The Fiji Times has been penalized once before under your brother's Media Decree for publishing a Letters to the Editor; and its bosses have been dragged before the court for publishing another - frankly speaking, we had not even seen the 'LETTER', and so must have many Fijians, but Wasea Bhasha has a wider reach and audience - for being a * Indigenous Fijians are inferior because they fail in universities and they spend more time participating in sports In booting Opposition Whip Ratu Isoa Tikoca out of Parliament, the FFP dominated Privileges Committee stated it was protecting Fiji's children from his (Ratu Isoa's) type of racial profiling and vilification of the Muslim community. But what about FBC's Nemani Bainivalu and
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* Indigenous Fijians are inferior because they fail in universities and they spend more time participating in sports - FBC's Nemani Bainivalu * Indigenous Fijians are academically poor because they do not know how to read in English: * The teachers are ineffective because they are mostly "grog dope": See Victor Lal on FBC Loan: http://www.coupfourandahalf.com/2012/07/khaiyums-22million-bank-loan-to-set-up.html From Fijileaks Archive Like the Fiji Times trio, Bainivalu can be accused of making antagonistic comments against the native Fijians, comments which non-native Fijian school children could employ to look down on native Fijian students as academically DUMB. And FBC CEO Riyaz Sayed Khaiyum could be charged alongside Bainivalu, despite Riyaz Khaiyum claiming that any suggestions of INCITEMENT are not correct! From Fijileaks Archive, 31 January 2016: Nemani Bainivalu's Official Apology in native Fijian (below):
Meanwhile, "The Soko Trial" hears from Special Police Constable: 'I heard Soko screaming in pain'; the SPC said he saw two officers grind chillies into a Coca-Cola bottle and using hand gloves they rubbed the crushed spices onto the two victims private parts; he said his second statement to police given a few days later was a lie. A MEMBER of the Police Strike Back Team in Suva says he heard Vilikesa Soko screaming out in pain when he was allegedly kicked and punched by members of the Criminal Investigations Department. Special Constable Apete Naikolo said he could not stand what was being done to Mr Soko and robbery suspect Senijieli Boila when they were allegedly sexually assaulted and raped in a hillside at Yalavou near Malevu, Sigatoka, on August 15, 2014. He made the comments during the trial of police officers Manasa Talala, Seruvi Caqusau, Kelevi Sewatu, Penaia Drauna, Filise Vere, Viliame Vereivalu, Jona Davonu, Senitiki Natakasavu and soldier Pita Matairavula. The nine are charged with the sexual assault and rape of Mr Soko, who died in hospital, and Mr Boila. Mr Naikolo said he travelled from Suva to the site of the alleged incident with three of the accused. He said when they arrived at the area where the suspects were taken, his team leader Viliame Vereivalu, Jona Davonu and Pita Matairavula boarded the police truck which Mr Soko was travelling in. Mr Naikolo said he saw the three men "kick and punch" the deceased and heard Mr Soko shout "in pain". The special constable said the second victim who he did not know was injured. He said the man was outside the truck, sitting on the ground, handcuffed and had visible injuries on his face. Mr Naikolo said he saw two officers grind chillies into a Coca-Cola bottle and using hand gloves they rubbed the crushed spices onto the two victims private parts. He said he waited by his vehicle with another police officer while the nine suspects allegedly assaulted Mr Soko and Boila. Mr Naikolo said a few days later he was contacted by one of the members of the strike back team — Mr Vereivalu — to give an account of what transpired during the arrest of the two suspects and he was also asked not to include details of the alleged assault. He said his second statement to police given a few days later was a lie. According to the state witness, the fabricated statement given on August 21, 2014, by Mr Naikolo said that his team led by Mr Vereivalu, Mr Davonu and Mr Matairavula were not part of the group of officers that had allegedly assaulted and raped the two robbery suspects. He said his statement given on December 9, 2014, contained a true account of what happened at the Yalavou hillside. Source: Fiji Times From Fijileaks Archives:
The National Farmers Union questions the sudden resignation of FSC CEO and former executive chairman Abdul Khan, citing health problems as the reason. NFU general secretary, Mahendra Chaudhry described Mr Khan’s claim that he was leaving after putting FSC and the sugar industry in a good position as utter nonsense. On the contrary, his resignation brings relief to cane farmers who have consistently complained about the high-handed manner in which he ran FSC and dictated to growers’ organisations. Mr Chaudhry said that Mr. Khan leaves the corporation in deep financial mess and without holding its AGM for the financial years ended 31st May 2015 and 2016, and without presenting its audited accounts for those years to the shareholders. “We wrote to the Prime Minister’s Office on 14 June 2016 requesting suspension of Mr. Khan pending