrepreneurs maximise the time difference to their advantage. Complimenting this with reliable and quality service seals the deal for businesses that want to get ahead of the pack

PULLING WOOL OVER OUR EYES

SACKED: Fiji's High Commissioner to Australia DAVID KOLITAGANE is given marching orders. He will be replaced by PAP'S AJAY BHAI AMRIT in Canberra. PAP's PARMESH CHAND puts his name forward for JAPAN

16/9/2023

RUBBER STAMP: The Public Service Commission is in turmoil, with Commissioners complaining that they are being forced to rubber stamp nominations from the three-legged Coalition parties.
They were shocked when Parmesh Chand, PS for Civil Service, allegedly put his name forward for consideration as the next ambassador to Japan.
The 'Vulagi' was really miffed, and felt humiliated, when he found out that he came last on the interview sheet.
Meanwhile, ROBERT LEE, a Fijian-Chinese businessman who served in the Fiji embassy in Beijing, is likely to replace Manasa Tagicakibau as ambassador to China. He outperformed Ratu Inoke Kubuabola at the interview for Beijing. Kubuabola to remain in Wellington.
Two of SODELPA's failed candidates SEMESA KARAVAKI and ANNA ROKOMOKOTI were also shoved on the PSC for diplomatic postings.
Karavaki failed to make the cut and Rokomokoti is being earmarked for London, Washington or as Roving Ambassador-at-Large.
According to sources in the PSC, there was concern that Karavaki, a staunch Seventh Day Adventist Church leader, would refuse to partake in any diplomatic functions and events if it fell on a Saturday.
Rokomokoti, who was recalled from Fiji High Commission in New Delhi in controversial circumstances, is most likely to be posted to London, to replace Jitoko Tikolevu, who was relegated to third position in the interview table of candidates.
Welcome, to OLD FIJI. And, don't forget the STINKING blackmail deal that failed candidate Ro Teimumu Kepa and SODELPA have negotiated for her to be the next PRESIDENT OF FIJI in 2024.

BOOTED OUT; Kolitagane

YO HO HO AND A BOTTLE OF JOHNNY WHISKEY:
The PSC was also forced to consider Biman Prasad's nominee for High Commissioner to India

HOUNDING South Koreans: One Kim in CUSTODY, awaiting deportation. Another Kim bashed and robbed in his own home. Grace Rd KOREANS accuse Tikoduadua, his snatch squad, of harassing and hounding them

14/9/2023

A Korean businessman alleged two men entered his home in Lautoka, assaulted him, and stole items worth more than $6000. Paul Kim, 64, who lives at Savala Street, operates a scrap metal business in Lautoka. Surveillance camera footage showed the men continuously punched and kicked Mr Kim, in the early hours of last Friday. The men then ransacked the home, took his wallet, credit cards, electronic items, bottles of wine, a diabetes tester, and other valuables. “I was awoken by my dogs barking; as I came out of my room, someone switched on one of the lights,” Mr Kim said. Source: Fiji Sun, 12 September 2023

Sharma

The Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Commission has received a complaint from members of the Grace Road Church in relation to the manner in which some of their members were taken into custody by state officials, use of alleged force during detainment, alleged denial of access to a lawyer while detained at the Suva Remand Centre; and the Church being labelled as a cult.

Commission Chair, Pravesh Sharma says one member was also allegedly denied a visa to re-enter Fiji.

He says persons awaiting deportation should be kept in immigration safehouses rather than at remand centres since they have not been charged with offences.
The Commission Chair says detained persons should have access to their lawyers and to other human rights defenders.

Sharma says the Grace Road Church members facing deportation must be given the right to challenge their detention and deportation. He says they have a legitimate expectation that their rights will be complied with. Source: Fijivillage News.

After the presentation of the petition, Grace Road Fiji has released another statement saying the current event clearly encompasses the entire Grace Road, not just a few of their members.

They say the underlying context represents a clear case of religious oppression, as indicated by the labeling of the group as a cult.

One of their senior executives, who was returning from an overseas business trip to Fiji, received a visa rejection notification while on the flight back.

Ana Sungdo, a senior administrator of Grace Road Group said she was denied entry into Fiji on Friday 8th September 2023, while having her investor visa all along.

