Fijileaks: DARK DAYS WILL BEGIN THE DAY SODELPA UNDER SITIVENI RABUKA AND HIS CIRCLING NATIONALIST HOUNDS TAKE OVER FIJI THE DARK CLOUDS WILL ONLY LIFT IF YESTERDAY'S CRITICS OF THE QARASE GOVERNMENT WHICH BROUGHT ABOUT THE 2006 COUP ON FIJI DO NOT JOIN SODELPA IN THE POLITICAL KERNEL TO CUDDLE UP TO SITIVENI RABUKA WHILE HOWLING AT FRANK BAINIMARAMA
We just cannot fathom why we are told to embrace coupist Rabuka
and to condemn coupist Bainimarama. A COUP is a COUP!
We had no objection to SODELPA being led by RO KEPA; in fact, we championed SODELPA'S causes until they chose to hand the party to SITIVENI RABUKA - The Father of Coups in Fiji
| By MICK BEDDOES PM: The Prime Minister is reported in a Fiji Times article on Oct 5th to have apologized for a second time for the “events” of 1987 and 2000 in Fiji. MB: For some of us in the 60 Plus club, ‘forgetfulness’ can increase a little, however some start indulging in ‘make believe’ or ‘lasulasu’ as we know it, and they do this hoping that by repeating their ‘lasulasu’ as often as they can, they start to believe their own lasulasu and eventually it might become ‘ka dina’ at least for the gullible among us. Thankfully many are now ‘seeing the light’ and can now pick the difference between the ‘lasulasu’ and ‘ka Dina’. I always prefer the ‘ka Dina’ Prime Minister, and I strongly recommend you try it, you’ll actually feel better for it. But to re-establish the TRUTH about the so called ‘events’ let me repeat:- • There were NO events in 1987 and 2000. Only ‘coups”. • There was a 3rd “Coup in 2006 Prime Minister, but you already know that because that’s the coup you led. |  |
It is also worth noting as background to our troubled past that you were the Military Commander when the 2000 coup occurred and again when you led the 2006 coup. So 2 out of the 3 coups in Fiji occurred under your watch as the Military Commander? That says something!
As for apologizing for the coups, why on earth would you feel obliged to apologize for Rabuka’s coup: he’s already apologized multiple times? You have never done that. As for Speight, well he’s the only one of the three of you serving life for his crime. He’s in jail because he does not have the same immunity you and Rabuka have.
Part of the ‘equal citizenry’ your imposed constitution promotes.
But tell us Prime Minister, why have you not apologized for the coups to all the citizens here in Fiji First; to the many thousands who lost their jobs, their homes, and their money and were exposed to the fear, intimidation and tyranny that descended on the land?
Why have you never uttered a word of apology or said you were sorry to the families of those innocents killed, brutalized and tortured under your watch. Innocents like Sakiusa Rabaka who was tortured at Black Rock, not far from where I live, and who died afterwards from his injuries.
Your own Minister for Women, children and Poverty Alleviation Minister Vuniwaqa launched the MAN UP FIJI CAMPAIGN, on Violence and abuse against women and children. Likely on the very day you apologized to the Canadian citizens. So why not follow her lead and MAN UP and say sorry for the abuse against citizens post 2000 and 2006 coups.
Why have you not apologized and said sorry to the families from Muaniweni who were terrorized and ill-treated when you were in charge of the military? You had thousands of soldiers under your command. Why could you not defend and protect the Muaniweni residents, and those in other places too?
Why could you not protect your ‘Commander in Chief’ from Speight and his rebels ‘holed up’ in parliament?
PM: ‘The darkest parts of Fijian history’ were those times that Fijians failed to recognize the common bonds that bind Fijians together.
MB: With respect Prime Minister, even you know this is ‘utter rubbish! The darkest parts of our 47-year post Independence history were 1987, 2000, and 2006. The darkness fell because the leaders of our Military - people like you - failed to maintain their professionalism and loyalty to the people.
It is also during this period that we started rewarding wrong-doers who committed capital crimes, and instead punished law abiding citizens especially those who speak out against all the wrong doing. And you think that somehow this is right and just!
PM: said he was also prepared to do whatever was necessary to right the wrongs done to so many Fijians who were victims of the two events.
MB: As a first step and sign of sincerity PM, why not lift the ban on all citizens you have put in place today, so that Dr Brijlal and family ad other citizens can come and go freely. And to back up this first sincere act, and to give meaning to your words about being prepared to do whatever is necessary to right the wrongs done by the three coups of 1987, 2000, 2006, I urge you to set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission and ask the Commonwealth to establish it, staff it, fund it and provide eminent Justices to head it. Ensure experienced investigators and litigators are brought in from Commonwealth countries with no previous ties with Fiji to ensure Impartiality and transparency and then subject anyone directly involved with conducting coups from 1987 to 2006 to due process.
