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..."
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"
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.
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.
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.
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:
STRIDING WITH DICTATOR: Chaudhry, Bainimarama's Interim Finance Minister and Minister for Sugar