She says she handles significant administrative tasks for the group, and she finds it extremely unfair that her visa was rejected, and she was even denied entry on a visitor visa. She further says she had no choice but to stay in Australia, but the Australian Immigration at the airport, who were notified by the Fijian Immigration, insulted her as a ‘cult’ and refused her entry.

The group also says in a separate incident this week, two of their senior managers, who are not on the list of the Immigration Department, were chased by unmarked cars during the day.

They say these vehicles dangerously stopped their vehicle by blocking the front and the rear in the middle of Suva.

They say they were then told that they were immigration officers, and held the members without any explanation and harassed them while not allowing them to leave for a while.

The group says during last week’s detainment of their members, the immigration authorities forcibly detained 62-year-old female member Nam Suk Choi in a heavy-handed manner.

They say the officials did not present any official letter, orders, or warrants.

The group claims just to detain one 62-year-old woman, over 15 police and immigration officers were involved.
They say the officials acted rudely and used physical force, causing fear among other staff, customers, and onlookers. Source: Fijivillage News

While the FFP government had granted 50 year lease to pastor Ok Joo Shin, now serving prison sentence in South Korea, the then Opposition leader Ro Kepa and her clan were also in organic rice farming partnership with the Grace Road Church.

South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol

News outlet Newstapa and broadcaster Joongang Tongyang Broadcasting Company (JTBC) have been raided by South Korean authorities after reporting in 2022 on an allegedly fake interview claimed to discredit then-Presidentical candidate Yoon Suk Yeol. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its affiliate, the Journalists Association of Korea (JAK), condemn the intimidation and legal harassment of media workers and news outlets and urge the authorities to cease all investigations immediately.

On September 14, investigators and prosecutors with the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office were dispatched to the offices of online news outlets Newstapa and broadcaster Joongang Tongyang Broadcasting Company (JTBC), seizing materials related to a 2021 interview between trade union leader and former journalist Shin Hak-lim and Kim Man-bae, a key figure in a land development scandal.

At the offices of Newstapa, company representatives reportedly refused to cooperate with the prosecutors without the presence of a lawyer, however eventually allowed the prosecutors entrance. The homes of a Newstapa reporter and a former JTBC journalist were also raided.

The incumbent People’s Power Party (PPP) took issue with the report’s alleged framing of the current President (then-candidate) Yoon Suk Yeol as having participated in an illegal loan scheme in 2011. The interview, recorded in September 2021, was released by Newstapa on March 6, 2022, three days before the national elections, with JTBC reporting a similar story in February the same year. The digital publication was one of several outlets to cover or republish the interview and allegations.

Prosecutors raided Kim’s home and office on September 6, with Shin summoned for questioning at Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ office on September 7. Authorities announced on September 11 their intention to open investigations into several other outlets, including the Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), treated the recording. The Office of the President described the interview as an ‘extraordinary political scheme’ a day before the initial raid, claiming the interview unfairly influenced the 2022 election.

Kim is also suspected of paying Shin KRW 165,000,000 (approx. USD 140,000) in September 2021 for books authored by Shin, with prosecutors alleging this inflated rate influenced Shin’s judgement. Kim has denied requesting an interview, instead alleging the conversation was strictly personal. He further claimed the inflated price paid for the publications was due to their exceptional value.

Announced on September 7, the decision by authorities to prosecute media professionals and outlets marks the first actioned prosecution related to press coverage since 2008. However, since his election in 2022, President Yoon has been at the centre of several attacks on press freedom. In October 2022, the MBC was targeted through legal action and protests led by PPP lawmakers, after the broadcaster allegedly misrepresented comments made by the President in a hot mic incident. President Yoon later excluded journalists and media workers with the outlet from a presidential envoy to the G20 in November.

JAK President Kim Dong-hoon said: “We express concern about the increasing intensity of the government's media suppression as we approach next year's general elections. The ruling party in South Korea, the People Power Party (PPP), has not only taken legal actions against media outlets and journalists who reported on the dialogue records of our fellow journalists, Shin Hak-lim and Kim Man-bae, both of whom have a journalism background but also against journalists who quoted and covered these records. Moreover, they have even targeted political commentators who wrote articles about the related content. Furthermore, they have filed defamation complaints against radio hosts who reported on the incident. […] The JAK, along with other major media organizations, is committed to staunchly opposing the ruling party's endeavours to manipulate the media and will dedicate their collective efforts to safeguarding press freedom.”

