"It is extraordinary that someone who defended the 2006 Fijian military coup is even allowed to live in New Zealand let alone work here at a university with the ambitious title of ‘migrants director’." Winston Peters
 "Track Record Renders Academic's Criticism Absurd": Winston Peters Press Statement New Zealand First leader Winston Peters says it is absurd that a Fijian academic with a poor human rights record has launched an attack on him. Fijian Shaista Shameem, now working as Massey University’s migrants director, responded to Mr Peters’s speech in Auckland on Friday saying he was encouraging racism against migrants. “It is extraordinary that someone who defended the 2006 Fijian military coup is even allowed to live in New Zealand let alone work here at a university with the ambitious title of ‘migrants director’. “She has the audacity to comment on our political discussions and make criticisms that are completely wrong. Has she read the speech? If so, she clearly did not take in any of the main points. “Her statement is a rant and rave to justify and enhance her new position and get as much publicity for herself as she can. “What is truly disappointing is the fact that a New Zealand university has now become a second branch of the Immigration Service. Is it now an employment agency for migrants? “It beggars belief that a university is employing someone with such a poor track record. “From her position as Fiji Humans Rights Commission director she supported the 2006 Bainimarama coup, and was appointed Ombudsman - an appointment considered unlawful by an international human rights group. “She is well known for failing to investigate human rights abuses during and following the coup. “As commission director she condemned the advice of the New Zealand High Commissioner and strongly criticised Prime Minister Helen Clark. She also came out swinging against many well-known people in Fiji who were later dismissed from their positions. “She even sought to interfere in the New Zealand Government by attempting to have the High Commissioner to Fiji replaced by a more ‘understanding’ commissioner. “When the well-named Shaista Shameem gets involved in accusations of racism she doesn’t know what thin ice she is skating on.” Press Release by New Zealand First at 2:42PM, 24 Feb 2014; Click HERE to read Professor Shameem's statement |  Peters (left) and Shameem (right). Professor Shameem: "Mr Peters does not realise just how much distress he is causing the new migrant communities in New Zealand when he takes to the podium to make the kinds of remarks he made in his state of the nation address in Auckland." NZ First Parrty leader Peters: "“Her statement is a rant and rave to justify and enhance her new position and get as much publicity for herself as she can. “What is truly disappointing is the fact that a New Zealand university has now become a second branch of the Immigration Service. Is it now an employment agency for migrants? “It beggars belief that a university is employing someone with such a poor track record."  Green's memoir The late former New Zealand High Commissioner to Fiji, Michael Green, in his memoir Persona Non Grata, cites a “Muslim Coup” aspect of 2006 in which, he claimed, Nazhat Shameem, a high court judge, and her sister Shaista of the Fiji Human Rights Commission, advised Bainimarama’s secretive military council. Another Muslim lawyer Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum was also involved. “In due course all three were to be beneficiaries of the coup.” Winston Peters on Professor Shameem: “She even sought to interfere in the New Zealand Government by attempting to have the High Commissioner to Fiji replaced by a more ‘understanding’ commissioner." BUT Peters is silent on his own role in letting 2006 coup happen By November 2006 Green heard from credible sources that the Fiji Police were planning to arrest Bainimarama for sedition and disobeying lawful orders. Bainimarama instead made a series of demands and threatened a coup. He went to New Zealand on a private visit for the first communion of a grand child but “got it into his head” that New Zealand would arrest him. “He phoned (Defence Attache) Al MacKinnon to him that that, if he should be arrested, his ‘boys’ would be sent over the fence into the Residence to ‘get me’. The threats were taken seriously and mission families were sent home.Then Foreign Minister Winston Peters told Bainimarama would not be arrested in Wellington." - Michael Green in his Memoir See also Russell Hunter and Victor Lal: Fiji police chief tried to get Bainimarama arrested in NZ |
