Blog Posts

The 2nd Great FNFP Robbery. Professor Narsey: Between 2020 and 2021, by forcibly reducing rate of FNPF contributions from 18% to 10%, $168 million have been siphoned off from the workers into employers' pockets

2/1/2022

"If a robber accosted a decent law-abiding citizen on the street and violently stole $40 from him, the police would be on him like a ton of bricks. He would be arrested, charged with the unlawful theft of property, and fined or jailed or both, for his obvious crime. But between 2020 and 2021 (FNPF Annual Reports), by forcibly reducing the rate of FNPF contributions from 18% to 10%, $168 million have already been transferred from hardworking law-abiding employees FNPF funds, to employers' pockets...The Bainimarama Government has not only betrayed the employees of Fiji, but they have put a downward pressure on the Fiji economy into the future. Will this have any impact on the next General Elections? [People with short memories may be asking why I titled this article
"The 2nd Great FNPF Robbery"?]" -
Professor Wadan Narsey

By Professor WADAN NARSEY

If a robber accosted a decent law-abiding citizen on the street and violently stole $40 from him, the police would be on him like a ton of bricks. He would be arrested, charged with the unlawful theft of property, and fined or jailed or both, for his obvious crime.

But between 2020 and 2021 (FNPF Annual Reports), by forcibly reducing the rate of FNPF contributions from 18% to 10%, $168 million have already been transferred from hardworking law-abiding employees FNPF funds, to employers' pockets.

My rough estimates indicate that even though the rate of contribution has been slightly raised to 12%, by 31 December 2022, somewhere up to $382 million of employees' retirement funds, will have been transferred to employers.

There has been no uproar from the police or the judiciary or even employees who have been brutally intimidated these last fourteen years.

Of course, there will be no protest from employers who are gaining these massive sums of money without any effort on their part.

But the Fiji public must ask: have any members of the FNPF Board, expressed any concern whatsoever on the impact on the future welfare of the FNPF Members?

The Fiji public must ask: do any of the Members of the FNPF Board have any conflicts of interest with the transfer of this massive amount from employees to employers?

The Fiji public must ask: has the FNPF Board or any of them individually, expressed any concerns whatsoever on the negatives impacts of the robbery on the FNPF's finances?

The employees of Fiji must demand to know why there are no employee representatives on the FNPF Board.

What has occurred to the employees' FNPF retirements funds is truly tragic, "legal robbery" as I personally call it.

The sacredness of FNPF Contribution

I remind readers of the legal sacredness of the FNPF contribution.

By law, all registered employers have for several years been required to contribute 18% of their wage bill to the FNPF, with 10% supposedly coming from employers and 8% supposedly coming from employees.

If any employer unilaterally chose not to pay their required FNPF contributions, this is seen as "breaking the law" seen effectively as the employer "stealing" from the employees.

Such employers would be prosecuted by government (police and judiciary), fined, and forced to pay the required contributions into the employees' accounts.

Except that the Bainimarama Government has legally allowed the employer to keep a large part of the employees' contributions in his own pockets, and to keep doing so until 31 December 2022.

By doing so, not only has the FNPF been put under great financial stress, but the Fiji economy has also been deprived of that much development funds.

The facts from the FNPF Annual Reports

The massive reductions in contributions to FNPF are fully documented in the 2021 FNPF Annual Report which covers the period 1 July 2020 to 31 June 2021.

Total Contributions to FNPF over this one year alone have declined by a massive $270 million (the grey bars in the graph).

Employers' Contributions (black columns) have declined by $168 million (which they have kept in their pockets).

Employees' contributions have declined by $102 million.

How has this historic reductions come about?

The first reduction

In the 2020 COVID-19 Supplementary Budget, the Minister for Economy (Aiyaz Khaiyum) announced that from April 1 2020 to 31 December 2020, FNPF contributions would be reduced from 18% to 10%.

Employees' contribution to their FNPF would be reduced from 8% to 5%, thereby putting $80 million into their pocket (presumably for spending or saving), which most sensible economists would be deeply concerned about.

But of greater concern is that by law employers' contributions would be reduced from 10% to 5% with Khaiyum announcing that "Over the next 9 months, this will keep $130 million in their accounts".

What Khaiyum did not say was that by law, this effectively would move over the nine months, $130 million from employees' FNPF retirement funds, into the employers' pockets, forever: I call it "legal robbery".

Khaiyum justified it as "helping them sustain their business and cash flow and minimize job losses and hour reductions”.

Australia also helped many employers maintain their cash flow during COVID, but they used their Jobkeeper Allowances paid for by taxpayers in general. It was not taken out of employees' super contributions or retirement funds.

Then in July 2020, that reduction of Employers' FNPF contributions from 10% to 5% was continued from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2021, proportionately putting for the calendar year 2021, another $140 million into employers' pockets.

Last week, the Bainimarama Government announced an "increase" of contributions to 12% (6% from employers and 6% from employees) to go from 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2022: effectively transferring another $112 million from employees to employers.

Altogether, the employees will have forever lost up to $382 million (=130+140+112) into the pockets of employers, by strokes of the pen of the Minister of Economy.

Given the size of these "benefits" for the employers, the contributions to the FFP revealed by Victor Lal's website Fijileaks would seem to be fantastic investments by the employers.

Note also that by 31 December 2022, the FNPF retirement funds will have roughly lost up to $658 million creating enormous liquidity problems, because of historically high withdrawals by members.

Given that the actual contributions would have been somewhat lower because of the contraction of the economy, the public can call upon FNPF to give far more accurate estimates than my rough numbers here.