The IFJ said: “These raids and investigations against media outlets are the latest in a concerning trend of media rights violations led by the incumbent government in the Republic of Korea. The IFJ urges the prosecutors’ offices to withdraw all investigations against Newstapa, JTBC, and the outlets’ journalists, and calls on the People’s Power Party to ensure that press freedom is upheld and protected.”

JAI, HO, JAGANNATH SAMI. NZ based, failed NFP election candidate and its former general secretary, SAMI is recommended by his buddy BIMAN PRASAD as the next Coalition and Fiji's HIGH COMISSIONER to INDIA

12/9/2023

GENIE OUT OF THE WHISKEY BOTTLE
According to reliable sources in the Fiji Ministry of Foreign Affairs, NFP has recommended Jagannath Sami to replace Kamlesh Prakash as Fiji's new High Commissioner to India.
The former chief executive of the Sugar Cane Growers Council has for many years been living in New Zealand.
If our sources are correct, it will be another blatant cronyism.
Why should such an important posting go to someone living it up on 'Whiskey and Lamb Chops' in New Zealand?
*Is Sami permanently residing in Fiji or New Zealand, who is tipped to replace Kamlesh Prakash (below) in New Delhi?

From The Fiji Sun archive, October 2005:
Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase's visit to India with Love
By VICTOR LAL
"When Fiji set up its High Commission in Delhi, I expressed regret that an Indo-Fijian was not posted to represent us, and had suggested the name of the late Dr Ahmad Ali, as a suitable candidate. He would have been following in the footsteps of India’s first High Commissioner to independent Fiji , Bhagwan Singh, the father of the current Indian High Commissioner. In November 1970, Mrs Gandhi appointed Bhagwan Singh to our islands after the Fijian delegation to India, comprising Ratu Mara and the late Opposition leader Siddiq Koya, cracked a pre-dinner joke with her that in case at any time the Indian Government found Bhagwan Singh missing from India , they could always trace him in Fiji where he really belonged. Both Singh’s father and grandfather had served as bonded labourers on the sugar plantations here. It was a dream come true, as Singh later narrated in his autobiography My Father’s Land – Fiji. His son Ajay Singh is today the new
Indian High Commissioner to Fiji."

In the 21st Century every sixth human being will be Indian, says a former distinguished member of the Indian Foreign Service and currently director of the Nehru Centre in London, the author Pavan K. Varma in his book Inside the Real India-Being Indian. I would strongly suggest that the Indian High Commission in Suva send a complimentary copy to the Prime Minister [Laisenia Qarase] before his trip to India, for it is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand India. Being Indian is an essential book for foreigners who wish to understand Indians and for Indians who wish to understand themselves.

In the book the Prime Minister will, no doubt, find many of the parallels and contradictions to his own problems in our country. In it, he will find that the Fijians are more akin to the Indians than the Indo-Fijians, whose old world, in many respects, vanished under the rigours of the indentured labour system.

India, as Varma reminds us, is the world’s largest democracy. It is a nuclear power. Soon it is bound to join the even more exclusive club of manned flights into space. By the year 2050 India will be the third largest economy in the world, after the US and China . And yet how, for example, does the appalling indifference of most middle-class Indians to the suffering of the poor square with their enthusiastic championing of parliamentary democracy? How, Varma asks, can a people who so wholeheartedly supported Mahatma Gandhi’s strategy of non-violence during the struggle for independence burn young brides for more dowries, and beat domestic servants to near-death?

Why do Indians have a reputation for being spiritual and ‘otherworldly’ when their philosophy and traditions exalt the pursuit of material well-being as a principal goal of life. They worship animal Gods, and yet the Indian dog is the worst treated animal in the country. Moreover, like the Prime Minister, the Indians thought of democracy as a British ‘foreign flower’ and yet hero-worship it.

Varma also points out how Indians take to factions as naturally as a fish to water, something that finds echo in the current Fijian political factions. It is a cliché that if there are two Indians there will be two parties, says Varma. Swami Vivekanada had once observed that ‘three Indians cannot act together for five minutes. Each one struggles for power and in the long run the whole organisation comes to grief. A strong centre of power can keep factions in abeyance’.