investigation into a number of matters which, in our view, established culpable offences of serious corporate malfeasance on his part. Evidence that Mr. Khan may have abused his position for personal benefit was provided to the PM’s Office,” said Mr Chaudhry. On 26 August, we wrote to the Governor Reserve Bank and the CEO FRCA to look into the matters reported to the Prime Minister’s Office. All of them acknowledged our letters. Following these developments, Mr Khan was removed as Executive Chairman but, was, surprisingly, appointed CEO FSC on 8 September 2016. He was replaced by Mr. Vishnu Mohan as chair. And now just a few weeks later, we are asked to believe that Mr. Khan has resigned over health issues. This is not acceptable. It is not a proper manner of dealing with someone who has a lot to answer for his stewardship of FSC over the last 5 years. As far as NFU is concerned Mr. Khan’s resignation must not be accepted, and he must not be allowed to leave without being fully investigated and dealt with as appropriate. October 20, 2016
MEDIA RELEASE ABDUL KHAN MUST ONLY STEP ASIDE AND BE INVESTIGATED; RESIGNATION MUST ONLY BE ACCEPTED AFTER COMPLETION AND OUTCOME OF INVESTIGATION The Chief Executive of the Fiji Sugar Corporation Abdul Khan who handed in his resignation to the FSC Board of Directors during its meeting yesterday (Wednesday 19th October) must only immediately vacate his position to allow for an independent and thorough investigation to be carried into his handling of operations of the Corporation for more than five years. Mr Khan’s resignation must not come into effect immediately but until after the completion and outcome of independent investigations. He should only step aside now to ensure independence of the investigation process. Relinquishing his position immediately with several questions remaining unanswered about both his and the FSC’s performance and the Corporation’s lack of direction during his reign is unacceptable and against good governance in a organisation in which taxpayers have a stake through majority ownership by Government. The performance of FSC’s mills, questionable projects and the one-man handling of both FSC and marketing of sugar cannot be tolerated by cane growers any longer. The industry has now lost every fibre of transparency and accountability. This has now become intolerable. Annual Reports of four years from 2011-2014 show FSC is technically insolvent and its liabilities are more than $225 million to the combined value of FSC’s assets. In Mr Abdul Khan, FSC has had a CEO who as Executive Chairman did not hold the Corporation’s AGM for four years until May last year. He was a Board Member from October 2009 till December 31st 2010. From 1st January 2011, he was FSC’s Executive Chairman enjoying hefty salary, perks and privileges while FSC’s debt continued to rise astronomically. The AGM for 2015 has not been held more than 10 months after the end of the year. There have been many allegations labelled against Mr Khan especially about his salary, perks and privileges. Appointments are allegedly not based on merit. The procurement of mill equipment from India is also highly questionable because it is extremely necessary to establish whether tenders were called by FSC. It is also very important to establish the amounts and types of equipment procured and whether all of it was solely used in the mills. And if not where is the remaining stock of the equipment? Any shareholder in a company should be concerned, especially if it happens to be the Government, which is the largest shareholder and has pumped in several millions of dollars of taxpayer funds in loans and guarantees into FSC. When announcing Mr Khan’s appointment as FSC Chairman, the Prime Minister and Minister for Sugar credited him for improvements to the industry. But once again, this Government demonstrated that the appointment was to try and save the technically insolvent FSC at the expense of writing off its Government loans and subjugating cane growers through the Reform of the Sugar Cane Industry and Sugar Cane Growers Fund (Amendment) Bills, which have been totally rejected by growers. Furthermore, his recent CEO appointment was seemingly part of FSC’s Strategic Plan that has never been revealed to the cane growers who are the largest and the most important stakeholders in the industry. They genuinely fear reduction in their income with change to the formula determining sharing of proceeds from sale of sugar from the current 70/30 in favour of growers. Therefore the Fiji First Government had rewarded him with the CEO’s position. If Government is really concerned about the viability of FSC, it should immediately authorise an independent investigation into the management and operations of FSC to determine the truth. We re-iterate that Mr Abdul Khan should immediately step aside to ensure freedom and independence of the investigation process. But his resignation should not be immediate and only come into effect upon completion and outcome of the independent investigation process. Authorised by: - Professor Biman Prasad NFP Leader Education Minister Dr Mahendra Reddy says the reason for the school zoning policy is to ensure that people utilize the schools in their area.