FNPF Under Pressure

It is critical that the FNPF members understand how the nation's retirement funds have been badly dented by the Bainimarama Government policies.

Not only have they massively cut employer contributions (which have gone into their pockets) but they have very unwisely encouraged the FNPF members to draw down their savings.

Graph 2 shows these declines.

FNPF contributions fell from $652 million per year in 2019 to $321 million in 2021 (solid line in the graph).

Withdrawals rose from $356 million in 2019 to a record $501 million in 2021 (dotted line in the graph).

Net Contributions to the FNPF which had been positive $296 million in 2019, had declined to $153 million in 2020, and became a massive NEGATIVE $180 million in 2021.

I suspect that it will still be negative when the 2022 Annual Report is written.

But the FNPF contributors must ask: who in the FNPF Board have been looking after their financial interests while their retirement funds have been raided?

What of the FNPF Board Members?

One of the fiduciary duties of the FNPF Board Members is to look after the interests of the FNPF contributors- most of whom are employees in the formal sector of the Fiji economy.

Did any of the current Board Members (Dakshesh Patel, Sanjay Kaba, Mukhtar Ali, Shiri Gounder, Joel Abraham and Kalpana Lal) make known any concerns about the welfare impact of these FNPF contributions?

Indeed, do they have any conflicts of interest in these adverse developments for employees?

It is public knowledge that Daksesh Patel has significant interests in major Fiji employer Vinod Patel.

Does Sanjay Kaba and his company have corporate dealings with FNPF investments?

The public can see that one of the members (Shiri Gounder) is PS of Economy and another is an executive in a public enterprise, both under the direction of Minister of Economy who made the legislative changes reducing the FNPF contributions.

Workers of Fiji should be actively protesting that since the 2006 Bainimarama coup, all union representatives have been removed from the FNPF Board so today there is no Board Member who employees can hold responsible for speaking up for their interests.

Note that among the employees who have lost large amounts from their retirements are all civil servants of Fiji, including those who work for the RFMF, the Police and Prisons.

Also adversely affected are journalists in some media companies who have been uncritically pro-Bainimarama Government.

FNPF and Development Funds

The Fiji public must understand that the reduction of FNPF contributions does not just hurt employees but also the Fiji economy in the long run.

One of the massive national benefits of the FNPF is that has more funds to lend out than all the commercial banks put together.

The Fiji Government and many public enterprises are the largest borrowers from the FNPF, largely investing their loans for Fiji's development (though sometimes mistakes are made).

There are also many private enterprises which borrow from FNPF and help to grow the Fiji economy.

Reduced contributions to FNPF thereby inevitably reduces the funds available for FNPF to invest into Fiji's economy and future growth.

The Bainimarama Government has not only betrayed the employees of Fiji, but they have put a downward pressure on the Fiji economy into the future.

Will this have any impact on the next General Elections?

[People with short memories may be asking why I titled this article "The 2nd Great FNPF Robbery"?]

The Fiji Times removed the following from Narsey's original article:

Given the size of these "benefits" for the employers, the contributions to the FFP revealed by Victor Lal's website Fijileaks would seem to be fantastic investments by the employers.

Fijileaks Archive, October 2020

But did SANJAY KABA donate to FFP. YES, he did. He didn't donate as Sanjay Kaba but as SANJAY LAL. We were able to track his donation through our Fijileaks database that we have created out of FFP donations lists, supplied by Mohammed Saneem.
ON 13 April 2017, Sanjay Lal [KABA] donated $10,000 to FijiFirst Party. Receipt Number, 1632. We do not know who at FFP received donation.

Fijileaks: Why is this MAN directing FNFP affairs from California?

On 25 June 2014, the California based Mukhtar Ali donated $5,000 (Receipt No 420) to FFP Head Office and so did Daksesh Patel, on 14 October 2015. He donated $10,000 (Receipt Number 457)

NOSTRADAMUS on Fiji2022: NFP will lose its THREE MPs, FLP will get One MP, Unity Fiji will disappear for craving political coalition, SODELPA will hold on with reduced seats. FFP and PAP snakes will look to RFMF

1/1/2022

And, onboard will come slithering down from the Nabua military barracks
Lieutenant Colonel BEN NALIVA, commander of the 3FIR (Infantry Regiment) with thousands of his well fed and well paid foot soldiers. Of course, in full support of FijiFIRST Party, waving the 2013 Constitution

the RFMF is mandated to be the guardian of Fiji, carrying out the mandate of the people through our National Administration.

"It shall be the overall responsiblity of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces to ensure at all times the security, defence and well-being of Fiji and all Fijians."
The RFMF website, on its front page with menacing BUSHMASTER

NOSTRADAMUS

The dithering RFMF Commander JONE KALOUNIWAI will dash to the
RFMF's SITIVENI RABUKA PHOTOCOPY ROOM to fetch the 1987 Decrees and declare himself, just like Rabuka did after 1987, Minister for Home Affairs, in charge, technically, of the RFMF. HISTORY, a new mantra we have been hearing recently at the condolence service in honour of Professor Brij Lal, will repeat itself.

We must never make the same grievous mistake as many did in 1987. When the Alliance Party lost the 1987 general election to Dr Bavadra, all eyes was on the then military commander Ratu Epeli Nailatikau. Will he accept the election result? For, after all, he was also the son-in-law of recently defeated Prime Minister Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara.

