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LEST WE FORGET THE VIOLENT PAST OF INOKE KUBUABOLA as he speaks to Fiji Girmit Foundation in NZ on Sunday 17th May: 'Lest we forget the sacrifice of the pioneer generations"; Will HE APOLOGIZE?

15/5/2015

15 Comments

 
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BAINIMARAMA'S INTERVIEW WITH SANJESH, RADIO TARANA, on 14 May 2015

SANJESH: With me now is the Fijian Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama. Prime Minister, what does Girmit Day mean to you?

PM: Sanjesh, it’s a day for every Fijian to remember and honour the Girmitiyas, the many thousands of indentured labourers who were brought to Fiji by the British to work in the cane fields. It’s 136 years now since that programme began so it’s a day to honour the Girmitiyas, their lives, their dreams of a better life, and the legacy they have left our nation through the contribution to Fiji of their descendants.

I think it’s a very important day to recall what it must have been like for the 60,000 Indians who were transported to Fiji between 1879 and 1916, when the indentured labour system was stopped. Can you imagine what it must have been like for simple men and women from rural India to be loaded onto ships and spend many months at sea and arrive in the Pacific in a place they had no knowledge of? The hardship and suffering they must have endured is something we can really only ever imagine.

Let’s face it, they may not have been slaves but they were paid a pitiful amount and could only ever leave Fiji once their indenture was over. Of course for many of these people, they had nothing to go back to. They were really amongs the poorest people in India, which as we all know had a very rigid class system and if you were poor, you and your descendants really had no way of improving your status.

So many people chose to stay in Fiji and they played a huge role in building the Fiji we know today. With their sweat blood and tears, they built the modern Fijian economy. Without them, we would never have had the sugarcane industry. Because indigenous Fijians really weren’t interested in doing the backbreaking work that was necessary to cut the cane for the Australian owners so that it could be shipped offshore. So in many ways without these people, Fiji would never have developed in the way that it has and they deserve to be remembered and to be thanked.

SANJESH: What is their lasting legacy do you think, Prime Minister?

PM: Sanjesh, the descendants of the Girmitiyas are a hugely important part of our nation today. In every aspect of Fijian life, the contribution of the Indo-Fijian descendants of these people makes us what we are today. I think it’s a wonderful thing that the work ethic that they showed 100 or more years ago continues. In fact Fiji wouldn’t be where it is today without our Indo-Fijian brothers and sisters.

It’s what makes us different as a Pacific nation, the fact that all our ethnic groups have come together to help build one nation. So I think that May the 14th is also a day to remember just how important our Indo-Fijian community is to the lives of every Fijian. And of course the wonderful thing is that we are now all Fijian. No longer Indians or Indo-Fijians, the descendants of the Girmitiya are Fijians and we are now one and the same.

SANJESH: Prime Minister, it’s also the anniversary today of the 1987 Coup. Can you give us your reflections on that?

PM: Yes on this day 28 years ago at 10 o’clock in the morning, a group of gunmen led by Sitiveni Rabuka, entered the Parliament where I’ve been sitting today and took over the country. Unlike Girmit Day, which is a day of celebration, this anniversary of the 1987 Coup is a day of shame. Because it triggered three decades of instability that we are only now just starting to put behind us with our new democracy.

When you think about it, it’s really ironic that these two anniversaries are the same because May 14 1987 was the trigger for a great deal of misery in the lives of so many of our Indo-Fijian brothers and sisters. The racial hatred that was shown towards them at that time persuaded many of them to give up on Fiji and leave altogether.

Many of those listening now to your programme are in this category and I want to say to them how sorry I am for what happened, not only in the two coups of 1987 but also the dreadful events of 2000.

These coups and all their hatred really set Fiji back by three decades. If people like you who are listening had stayed and been able to see a future for yourselves and your families, imagine where Fiji would be now. Instead we have wasted so much time arguing amongst ourselves about who deserves more than anyone else.

I saw all that suffering and I was determined to put an end to it. And so we did what we did in 2006, took back the country for everyone and started the process of giving everyone equal status in our national life.

We can’t turn back the clock. Unfortunately far too many lives were damaged or destroyed. But my message to your listeners is that we have now righted this historical wrong.