While some people have raised concern about this issue, Doctor Reddy says that if people do not want to send their children in their zone then the ministry would have to close the school in their area. Doctor Reddy says there are exceptions when the school is not offering particular subjects. Doctor Reddy says the zoning policy means students must enroll and attend the school in their zones. He says that zoning will ensure that all schools are adequately inhabited and there will be no overcrowding in schools as free choices in school enrolments will be restricted. The Education Minister says this will further lead to the improvement of quality performance by all schools. He says that there are exceptional cases which are given due consideration. Some of these situations can be preferences to take up vernacular subjects, for example, Hindi studies, Na Vosa Vaka Viti, Urdu which may not be offered by all schools, preferences for certain subject combinations which may not be available in the nearest school and attending religious studies at faith based schools hence attending schools outside the zone. Doctor Reddy says students already in a school outside a zone may continue at the same school. The Minister says that people need to understand that this is not a blanket policy for all as there are extracts of the policy which cover the range of concerns that people have. He says those that are not understanding the policy must not create undue confusion but seek audience with the Education Ministry. Source: Fijivillage News October 20, 2016
MEDIA RELEASE REMOVE THE BLACKLIST AND SHOW FIJI IS TRULY DEMOCRATIC – DRAUNIDALO The President of the National Federation Party, Hon Roko Tupou Draunidalo today said that the Prime Minister, Voreqe Bainimarama needs to follow through rhetoric with action and lift the travel bans on all individuals including former Fiji citizens, who have been barred from entering Fiji for speaking out against the military dictatorship in the aftermath of the December 2006 coup. Last weekend the PM announced in Australia that any journalist would be free to visit the country and report without restriction once they have been accredited by the Department of Information. This also referred to three prominent journalists from New Zealand and Australia who were banned from entering Fiji. The Prime Minister has also just urged Fijians in Australia to take advantage of the dual citizenship that Fiji now offers, return to Fiji and build a house or start a business and come and go as they please and be global citizens. However all this will remain just tokenism unless bans against those who have served Fiji loyally in their capacity as expatriates as well as former Fiji citizens remain in place. Ms Draunidalo said that the Prime Minister now needs to remove the so-called “black-list” that’s with the Immigration Department that prevents former and current Fiji Citizens from returning to Fiji, the land of their birth. “The name of academics Professor Brij Lal and his wife, Dr Padma Lal, as well as other individuals who have been placed on this list for frivolous, undemocratic reasons, must be removed if the Prime Minister really wants to show the world that Fiji is a robust democracy.” “Inviting Fijians to return home for simply financial and economic reasons, is not being global at all. They have their families, friends, cultural roots and identity here in Fiji and have the best foundation to contribute to Fiji’s social and economic progress. “ “The fact that remittances is reported to be easily Fiji’s second largest foreign exchange earner after tourism, says a lot for the generosity, cultural ties and the greatest asset that we have – in the Fijians overseas, who keep sending through funds to their homeland.” Ms Draunidalo also called on the Prime Minister to be transparent with the usage of taxpayers’ funds to fund members of his entourage to Sydney and to New Zealand. “First of all, we saw the Commissioner of Police was in that delegation. Now why was the Commissioner of Police accompanying the Prime Minister to a Fiji Day function at the same time when the DPP’s Office has confirmed the inefficiencies of his office in detaining members of the Opposition, including the NFP Leader, Professor Biman Prasad.” “The Commissioner of Police should have been all throughout here in Fiji, attending to the spiraling crime cases, police brutality and thinking out long-term, sustainable and lawful solutions without taking the all too easy, draconian solution of arming the Police Force,” Ms Draunidalo added. The NFP President also outlined that an NFP Government will remove the blacklist and will repeal the excessive powers given to the Immigration Minister, Prime Minister or any other minister, public official or organization that is not fair and just in a democratic society. “This also includes removing any legislation that infringes on basic civil and political rights, and following through with action, including ceasing the harassment and arbitrary arrest of its citizens.” “We will be guided by recognised international benchmarks and our commitments and not by anyone’s own personal version of what the standards are.” “And as I’ve earlier mentioned, we will also reduce the allowances and emoluments of Ministers and Assistant Ministers." The Prime Minister who is currently in Australia is enjoying a daily travel allowance that received a massive 300 percent increase on the old rate that was decreed on 3rd October 2014. The National Federation Party was the only party that voted against the increase in emoluments and allowances and has refused to take on the increases despite a Parliamentary vote for it. Authorised by: - Hon Roko Tupou Draunidalo NFP President "The executive of the [Fiji Muslim] League cannot and does not represent the political opinion, views, philosophies of individuals or the bulk of Muslims in Fiji. These self appointed guardians do not speak for the masses...Most Muslims in Fiji know that certain officials treat the League and its branches as their own little fiefdoms. Fiefdoms, where nepotism is known to be rampant at most times; where certain families and individuals have reigned as executives literally for decades; where children and families of well-to-do officials benefit from scholarships which were and are meant for poor students; where chairs of numerous committees are held by single individuals; where businessmen and business interests are over represented..." |
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