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BREAK BONDAGE OF FEAR: NFP calls on the lifting of the Media Decree and for RFMF to hang up their uniform if they want to meddle in politics

18/9/2017

8 Comments

 

NFP leader Prasad: "There are certain FFP MPs going around telling people that only FFP government can provide security: we say to them to stop fear-mongering and fight next election on ideas and policies"

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Fijileaks: The NFP's membership recruitment drive is seeing many native Fijians switching from SODELPA and FFP to NFP for they claim they are tired of race, ethnicity, and indigenous rights debates.
Can NFP repeat the "1987 Bavadra-Baba Its Time For Change" slogan in 2018 election and win over the native Fijian voters? Unsurprisingly, NFP MP Parmod Chand - Bainimarama's 'Little Coward' - got the most thunderous applause at the recent NFP Talanoa Session!

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Last week Chand had told Fiji: "I was not hiding under the bus but I know somebody [who] took off through the cassava patch", alluding to Frank Bainimarama. The infamous incident has been a boon for cartoonists:

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SODELPA is SILENT as a MOUSE on military because their leader SITIVENI RABUKA has RAPE, VIOLENCE, TREASON and a host of other charges on his CV, and is sheltering under IMMUNITY he granted himself

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Watch video of the speeches at the NFP Talanoa Session, 16/9/2017

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Fijileaks: In the audience attentively listening to the NFP Talanoa Session is Reverend Akuila Yabaki, who had this to say about Rabuka in 1987:“Every time we shrug when we hear of another midnight raid, the cries of terrorized women and children, then somewhere in Fiji another potential [Klaus] Barbie [The Nazi Butcher of Lyon in France] is getting a start in life.”


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Rabuka’s 1987 terror regime: a warning for Fiji

By VICTOR LAL
29 December 2006


“Every time we shrug when we hear of another midnight raid, the cries of terrorized women and children, then somewhere in Fiji another potential [Klaus] Barbie [The Nazi Butcher of Lyon in France] is getting a start in life,” said the former Methodist communications secretary in 1987, the Reverend Akuila Yabaki, now head of the Citizens Constitutional Forum. He was speaking out against the reign of terror and torture practised mostly against the Indo-Fijian community by Sitiveni Rabuka, his military henchmen, prominent chiefs, and the dreaded and racist Fijian taukei foot soldiers following the 1987 coups.

Now, nearly twenty years later, we are beginning to hear the first ripples of ‘torture tactics’ by the military against the pro-democracy supporters. But let us hope and pray that Commodore Frank Bainimarama’s military will not go down the road that Mr Rabuka took his troops, chiefs, and taukeists like Apisai Tora to achieve his objective of ‘Fiji for the taukei Fijians’.

The first casualty was the media when Mr Rabuka launched his coup on 14 May 1987. In an editorial on 15 May, the old Fiji Sun asked: “What right has a third-ranking officer to attack the scared institutions of Parliament? To presume he knows how best this country shall be governed for the good of all? The answer is: NONE. The people must decide their own future: not self-promoting dictators and not a Council appointed by and presided over by Lieutenant-Colonel Rabuka. But was he encouraged by others to act? And if so, who were they?”

We now know who they were, and many of those are still around, in positions of influence and authority. Most of them were prominent paramount chiefs, civil servants, church leaders, lawyers, magistrates, judges, and fallen politicians. They were indigenous Fijians, some of whom, and their offspring, are today hiding from the military in a great game of hide and seek following the 5 December coup. The former governor-general and Mr Rabuka’s paramount chief Ratu Sir Penaia Ganilau, made it easier for Mr Rabuka to crush civil disobedience by warning that the civilian-cum military regime would not hesitate to use emergency powers it had under martial law.

On 15 May 1987, shortly after the Fiji Sun editorial, the Ministry of Information directed the Fiji Times and Fiji Sun to cease publication. The RFMF occupied Radio Fiji. The same day armed soldiers’ ejected staff of both the two newspapers from their offices, and foreign journalists were questioned by the RFMF. In a sickening spectacle, the raid on the Times office was led by one of its own reporters and army reservist E.T. Volavola in full combat gear carrying a rifle and backed up by a squad of troops.

Mr Rabuka announced a Council of Ministers (COM), which was dominated by ex-Alliance Party Ministers (including Ratu Mara who had lost the election to Dr Timoci Bavadra). Mr Rabuka said his military regime was in full control and the people had accepted the coup, and called on the international community to recognize his regime. He said he had abrogated the Constitution and the regime would govern Fiji by decree. He brushed aside the demands of the Council of Churches “in the name of Christianity” to release the MPs he had kidnapped and was holding as hostages, and “surrender to the sovereign authority of the land”, and restore “our duly elected government”.

He instead moved into deposed Prime Minister Dr Bavadra’s office. But when the Fiji Sun questioned Mr Rabuka’s right to occupy high office, he threw the general manager and one of the directors, who was also President of the Fiji Law Society, in the same prison cell as that occupied by Dr Bavadra. The Sun was singled out for severe maltreatment. Sadly, most of the harassment and intimidation was carried out against the Indo-Fijian journalists, for after all, Mr Rabuka had executed the coup to give Fijians the control of Fiji.

Some Fijian journalists, therefore, switched sides, and became Mr Rabuka’s propagandists, reporting on their Indo-Fijian colleagues and their families. In the end, the Fiji Times agreed to operate under partial military censorship, while the old Fiji Sun was forced to cease operations in the country after it published allegations that Mr Rabuka had bought a house in Suva favoured by wealthy Indo-Fijians and expatriates, on a 100% mortgage from a prominent Alliance politician. In the end, some of Fiji’s best Indo-Fijian journalists were forced to emigrate or seek political asylum abroad. Some of us were not only on Mr Rabuka’s hit list but even had our passports confiscated, ending up overnight from being citizens to wandering international refugees.

The next group that Mr Rabuka and his cronies targeted were his political opponents. Shortly before the coup the taukeists firebombed the law offices of Jai Ram Reddy, now an International Criminal Court judge. The late Sir Vijay Singh was detained and his passport seized, prompting him to ask: “What kind of normalcy is [Ganilau] thinking about when things like this happen.”

Dr Bavadra’s spokesman and current Suva lawyer Richard Naidu was arrested and detained on different occasions. He was chased and beaten up by Taukeists, and finally had his Fiji nationality revoked, and ordered to leave the country for New Zealand. Another legal adviser of Dr Bavadra, John Cameron, had his work permit withdrawn after he filed civil suit against dissolution of Parliament, and had also filed claim with the Supreme Court on behalf of a client harassed by the RFMF, seeking a declaration that State of Emergency and 1987 Emergency Regulations were unconstitutional.

Among judges arrested included Justices Kishore Govind and Rooney, including Chief Magistrate Howard Morrison. Even the Police Commissioner, an Indo-Fijian Pramesh Raman, whose job Mr Rabuka had applied a week before the coup, was taken into custody. Several Indo-Fijian lawyers and academics were also taken into custody, mostly on legal advice of some Fijian lawyers.

Although the vast majority of victims were Indo-Fijians, some prominent Fijians like Amelia Rokotuivanua and Dr Steven Ratuva came in for rough treatment. The two were “lectured” by Lieutenant Pio Wong on how to be “true Fijians” and Dr Ratuva had spells in detention, and at one point the military allegedly tried to poison him with the prepared food it had brought to his house. In 1986 he had claimed in a paper that the RFMF’s only function lay in internal repression or as a conduit for chiefly advancement. He had also suggested that “intermarriages between the sons and daughters of chiefs (including the chiefly officers in the army) helps to consolidate the chiefly comprador clique which ensures the perpetuation of nepotism and inequality in Fijian society”.

On 25 September Mr Rabuka carried out his second coup. Violence and intimidation was encouraged, and a group of escaped prisoners were escorted by the military to march to the Government House to demand pardons. When the GCC refused to recognise Mr Rabuka as president, he declared Fiji a republic, declared himself the head of state and no longer recognised the GCC as such. However, on 5 December he agreed to hand over power to the new President Ratu Penaia and the Prime Minister Ratu Mara. Mr Rabuka took charge of Home Affairs, the CJ returned to the bench, Sailosi Kepa was recalled as High Commissioner from London to take over as Minister for Justice and A-G, and Berenado Vunibobo became Minister of Trade and Commerce. Dr Bavadra retorted: “It is a military government in a civilian cloak.”

The international community resumed trade and diplomatic links with Fiji. Australia conferred Mr Rabuka legitimacy by announcing that it was recognizing Fiji as a state rather than the government of Fiji. Ratu Penaia granted Mr Rabuka and his close circle of oppressors, questionable amnesty, and the Fijians introduced apartheid against the Indo-Fijians. Ratu Penaia also formally signed new Internal Security Decree, giving army power to shoot to kill anyone found with illegal arms that resisted arrests.

As Minister for Internal Security, Mr Rabuka had extraordinary range of powers, which violated international standards of human rights, including the detention of any person for two years; order restriction of movement, freedom of expression, employment, residence or activity; prohibit the printing, publication, sale, issue, circulation or possession of any written material, and prohibit its communication through worth of mouth etc.

And yet Mr Rabuka was free to publish his book “No Other Way”. But no criticism of his book was permitted, and one USP Indo-Fijian lecturer who dared to criticise it, was detained and severely beaten up. My own critical counter-book Fiji: Coups in Paradise was banished from the bookshelves of Fiji. As Mr Rabuka plunged the economy into a decline, he was offered $50,000 from an Australian publishing company as a retainer for his book and a TV documentary. The RFMF, commenting on brief detentions and harassment said, “Due to the current conditions everyone is suspect until proven innocent”. Mr Rabuka went on to become the Prime Minister and chairman of the Great Council of Chiefs on the bandwagon of nationalist and racist ideology, an ideology which Commodore Bainimarama claims he wants to stamp out once and for all.