But why will India, despite all her above-mentioned negative traits, not fall apart, and why can its people expect to prosper in the years ahead? According to Varma, no one reason can answer these questions satisfactorily, but a combination of factors can. The unexpected survival of democracy, in a people not democratic by temperament or heritage, is one factor. Democracy has given Indians an institutional framework for the exercise of political choice and the freedom to express dissent. This has acted as an indispensable safety valve in an inequitable context with great discrepancies in the distribution of power and wealth. Although the more privileged citizens saw it primarily as a means for their own advancement, democracy has by the sheer miracle of its survival, given the weakest and the poorest a stake in the system.

In Fiji, the fundamentalist Christians want to declare the country a Christian state. And yet, why have so many faiths found a home in India (Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam etc etc). The first reason, according to Varma, is that Hindus (despite a militant few) are not and have never been, insecure about their religion. Historically, Hinduism has shown a supreme complacency towards any threat to its existence. Co-existence is an imperative, not an option, in India. Indians are pragmatic enough to understand this. The great majority of Hindus and Muslims feel that it is in their self-interest to swim away from the islands of religious exclusiveness inhabited by mullahs and mahants (Muslim and Hindu priests), towards the mainland of greater secular opportunities. In 1947, against the background of the massacres of partition, many learned observers felt that Hindus and Muslims could never live together.

The people of India have proved them wrong, and whatever the pessimists may say, Varma claims, the situation can only improve because of the emergence in the last decades of a sense of Pan-Indianness that refuses to be circumscribed by religion or region. If religious fundamentalism has not taken over the Muslims in India, one of the main reasons is democracy. A new India has emerged in the last fifty years. It does not deny the past, nor is it immune to its influence. But, it is more a product of the challenges of the present, and the opportunities of the future.

In politics, the idea of cohabitation has become inevitability. Caste and communal leaders have made it their virtue to share the spoils of power. Today, the Centre in Delhi is ruled by a coalition of over a dozen parties, and more than half of the states are governed by a coalition whose parties have hardly any common ideology. For too long, both the Indian and the foreigner, have been struck by the bewildering diversity of India, a nation of many languages and ethnicities, deeply divided by insular fealties. But today the great salad bowl of India is gradually emptying into a melting pot. In a pan-Indian context, most Indians are ‘minorities in India ’.

The first Prime Minister of independent India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, whose ancestral original roots lie high in the valleys of Kashmir, spoke emotionally of Indians’ ‘majesty of soul’; he saw her as an anthropomorphic unity, Mother India, ‘a beautiful lady, very old but ever youthful’. He also spoke of Mother India’s ‘Overseas Children’. On the eve of India ’s independence Nehru raised the issue of citizenship, including that of Indo-Fijians, in the Lok Sabha on 8 March 1948: ‘Now these Indians abroad. Are they Indian citizens or not? If not, then our interest in them becomes cultural and humanitarian, not political. Take the Indians of Fiji and Mauritius : are they going to retain their nationality, or will they become Fiji nationals or Mauritians? The same question arises in regard to Burma and Ceylon . This House wants to treat them as Indians, and with the same breath it wants complete franchise for them in the countries where they are living. Of course, the two things do not go together. Either they get the franchise as nationals of the other country, or treat them as Indians minus the franchise and ask for them the most favourable treatment given to an alien.’

We are all too familiar with Nehru’s most memorable speech to the Constituent Assembly on the eve of India’s independence: ‘Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom.’ For us in Fiji, Nehru should be remembered for his famous speech much earlier, when he was fighting for the abolition of the Indian indentured system. On 29 December 1929, he told the Lahore Congress: ‘This is not from any want of fellow-being with our brethren in East Africa or South Africa or Fiji or elsewhere who are bravely struggling against great odds. But their fate will be decided in the plains of India and the struggle we are launching into is as much for them as for ourselves.’

And yet, when Indian independence came, he was far-sighted enough to urge Indo-Fijians to make Fiji their home, a point reinforced by her daughter, the late Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi when she visited Fiji in 1982: ‘India wants to see the Indians, wherever they have settled, adopt the country as their own and continue with their traditions, culture, and religion.’

The Indo-Fijians had already taken the advice to their heart, for 98 per cent of them opted to take out Fiji citizenship on independence in 1970. They could also take comfort and pride in the words of a former Indian High Commissioner to Fiji, Mrs Sonu Kochar, who reminded them, and inter-alia, the Fijian nationalists in 1982: ‘The Indian contribution to Fiji is no less a feat of pioneering endeavour than that of European settlers in Australia, New Zealand or USA, but with one notable difference. The Indians did not decimate the indigenous people. Instead, in many ways, they became shock absorbers in the harsh reality of a colonial era.’