But, out of the blue, wearing a blue beige suit, and God microphoning him into his ears, an obscure third-ranking colonel, Sitiveni Ligamamada Rabuka, stood up in Parliament to inform the world that his was a COUP. He had brought with him ten masked soldiers. A COUPIST was born, to inflict terror and violence on Fijians. One of the masked gunman was Brigadier General Ioane Naivalurua, later Police Commissioner. Like Adolf Hitler before him in history, Rabuka singled out the Indo-Fijians for persecution - the 'Brown Jews* of the South Pacific' - disenfranchising them, torturing them, locking them up, raping, robbing and beating them, so that they fled Fiji in their thousands. His ultimate objective was
to make i-taukei Fijians a majority race in Fiji. He planned to replace Indo-Fijians with Chinese from mainland China, for these Chinese would
not be interested in politics and power in Fiji

* Talking of Adolf Hitler, when Herman Goering, Hitler's designated successor, and the most senior National Socialist, was awaiting trial at Nuremberg, he told the prison psychiatrist that once the German people "learn all that has been revealed at this [Nuremberg] trial" there would be no more sympathy for Adolf Hitler. On 1 October 1946 Goering was sentenced to be hanged; on the eve of his execution, 14 October, he bit on a phial cyanide. The coward had taken the easy way out, and in Fiji where treason in 1987 had carried the dealth penatly, Rabuka gave himself, his military and co-conspirators Immunity, still in force in the 2013 Constitution of Fiji

Rabuka termed his treasonous mission, Operation Kidacala. Since that treasonous day, 14 May 1987, Fiji has never been at peace with herself.

Sitiveni Rabuka is back, with his pied piper from NFP inflating his redemption and importance. Both are trying to con the voters, into voting for Rabuka who is hiding behind Immunity.

We just can not comprehend the pyschology of Rabuka's sychopants, including one Ajay Bhai Amrit, some Essex sounding chap from England, using his Fiji Times* column to spread propaganda on Rabuka's behalf. He claims he was seduced by Rabuka's character, so became one of the founding members of the Peoples Alliance Party. However, it is our sacred duty, as Goering conceded in his final days, to remind the VOTERS of Rabuka's HISTORICAL past. There must be no place for him at the political dinner table. Otherwise, Lt Col Ben Naliva will have his day, for 'Revenge is a dish best served cold'. The ghost of 2000 Mutiny.

Joseph Goebbels, one of Nazi Germany’s and Adolf Hitler’s greatest propagandists: ‘This will always remain one of the best jokes of democracy, that it gave its deadly enemies the means by which it was destroyed’.*

What about the i-Taukei Fijians? What will be their reaction to
Ben Naliva's Operation Kidacala COUP?

Jesus Christ, they will do what they have been doing since HISTORY.
As the Reverend Thomas Williams recorded in Fiji and the Fijians, first published in 1858:
"I have seen women disperse like frightened doves, at the appearance of a solitary man (Nostradamus: in 2022 it will be Ben Naliva), and youngsters of various ages scamper pell-mell at the upligting of a spy glass. A Fijian cannot be comfortale with a stranger at his heels. It has so happened, several times, that when I have had a room full of visitors, the door has suddenly slammed with the wind, and, in an instant, the allfrighted natives would rush out at the windows, like bees from a disturbed hive."
NOSTRADAMUS: Fiji, Welcome to 2022
A YEAR OF COVID AND COUP

From left-Acting Prime Minister and Minister for Defense Inia Seruiratu, Police Commissioner Brigadier General Sitiveni Qiliho, Lt. Col Ben Naliva, Police Force Chaplain SP. Waisale Tikowale, Fiji Correction servicers Commissioner, Francis Kean and RFMF Commander Major-General Jone Kalouniwai during the 2000 mutiny anniversary at QEB on 2, November 2021. Photo: Ronald Kumar, Fiji Sun

HAPPY NEW YEAR, PM. It's your last hurrah: Graham Davis: 'This guy could not be more disconnected from lives of his people than he is right now. He spent Christmas with the family in secluded Hilton Resort villa'

31/12/2021

‘Smacks of sexism’
“And Dr Padma Lal, along with her husband, was also banned from Fiji. This smacks of sexism and once again disregards Dr Lal’s illustrious career as an ecological economist and her work on the sugar industry and environment. I urge the Fiji Human Rights and Anti Discrimination Commission to step up and challenge this draconian decision of arbitrarily banning citizens and taking away their birthright.”

"Lal’s “writings and utterances irked the government” so they banned him from Fiji."
Shamima Ali

By Christine Rovoi, RNZ Pacific journalist

A human rights advocate in Fiji says the country should be ashamed of the exile of the now dead celebrated academic professor Brij Lal and his family.

Professor Lal was expelled from Fiji in 2009 after speaking out against coup leader Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama’s FijiFirst government.

Lal died at his home in Brisbane on Christmas Day. Tributes have been pouring in since.

Rights advocate Shamima Ali, coordinator of the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre, said that while the region mourned Professor Lal’s death, people should not forget the injustice meted out to him and his wife.

Ali said the government disrespected academia and the contributions academics made to Fiji’s development.
In the case of the Lals, Ali said there had been a “miscarriage of justice and a gross violation of their basic human rights — the right to nationality and citizenship and to a fair trial”.

Ali said Lal’s “writings and utterances irked the government” so they banned him from Fiji.

‘Smacks of sexism’

“And Dr Padma Lal, along with her husband, was also banned from Fiji.

“This smacks of sexism and once again disregards Dr Lal’s illustrious career as an ecological economist and her work on the sugar industry and environment.

“I urge the Fiji Human Rights and Anti Discrimination Commission to step up and challenge this draconian decision of arbitrarily banning citizens and taking away their birthright.”

