"The Attorney-General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, has used the legal protection of parliamentary privilege to make an utterly scurrilous attack on me in the chamber today. He made the astonishing claim that I have a grievance against the government and live in a small room. I hereby challenge the AG to repeat these allegations outside the parliament so that I can seek appropriate restitution." - GRAHAM DAVIS
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The Attorney-General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, has used the legal protection of parliamentary privilege to make an utterly scurrilous attack on me in the chamber today. He made the astonishing claim that I have a grievance against the government and live in a small room. I hereby challenge the AG to repeat these allegations outside the parliament so that I can seek appropriate restitution.
Seriously though. Is that the best the AG could do to try to tarnish my reputation when, for instance, he could - under parliamentary privilege - have done an imitation of me as a gorilla and tried to pass it off as Darth Vader?
These guys just don't get it. First the Prime Minister makes a televised statement and appears on the front pages of both national newspapers in Fiji saying how irrelevant and unimportant I am. Then the Attorney General gets up in the Parliament today and says how irrelevant and unimportant I am. All of which begs the question: why are they talking about me at all? Clearly the more they say that I'm irrelevant, the more relevant I become. In fact these Facebook postings are now reaching tens of thousands of Fijians every week on top of the traffic already being generated to my website www.grubsheet.com.au
PR 101. Don't ever highlight the comments of your critics if you want that criticism to go away. Because you are merely elevating them and giving them even more oxygen. It's a lesson that I repeatedly tried to drum into the PM and the AG when I was their principal communications advisor but they wouldn't listen. And they are still thumbing their noses at PR 101 and giving the opposition all the oxygen it needs to beat them at their own game and win the next election.
And, of course, the AG still didn't answer the opposition's questions about whether Elections Supervisor Mohammed Saneem had complained about Sharvada Sharma and whether that had led to Sharma's suspension as Solicitor General.
But thanks for the fresh plug, AG. Your attack on me has merely given me more oxygen to make Fijians more aware of your persistent attempts to deceive. And parliamentary privilege is wasted on you if that's the best you can do.
Seriously though. Is that the best the AG could do to try to tarnish my reputation when, for instance, he could - under parliamentary privilege - have done an imitation of me as a gorilla and tried to pass it off as Darth Vader?
These guys just don't get it. First the Prime Minister makes a televised statement and appears on the front pages of both national newspapers in Fiji saying how irrelevant and unimportant I am. Then the Attorney General gets up in the Parliament today and says how irrelevant and unimportant I am. All of which begs the question: why are they talking about me at all? Clearly the more they say that I'm irrelevant, the more relevant I become. In fact these Facebook postings are now reaching tens of thousands of Fijians every week on top of the traffic already being generated to my website www.grubsheet.com.au
PR 101. Don't ever highlight the comments of your critics if you want that criticism to go away. Because you are merely elevating them and giving them even more oxygen. It's a lesson that I repeatedly tried to drum into the PM and the AG when I was their principal communications advisor but they wouldn't listen. And they are still thumbing their noses at PR 101 and giving the opposition all the oxygen it needs to beat them at their own game and win the next election.
And, of course, the AG still didn't answer the opposition's questions about whether Elections Supervisor Mohammed Saneem had complained about Sharvada Sharma and whether that had led to Sharma's suspension as Solicitor General.
But thanks for the fresh plug, AG. Your attack on me has merely given me more oxygen to make Fijians more aware of your persistent attempts to deceive. And parliamentary privilege is wasted on you if that's the best you can do.