She also reminded the Indo-Fijians of their rightful status in Fiji: ‘To those Indians who themselves want to migrate, to seek greener pastures, I have always said that they are chasing mirages. This is the piece of earth on which you were born, shaped, made aware; whose flowers you have learned to love and whose paths to roam. You belong here.’

It was not long after that statement that I found out what she had actually meant. In the late 1980s, I went to the Indian High Commission in London for a research visa to India. I thought of myself as a prodigal son returning ‘home’ for the first time since our arrival in Fiji in 1879. It was a shock to my system when I was told to pay for the visa. I jokingly put to the Indian High Commissioner, whom I had met when he had accompanied Mrs Gandhi to Fiji as her Private Secretary, that it is India that has to pay for ‘selling’ our forefathers as coolies to work on the sugar plantations. In reply, and in zest, he gave me a simple test to fulfil – the three Rs. I failed the test miserably. I was a non-Returnable Indian (India was not my home), a non-Recognisable Indian (no caste or regional language), and a non-Rupee Indian (didn’t send remittances to India ).

I was, however, a truly Recognisable and proud Indo-Fijian. As a matter of fact, the majority of the descendants of Indo-Fijian labourers had lost contact with ‘Mother India’ long ago, except some like the Chaudhry family whose relatives live in Haryana. The following declaration of an ex-indentured woman labourer Rangamma, in 1979, who arrived in Fiji with her parents in 1899, still applies to the majority of Indo-Fijians today: ‘Fiji is my place. There is nobody in India for me.’

And it is this truly unique identity of ours in Fiji that the Indo-Fijian leaders must nurture and cultivate if we also want to turn the country into a truly melting pot. I always find it obnoxious and insulting to our history and heritage in Fiji when Indo-Fijian leaders talk down to us during radio interviews, at election rallies, funerals, and on other religious occasions, in pukka Hindi, which a vast majority of us fail to understand or absorb, instead of the colloquial Fiji-Hindi, which even our Fijian brothers understand and speak in many parts of the country. It is time we cultivated our Indo-Fijian heritage and history and not merely Indian history. It would be the first step towards reconciliation of the two major races.

The PM and Indigenous Rights Test

Finally, why do I support Prime Minister Qarase’s trip to India. I have already outlined some of the lessons he will be able to bring back with him in nation-building, hopefully. I would go further, and urge him to take Mahendra Chaudhry, as Leader of the Opposition, with him for the opening of the Fiji High Commission in New Delhi .

When Fiji set up its High Commission in Delhi, I expressed regret that an Indo-Fijian was not posted to represent us, and had suggested the name of the late Dr Ahmad Ali, as a suitable candidate. He would have been following in the footsteps of India ’s first High Commissioner to independent Fiji , Bhagwan Singh, the father of the current Indian High Commissioner. In November 1970, Mrs Gandhi appointed Bhagwan Singh to our islands after the Fijian delegation to India , comprising Ratu Mara and the late Opposition leader Siddiq Koya, cracked a pre-dinner joke with her that in case at any time the Indian Government found Bhagwan Singh missing from India , they could always trace him in Fiji where he really belonged. Both Singh’s father and grandfather had served as bonded labourers on the sugar plantations here. It was a dream come true, as Singh later narrated in his autobiography My Father’s Land – Fiji. His son Ajay Singh is today the new Indian High Commissioner to Fiji .

But the ball is in Chaudhry’s court, if Qarase makes an offer to him to accompany the official delegation to India . If Chaudhry rejects the offer, India must neither encourage nor condone if, by some quirk of events, the FLP sends him separately to Delhi, to coincide with the Prime Minister’s visit. The FLP has a remarkable history of sending its people to right places at the right time. To remind India, the Prime Minister Qarase is booked to be their honoured guest from 8-10 October 2005.

Significantly, the trip is important in another very important respect, which may be even beneficial to Chaudhry if he decides to once again gun for the Prime Minister’s job: should a minority leader rule over an indigenous majority? The Prime Minister’s visit might take the indigenous/immigrant rights debate over leadership out of the debate in the 2006 election.