The Australian High Commissioner to Fiji John Feakes expressed his appreciation to the Commissioner of Police for keeping Australian tourists safe as well as the many citizens that are either here for work or have come to call Fiji home. He paid a courtesy call to the Commissioner of Police Brigadier-General Sitiveni Qiliho last week.
The Fiji Sun, 4 February 2018

NOW, Auditor-General's Office under probe. Khaiyum appoints THREE Commissioners to inquire into Auditor-General's Office. Commissioners: Winston Thompson, under whose chair NBF collapsed. No Inquiry, EVER

30/12/2021

Fiji Government: Appointment of Commissioners to the Commission of Inquiry

Mr Winston Thompson, Ms Fay Yee and Ms Lala Sowane (Commissioners) have been appointed as Commissioners to the Commission of Inquiry (Commission) by His Excellency, the President of the Republic of Fiji, to conduct an inquiry into the Office of the Auditor-General.

The Commissioners are expected to inquire into and report on: the conduct, operations and performance of the Office of the Auditor-General; the capacity of the Office of the Auditor-General to carry out its functions and duties effectively and efficiently under the Constitution of the Republic of Fiji, the Audit Act 1969 and any other written law; whether the Office of the Auditor-General is carrying out its functions and duties, and exercising its powers in accordance with the Constitution of the Republic of Fiji, the Audit Act 1969 and any other written law, and acting within the scope of its constitutional and legislative powers, duties and functions; whether the Office of the Auditor-General is carrying out its functions and duties in accordance with internationally accepted audit procedures and requirements; and any associated matters considered to be relevant to the general objects of the inquiry.

The Commissioners must also make recommendations: to eliminate and prevent any unlawful, improper, ineffective or inefficient practices in the Office of the Auditor-General; for the effective and efficient delivery of the functions and duties of the Office of the Auditor-General under the Constitution of the Republic of Fiji, the Audit Act 1969 and any other written law; and for the adoption by the Office of the Auditor-General of internationally accepted audit procedures and requirements, and any other standard and transparent operating procedures.

Mr Winston Thompson, who has been appointed as the chairperson of the Commission, holds years of experience in the public sector and has served as Fijis Ambassador to the United Nations. He has served as the Permanent Secretary for Agriculture, Fisheries & Forests (1973-1978), Finance (1975-1985), and Tourism, Civil Aviation and Energy (1991-1992). He was the Chief Executive Officer of Telecom Fiji for 10 years until 2005. Mr Thompson was appointed as the Ambassador of the Embassy of the Republic of Fiji to the United States in 2009 before becoming the Pro-Chancellor and Chair of Council at the University of the South Pacific.

Ms Fay Yee is the current Chairperson of the Board of FRCS. She is a chartered accountant who holds more than 35 years of accounting, business advisory and tax experience. Ms Yee worked for Ernst & Young prior to commencing her own accounting practice, Fay Yee & Co. She has served as a Director on Boards such as Fiji Public Trustee Corporation Limited, Fiji Red Cross Society and Fiji Chinese Education Society. She is a member of the University of the South Pacific Council and was the Chair of the University's Finance and Investment Committee.

Ms Lala Sowane is the Director and co-owner of Tewaka, formerly known as Pacific Destinations Fiji. She is a qualified Accountant and has worked at Pricewaterhouse Coopers as an auditor. She is a member of the Fiji National University Council and a Board Member of the Fiji Revenue and Customs Service Board. She also holds over 20 years of experience in the tourism sector.

The Commission has been directed to submit its findings and recommendations to the President of the Republic of Fiji within 3 months of the date of appointment or, upon the Commissions request, such longer period as the President of the Republic of Fiji may direct.

Fijileaks: We wonder when will SITIVENI RABUKA reveal his own role in the collapse of the National Bank of Fiji. He must NEVER be allowed back at the helm of power and government in Fiji. It is time the likes of Unity Fiji leader Savenaca Narube takes him head on, for those Fiji Sun opinion polls are a red-herring. He is a smooth talking political CONMAN, hiding behind IMMUNITY since 1988. Fiji can do better without Rabuka

“I would like to highlight the collapse of the National Bank of Fiji (‘NBF’) in 1995 which our country is still reeling from. We are still paying for the largest financial scandal in Fiji’s history. The then Government issued $209 million in bonds to bail out the NBF. The funds borrowed were used to pay NBF depositors. The overall cost including the interest payment has exceeded half a billion dollars. Yes, exceeded half a billion dollars. Madam Speaker, the initial bonds have matured but both the SDL Government and later on the FijiFirst Government has had to rollover this debt. This means that we are still paying for this debt and it is likely that future generations will continue to pay for it. This in fact has created intergenerational inequity. The current and future generation has to bear the cost burden of the mismanagement of a State Owned Bank under the SVT Government. The Prime Minster then is of course the current leader of SODELPA. The situation was, of course, exacerbated by the then Senior Government Ministers who encouraged bad governance, nepotism and interference in the affairs of NBF. People were actually given hand written notes to the
Bank Manager to give loans. Everybody knows about this!”
Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum, in Parliament, 13 March 2018

BDO REPORT IS NOW HISTORY: USP's then Pro-Chancellor Thompson

JOURNEY FOR JUSTICE: FIJILEAKS Journey with the late Professor Brij Lal resulted in our exposing identity of "COLONEL" who interrogated, assaulted, covered Lal's face with his SPIT: Police Compol Sitiveni Qiliho

29/12/2021

Fijileaks:
GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN:
"We have come to bury Ceasar, not to praise him"
Sadly, BIMAN PRASAD has hijacked the late Brij Lal's death and has turned it into a "Naatak". He is setting the stage for Sitiveni Rabuka to announce a coalition between PAP and NFP in 2022. Yes, lets celebrate Brij Lal's life and writings on the girmitiyas but to exaggerate his political activism against the FFP is a shame and gross insult to his memory and legacy (1952-2021).
RIP.

