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Draunidalo to Rotarians: "The wealthiest billionaires in the world come to our country to unwind and enjoy what we have but we can’t provide the very basic to about forty percent of the population. It is disgraceful..."

7/7/2016

13 Comments

 
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The NFP president, Tupou Draunidalo (MP), was invited to speak at a lunch with the Suva Rotary Club and she spoke about leadership and national budgetary allocations of concern. The Club is not politically affiliated and the gathering was larger than expected- of leaders from the private and foreign government sector.

The speech is set out below:

..........................................................
The President and Members of this Rotary club, ladies and gentlemen.

Thank you for this invitation to speak here again on topical issues.

Due to the repressive environment that we live in, with decrees and other restrictive laws- this is a great forum for people like me in the Opposition side of the House to come and share our views too.

And I’m sure that this club is an equal opportunity, democratic one that would invite government members too and that is to be encouraged.

So yes, you’re doing a great public service with this speaking forum and I thank you very much for it.
I will take it too as an opportunity to give my comments on the national budget that is being debated in the House now that I’m suspended from that place. Please let me start with a quote from that great marketer and businessman Steve Jobs who is reported to have said about leadership::

“Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected.”

Ladies and gentlemen, you’re all leaders in your own right in your businesses, employment and families- and you know too that leadership is no easy thing. For the military, it’s what’s informally referred to as the ‘burden of command’ or total commitment.

As for political leadership, I grew up around it.

Not just national political leadership (which changed our lives forever from 1985 until today), no- provincial and vanua leadership was at home from birth. In my maternal grandfather’s home where I was raised. We were required to give, give, give. Others first, self last. Things that Rotary encourages. But believe me when I say, our communal Fijian structure expects nothing short of total surrender to service and some cheerfully or foolishly carry that out. I recall telling the Close Up program during the last campaign, if you take a poll of Fijian chiefs- many of them will wish to be relieved of the hereditary burden. Especially when flimsy politicians turn around to paint them all as self serving but I’ll save that gripe for another sunny day. But I do recall too as I was growing up thinking, I am never ever ever going to subject myself to those horrors of national leadership. And here we are.

Back to the issue of excellence, commitment and the budget- I am very proud to have heard Hon. Member after Hon. Member discuss the burden of the military budget on our poor country. I am very pleased to have done my part in putting this issue at the forefront too of the national debate. It is a genuine concern as stable foundations are absolutely essential for economic, social and political growth. I am proud of all that discussion in the House in my absence and in spite of the reservations of a leader of another party whose immunities is enforced by the military.

All of you in this Rotary club know the depth and breadth of poverty in this beautiful and rich country. It is heartbreaking and criminal. A disgrace and reflection on all of us. How can we carry on as normal or not be angered by such things. In a land of plenty for all of us and more- destitution at our noses. The wealthiest billionaires in the world come to our country to unwind and enjoy what we have but we can’t provide the very basic to about forty percent of the population. It is disgraceful ladies and gentlemen. And against that, we pay at least $170 million a year to maintain a military that has cost us so much more losses through their interferences with governance over the last twenty nine years. The UN remits a tiny fraction of the monies that our country pays to maintain such a large military to go and serve the UN in places where we have absolutely no business.

One would think that after all of the billions, not millions- but billions that our poor country has lost to our military and their service to the UN- that the returns would include swift action by UN resources and members to totally rebuild the TC Winston damage. I mean we have paid over and above for it right? Where is it? Where is that return on investment to our country in our time of need? Sorry to say, we will only get a few millions here and there from well meaning friends (Australia and NZ) - which countries we like to verbally bash up by the way even when we invite their elected leader to grace our shores.

But who has to pay the bulk of the $1 or $2 billion Winston damage?

That’s right ladies and gentlemen, back to the back of Fiji’s taxpayers which is now largely indirect taxes.
The very poor that I have just referred to earlier now have to pay 9% Vat on basic survival foods. How bad is that? In a land of plenty, we are taxing the very poor 9% on basic survival foods to pay for excesses like serving the UN in foreign lands. Now please don’t get me wrong ladies and gentlemen, the UN does carry out much important work around the world.

All I am saying is that our very poor country is paying a very disproportionate part of the bill for that service.
If our soldiers are acknowledged to be some of if not the best UN peacekeepers, then the wealthy UN members need to pay Fiji and our military the right amount of money to provide that service. They should pay for our peacekeeping budget. When we get into government, this is something I will be very interested in. To get the wealthy members of UN to pay our military peacekeeping budget of about $100 million plus directly and indirectly per year- so that our poor country can be relieved of the financial and other burden.

That will also mean, increased professionalism in the military (as the funders will insist on it) and back to the basics of a professional military which ours desperately needs especially in light of S. 131 of the constitution that appears to put the military above everyone and everything else in the governance of our country.
Alternative thinking about that Fiji sourced budget will be to fund and prioritise the training of current military personnel so that they can be employed in the health and education sectors- to allow more of government spending in those two sectors. In what areas in particular? The Opposition asked for a significant increase in government spending on dialysis treatment for Fijians everywhere.