Once we establish the whole truth, hold those responsible for our troubles to account, then and only then can we finally begin the task of rebuilding because the foundation on which our new Fiji will be built will be the rule of law, accountability and justice, and the equal application of these laws to every citizen regardless of his or her station. This is what will recreate the compassionate and just society we once were, so that we can then properly exercise the prerogative of mercy powers exercising compassion and forgiveness as we re-unite all our people for our own long term good.
If you believe PM that what you did in 2006 was justified and you and the best legal minds you can afford can justify this in such a transparent process and at the end of it you are cleared, then good luck to you.
But if you are not, then like every other citizen, you must face the consequences as we all must when we break the law. That’s the action you need to take to give meaning to your words!
PM: He said the “events” that drove many away from the country left a gaping hole in the heart of our nation and set us back decades, threatening the future of our beloved Fiji and the prosperity of every Fijian.
He said these “events” stripped us of many of our best and brightest, causing lasting damage to the character of our nation and to the prospects for our economy. He went on to say ‘I know that the depth of that pain does not fade away with time so again I ask you please accept our apologies for what you suffered.” He said words could only do so much but without actions, words were hollow.
MMB: For the first time since his 2006 coup, Prime Minister Bainimarama has finally acknowledged in his own words what we have been saying since 1987. That coups are ‘destructive’ and set our country and its economy and people back decades at a time.
Today, 30 years and three coups after our first 17 years of Post-Independent Fiji, we are still recording less then half the average annual growth rates that were achieved in the 17 year period 1970-1987. Each coup costs us about $10 billion which we will never recover.
If, as the PM acknowledged the depths of pain do not fade away with time, he must beseech all the victims to please accept his apologies for what they suffered. He said words could only do so much but without actions, words were hollow. Too right!
But as everyone in Fiji has been witness to, he has not acted in any way shape or form to take any action to give meaning to his Canada apology here at home.
We remain divided not because he has failed to unite us, but because it suits his agenda not to and to keep us divided so as to perpetuate his rule.
His words were hollow on December 5 2006 and they are just as hollow today.
Only yesterday I received a frantic call from a young man who was concerned about a call he received telling him the police were going to arrest him after he knocked off work, take him to Namaka Police station, charge him then take him up to Black Rock! All this because he was exercising his right to comment on a matter of current national interest. We met and sorted out a support strategy in the event he was taken. I did suggest it was likely a hoax, but I did not want him to think he was alone and that there was support out there.!
But that Prime Minister is the reality today in the Fiji you lead.
So given the absence of the moral integrity and political will that government’s needs to be able to do what is right, just and fair, can we honestly say that our dark days are over?
Absolutely Not!
As for apologizing for the coups, why on earth would you feel obliged to apologize for Rabuka’s coup: he’s already apologized multiple times? You have never done that. As for Speight, well he’s the only one of the three of you serving life for his crime. He’s in jail because he does not have the same immunity you and Rabuka have.
Part of the ‘equal citizenry’ your imposed constitution promotes.
But tell us Prime Minister, why have you not apologized for the coups to all the citizens here in Fiji First; to the many thousands who lost their jobs, their homes, and their money and were exposed to the fear, intimidation and tyranny that descended on the land?
Why have you never uttered a word of apology or said you were sorry to the families of those innocents killed, brutalized and tortured under your watch. Innocents like Sakiusa Rabaka who was tortured at Black Rock, not far from where I live, and who died afterwards from his injuries.
Your own Minister for Women, children and Poverty Alleviation Minister Vuniwaqa launched the MAN UP FIJI CAMPAIGN, on Violence and abuse against women and children. Likely on the very day you apologized to the Canadian citizens. So why not follow her lead and MAN UP and say sorry for the abuse against citizens post 2000 and 2006 coups.
Why have you not apologized and said sorry to the families from Muaniweni who were terrorized and ill-treated when you were in charge of the military? You had thousands of soldiers under your command. Why could you not defend and protect the Muaniweni residents, and those in other places too?
Why could you not protect your ‘Commander in Chief’ from Speight and his rebels ‘holed up’ in parliament?
PM: ‘The darkest parts of Fijian history’ were those times that Fijians failed to recognize the common bonds that bind Fijians together.