From 2009 to 2015, while pursuing his academic interests, he kept a very low profile politically, hoping that through quite diplomacy the ban on him and his wife will be lifted by this callous regime. I kept reminding him that the present lot learnt their art of persecution, deportation, and exiling, from his misguided HERO Sitiveni Rabuka and the 1987 coups. Every decree is basically a photocopy of decrees that was promulgated by Rabuka. In 2015 he found out that his ban was permanent. Finally, in May 2019, Biman Prasad and Aiyaz Khaiyum exchanged bitter words in Parliament over the ban on Brij Lal. It was during the debate to commemorate the 140th anniversary of the arrival of indentured labourers. A year later, in 2020, after persuasion and prodding from us, the late Brij Lal revealed the identity of the "Colonel" in his "Torture Affidavit" against Sitiveni Qiliho.

He was no longer lecturing us to let go "Rabuka's rape, political disenfranchisement, robbery, beatings and exiling" of the descendants of the Girmitiyas. We had told him you can't churn out millions of words on the "Violence of Indenture" and that painful study, 'Kunti's Cry: Indentured Women on Fiji's Plantations", and let us FORGET the rapes and beatings of our Indo-Fijian mothers, wives, daughters, cousins and sisters at the hands of Sitiveni Rabuka and his racist thugs. If you want us to wipe Rabuka's crimes from Fijian history, then, surely, you should wipe out all your historical writings on the violence and brutality of the indenture system. In February 2019, Brij Lal seemed to have given up the fight: "Dear Victor. Just to say hello and to wish you well. What are you up to these days? Fiji is now waning from my horizon. What do you do when people you want to help keep inflicting wounds on themselves? I am re-doubling my efforts into writing, preserving the fragments in early dotage. (the period of life in which a person is old and weak)." Best, Brij.
His health was beginning to deteriorate and his e-mails were full of typo errors; he put it down to failing eyesight. We informed him that Qilio was travelling up to London for studies, and that we were planning to get him (Qiliho) arrested and charged with crimes of torture in Fiji following the 2006 Bainimmarama Coup.

In 2020 Brij Lal agreed to fight on, for all he now wanted was JUSTICE for what Police Commissioner Sitiveni Qiliho had subjected him to in 2009, in that confined military cell. He began repeating with us what the late Martin Luther King, Jr., reminded us that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” We feel privileged to have played our part in that journey. Of course, in the process, making more enemies in Fiji, especially in the FijiFirst Party government. But, then, we have been fighting for justice, human rights, and democracy since 1987, and have refused to embrace coupists - from Sitiveni Rabuka to Frank Bainimarama. Let Prasad continue his "naatak" with RABUKA. He (Biman Prasad) has shamelessly hijacked Brij Lal's death. Condolence service in Fiji should have been a multi-party affair (even inviting FFP) but NO, he made sure it was Prasad-Rabuka "Naatak".

Where is that other "nachaniya" ASHWIN RAJ, so-called human rights activist and former student of the late Brij Lal? Coming soon: Why Professor Lal kicked him out of the ANU?

CENSORED: The Fiji Times, while running a series of articles on the late Brij Lal could not summon courage and reveal what his "Torture Affidavit" revealed, including the identity of the Colonel who cowardly thumped him in a confined military cell in 2009. Instead, we read this censored version in the Fiji Times, 28 December 2021, accompanied by a photograph of gleaming BIMAN PRASAD, the NFP leader and Sitiveni Rabuka's political chambermaid, with Brij and Padma Lal. The NFP has shamelessly and politically hijacked his death.
According to IVA TORA, a Melbourne based writer and communications specialist:
"In all my discussions with him, Brij Lal was not one to indulge in any kind of self-pity or to talk in any great detail about his treatment — or mistreatment — at the hands of the military of which he was a vocal critic. This was a dark period of his life which I appreciated had taken an enormous psychological, mental and physical toll on his life. The little material I have of the abuse he suffered comes from snippets, personal accounts and anecdotes from friends and colleagues. In one such account, we are told that “a senior military officer in the Republic of Fiji Military Forces [ RFMF ] had detained Lal in 2009, slapped him and spat on him. A soldier also smashed his spectacles without which he could barely see. Lal was told to catch the next flight out of Fiji or his family would have to retrieve his dead body from the mortuary”. Oi Lei, it looks like Prasad didn't bring to her attention our revelations in the Fijileaks. We are sure the Girmitiyas will be turning in their graveyards when they hear SITIVENI RABUKA speaking alongside Prasad at the condolence service. But, then, this slippery political snake charmer is forming a coalition with Rabuka's Peoples Alliance Party in 2022, hoping to complete the JOURNEY that Rabuka-Reddy embarked on in 1999.
Like many others, for years Prasad had remained silent on Lal's treatment and exile. He is also silent on Brij Lal's claim to us about Rabuka and that 'Petition to Parliament'.
We looked up an old coolie word - DOGLA - that was widely used by the indentured labourers against the sirdars. The word, according to Brij Lal in his writings on the Girmitiyas and the Indian indentured system, was used against the Indian sirdars (physical abusers of the coolies) who collaborated with the plantation owners from 1879-1920. In the last months Brij Lal finally accepted that Sitiveni Rabuka had liu muried him in concert with
Ratu Epeli Nailatikau, prompting us to respond,"Bhai, Liu Muri is in Rabuka's DNA'. Many who despise the Bainimarama-Khaiyum FFP government but who are charmed by Rabuka's
re-incarnation keep pleading with us to forget his violent criminal past, for they need him to disloge FFP at the next election. Just imagine if we had the same twisted mentality and logic, and had told Brij Lal: 'Bro, just forget about Qiliho, for he tortured you over 11 years ago, in 2009'. But, NO, Brij Lal wanted justice, to hold Qiliho to account for his crimes.
Because of Covid restrictions in the UK and in Fiji, some of his victims were not able to obtain their medical records etc.. Some caught fright and disappeared from us altogether. The delays saw Qiliho escape to Fiji. However, the late Brij Lal's dogged insistence that we pursue Qiliho to the very end, has enabled us to expose SITIVENI QILIHO as the "Colonel" who tortured Brij Lal in that military cell in 2009. We thank over 1,500 Fijians of all races, inside and outside the country, who signed that initial petition to "Keep Torturer out of the UK". Sadly, those in the NFP organizing his condolence service, and those who will be singing his praise at the service, chose NOT to sign that "Torture Petition" - petition that was sent to the Royal Defence Academy in London, and a copy to the British High Commission in Suva who colluded in secreting Qiliho to London

