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CANE FARMERS FURY: 400 cane farmers take to the streets in Labasa, led by NFU, to push their demand for a minimum guaranteed cane price of $100 a tonne and $10 top up from government for their 4th payment

26/5/2017

10 Comments

 
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Fijileaks: Our Founding Editor-in-Chief VICTOR LAL will reveal the role of Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum shortly before and after the 2006 coup:
"
Bloody hell, I know that asshole, he is Aiyaz Khaiyum..." muttered a senior army officer as Bainimarama introduced the shadowy figure in the dark who spoke to them on the legal aspects to the impending 2006 coup. The army officer recognized Khaiyum's voice - for he knew him. There are parallels to the Father of the Coups SITIVENI RABUKA, who had gone to a planning meeting for the 1987 coups: "I saw all these people sitting down, and realized it was some kind of meeting. Some of the people greeted me, although I could not see everyone clearly because it was fairly dark in the lounge room. When my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I discovered it was a formidable group..."

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SUGAR AND AIYAZ KHAIYUM: “I should tell the AG that the sugar industry was doing extremely well in the hey- day of these unions. Mr Khaiyum must admit that the major decline in the industry has taken place in the past 10 years under the stewardship of PM Bainimarama and Khaiyum. They have a habit of blaming everyone else except themselves”
NFU general secretary Mahenda Chaudhry

Fijileaks: The National Farmers Union should have taken to the streets when they found out that their general secretary had accepted to prop up the fledgling Bainimarama-Khaiyum dictatorship following the 2006 coup by becoming the Interim Finance Minister and MINISTER FOR SUGAR REFORM and National Planning; in August 2008 Chaudhry resigned as Finance Minister; Bainimarama took over Chaudhry's portfolio, including SUGAR. The deposed Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase had criticized Chaudhry's performance as Finance Minister, saying that he "failed badly as Finance Minister and the economy has shown very little sign of progress. He's just running away from the mess he has created." Qarase also condemned Chaudhry's participation in what he described as "an illegal administration"

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About 400 cane farmers took to the streets in Labasa yesterday to push their demand for a minimum guaranteed cane price of $100 a tonne and a $10 top up from government for their 4th cane payment.

It ended with the National Farmers Union President, Surendra Lal, handing over a petition with six other demands to Provincial Administrator Macuata, Mr Semi Kuru.

NFU general secretary Mahendra Chaudhry said he was extremely pleased with the turnout and the resolve shown by the farmers to do something about getting their grievances addressed.

“It is good that the growers have finally found their voice which had been suppressed for 10 years under the Bainimarama administration.

“The government and FSC should take heed of their legitimate demands. The Union will now mobilise farmers nationwide to secure their rights,” he said.

Mr Chaudhry said it was very important that growers remained united: “It is only through the strength of their solidarity that they can get their voice heard and their demands addressed.”

Mr Lal was also pleased with the turnout yesterday. “Farmers are now raising their voice and we know that there are many more who are supporting us from behind the scenes.”

Mr Lal said farmers had only received $10.57 a tonne for their 4th cane payment. This was hardly sufficient to meet their preparation costs for harvest.

“This is why we are calling for a $10 a tonne top up from government. Besides, Labasa farmers are not benefiting from the $10m government grant recently announced for growers who had suffered losses from Cyclone Winston. It is only fair that growers in Labasa also receive government assistance,” Mr Lal said.

Farmers are also calling on government to regulate harvesting and haulage charges to arrest escalating costs.
They want the withdrawal of the Sugar Industry Bills 19 and 20 which have been widely rejected by growers, the reinstatement of sugar industry institutions, the holding of Growers Council elections and recognition of growers unions, an independent inquiry into irregularities at FSC during the tenure of Abdul Khan as executive chairman and the merger of Cane Producers Associations with the Growers Council.