We have ended the days of bitterness and division. We have produced justice for every Fijian, whoever they are and wherever they come from. I want to say to your listeners: if you want to come back, please consider doing so. The Fijian economy is growing at around four per cent or more a year and there are tremendous opportunities opening up for everyone. So if you came from Fiji but left disillusioned, think about coming back and helping us to pick up where we left off in ’87.

SANJESH: Well that’s certainly something to celebrate, Prime Minister.

PM: Certainly. We’re celebrating the contribution of the Girmitiyas and their descendants and we can also celebrate the fact that we have put the past behind us and can all look forward to much better days ahead for everyone.

Sanjesh, I tell schoolchildren all over the country – there has never been a better time to be Fijian. And I really believe that. We are already a nation that is respected in the world and I want us to be respected even more by creating more opportunity for everyone. Giving everyone justice. Giving everyone opportunity. Taking our great country and making it even greater. So to everyone listening, remember the Girmitiyas but also remember the wonderful future that lies ahead that they laid the foundations for in so many ways. Together we are building a better a fairer nation and that is certainly something to celebrate.

SANJESH: Thank you, Prime Minister.

Fijileaks to Bainimarama: What action have you taken against the Indo-Fijian 'Kubuabola' - you know who - 'Fiji ke mashoor gunda' Ashneel Sudhakar who threatened to mortein Victor Lal and other coup critics?

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24 August 2000: Kubuabola attacks Victor Lal after joining post George Speight coup as Minister for Information in the interim Qarase led government:

“Victor Lal’s articles [in Fiji's Daily Post] all have a simple, indeed simplistic stance, restore Chaudhry and impose democracy as defined by Lal and his friends. What he is advocating is an Indian supremacist doctrine, a new version of Hitlerian herrenvolk for Fiji. The racism lies in his desires, not those of us Fijians. His obsession to control Fiji, blinds him to his own ambitions.”


Kubuabola was responding to the London based Movement for Democracy in Fiji which had intensified its fight for deposed Chaudhry’s political rights. The then Commodore Frank Bainimarama had claimed in his February 2001 affidavit before the Fiji Court of Appeal that he had abrogated the 1997 Constitution because he was satisfied that people engaged in the events of May 19 [2000 Speight coup] were of the perception that the document had watered down the interests of indigenous Fijians: “Whether or not those perceptions accorded with reality was not my principal consideration. The perceptions were genuinely held by largely unsophisticated Fijians not equipped to adequately comprehend the niceties and technicalities of the Constitution.”
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http://www.fijileaks.com/home/he-is-back-the-old-violent-racist-and-nationalist-inoke-kubuabola-who-drove-thousands-of-indo-fijians-out-of-fiji-in-1987-is-standing-for-election-under-fijifirst-party-led-by-bainimarama-and-khaiyum
HYPOCRISY ON DISPLAY: Bainimarama up in arms over Ratu Naiqama's alleged foul language against Speaker Luveni but what he and Khaiyum did when Ashneel Sudhakar called for the 'MURDER' of Lal and other critics - they made him Chairman of Justice, Law and Human Rights Committee; Police Commissioner and his Cyber Crime Unit yet to act against Sudhakar and Ba businessman Jay Dayal over the death threats!

Foul language and derogatory comments made by SODELPA parliamentarian in constituency meeting


By
Vijay Narayan, Semi Turaga and Rusiate Baleilevuka
Saturday16/05/2015


SODELPA parliamentarian Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu made derogatory comments and used foul language in the itaukei language when he was asked about the decisions of the Speaker of Parliament by a Makoi resident.


Fijivillage was at SODELPA’s public constituency meeting at Penueli Methodist Church Hall in Makoi last night when this was done.

We have bleeped the following audio from the meeting last night due to foul language being used.

00:00/00:00 Police had earlier confirmed that this was a public meeting and this is the reason why SODELPA needed a permit to have the constituency meetings.

We have sent questions to the Speaker of Parliament Doctor Jiko Luveni.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama says he is saddened to hear that Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu has chosen to denigrate the Office of the Speaker of our Parliament by swearing in the vernacular at the Honourable Speaker, Jiko Luveni.

In a statement, Bainimarama says the Speaker of Parliament holds a very esteemed position in our Constitutional System of Government in which Parliament is the supreme law making body.

The Prime Minister says to have Honourable Lalabalavu who has not acted very honourably, publicly use abusive terms is scandalous to say the least and is an attack on the Fijian Parliamentary system of governance.

Bainimarama says the Speaker represents the Parliament and an attack on the Speaker is an attack on Parliamentary democracy.

The Prime Minister further says that the unfortunate thing for the Opposition has been that it has not come to grips with the fact that they did not win the elections and they are not in government and thus, have resorted to cheap and abusive politics.

Bainimarama says as a result of this frustration of theirs, they have simply embarked now both in and out of Parliament on an agenda of vilifying individuals and spreading misinformation on the proceedings in Parliament.

He says this unfortunate attack on the Speaker is the height of all abuse.

The Prime Minister says parliament must not allow this type of unbecoming behavior to ever take place again. Source: Fijivillage News

Fijileaks: Fiji media have turned into Spy State for the Government instead of acting as Fourth Estate; to date they have not questioned nor published Fiji ke mushoor gunda (Fiji's Famous Goon's) death threats against coup opponents.
SANJESH: Prime Minister, it’s also the anniversary today of the 1987 Coup. Can you give us your reflections on that?

PM: Yes on this day 28 years ago at 10 o’clock in the morning, a group of gunmen led by Sitiveni Rabuka, entered the Parliament where I’ve been sitting today and took over the country. Unlike Girmit Day, which is a day of celebration, this anniversary of the 1987 Coup is a day of shame. Because it triggered three decades of instability that we are only now just starting to put behind us with our new democracy.
Excerpt from Victor Lal: Fiji: Coups in Paradise - Race, Politics and Military Intervention:
"Ratu Inoke Kubuabola told Islands Business magazine of May 1988 that for more than six hours on April 19 he and Rabuka, later joined by Jone Veisamasama, 'talked about different options'. It was on 19 April that the groundwork for the coup was laid and according to Kubuabola, 11 May was the day his co-conspirators decided to proceed with its execution. He also claims that when it was learnt that Parliament  would not sit on Friday they had agreed to bring forward the coup to Thursday. Another crucial intermediary between the Taukei Movement and the military, the Rev Tomasi Raikivi, provided his house in Suva as a centre for overall planning. Thus it was there that Rabuka met the other conspirators on Easter Monday, nine days after the defeat of the Alliance Party. We will let Rabuka explain the rest, as he did to Eddie Dean and Stan Ritova in his infamous autobiography No Other Way. He went to Rev Raikivi's for, ' … What he understood was an ordinary 'grog' party. It was early evening, and he just walked in, as he normally would, throwing his 'sevusevu' of yagona towards the bowl where the 'grog' was being mixed. 'I saw all these people sitting down, and realised it was some kind of a meeting. Some of the people greeted me, although I could not see everyone clearly because it was fairly dark in the lounge-room. Nobody asked me to leave.' When his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he discovered the gathering was 'quite a formidable group'. He says it included Ratu Finau Mara, Ratu George Kadavulevu, Ratu Inoke Kubuabola, Ratu Keni Viuyasawa, the brother of Brigadier Epeli Nailatikau, Filipe Bole, Ratu Jo Ritova of Labasa, Ratu Jale Ratum, 'Big Dan' Veitata, and the host Raikivi. Another leading light at this meeting was Apisai Tora.''
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Fijileaks: We make no apology for reproducing materials on the 1987 coups and the racist and violent role of coup opportunist Ratu Inoke Kubuabola, the co-leader of i-taukei Movement. Victor Lal, along with scores of Indo-Fijians, spoke out against the revolting racism, torture and beatings in Rabuka-Kubuabola's Fiji, and also against George Speight's failed 2000 coup. The question he raised in 1987 still remain pertinent today: "How long do you have to live in a country to be considered and treated as a native?"
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Victor Lal was among a handful of individuals whom Rabuka-Kubuabola wanted 'dead or alive' - as documents supplied by one of Kubuabola's own right-hand man Ratu Meli Vesikula was revealed in the Immigration Appeals Tribunal Court in London following the arrest of Mohammed Rafique Kahan - the man who had shipped 'The Guns of Lautoka' into Fiji to overthrow Rabuka and his racist storm troopers like Kubuabola
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Fiji Girmit NZ Foundation should get Kubuabola arrested to right the wrong he committed against the Indo-Fijians, many who fled to NZ

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15 Comments
rajend naidu
15/5/2015 05:51:45 pm

Are we celebrating the contribution of all the descendants of the Girmitiyas.?
Is Professor Brij Lal one of them?