BEAM HIS FACE ON NFP SCREEN AT THE CONDOLENCE GATHERING

Mr. Tulsi's Store is Brij Lal's personal account of his voyage from childhood in a remote and poor cane-growing region of Fiji to a distinguished international career as a historian, and as an actor in the political developments of modern Fiji.

IN pursuit of the Master Torturer Sitiveni Qiliho: Our Journey with Brij Lal

Fijileaks to MELANIE HOPKINS, then recently departed British High Commissioner to Fiji, who we strongly suspected assisted Sitiveni Qiliho in securing the study scholarship to the Royal College of Defence Studies in London:
7 August 2020
Dear Melaine
Greetings.
"I hope you received my previous e-mail.
As we pointed out on our news site, this Qiliho is a violent thug who beat his way to power, and every institution turned him down because of his violent past...Our primary concern is his history of violence against those who opposed the coup. And six of his victims, who never made their accounts public, have come forward with affidavits, to assist Amnesty and anti-torture Redress in London to get him arrested under United Kingdom's Torture universal jurisdiction act."

24 June 2020: The outgoing British High Commissioner Melanie Hopkins (left photo) was accorded a quarter guard ceremony as she paid her last courtesy visit to the Commissioner of Police Sitiveni Qiliho at the Fiji Police Headquarters in Nasinu.

We also wrote to Paul Welsh, the Deputy High Commissioner to Fiji
7 August 2020
Dear Paul
We are still waiting for answers:
Who selected him?
Who is paying for his trip, fees, accommodation?
Was his violent past brought to the notice of the British Government and the Royal College of Defence Studies?

Most of his victims are academics, lawyers, etc, including the prominent Suva lawyer __________

Most Fijians are horrified of his selection but also c as blessing in disguise, as we mount attempts to get this thug arrested in London, and subject him to accountability

Why is a POLICE Commissioner doing at a military academy - militarization of the Fiji Police Force?

Amnesty International to Fijileaks Editor, 28 July 2020

"I've checked with a colleague. If he did arrive in the UK, the UK provides universal jurisdiction for torture, which means UK police would need to investigate allegations of torture if a complaint were made.

I'm sure you know of the accusations as well as I do, but I'd be interested to know if you think any witnesses might come forward?

Is there any other evidence (written statements etc) that you've received for your blog that could also be used to support such claims? It might be the only shot at accountability.".

Fijileaks: We had agreed, without disclosing personal reasons, that I was at liberty to reveal the late Professor Brij Lal's collaboration in our pursuit to arrest Sitiveni Qiliho in London

20 July 2020
To Whom It May Concern

Bhai, I plan to move against him.
Looks like this Academy has turned a blind eye but the coward kept everything in utter secrecy
I need a proper statement on a separate document as an attachment from you to pass it to Amnesty and others, explaining your background involvement in Fiji Constitution, arrival in Fiji, arrest, beating and spitting at barrack etc
And explain why you are coming forward now
Maybe state you were still busy with academic stuff
Also mention how Australia denied him visa etc
Look forward to your cooperation
He can’t get away just like this
I will be approaching my constituency MP to write to the Home Secretary Priti Patel and Foreign Secretary and also Defence Minister now he is definitely arriving in London
Regards

22 April 2021

Bula Brij

I m having a zoom meeting with the lawyers on Friday and they have sent me a few questions. There are some I can fill in but others are for you.
Loloma

Witness evidence
2.1 Brij Vilash Lal:
• How long was Brij in detention and subjected to this treatment?
• Were there any injuries sustained as a result of the slapping? If so:
(a) were any photos taken?
(b) is there any medical evidence available from this time?
• What is Brij’s immigration history? Did he claim asylum in Australia? If so, are the papers relating to this claim/decision available?
• Can we be provided with a copy of the account given to the UNHRC. What was the outcome of this submission?
• Does Brij have any previous convictions?

Brij Lal, 23 April 2021

Bula,
Have been under the weather a bit with winter approaching. To your questions:
Interrogation lasted 3-4 hours.
Slapping and spitting in my face, breaking my glasses in the provess.
No photos taken though I have my broken glasses.
I am an Australian citizen and had proper visa to do research in Fiji
I have no previous convictions anywhere.
I wrote to UNHRC both to Nazhat Shameem Khan as well as to the Australian ambassador to Geneva but did not receive even an acknowledgement of my letters.