If that is so, let us hope that he will not follow in the footsteps of Mr Rabuka, for many of my own family members still bear the scars of Mr Rabuka’s storm troopers on their chests, and so do many other citizens from the 1987 and 2000 coups.

The Indo-Fijians, in 1987, were beaten, forced to stand in sewage pools, and subjected to other forms of humiliating punishments. The vast majority of Fijians remained silent to the oppression and racism in their midst. In fact, many joined in its continuation for the next ten years.

But freedom, as former military strongman Mr Rabuka found out only very recently (after he was successfully defended by the President of the Fiji Law Society, Mr Sharma, on inciting mutiny), is a cherished and inviolable right.

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8 Comments
Sanjay Sharma
18/9/2017 12:52:38 pm

Its so encouraging to see Native Fijians getting behind NFP to say that we will not allow coup leaders win anymore. Unfortunately, the Hindus are still asleep and keep supporting coup makers and devil like kaiyum.

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Ratu
18/9/2017 01:35:59 pm

When reviewing info Fijian struggles to dignify their existence in Fiji since the earliest times until today one can't help but realise that the 2018 election will be a defining moment for them as a community of people but also a defining moment for all of Fiji. Though now reduced to a minority, some 40^ of the population, how indo-Fijians vote will determine not only the quality of their future but also the future for other races. The choice will be to vote for a fascist right wing party in the FFP and continue to be reminded that info Fijians should shut up and be quiet, accept curtailment of your freedoms and be forever grateful to the military and the Fiji First Party for saving them from native savages The other choice is to support libertarianism where a nation is ruled by the power of ideas and where all irrespective of their colour or class are valued and free to contribute. This is the National Federation Party,Present day Indo-Fijians owe it to their ancestors to make a wise choice in these election, to choose principle over politics and freedom over fear,

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Chiku
18/9/2017 09:46:34 pm

Is anybody surprised that some FFP pollies are going around saying only a Bainimarama government can guarantee security's? Nobody should be surprised by this. Just remember fear-mongering and coercion and intimidation of the civilians is what got the military coupist Bainimarama and his cronies into power in the first place.
It's time the people of Fiji stood up against that kind of Machiavellian politics; said enough was enough and voted for a change in government.
Vote for good democratic governance . VOTE OUT FFP.

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Rajend Naidu
18/9/2017 10:11:27 pm

Editor,
Good Soldier Gone Bad.
Veteran soldier Don Rowe who was president of RSL for 11 years admitted to a public inquiry to dishonesty . He used the charity's money to buy mobile phones, flights for his family, as well as pay of his own mortgage with his $20,000 car allowance; Christmas shopping, spending $475,000 on a corporate credit card including $213,000 in cash withdrawals. He also had his son live for 7 years in the presidential suite at Hyde Park paid for by the charity.
Soldier wallahs are not above getting greedy and abusing their position for personal gain.
We are acquainted with that in Fiji since our first military coup of 1987 and the last one in 2006 and the two in between.
Sincerely,
Rajend Naidu

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Fijian Prince link
19/9/2017 02:21:02 am

RFMF should be neutral and allow the public to vote freely. They should not be seen as the main security provider for FFP whether they win or loose. They are threating the member of public that way..

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Chiku
19/9/2017 03:52:28 am

The native Fijian have been kept ignorant and backward first by the British colonialist who kept them out of the mainstream economy and politics and then by the chiefly class ( most of whom were schooled by the British colonialists). They maintained the status quo to preserve their own privileges in a changing Fiji society. Then came the military top dogs like Rabuka ( who claimed to champion the cause of the native Fijians in their own God given land ) and now Bainimarama who claims he is the only one to ensure security and prosperity for all Fijians ( including native Fijians ).
It is time for the native Fijians to come to age politically.
It's time they stopped being gullible and be led by false leaders .
Election 2018 is when the native Fijian must for the first time in the country's history make a conscious decision to make their vote count - for them. It's up to the native Fijians to show the world they are no longer an ignorant and backward people led by unscrupulous leaders.

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Rajend Naidu
19/9/2017 05:21:46 am

Editor,
What low-down things some people are prepared to do in pursuit of their self- serving agenda.
See the film Baby Sellers on the international illicit baby trafficking trade. It captures how "greed " turns some into monstrous murderers, exploiters, extortionists devoid of any human decency and empathy.
You have people like that everywhere. And what's more these unscrupulous people are not your usual gundas, the Mafia type thugs. They are people, professional people, with " impeccable records".
There is cautionary tale in this not to take so called respectable, high profile people on face value.
Some are not what they appear to be.
Sincerely,
Rajend Naidu

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reetasaba
24/9/2017 07:08:42 pm

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