MB: With respect Prime Minister, even you know this is ‘utter rubbish! The darkest parts of our 47-year post Independence history were 1987, 2000, and 2006. The darkness fell because the leaders of our Military - people like you - failed to maintain their professionalism and loyalty to the people.
It is also during this period that we started rewarding wrong-doers who committed capital crimes, and instead punished law abiding citizens especially those who speak out against all the wrong doing. And you think that somehow this is right and just!
PM: said he was also prepared to do whatever was necessary to right the wrongs done to so many Fijians who were victims of the two events.
MB: As a first step and sign of sincerity PM, why not lift the ban on all citizens you have put in place today, so that Dr Brijlal and family ad other citizens can come and go freely. And to back up this first sincere act, and to give meaning to your words about being prepared to do whatever is necessary to right the wrongs done by the three coups of 1987, 2000, 2006, I urge you to set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission and ask the Commonwealth to establish it, staff it, fund it and provide eminent Justices to head it. Ensure experienced investigators and litigators are brought in from Commonwealth countries with no previous ties with Fiji to ensure Impartiality and transparency and then subject anyone directly involved with conducting coups from 1987 to 2006 to due process.
Once we establish the whole truth, hold those responsible for our troubles to account, then and only then can we finally begin the task of rebuilding because the foundation on which our new Fiji will be built will be the rule of law, accountability and justice, and the equal application of these laws to every citizen regardless of his or her station. This is what will recreate the compassionate and just society we once were, so that we can then properly exercise the prerogative of mercy powers exercising compassion and forgiveness as we re-unite all our people for our own long term good.
If you believe PM that what you did in 2006 was justified and you and the best legal minds you can afford can justify this in such a transparent process and at the end of it you are cleared, then good luck to you.
But if you are not, then like every other citizen, you must face the consequences as we all must when we break the law. That’s the action you need to take to give meaning to your words!
PM: He said the “events” that drove many away from the country left a gaping hole in the heart of our nation and set us back decades, threatening the future of our beloved Fiji and the prosperity of every Fijian.
He said these “events” stripped us of many of our best and brightest, causing lasting damage to the character of our nation and to the prospects for our economy. He went on to say ‘I know that the depth of that pain does not fade away with time so again I ask you please accept our apologies for what you suffered.” He said words could only do so much but without actions, words were hollow.
MMB: For the first time since his 2006 coup, Prime Minister Bainimarama has finally acknowledged in his own words what we have been saying since 1987. That coups are ‘destructive’ and set our country and its economy and people back decades at a time.
Today, 30 years and three coups after our first 17 years of Post-Independent Fiji, we are still recording less then half the average annual growth rates that were achieved in the 17 year period 1970-1987. Each coup costs us about $10 billion which we will never recover.
If, as the PM acknowledged the depths of pain do not fade away with time, he must beseech all the victims to please accept his apologies for what they suffered. He said words could only do so much but without actions, words were hollow. Too right!
But as everyone in Fiji has been witness to, he has not acted in any way shape or form to take any action to give meaning to his Canada apology here at home.
We remain divided not because he has failed to unite us, but because it suits his agenda not to and to keep us divided so as to perpetuate his rule.
His words were hollow on December 5 2006 and they are just as hollow today.
Only yesterday I received a frantic call from a young man who was concerned about a call he received telling him the police were going to arrest him after he knocked off work, take him to Namaka Police station, charge him then take him up to Black Rock! All this because he was exercising his right to comment on a matter of current national interest. We met and sorted out a support strategy in the event he was taken. I did suggest it was likely a hoax, but I did not want him to think he was alone and that there was support out there.!
But that Prime Minister is the reality today in the Fiji you lead.
So given the absence of the moral integrity and political will that government’s needs to be able to do what is right, just and fair, can we honestly say that our dark days are over?
Absolutely Not!
"This [2006] coup is different because the Qarase Government was so awful...Fiji could not have survived another five years."
Mahendra Chaudhry to Larry Dinger, US Ambassador to Fiji
Father Barr
"[Father Kevin] Barr briefly acknowledges in the book [Barr's Thinking about Democracy] that the 2006 Fiji coup was wrong and that human-rights violations were a shame, but he is enamored with the IG's "clean-up" agenda and its "non-racist" vision for the future. Barr sees a transformation of Fiji's polity as far more important than early elections. Worth noting: the IG has made Barr one of the three members of the Electoral Boundary Commission, a role for which he has no known qualifications."