For today THE KHANS-Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan and Salman Khan, all Muslims whose ancestors came with their culture and religion from Arabia, rule the box-office destiny of Bollywood and feel no need to appear to be anything but themselves. A.P.J.Abdul Kalam, the President of India, is a Muslim and the Oxford-educated Dr Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister of India, is a Sikh, whose 3,000 co-religionists were only two decades ago murdered during the anti-Sikh riots following the assassination of Prime Minister Mrs Indira Gandhi by two Sikh bodyguards.

In an overwhelming indigenous Hindu India, no one has objected to a Muslim President and a Sikh Prime Minister. In Mrs Sonia Gandhi’s case, despite being married to the Gandhi family, she had still clung on to her Italian citizenship. Of course, it should not have been held against her. After all, a vast majority of Indians had voted for her and her Congress Party.

In conclusion, India is the only country on the planet where no Fijian Prime Minister will be able to sell the ‘Indigenous Race Card’ to justify Fijian nationalism, racism, and exclusive political control of the country.

For the Indians will be able to shoot it down by reminding the Prime Minister of his hosts – a Sikh and a Muslim- who are ruling a billion indigenous Hindus.

We hope that the Prime Minister will, on the other hand, immensely benefit from the India trip, a country that has skilfully straddled the modern, medieval and the ancient at the same time. As India Today magazine noted in August 2005:

‘The world today is a different place and so is India. India may be an old country but we are a young nation with 70 per cent of our citizens under 35 years. With all its traditions and heritage, India is now a forward-looking nation. It is almost as if we have been freed again from the shackles of our past.’

We hope that the people of Fiji will also benefit from the Indian state visit.

It is high time the Indo-Fijians should say with Mark Anthony in Julius Caesar, ‘I love Caesar but I love Rome more’- ‘We love India but we love Fiji more.’

It is equally time we formed a GOPIFO (Global Origin of People of Indo-Fijian Origin) to help Fiji survive in the 21st Century.

For their part, the Fijians must also play a constructive role, and extend their hand of togetherness, for it will take both hands to wash away the ugly stains from the 1987 and 2000 coups.

Unfortunately, a glaring omission from the Delhi celebrations in October will be the voice of Indo-Fijians through our national anthem. For one reason or another, while the national anthem ‘Blessing grant oh God of Nations’ has been translated into Fijian, ‘Meda Dau Doka’, it has NEVER been translated into Fiji Hindi or Indian Hindi, for that matter.

Surprisingly, no Indo-Fijian leader of repute has called for a translation of the national anthem.

It is no doubt, therefore, that many Indo-Fijians have grown up singing Sa reh jahan se aacha, Hindustan hamara, hamara (Of all the lands, India is the best land).

Its time the Fiji Government’s actions spoke louder than words.

Bon Voyage. To India With Love! Jai Hind.

Fiji mata ki jai ho! Isa Lei, Fiji.

DARK SIDE OF INDIAN PRIME MINISTER NARENDRA MODI:
Despite India becoming the first country to land a rover on the dark side of the Moon, the Hindu nationalist Modi, like his counterparts in the current Coalition government, is determined to impose his Hindutva - an ideology or movement seeking to establish the hegemony of Hindus and Hinduism in India.

LETS CELEBRATE THE LIGHT SIDE OF THE MOON ROVER LANDING

FOUR FNU SACKED COUNCIL members are REINSTATED by Radrodro. Adi Kesaia Seniloli, Robin Nair, Dr Priscilla Paumau, Peter Zinck back. Radrodro accepts Rabuka's directive and the Solicitor-General's opinion

11/9/2023

We understand that Solicitor-General Ropate Green advised that the Minister did not have statutory powers. Radrodro accepted and re-instated the four FNU Council members.
The failed SODELPA candidate Semesa Karavaki as FNU Chancellor will go back to his position as Deputy with Seniloli taking over her old position as Chancellor.
*We suspect the decision could be tied to the fact that KARAVAKI is being recommended by SODELPA as next Fiji High Commissioner to London after Ro Teimumu Kepa is no longer in contention.
SHADY DEAL?

GRACE ROAD SEVEN, INTERPOL AND SOUTH KOREA. TIKODUADUA should have waited until investigations by KAMIKAMICA were complete. DANIEL KIM must be in Fiji for the probe. Why the hurry to DEPORT him?