But the government can only give $300,000.00 last year and again this year.

Both Opposition motions to increase that sum were defeated by this government.

The health of our people is obviously not high on their list of priorities. Our hospitals, most of us if not all of us will never use the public health system but as Fijians and Rotarians- we have been there and we know its state. I feel for the professionals and all those employed in that sector who are all doing their best. On this note, I want to thank government for pay increases in parts of this sector. This is something that I spoke about in my budget response speech last year.

So democracy does work in that house in some incremental way. Emphasis though on incremental. Back to the hospitals, they are in a very bad way. The current ones need thorough cleaning, painting and new beds, pillows, sheets, bed pans and other basics. We also need new hospitals and upgraded medical centers.
Then they need much more modern equipment. And they need to retain more trained professionals. Let’s admit it, we have the best doctors and nurses but we lose them overseas when their working conditions push them out.

As for education, we need to pay teachers much more. We need more classrooms, desks and chairs and books, books, books and computers with internet connectivity. I would also like to spend some of that military budget saving on fully funded scholarships for our young people to go overseas and broaden their minds and come back to use it in Fiji. Hopefully they don't return to be suspended from parliament but that's another story.
Also the government should through the Ministry of Defence look into discussions with military command so that military funding goes into areas that Fiji requires for its defence. Like strengthening the Navy to protect our vast sea resources. A few more boats there and upskilled personnel. Drones for aerial photography and other modern and efficient technologies. The engineering corp boosted and a DISMAC corp to be established, skilled, kitted and ready to rebuild Fiji efficiently when disasters like TC Winston happen. They should have two or three helicopters with pilots and boats for that work.

This is all possible from a re prioritising of half of the current military budget. It just needs the right thinking. Not the one that buys $40m in Russian arms of no use to anyone in Fiji. The last part of my speech today- how can you help?

I know Rotary and Rotarians are not politically partisan and that’s good but as individuals- there is plenty you can do.

Please use your contacts and influence in various places to talk about these things.

And please give generously to political parties that you think will be good for Fiji today in the modern world and going into the future- for a prosperous and stable Fiji.

On that note, meet me after lunch to take the number of the NFP HQ so that you can go and make a contribution there.

Thank you all very much again for your time.

Vinaka
Tupou Draunidalo
President
NFP


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See right column: Reply to the 2016-2017 Budget, Parliament of Fiji, Tuesday July 5, 2016
By NFP Parliamentary Whip Hon Prem Singh

13 Comments
King Rat
7/7/2016 11:31:50 am

She certainly has the military in her sights and raises some very pertinent issues with regard to our military expenditure.

I wonder whether her anti-military stance comes from her own personal disappointment with her own father being a staunch Rabuka supporter, and being the unflagged leader of the 2000 ethno-nationalist coup, which he stepped away from when he realised it was going to fail?

She has been traumatised as a child in 1987, and again in 2000 and 2006. I do think he needs counselling like a lot of people in Fiji trying to come to terms with the current political reality.

I wish her well. She is a good person. God Bless you Roko Tupou

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Welcome Home
7/7/2016 11:46:09 am

Hats Off! To one articulate and courageous lady parliamentarian. Also to Rotarians for having invited her to speak of a failure of moral leadership andcourage and the strategic nous - wisdom if you will - to set budgetary priorities. Her late mother would be justly proud of her! And the time is nearing when the entire globe will take heed with relief at the more nuanced and if need be forthright approach of women politicians with their hands firmly on the tiller. The end of 2016 will bear witness to a groundswell in favor of female candidates worldwide who are ready and waiting to legislate for and implement necessary change.

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Garibi
7/7/2016 03:25:09 pm

Poverty is not a new problem. It's an old problem exercebated by successive corrupt governments, from Mara, to Rabuka, to Qarase. Mahen wasn't in govt long enough but his siphoning of monies raised on the name of the poor is not encouraging. Poverty wasn't invented by bainimarama government but they may well worsen the situation.

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Dhara link
7/7/2016 03:33:11 pm

My take on the issue is that even the richest countries and most developed ones also have a poverty level. We can not have a country full of rich people otherwise it won't work. There has to be a balance in everything.
To speak the truth, I think the Fiji government is doing its best to bring down the poverty level but it can do only so much. Mostly people are poor because of laziness. There is so much land laying idle in the rural area and yet people want to live in towns n cities, becoming a burden on the income generating people. This culture has to stop. We need to look at farming as a business You can't put all the blame on the government
As for the rich coming for vacation in Fiji, well they do provide jobs for the locals. Giving a speech which lacks truth is by no means solving a problem.

