 Robert Mugabe | "The principal law officer of the land, Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, aiding and abetting a FijiFirst supporter to seize a portion of freehold land belonging to someone else and provide him with taxpayer funds to set up businesses on that land." |  Aiyaz Khaiyum |
 | "Abdul Nazeem doesn’t own the land on which the businesses are established. He hasn’t even leased the land. He has simply taken what belongs to someone else – freehold land that has been owned by the prominent Nadi family, the Ferrier-Watsons, for more than 100 years." |  |
FIJI TAKES THE ZIMBABWE ROAD
A stunning development that will rock investor confidence in Fiji to the core – the principal law officer of the land, Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, aiding and abetting a FijiFirst supporter to seize a portion of freehold land belonging to someone else and provide him with taxpayer funds to set up businesses on that land.
Readers will recall our story earlier today in which we turned a spotlight on the AG for using the opening of this venture in Nadi to give the business community gratuitous advice about running their own businesses when he is patently struggling to adequately manage the Fijian economy. Yet the real story is much bigger. And it will send a chill through anyone with an existing parcel of freehold land in Fiji or anyone from outside the country wanting to buy freehold land and invest in the country.
Some of the detail of the new venture is contained in the accompanying story in the CJ Patel Fiji Sun about how a “Nadi businessman” Abdul Nazeem, used a government allocation of $14,000 to help establish the Rose Car Wash, Restaurant Lemon Tea and Home Duty Hair Salon on the Denarau Back Road.
The AG was there to officially launch the three businesses but there is a problem. A very big problem indeed.
Abdul Nazeem doesn’t own the land on which the businesses are established. He hasn’t even leased the land. He has simply taken what belongs to someone else – freehold land that has been owned by the prominent Nadi family, the Ferrier-Watsons, for more than 100 years.
Abdul Nazeem is a squatter with no legal right whatsoever to occupy the Watson’s land. He didn’t even ask them for their permission to do so let alone offer to pay rent. Yet with the assistance of the FijiFirst government, he has not only occupied land that is not his but the Fijian taxpayer has been party to this illegal occupation by providing him with a sum of money to establish his businesses.
The AG has some very serious explaining to do. Was he aware of Abdul Nazeem’s illegal occupation of the Ferrier-Watson land when he agreed to provide him with taxpayer assistance? Was he aware of the illegal occupation when he agreed to officially open his businesses and promote them? And what processes in the government could have possibly produced this outcome - a naked assault on the universal principle of the sanctity of ownership of freehold title?
Simply put, what has happened in Nadi is no different to what we saw in Zimbabwe in the 1990s – freehold landowners having their properties invaded by squatters. And unable to remove them because they had the support of the Patriotic Front regime of Robert Mugabe. Thousands of white farmers were driven from land their ancestors had cultivated for generations after Mugabe unleashed the “war veterans” of his independence movement and encouraged them take over those properties. These invasions triggering an eventual catastrophe of food shortages in what had been the “basket of southern Africa” as work stopped on those farms altogether.
Incredibly, we are now seeing the same assault on freehold ownership in Fiji at precisely the same time as the FijiFirst government desperately tries to attract foreign investment to kick start the ailing economy. As the story of what has happened on the Denarau Back Road inevitably spreads like wildfire in the local and overseas investment community, that investment simply isn’t going to happen. Because no-one can now be confident that if they buy even a portion of the small allocation of freehold land in Fiji (8 per cent of the total land area) that their right of ownership will be protected.
Like Robert Mugabe, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum has plunged a dagger into the economy with a blatant act of favouritism to enable a fellow Muslim to take land from white Fijians who have owned it for generations. A family that has generously allocated the land it owns over the years for a variety of community purposes – including to the Methodist and Roman Catholic churches - and that has played an important role in the life of the West, including introducing tourism to the Nausori Highlands and establishing Denarau as Fiji’s foremost tourism playground.
If that’s not the Zimbabwe Road, then I personally don't know what is. Oh, except for tomorrow’s special report that is also a cautionary tale for anyone with money invested in Fiji. Or for Fijians planning to leave the country to set up a new life overseas.
A stunning development that will rock investor confidence in Fiji to the core – the principal law officer of the land, Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, aiding and abetting a FijiFirst supporter to seize a portion of freehold land belonging to someone else and provide him with taxpayer funds to set up businesses on that land.
Readers will recall our story earlier today in which we turned a spotlight on the AG for using the opening of this venture in Nadi to give the business community gratuitous advice about running their own businesses when he is patently struggling to adequately manage the Fijian economy. Yet the real story is much bigger. And it will send a chill through anyone with an existing parcel of freehold land in Fiji or anyone from outside the country wanting to buy freehold land and invest in the country.