After a series of further e-mails, he sent to us his "Torture Affidavit".
"Here it is. It will be great if Qiliho is prevented from returning to Fiji
and becoming commander RFMF."
Dear Victor
"By separate email from my computer, I will send you something I have cobbled together. I am not used to this sort of writing so please make any changes to it you see fit. There may be some extraneous matter in it that may have to go. I am very grateful to you for your interest in this case and for bringing this fellow's
vile and vicious behaviour into the public domain. But I also have a deep sense of foreboding that other concerns might drown out our call for justice. I have had a few enquiries from friends from Fiji, but a feeling of fatigue is palpable there,
the spirit to fight injustice quashed...Thanks. I had not seen this news item [Qiliho going up to the Royal Defence Academy in London]. It is shocking. When he was slated to come to Australia, I wrote to Julie Bishop and he was refuseed a visa to study here. Qiliho was a Bainimarama protege who was groomed to succeed him. He was his chief enforcer, assisted by Ben Naliva and Asaeri [Aseri] Rokoura, both viciious thugs.Qiliho interrogated me at QEB. He covered my face with his spitting and slapped me around to the point of breaking my gkasses, He told me that if I did not leave by the first flight the next day, my family would have to fetch my body from the morgue.
He led a group of arsonists to burn down Justice Gordon Ward's Deuba villa. There are stories around of him stomping on the bodies of women taken to the camp for their various protests. It is deeply saddening to see him being welcomed in London. After the Canberra hiccup, he will now realize his ambition. Such are the ways of the world. Keep safe in these strange times, my friend."

May 19, 2000. Fiji's democratically elected multiracial government is hijacked by a group of armed gunmen led by George Speight, and held hostage for fifty days. Suva, the capital, is torched and looted as Speight's supporters gather on the lawns of the parliamentary complex, dancing, cooking food, celebrating the purported abrogation of the constitution that brought the Peoples' Coalition government to power. The country is plunged into darkness yet again, enduring the pain of three coups in a period of just thirteen years.

Editors: Brij V Lal and Michael Pretes

This book gathers together a handful of memoirs of those tragic events in Fiji. They were written while the gun was still smoking; personal, anguished reactions of people from all walks of life, concerned about a country they all love but deeply distressed by the developments there. They are first reactions. They will in time become essential building blocks for a larger interpretive framework of academic analysis about origins, processes, and impacts. Straight from the heart, these memoirs will be remembered as the people from Fiji and their friends elsewhere contemplate the wreckage and ruin brought about by that act of madness in the month of May.

DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY? We spent weeks with our London human rights lawyers and concluded that even if Qiliho had travelled on a Diplomatic Passport (like the convicted murderer and Prison Commissioner Francis Kean did), under the "Pinochet Precedent" Qiliho had no protection in UK. To our good fortune, one of the leading lawyers specialising in torture cases on the team happened to have also looked into arresting Sitiveni Rabuka several years ago - another group seeking JUSTICE.
As for Qiliho, the late Brij Lal's affidavit is still valid for another day

"The world is what it is; men who are nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it." -
The Indo-Trinidanian novelist and Nobel laureate
V. S. Naipaul in A Bend In The River.

BRIJ LAL to Fijileaks Editor: 'I have just sent you my petition to the Fijian Parliament which Sitiveni RABUKA was to have PRESENTED but was persuaded by Speaker Nailatikau from doing so. You can ask Rabuka.'

27/12/2021

RESIGN: This smiling Torturer Qiliho must resign as Police Commissioner. The British High Commission in Suva must bow its
head in shame for facilitating his study trip to London. We challenge Fiji media to confront Qiliho regarding Professor Lal's torture affidavit and
to question Rabuka why he withheld the 'Petition to Parliament'.
"Bhai, I plan to move against him [Qiliho]. Looks like this [Military] Academy has turned a blind eye but the coward kept everything in utter secrecy. Russell Hunter has also come forward to provide a statement of his treatment at the hands of this THUG."

Fijileaks to late Professor Brij Lal
(25 April 2021):
'Bhai, Liu Muri is in Rabuka's DNA'.
We notice Rabuka will be one of the speakers at the condolence gathering organized by the NFP. Brij Lal's torturer Sitiveni Qiliho escaped only because of Covid restrictions, and some of his Fijian victims, in typically Fiji style, "liu muried" us at the final hurdle. One victim saying "God Loves Qiliho and his family"

The Petition Conspirators?

Ironically, the late Professor Brij Lal nearly became his own victim on Immunity that he had agreed to grant Rabuka in the 1997 Constitution. We had spent weeks with our London human rights lawyers to resolve the question of IMMUNITY that Qiliho might have claimed. After all, the IMMUNITY that Rabuka had granted himself after the 1987 coups was inserted into his 1990 and 1997 Constitutions, and carried forward into the 2013 Constitution, absolving military, police and other thugs who carried out brutalities during and after the coups in Fiji. Although Qiliho was protected in Fiji, he had no protection in the UK, based on the "Pinochet precedent". In Chilean dictator Pinochet's case, the House of Lords had ruled that Pincohet had no amnesty for his crimes in Chile. The late Professor Brij Lal's affidavit was strong enough to arrest Qiliho

The late Professor Brij Lal's PETITION which he claims Rabuka ditched after he (Rabuka) was persuaded by the Speaker Nailatikau to ignore it

Petition to The Parliament of Fiji

I wish to bring to the attention of the elected representatives of the people of Fiji the matter of life ban imposed on us, myself and my wife Padma, from returning to Fiji, the country of our birth. Life ban is the severest sanction a state can apply to any individual, and it is usually imposed for the most heinous of crimes against humanity. We have at all times been law abiding citizens with an unblemished record wherever we have lived. On the contrary, we both have been honoured in Fiji and the wider Pacific for our contributions to society, including to our respective fields of academia and public service. We would like the Parliament of Fiji to revoke the ban.