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Pita
7/7/2016 05:53:46 pm

Come off it. What per cent age of tourists visiting Fiji are billionaires? I would say less than 1 per cent. How then can anyone in her right mind make a comparison between less than 1 per cent of foreign tourists to those 40% of people who live below a foreignally determined poverty line. That's a crude effort in statistical manipulation, like comparing apples with pears. Form6 students at a speech contest would have made a better speech,

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Alby
7/7/2016 09:14:45 pm

Dhara mentions laziness being one of the causes of poverty in Fiji but this is often confused with peoples inability to be mentally and physically capable of being productive and being able to rise out of their own poverty.

When the churches are allowed to impose on peoples lives with their noise from 4 in the morning to late at night every day of the working week they are given no chance to help themselves.

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Semi Kuboutawa
8/7/2016 12:10:41 am

Ok...boys and girls..run now to " the NFP HQ so that you can go and make a contribution there."!!

So when are the Rotarians inviting SLR?

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Vili
8/7/2016 03:45:06 am

It has been mentioned above - there is so much idle and arable around.

Maybe Tupou should channel all her energies in getting unemployed people off their backsides and into farming on idle land, instead of blaming it on rich tourists and the UN etc.

By the way, I read somewhere that Fiji was making a profit out of its peacekeeping assignments i.e. reimbursements from the UN exceeded outlays by Fiji.

Tupou conveniently forgets the 'multiplier effects' of having our men and women serve overseas. Its Economics 101. She should ask her offsider, the Professor, to explain it all to her.

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Alby
8/7/2016 08:51:28 am

You are not supposed to mention the money that comes back in from UN peacekeeping !

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Vili
8/7/2016 10:23:02 am

Yes, that is a fact that Tupou D has not woken up to. She sill sees the world in very simplistic , black and white terms.

She has no idea how the UN reimbursements are calculated and whether, over time, those reimbursements exceed outlays or vice versa. She is really displaying here ignorance here, big time.

Has she done a cost-benefit analysis?

I suspect she is simply talking off the top of her head with no facts to back her up.

She is a waffler ...or as we say in Fiji... a big time BS artist!

Welcome Home
8/7/2016 05:41:02 am

"Be a yardstick of quality" ..... Wow!
It has been reported that this was the last word spoken by Steve Jobs. Spurious or not it suits. To become accustomed to excellence and to deliver it in all aspects of life, one must be daily exposed to it. The next Conservative PM of the United Kingdom WILL BE female. There are two excellent women for the final selection on 9 September. Both are singularly accomplished. There will be a sea change coming as there was in May 1979 when Margaret Thatcher was elected and chosen to be Britain's first female Prime Minister. Women bring a different approach to politics. Pragmatism, less ego and common sense. They do not expect things to fall into their laps but strive daily for excellence through sheer hardwork. The groundswell is underway and Fiji must catch this tide. Soroptimists must now take a lead from Rotarians and give future Fijian women leaders the space they require to safely, confidently speak up as we did in 2005 in The Beehive in Wellington at Eastertime. PM Helen Clark's government was then in power. Soroptimists held their Convention in New Zealand with a memorable Kiwi welcome!

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Welcome Home
8/7/2016 01:19:56 pm

Any surplus benefit derived from Peacekeeping deployments should be placed towards the establishment of a Peacekeeping Battalion (sic) of Fijian women: led by. Female high ranking officer as is the case in India. In fact India might agree to assist with training? And ..... It is time to consider frontline training for women soldiers to prepare them on a basis of equality for any military role into the future. Then perhaps as in Israel where military service is nationally mandatory for both genders, women may be taken seriously and hold their own? This was suggested decades ago - no one was paying attention. The battalion by the way includes doctors, engineers and professional competencies suited to later civilian roles.

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Welcome Home
11/7/2016 06:18:29 am

So, it is now 'official' and the Fiji Times has the spunk to publish it: Fiji's rate of domestic Violence against women, girls and young children is among the highest in the world at over 60% and is joined by Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Kiribati. Permanent Secretary Dr Koroivueta has released the finding by the most recent enquiry. FWCC for years ridiculed and subject to calumnies in certain quarters stands vindicated. The March of Folly and those who chose to ignore what has been plainly and clearly indicated under their noses for decades should now take a step back to completely overhaul their approach towards Freedom of Information. In more than ninety hours spent assisting victims of crime in the Fiji Court System this level of abuse and coercion, targeted attacks and murder, it has been demonstrated on. Daily basis that the toxicity of daily life in Fiji was harming women, young girls and young children, contributing to compromised productivity and misery. No nation can long tolerate such circumstances without negative outcomes requiring urgent and morally expedient address. Why have we waited this long? Who is to be held accountable for the neglect? Where has the requisite policy-making and funding gone in fifteen years since 2001? Yet in March 2000 at the then Fiji Mocambo Hotel a Pacific Women's Parliamentarians three day Conference was held! By invitation Women in Business attended. Care to comment?

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