RACE AND SECOND CLASS PAY STATUS:
$135,00 Native Fijian Interim Cabinet Ministers while two Indo-Fijians (Khaiyum and Sharma) were getting $185,000 and $150,000 respectively)
THE BAINIMARAMA-KHAIYUM REGIME HAD REDUCED ITS OWN NATIVE FIJIAN INTERIM CABINET MINISTERS IN 2010 TO SECOND-CLASS IN PAY PECKING ORDER AFTER ABROGATING THE 1997 CONSTITUTION IN APRIL 2009.
THEY WERE PAID LESS COMPARED TO THEIR INDO-FIJIAN CABINET COLLEAGUES AND FRANK BAINIMARAMA WAS ON SALARY OF $230,000 PLUS $48,750 IN BENEFITS IN 2010
These I-taukei (NATIVE FIJIAN) Interim Cabinet Ministers were treated as second class Ministers in Bainimarama-Khaiyum's salary pecking order. Naively, they thought there was no "apartheid" in the salary payments as one confided to Victor Lal: "There was no criteria at all used in determining the salary pecking order as far as I know. None of us at the time knew how much each Minister was getting...I had assumed that we were all getting the same wages, but it appears we were not..."
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WORST, Dr Jiko Luveni, the Interim Minister for Social Welfare, Women and Poverty Alleviation, in 2010, was unaware that her own Government, bordering on racial and gender discrimination, was paying her a salary of $135,000 while her colleague Dr Neil Sharma, the Minister for Health, was being paid $150,000. She had been sent to the UN to introduce Fiji's combined second, third and fourth periodic reports to the 23-member expert UN Committee that ensures States parties are complying with the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women. She told the expert Committee that the Bainimarama-Khaiyum Government was making significant progress in reforms to advance the equality of women and protect them from adverse and unfair discrimination. More than a year after the abrogation of its Constitution in April 2009, she told the Committee, Fiji was working with a series of newly established decrees to ensure that the rights of women were protected as the country shaped a new Constitution by 2012 before holding elections two years later.
MEANWHILE, from Fijileaks Archive:
And NOW:
HOLLOW WORDS WHEN COMPARED TO SALARY: Lands Minister resigns 3/2/2011: "Minister for Lands and Mineral Resources Mr Netani Sukanaivalu tendered his resignation to the Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama yesterday. Commodore Bainimarama accepted Mr Sukanaivalu’s resignation and acknowledged the immense contributions he made toward the country’s development. The Prime Minister noted that Mr Sukanaivalu heeded Government’s call to serve his country, first as Minister for Education and then as Minister for Lands and Mineral Resources, during a challenging phase in our nation’s development. “Mr Sukanaivalu contributed in a big way to the charter process and identified himself with the Prime Minister’s vision as espoused in the Peoples Charter for Change, Peace and Progress for a “Better Fiji for All,” Commodore Bainimarama said.
“His contributions in developing our education system are invaluable. Part of the change that Government has worked hard to achieve is the use of idle land for agricultural and industrial development. As Lands and Mineral Resources Minister, Mr Sukanaivalu was influential in the set up of the Land Bank and developments in the mining sector. With that Government has succeeded in expanding development initiatives to rural areas. The nation is grateful to Mr Sukanaivalu and we wish him well in his future endeavors.”
Commodore Bainimarama now assumes the responsibilities of the
Lands and Mineral Resources Minister.
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More later: Dr Luveni had to remind BDOAliz (Aunty Ali) that the fortnightly deductions for FNFP from her salary had not been made as required by LAW
Speaker Dr Jiko Luveni clears the air for Fijileaks Jiko F. Luveni <jiko.luveni@parliament.gov.fj>
5 October 2016
Bula vinaka Victor,
........................... With respect to the message sent by E. BLAKELOCK, he was acting under my instructions to make lump sum deduction. All was done immediately and regularised till now.
All the best Victor
Jiko
5 October 2016
Bula vinaka Victor,
........................... With respect to the message sent by E. BLAKELOCK, he was acting under my instructions to make lump sum deduction. All was done immediately and regularised till now.
All the best Victor
Jiko