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Chiku
15/5/2015 06:05:16 pm

Remembering history is hard thing to do . That is certainly the case with this Fiji Girmit Foundation gang in NZ who have one of the chief culprits of the racist Rabuka military coup of 1987 Ratu Inoke Kubuabola as their chief guest.
How's that for a farce!
Good of Fijileaks to remind these intellectually bankrupt people in NZ of our recent history when Indo-Fijians were treated as the Jews of the Pacific.
And Ratu Inoke Kubuabola and his thugs were at the centre of that atrocity against the Fiji Indian citizens. Yes CITiZENS.
Shame on the organisers of this Girmitiyas Naatak!

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Dekho
15/5/2015 06:52:26 pm

Dekho this is indeed just a Naatak put up by a bunch of bourgeois NZFiji Indians. It is a good thing it's free and there is refreshments. That will attract some bored people to attend.
The show is an insult to the many Fiji Indians who were assaulted, abused and traumatised by the military coup of z1987 in which Ratu Inoke was a principle player - kilari!

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And
15/5/2015 07:34:41 pm

Tell me mada .is this how you honour the pioneer Girmitiyas and the sacrifice they made for later generations ?
By getting a scumbag racist like Ratu Inoke to be chief he guest?
What a spineless shameless lot!

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Dekho
16/5/2015 12:04:33 am

I thought the scumbag racist politician Ratu Inoke Kubuabola was a good mate of a free settler unscrupulous gold trader like Himmat Lodhia. A natural enough union. But now I gather from this NZ Girmit Foundation gang's invitation to him to be chief guest at their Girmit Remembrace a Day that he is now also good mates with the descendants of the semi slave Girmitiyas as well. This shameful invitation to a scumbag racist responsible for the suffering of thousands of Indians during the first Fiji coup brought TEARS to my eyes.

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Girmiteers Are Sad to have to see Kubuabola talk.
16/5/2015 03:33:30 am

He was not only joint initiator of 1987 Coup but, again he was part of the 2000 coup as he was unable to see himself in Opposition as the Leader of Opposition SVT.


24 August 2000: Kubuabola attacks Victor Lal after joining post George Speight coup as Minister for Information in the interim Qarase led government:

"What he is advocating is an Indian supremacist doctrine, a new version of Hitlerian herrenvolk for Fiji. The racism lies in his desires, not those of us Fijians. His obsession to control Fiji, blinds him to his own ambitions.”

Only a Parliament could change the law, but Kubuabola had other ideas to have the 1997 Constitution abbrogated hence the above comments.

Then Bainimarama who had abbrogated the 1997 Constitution in 2000 claims in Radio Tarana that:

I saw all that suffering and I was determined to put an end to it. And so we did what we did in 2006, took back the country for everyone and started the process of giving everyone equal status in our national life.

Then again, Kubuabola was part of the 2009 coup of abbrogation of 1997 Constitution where they abbrogated the rights of every Fijian to be treated equally and no one was community or person was
above the other.

But this new rogue constitution protects scammers in the Parliamentary Office excemptring FICAC of any powers to investigate them.

In Bainimarama's all equal Fiji, Kubuabola's ministry has more than 90% I-Taukei so where is equal Fiji for all in the name of we are all Fijians?

Reply
Question to Thakur Ranjit Singh?
16/5/2015 03:46:22 am

Kubuabola's own child did not vote for him as a candidate for this 2014 Elections.

He has been part of the team each time who have abbrogated the constitution as the election results did not make his type supreme.

So why is he talking at Girmit Day Celebration? Or is it Girmit Day Immemorial Service gathering?

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Dekho
16/5/2015 05:16:42 am

The Thakur and company are all self- scoundrels who are using the Girmit thing as a front for their aggrandisement

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Girmitiyas turning in their grave link
16/5/2015 04:11:45 am

The acts of the bourgeoisie fiji Indians in Auckland would make all girmitiyas turn in their graves. They would be cursing themselves for giving birth to such grand children who are sucking up to the very planners of 1987, 2000 and 2006 coups as their chief guests. These people have no shame, no ethics and moral. The sheer fact they get appointed as country reps, or in boards by the dictators get them selling their souls to the very people who designed the coups and are making the current indian population part of the new girmit. Shame on you all !

Reply
Yep
16/5/2015 04:14:33 pm

Rotten to the core. That's what these smooth slimy NZ Fijian Indians organising this so called Girmit Remembrace celebration are. Other fiji Indians in NZ with poper moral compass must feel very boi ca about this farcical Girmit celebration with an anti Indian coup conspirator as chief guest. What a pest !

Reply
Ahare
16/5/2015 02:08:53 pm

Doesn't Kububola belong to the party with the stolen name [Fiji First] - the intellectual property of which, I think, ironically belong to the GHP or the Girmit Heritage Party. How bizarre !~

Reply
rajend Naidu
16/5/2015 05:16:59 pm

Editor,
Indar Jit of Navua tells us in his letter to the Fiji Times today ( 17/05 ) that " it is indeed pleasing to read that people from all walks of life joined in the ( Girmit ) celebrations at Suva's Civic Centre to honour the sacrifices and struggles of the indentured labourers who arrived...in search of a better life 136 years ago ".
He concludes by saying " Obviously, the celebrations today reflects modern Fiji where everybody is part of this country and has an equal chance to make a contribution in the development of the country ".
Wasn't that how all the Indo Fijians felt in 1979 when we had the Fiji Girmit Centenary Celebrations? That in modern Fiji - which had attained Independence a decade ago - everybody was a part of the country with an equal chance to contribute to the development of their country of birth.
At that 100 year celebration the then PrimevMinister Ratu Mara said it was only fitting to celebrate the arrival of the Girmitiyas on a " national scale" ( National Archives of Fiji April 8, 2015 ).
After all the grand celebrations and all that we have had four coups in the country targeting mostly the Indo Fijian in the country.
Today many Indo Fijians find themselves in places like NZ, Australia, America , Canada and England contributing to the development of their adopted countries.
I hope the 136 year Girmit celebration is qualitatively different for the people in Fiji and not just ritual celebration with rhetorical speech making.
Rajend Naidu
Sydney

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Chiku
16/5/2015 09:46:58 pm

And what's more - worse - is that many high profile people who were making fancy speeches about the toil and turmoil of the Girmitiyas and the substantial contribution of their descendants to Fiji society and economy, and singing praise of Fiji's multiracial harmony were key figures in the racist anti Indian military coup of 1987 and subsequent ones.
People like Victor Lal among others have documented for history who these key scoundrels were and what they did to scapegoat and terrorise the Fiji Indian citizens of Fiji.
Today many of these Indians are living in exile in foreign lands that have accepted them.
One of the largest concentrations of these diaspora Fiji Indians are living in NZ.
It's an irony that they should invite one of the key coup figures RATU INOKE KUBUABOLA to be chief guest at their Girmit Celebration.
What a crying shame!

Reply
rajend naidu
17/5/2015 01:29:35 am

Editor,
Nishant Singh tells us in letter to the Fiji Times ( 16/05 ) that the Girmitiyas , the indentured labourers, suffered " some of the worst forms of brutality at the hands of their ruthless British masters".
That of course is true.
But the Girmitiyas also suffered immensely at the hands of the Indian henchmen hired by the colonial government and plantation owners. Accounts of the brutality and exploitation of these Indian chamchas of the colonial regime is well documented by professor Brij Lal, dr Ahmed Ali , Hughie Tinker and others.
Vijay Naidu's The Violence of Indenture in Fiji provides a quick insight into this aspect of the new system of slavery after the emancipation of slavery.
But even before their arrival on Fijian soil the indentured labourers suffered at the hand of the agents engaged by the colonial government, with authority fromLondon, to recruit them in India.
We learn from The National Archives :BlackPresence India that " the first recruiting agents were generally people of bad character. They fully utilised the harsh economic and social condition in India to lure the disposed into their trap ".
Many observers of the Fiji Indian community in Fiji and overseas have commented that this variety of Indians continue to circulate in the Indian community and ply their trade often by sucking up to power holders.
Sincerely,
Rajend Naidu
Sydney

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Poor Girmiteer victim children of 2000 Coup
17/5/2015 04:35:37 am

And some end up with millions tucked away in foreign bank account for self gain instead of handing the funds to those children of Girmitiya's who stood up to fight the war on dictatorship in 2000.

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