Meanwhile, in response to AG Aiyaz Saiyed-Khaiyum’s statement in Parliament that growers’ organisations were off-shoots of political parties, Mr Chaudhry said the National Farmers Union was formed long before the Fiji Labour Party.

“I should tell the AG that the sugar industry was doing extremely well in the hey- day of these unions. Mr Khaiyum must admit that the major decline in the industry has taken place in the past 10 years under the stewardship of PM Bainimarama and Khaiyum.

“They have a habit of blaming everyone else except themselves,” Mr Chaudhry said.


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The former US ambassador Larry Dinger to Washington on Mahendra Chaudhry's appointment to Bainimarama's Interim Cabinet:

Six more interim-government ministers were sworn in on Jan. 9, with another in the cards. They include: -- Mahendra Chaudhry, Interim Minister for Finance, Sugar Reform, and National Planning. The head of the National Federation Party (NFP), the arch-rival within Fiji's Indian community to Chaudhry's FLP, said accepting the jobs was "a betrayal of democracy." In remarks after the swearing in, Chaudhry noted the incongruity of having been removed as Minister of Finance by the RFMF's Rabuka coup in 1987 and now reassuming the job following the Bainimarama coup. When asked about Bainimarama's "no running in the next election" mandate for interim ministers, Chaudhry suggested that it would be a shame if those who perform really well couldn't run, so maybe the issue can be revisited one day in Cabinet.
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From Fiji Sun archive, December 2006:
Economists warned Chaudhry: Coup will hurt Indo-Fijians

By VICTOR LAL
 

As the military tightened its noose around the Laisenia Qarase’s SDL-FLP multi-party government with threats to depose it, two of the country’s leading Indo-Fijian economists, Professor Biman Prasad and Dr Mahendra Reddy, wrote to the Fiji Labour Party leader Mahendra Chaudhry on 26 November 2006, calling upon him to recommend the formation of a government of national unity to avert a military coup.

The economists were writing to Mr Chaudhry not only as concerned citizens but also as members of the Indo-Fijian community, and the fact that Mr Chaudhry had the mandate of the majority of their respective community. Uppermost in the minds of the two economists was the spectre of violence against the Indo-Fijians, and Mr Chaudhry’s alleged “conspicuous silence on the role of the military”.

They recalled the violence that emanated from the 2000 coup and did not rule out new outbreak of violence in the event of a coup: “Any intervention by the military could start widespread violence against the Indians throughout the country and this may be hard for the army to control. There is evidence of this happening in 2000.” As members of the Indo-Fijian community the two of them told Mr Chaudhry that “the Indians could be the targets of all sorts of violence and discrimination”.

Professor Prasad and Dr Reddy also feared that the military might abrogate the 1997 Constitution and there was also a possibility of the re-introduction of a more racially based constitution as the 1990 Constitution following the Rabuka coups of 1987. For the full letter to Mr Chaudhry see page 3:   

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STRIDING WITH DICTATOR: Chaudhry, Bainimarama's Interim Finance Minister and Minister for Sugar
10 Comments
Talk too much
26/5/2017 10:20:02 am

Interim Finance Minister and MINISTER FOR SUGAR REFORM and National Planning, Mr M P Chaudhry can explain his performance on what he did for cane farmers during his leadership in the Interim Govt for 18 months 2007-2008 and what repercussion that has achieved positive to the sugar industry and farmers?

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Simon Reddy
26/5/2017 03:10:05 pm

You should name yourself "Too much bullcrap". Chaudhary is no saint but he is a much lesser devil than kaiyum and his puppet bainimarama. These two have killed the sugar industry. Doggy appointments and lack of action. I don't have any pity for chaudhary as he will suffer for his deeds. I feel sad to see the state of farmers. May all those that have been responsible for farmers suffering rot in hell till eternity. May Jesus bless our farmers.

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Bullcrap...
5/6/2017 09:33:07 am

Was it not FLP who said the coup was god sent? So what had nation not done right that god had to send a coup to Fiji in which FLP and NFU were part of?