Some of the detail of the new venture is contained in the accompanying story in the CJ Patel Fiji Sun about how a “Nadi businessman” Abdul Nazeem, used a government allocation of $14,000 to help establish the Rose Car Wash, Restaurant Lemon Tea and Home Duty Hair Salon on the Denarau Back Road.
The AG was there to officially launch the three businesses but there is a problem. A very big problem indeed.
Abdul Nazeem doesn’t own the land on which the businesses are established. He hasn’t even leased the land. He has simply taken what belongs to someone else – freehold land that has been owned by the prominent Nadi family, the Ferrier-Watsons, for more than 100 years.
Abdul Nazeem is a squatter with no legal right whatsoever to occupy the Watson’s land. He didn’t even ask them for their permission to do so let alone offer to pay rent. Yet with the assistance of the FijiFirst government, he has not only occupied land that is not his but the Fijian taxpayer has been party to this illegal occupation by providing him with a sum of money to establish his businesses.
The AG has some very serious explaining to do. Was he aware of Abdul Nazeem’s illegal occupation of the Ferrier-Watson land when he agreed to provide him with taxpayer assistance? Was he aware of the illegal occupation when he agreed to officially open his businesses and promote them? And what processes in the government could have possibly produced this outcome - a naked assault on the universal principle of the sanctity of ownership of freehold title?
Simply put, what has happened in Nadi is no different to what we saw in Zimbabwe in the 1990s – freehold landowners having their properties invaded by squatters. And unable to remove them because they had the support of the Patriotic Front regime of Robert Mugabe. Thousands of white farmers were driven from land their ancestors had cultivated for generations after Mugabe unleashed the “war veterans” of his independence movement and encouraged them take over those properties. These invasions triggering an eventual catastrophe of food shortages in what had been the “basket of southern Africa” as work stopped on those farms altogether.
Incredibly, we are now seeing the same assault on freehold ownership in Fiji at precisely the same time as the FijiFirst government desperately tries to attract foreign investment to kick start the ailing economy. As the story of what has happened on the Denarau Back Road inevitably spreads like wildfire in the local and overseas investment community, that investment simply isn’t going to happen. Because no-one can now be confident that if they buy even a portion of the small allocation of freehold land in Fiji (8 per cent of the total land area) that their right of ownership will be protected.
Like Robert Mugabe, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum has plunged a dagger into the economy with a blatant act of favouritism to enable a fellow Muslim to take land from white Fijians who have owned it for generations. A family that has generously allocated the land it owns over the years for a variety of community purposes – including to the Methodist and Roman Catholic churches - and that has played an important role in the life of the West, including introducing tourism to the Nausori Highlands and establishing Denarau as Fiji’s foremost tourism playground.
If that’s not the Zimbabwe Road, then I personally don't know what is. Oh, except for tomorrow’s special report that is also a cautionary tale for anyone with money invested in Fiji. Or for Fijians planning to leave the country to set up a new life overseas.
The Ferrier-Watsons (Beverely and her son Marc McElrath) donated thousands of dollars to FFP in 2017/18; Patricia donated $100
"The executors of Norma Athol Ferrier-Watson, had ceased to be the registered proprietors of the land before the hearing by the High Court Judge. In accordance with the will of their testatrix they had transferred the title to a family company, Kennedy Watson Limited. This fact appears not to have been disclosed to the High Court Judge or to the Court of Appeal."
Fiji Supreme Court, 1995
The FERRIER-WATSONS AND TENANTS FIGHT IT OUT IN FIJI COURTS
They had dispossessed many sitting tenants from their lands, one for being
simply late in paying his land rent to the family
1995: SUPREME COURT OF FIJI
VENKATAMMA V BRYAN CHARLES FERRIER-WATSON
The litigation has been marked by procedural irregularities on both sides. It emerged on the subsequent hearing of a stay application that the plaintiffs, who were the executors of Norma Athol Ferrier-Watson, had ceased to be the registered proprietors of the land before the hearing by the High Court Judge. After the issue of the summons, in accordance with the will of their testatrix they had transferred the title to a family company, Kennedy Watson Limited. This fact appears not to have been disclosed to the High Court Judge or to the Court of Appeal. As this Court indicated during the argument of the present appeal, the proceeding could apparently have been regularised by a simple amendment substituting the company as plaintiff, but no application for an amendment has been made, unless (which is not altogether clear) counsel for the respondents is to be understood as having made a tacit application to this Court.
http://www.paclii.org/cgi-bin/sinodisp/fj/cases/FijiLawRp/1995/3.html?stem=&synonyms=&query=ferrier-watson
In case SHAMIMA ALI has not seen this news from Malaysia:
