NFP Convention and Youth: 'For an active citizenry is the greatest enemy of an oppressive regime. So my fellow citizens, will you be active?

12/6/2017

10 Comments

"For an active citizenry is the greatest enemy of an oppressive regime. So my fellow citizens, will you be active? I direct my attention to you - who are 30, 40, 50, 60 year old today. Whatever has happened in the past in our nation, happened on your watch. It happened while the torch was in your hand. But I assure this convention today that when the torch is passed, when the baton is passed to the youth of today, the future will be different. The future will be better."
Hear Apenisa Vatuniveivuke

10 Comments

Chiku

12/6/2017 06:16:39 pm

It's time NFP got a campaign bus of its own to rival the FFP's blue bus. In fact two buses would be better. One for Vitilevu and one for Vanualevu to keep doing the rounds around the islands to constantly remind the voters that an alternative party is ready to govern for the good of the country and the people.

Dekho

13/6/2017 09:22:33 pm

Chiku makes a good suggestion but a bus does not come cheap. If you can't get a bus get a cane lorry and bolt an old bus body on it or a caravan and do your logo and campaign slogan and colour on it. But go to the people in that colourful way. Jaganath Sami said at the NFP convention that the choice for the voters is very clear. That's true. But it must be made clearer to ordinary voters around the country. A grand convention is good. Going directly to the people is better for securing victory at the next election.

Rajend Naidu

12/6/2017 09:20:29 pm

Editor,
Citizen Activism Against State Corruption.
We learn from DW News 13/6 and Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty ( ' Navalny, Hundreds of Others Detained At Russia Anticorruption protest') that opposition leader Navalny, an Anticorruption activist and vocal Kremlin critic who is seeking to run for president in March 2018 was detained outside his home before he could get to the rally in Moscow.
More than 200 similar demonstrations were held in cities and towns nationwide even in far flung places not known for political activism.
Rights watchdog Amnesty International said the crackdown " demonstrates the authorities' utter contempt for fundamental human rights... The Russian authorities' stranglehold on freedom of expression grows tighter by the day... Peaceful protest is a fundamental human right, not a privilege to be bestowed or refused on a whim. We are calling for all peaceful protesters swept up in these arrests to be immediately freed, and the right to hold peaceful rallies fully and genuinely respected".
White House spokesman Sean Spencer told a news briefing in Washington that " the United States strongly condemns the detention of hundreds of peaceful protesters ... Detaining peaceful protesters, human rights observers and journalists is an affront to core democratic values".
Couldn't agree more with the US condemnation.
Makes one wonder just what kind of democracy Russia has under Putin's?
We have some sense of that from the kind of democracy we have in post coup Fiji under Frank Bainimarama and Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum.
Sincerely,
Rajend Naidu

Rajend Naidu

13/6/2017 08:15:38 am

Editor,
People Stand Up Against Corruption
Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of the Moroccan capital to protest against corruption and abuse of power.
The demonstration in Rabat on Sunday was the largest of its kind for several years.
Protester Fatna Afid said " We are here for dignity, equality and social justice" ( anti-corruption digest, 12/6/17).
Ten years have lapsed since the military coup of 2006 and I have read many claims of corruption and abuse of power in Fiji during that time but I have never heard of people taking to the streets of the Fijian capital to protest against it.
Why is that?
Dont the people of Fiji have the right to protest against corruption and abuse of power?
Wasn't the 2014 elections about returning Fiji to democratic rule?
Has that happened?
Has Fiji returned to democratic rule?
Sincerely,
Rajend Naidu

Rajend Naidu

13/6/2017 11:55:37 pm

Editor,
Political Corruption
It's not something that happens only in places called Russia, Morocco, South Korea, Papua New Guinea and places like that. It happens big time in a First World democracy like Australia!
We get the latest on it from the Canberra Times article ' ALP reels after resignation and calls for China donations inquiry' ( ct 13/6 ).
" Labor is reeling after an adviser resigned amid revelations that the party bankrolled its 2016 federal election campaign with the help of up to $140,000 in donations from gold dealers linked to a multimillion- dollar tax scam.
The resignation from NSW Labor of rising star, 2016 senate candidate and gold trader Simon Zhou, comes as respected ALP MP Anthony Byrne called for a full parliamentary inquiry into foreign interference and donations, with public hearings by the joint parliamentary intelligence committee, of which he is deputy chair".
Byrne said " This has to be done, even if it involves our own side".
Now can you imagine anybody in the Fiji First Party saying that?
The Fiji First Party got rid of Professor Biman Prasad from the chair of the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee because they did not want any proper scrutiny. They wanted the rot in their use of state finance kept hidden from the public.
Imagine this other thing : If China can influence politics through donations and their agents in a First World democracy like Australia imagine how easy it would be for them to do that in a banana republic like Fiji with hardly any public scrutiny, transparency and democratic accountability worth talking about?
Sincerely,
Rajend Naidu

Chiku

14/6/2017 11:46:07 am

Makes you wonder about all those trips the coupist PM Bainimarama made to China, doesn't it ? What influence has China had in Fiji politics under the Bainimarama regime?

Chiku

14/6/2017 01:09:35 pm

How many ' Change is Coming ' tee- shirts have been made and distributed to the supporters of the party ? The Party and its election slogan should visible in the public domain daily. Having it up on the wall at the party convention was necessary but it's not sufficient. The party has to be SEEN to be a viable alternative government. Party officials walking around in fancy shirts will not project the right image. It's elitist. Like the Fiji Football officials walking about in fancy dress but soccer is no show in the country. Let ordinary people walk around in the streets and the market and the sports grounds with the NFP tee-shirt with its slogan.

Rajend Naidu

14/6/2017 11:35:49 pm

Editor,
Active Citizenry
We learn from The New Daily article ' Residents had been warning for years of London apartment tower's fire risk' ( 14/6 ) that a blog advocating for residents had repeatedly warned of the fire risks at the London social housing block engulfed in flames Wednesday morning.
In a prophetic blog posted in November last year Grenfell Action Group predicted " dangerous living conditions " could lead to catastrophic fire and " serious loss of life".
A Group representative said in an interview ( abc news 15/6 ) that " all the warnings fell on deaf ears" and the council ignored the petitition they presented signed by over 90% of residents to investigate the risk.
Why did that happen?
Did the Council fail in their duty of care to the residents?
Whose interest was the Council serving?
Reminds me of the Shirley Park "rezoning" in Lautoka where the Lautoka residents were ignored by the Council to give the go ahead to a hotel developer.
Sincerely,
Rajend Naidu

Rajend Naidu

15/6/2017 11:24:47 pm

Editor,
Active Citizenry
London Mayor Sadiq Khan was heckled when he went to Kesington to tour the site of the Grenfell apartment fire catastrophe.
One citizen interrupted him by calling out " what's he going to say ? We don't want to listen to his rubbish". When Khan tried to speak again another, a woman, interrupted him by saying " someone must he held to account".
Khan is a good humble leader genuinely committed to upholding democratic governance with all that that entails.
But that has not stopped angry citizens from heckling him.
In our post coup democracy leaders off load all kinds of rubbish on the people but citizens dare not heckle them.
Makes you wonder what kind of democracy that is?
Sincerely,
Rajend Naidu

Dekho

16/6/2017 12:26:57 am

Fiji does not have democratic rulers who respect citizen rights and citizen activism. Fiji has thug rulers. You heckle them you likely to get a visit from their henchmen, which include men in uniform and you likely to end up in hospital ...

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NFP Convention and Youth: 'For an active citizenry is the greatest enemy of an oppressive regime. So my fellow citizens, will you be active?

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