Chiku
26/5/2017 10:22:29 am

Stewardship means the management or care of something, particularly the kind that works. The stewardship provided by Bainimarama and Khaiyum since their unlawful control of the country a decade ago is the kind that works for themselves, their families, their business backers,and their cronies. The rest have been screwed.
cronies

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Samjoe
27/5/2017 03:18:02 am

Question is how has this senior army officer and other senior military men come to be under the sway of this asshole Aiyaz Khaiyum and acting like castrated bullmakau?!
That's the real mystery!

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Samjoe
27/5/2017 08:20:28 am

What's really mind boggling for me is how a creep like Aiyaz Khaiyum has virtually become the dictator of Fiji with everybody ( the Fijian military, the opposition, the civil society, the media, the judiciary) all dancing to his tune?

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GOAT
1/6/2017 01:04:14 am

You should know ! He is there by virtue of your very very close relative...NSK.
She is busy collecting her dough while "THE BOY WHO WAS AFRAID" is busy bullying in his "ruthless" ways by hiding behind the RUNNING MAN.
The day an NCD kills the RUNNING MAN,will be the last day you'll hear from the BOY WHO IS AFRAID, VERY AFRAID, in fact so afraid that he has his meals tasted by some idiot conscript chanting " noqu viti noqu vanua" wearing a photographer's jacket and feeling important.
BUT don't worry samjoe,Refugee, etc,
Their constitutional immunity covers only the 2009 abrogation, not FINANCIAL CRIMES. Why even the botoxed lady from the woman of the year award will be inside with this lot. Only one rat is leaving his sinking ship quickly so that he may not be here for prosecution from unjust enrichment and rumours abound that NSK is coming back to take his job, so that she can act as President while HRH is sent on junket trips to give medals abroad.
The master plan hatched in the domain ,years ago by two tea sipping lovers, one with dreams of becoming PM and the other MADAM PRESIDENT even if in acting capacity.
Take a cue from Hillary, darling, Fijian Trump will be in government house, not you.

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Rajend Naidu
28/5/2017 11:02:49 pm

Editor,
That Other Kind of Lawyer : One Devoted To Defending Fundamental Freedoms.
We learn from Aljazeera (29/5 ) ' Lawyer Mohammed al- Roken awarded human rights prize ' that this human rights defender currently in isolation in prison has been given the prestigious Ludovic Trarieux Award. The prize award committee said Roken " had devoted two decades to defending fundamental freedoms".
Roken was arrested in 2012 after representing several government opponents in a " mass trial " alongside 69 others accused of trying to " topple the government ". Rights groups have criticised the trial.
( Read more under ' convicted on bogus charges ' in the same article.
Brian Tooly of Human Rights First when asked what was the point in giving such an award to a person in isolation in jail ( who doesn't even know he's received the award ) said the award to Roken was very important. Roken was a highly trained ( in Britain) constitutional lawyer and his case drew attention to the poor human rights regime in the UAE which tends to receive " very little international criticism " ( read, money talks ). The UA E has a lot of that to throw around to buy silence.
The award is in recognition of lawyers who have diligently defended human rights.
Such lawyers deserve recognition and respect of all freedom loving people the world over.
Sincerely,
Rajend Naidu

Reply
Walker
31/5/2017 01:30:18 am

And in Fiji? After having their personal properties stolen and destroyed poor farmers formed a Political Party called Fiji 1st Party only to have that stolen too.......by none other than the Chief Government lawyer! ...with the complicity of the Election Supervisor! I wonder if there is a "kila vata" here?

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Fiji First Party
31/5/2017 08:32:13 pm

Thank you Walker for mentioning this simple TRUTH. And all our Fiji journalists are YET to ASK this world's most 'pitiable' IP Thieves (CHORS) Bainimarama and Aiyaz this fundamental question about this glaring IP thuggery.


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