Ambassador LARRY DINGER to WASHINGTON
STRIDING IN UNISON WITH BAINIMARAMA AS HIS FINANCE MINISTER AFTER THE 2006 COUP
Larry Dinger to Washington: 'People's Charter process and the election: Cynical observers have presumed all along that an aim of Bainimarama and Chaudhry is to discover at some point in 2008 that the Charter simply can't be finished early enough to permit March 2009 elections, necessitating postponement...Military commander Bainimarama proposed that a "clean up" of corruption was a prime motivation for the December 2006 coup. Seemingly credible allegations that an unnamed "senior minister" (by all accounts Chaudhry) attempted to evade income taxes on sizable overseas bank accounts have been swept under the rug. Finance Minister Chaudhry oversees the tax and customs authority, FIRCA. A rumor has spread that one of Chaudhry's cronies, Arvin Datt, who joined the FIRCA Board after the coup, recently established a carpet-retail company and has been awarded the contract to supply and install all carpets for the new FIRCA complex in Suva."
FIRCA tax investigator to Victor Lal, 26 January 2008: "Hi Victor. The tenders for the fitout contract worth $5m was very suspicious. Yellow did not even tender but was called to give a presentation along with all the actual bidders. I was at the presentations. Yellow was the last one to present and didn't have any slides or handouts like the others. He [Arvind Datt] spent most of the time explaining why he had renamed his firm Yellow. He treated the whole thing as a joke and actually said, 'I don't know why I am here.' (as if he'd already been promised the job."
BAINIMARAMA'S COUP MONEY MINISTER TO CURRENCY CONVICT
FIRCA tax investigator to VICTOR LAL ( 5 February 2008):
"Hi Victor. You have asked me to draft some paragraphs to support the Excel spreadsheet [we have leaked to you]. Here goes. I am going to impersonate a journalist for this one: The Minister [Chaudhry] explained to FIRCA that the interest did not belong to him, as he was holding the funds in trust for the Indo-Fijian community affected by the events of May 2000. FIRCA did not accept this explanation as the Minister could not provide any evidence of a trust deed, and the bank accounts were in his name alone, not a trustee for any trust. The Minister was subsequently taxed on the omitted income over the period 2001 and 2003. As at late last year he still had unpaid taxes on the interest of about $60,000. FIRCA staff who attempted to recover the tax debt were sent home. The new documents add to the already damning evidence already provided to this newspaper [The Fiji Sun] about the tax evasion by a serving Minister. We renew our call for an investigation by FIRCA and by the Prime Minister [Bainimarama]. If the former Chief Justice [Daniel Fatiaki] is considered unworthy to be a judge of his tax evasion, then the same should apply to a Minister who is responsible for the running of the country."
28 January 2008: "Hi Victor. The details on Daaku's bank accounts were on that Excel spreadsheet I sent previously - Commonwealth bank and ANZ in Sydney. The file containing correspondence with him and bank statements is now held in a secure room in the bowels of FIRCA - it will not see the light of the day while the Interim Government is in power. Everyone in FIRCA is scared to touch anything with a hint of politics about it, and anyone who has even the slightest innocent link with actioning Daaku's file is sent home. In this climate of fear the truth about Daaku will never come out."
Fijileaks: The TRUTH DID COME OUT when VICTOR LAL and RUSSELL HUNTER GOT HOLD OF CHAUDHRY'S ENTIRE TAX FILE, INCLUDING DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE OF THE HARYANA MILLIONS
“A government that shows no regard for its people, forfeits its moral right to govern. Fortunately, next elections are not far off. People must think seriously –they have a choice that they should exercise wisely."
FLP, 9 October 2017: Fiji Day: Change is in your hands
Tomorrow is Fiji Day. For many it is just another excuse for a holiday, a picnic, sports or the opportunity to visit the theatre.
But those of us who love our country should give a somber thought to where we are headed as a nation – after all, on this day 47 years ago we gained independence from our imperial masters, with freedom to run our country as we will.
After a very positive start under Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara as Prime Minister with multiracialism and cultural inclusiveness as his guiding beacons, Fiji prospered both socially and economically. In 1986, Pope John Paul impressed with the peace and harmony among our peoples, described Fiji “as the way the world should be”.
Alas, this was not for long. Faced with challenges, our fragile democracy crashed when barely six months later, the RFMF led by a third-ranking colonel [Fijileaks: SITIVENI RABUKA] invaded Parliament at gunpoint and took members of the elected Labour-NFP coalition government hostage in Fiji’s 1st coup d’etat on 14th May 1987.
Fiji has since been a troubled nation, reluctant to learn from its mistakes. We have suffered three more coups, tens of thousands of our people fled the nation faced with racial discrimination and an insecure future. We suffered serious setbacks to our economic and social development and lost much of the rights and freedoms we had gained in the first two decades of our independence.
Undoubtedly, the worst experience has been since the Army takeover of an elected government in December 2006. It led to a prolonged 8-year rule under a repressive army-backed administration which removed a number of our fundamental rights and freedoms through draconian decrees and placed the media under rigorous censorship to stop all opposition and criticism of the regime. There have been a series of human rights assaults.
Parliamentary elections were held in 2014 but under an imposed constitution which was specifically crafted to keep the usurpers in power. Nothing changed in the governance of our nation after the elections.
A couple of recent incidents well exemplify the continued authoritarianism in how policies are made unilaterally and imposed against the outcry of the people:
• #E-#ticketing – This is outright authoritarianism. It’s an imposition. The voice of so many people unhappy with the system is not being heeded. The commuters are suffering, the bus drivers are facing countless abuse but the government is determined to persist with this unpopular imposition. It shows insensitivity to the needs of the people, many of whom are living a hand to mouth existence in any case.
Government ministers, on the other hand, are not likely to encounter the same problems because they travel at public expense on chauffeur driven luxury vehicles.
• #Civil #service #crisis – blackmail tactics are being used to force civil servants to enter into short term individual contracts. Not only is the move unilateral, it is in direct violation of government’s own industrial relations laws which recognize collective bargaining. This shows a lack of respect for the rule of law. It also shows a lack of respect for the rights of workers.
“A government that shows no regard for its people, forfeits its moral right to govern,” says Labour Leader Mahendra Chaudhry.
“Fortunately, next elections are not far off. People must think seriously –they have a choice that they should exercise wisely.
God Bless Fiji
Tomorrow is Fiji Day. For many it is just another excuse for a holiday, a picnic, sports or the opportunity to visit the theatre.
But those of us who love our country should give a somber thought to where we are headed as a nation – after all, on this day 47 years ago we gained independence from our imperial masters, with freedom to run our country as we will.
After a very positive start under Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara as Prime Minister with multiracialism and cultural inclusiveness as his guiding beacons, Fiji prospered both socially and economically. In 1986, Pope John Paul impressed with the peace and harmony among our peoples, described Fiji “as the way the world should be”.
Alas, this was not for long. Faced with challenges, our fragile democracy crashed when barely six months later, the RFMF led by a third-ranking colonel [Fijileaks: SITIVENI RABUKA] invaded Parliament at gunpoint and took members of the elected Labour-NFP coalition government hostage in Fiji’s 1st coup d’etat on 14th May 1987.
Fiji has since been a troubled nation, reluctant to learn from its mistakes. We have suffered three more coups, tens of thousands of our people fled the nation faced with racial discrimination and an insecure future. We suffered serious setbacks to our economic and social development and lost much of the rights and freedoms we had gained in the first two decades of our independence.
Undoubtedly, the worst experience has been since the Army takeover of an elected government in December 2006. It led to a prolonged 8-year rule under a repressive army-backed administration which removed a number of our fundamental rights and freedoms through draconian decrees and placed the media under rigorous censorship to stop all opposition and criticism of the regime. There have been a series of human rights assaults.
Parliamentary elections were held in 2014 but under an imposed constitution which was specifically crafted to keep the usurpers in power. Nothing changed in the governance of our nation after the elections.
A couple of recent incidents well exemplify the continued authoritarianism in how policies are made unilaterally and imposed against the outcry of the people:
• #E-#ticketing – This is outright authoritarianism. It’s an imposition. The voice of so many people unhappy with the system is not being heeded. The commuters are suffering, the bus drivers are facing countless abuse but the government is determined to persist with this unpopular imposition. It shows insensitivity to the needs of the people, many of whom are living a hand to mouth existence in any case.
Government ministers, on the other hand, are not likely to encounter the same problems because they travel at public expense on chauffeur driven luxury vehicles.
• #Civil #service #crisis – blackmail tactics are being used to force civil servants to enter into short term individual contracts. Not only is the move unilateral, it is in direct violation of government’s own industrial relations laws which recognize collective bargaining. This shows a lack of respect for the rule of law. It also shows a lack of respect for the rights of workers.
“A government that shows no regard for its people, forfeits its moral right to govern,” says Labour Leader Mahendra Chaudhry.
“Fortunately, next elections are not far off. People must think seriously –they have a choice that they should exercise wisely.
God Bless Fiji
Rabuka added that trade unions had been abolished and strikes outlawed. He vowed firm action against those inciting 'unrest and hatred'; excluding himself and his racist and violent Taukei Movement