I (Brij V Lal) was deported from Fiji on 5 November 2009 and told to take the next available plane out of the country. I was not told then or subsequently the reason for the deportation and the imposition of the life ban on me. My wife, Padma, was refused entry into Fiji in January 2010 and similarly not informed why this treatment was meted out to her.

I have been a principled critic of all the coups in Fiji, including the 2006 military coup. I stood up for the values of representative democracy, the sanctity of the ballot box, the rule of law and unfettered free speech. I believe that democracy dies without the oxygen of free speech, and that dissent and debate are an integral part of a healthy democratic society. Nothing less would have been expected of me as a former member of the Fiji Constitution Review Commission, headed by Sir Paul Reeves, whose report formed the basis of Fiji’s once admired but now revoked 1997 Constitution. At all times, I dissented within the prescribed parameters of Fijian laws.

Padma has always been the consummate professional, widely respected throughout the Pacific region for her expertise in climate change, disaster risk management and more resource and environmental economics more generally. She has never once publicly expressed opinions on politics in Fiji or elsewhere, whatever her individual views may have been. We believe that she being victimized simply for being married to me.

We have both been recognized for our public service to Fiji and the Pacific region. Marking its 70th anniversary, the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) selected Padma as one of 70 most Inspiring Women of the Pacific. Among numerous other awards, I have been honoured with an Officer of the Order of Fiji, and Member of the Order of Australia as well as Australia’s Centenary Medal. Significantly, I was chosen by the Fiji Millennium Committee as one of 75 people who helped shape Fiji’s 20th century history.

We would like the Parliament of Fiji to review and, if possible, revoke the life ban on us. Failing that, we would at least like to know precisely why this severest of sanctions has been applied to us. Contrary to the government’s assertion to the Fiji Parliament, we are not, and never have been, a danger to the peace and security of Fiji and its people. We deeply regret the global opprobrium the ban has brought on Fiji, and hope that this taint on Fiji’s reputation will be removed in due course.

Brij Vilash Lal, AM, BA (USP) MA (Brit. Col), PhD (ANU), FAHA
Padma Narsey Lal BSc, MSc (USP), MREnSc (ANU), PhD (Hawaii)

Fijileaks: We are also deeply alarmed at the way Professor Brij Lal's death has been politically hijacked by the National Federation Party. With great respect to our departed fellow traveller for justice, democracy, and human rights, who finally turned to us to get Qiliho arrested in London, what needs to be exposed is Professor Lal's affidavit where he IDENTIFIES his principal torturer Sitiveni Qiliho. It is Qiliho's FACE that should be beamed on the wide screen during the condolence service, now that the service will be held on Thursday.
As we privately pointed out to NFP leader Biman Prasad, some of us have been in EXILE longer than the late Professor Lal. But Exile is Exile. Our TORTURER: None other than Sitiveni Rabuka, who is hiding behind IMMUNITY.
As a fellow academic who contributed chapters to some of Professor Lal's edited books, and also publicly and in print disagreed with many of his interpretations on Fijian politics, we believe Professor Brij Lal would be the first one to raise alarm regarding the hijacking of his exile and death.
As a fellow descendant of a girmitiya, most of his writings and publications on indenture were of extreme value but confined to specific researchers and historians. But it was his role in the drafting of 1997 Constitution that we must remember him. Let us remind NFP leader BIMAN PRASAD:
When Rabuka speaks at the condolence gathering, remind him that it was he (Rabuka) who had deliberately chosen 14 May 1987 (the day and month the first batch of Indian coolies were introduced into Fiji on 14 May 1879), to end their journey from Plantation to Parliament. Some were from Professor Lal's Labasa. Professor Lal had spent a lifetime recording the history of the girmitiyas.
The 1987 coups were the beginning of "EXILE" for thousands upon thousands of Indo-Fijians, and hundreds are buried in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, America, UK - and not in their BELOVED FIJI. Professor Lal will be one of them.
Moreover, many paying their tributes never spoke out for the late Professor
Brij Lal, as Professor Wadan Narsey pointed out this week

With the passing of Professor Brij Lal on 25 December 2021, there has been an outpouring of tributes to him. Many had already protested against the ban, such as those who signed a letter in 2015:

Professor Viay Naidu
Tessa MacKenzie
Rev. Akuila Yabaki
Shamima Ali
Dr Tupeni Baba
Dr Morgan Tui
Dr Claire Slatter
Dr Ganesh Chand
Professor Satish Chand
Professor Croz Walsh
That letter can be read here:

But equally many influential persons speaking today, were silent.

Fiji Times bravely fought draconian sanctions from the Bainimarama/Khaiyum Government, with publishers being expelled, some (Publisher like Hank Arts and Editor Fred Wesley being charged for spurious crimes and facing suspended jail sentences. Eventually they began publishing critical articles from me but only after serious vetting by lawyers Munro Leys (see some of the links below).
But my censored Letter to the Editor in 2015 explains much.

“Fiji’s Animal Farm continues” (Letter to Editor 20 March 2015 (censored)) had the following:

“Dear Sir,
The Minister for Immigration and Defense (Colonel Timoci Natuva) has “explained” the Fiji Government’s ban of Professor Brij Lal and Dr Padma Lal on the grounds that Brij Lal “has been very vocal and opposed the move towards democracy after the events of 2006” and that “his actions were viewed by the Government of the day as prejudicial to the peace, defence, public safety, public order, security of the Government of Fiji.” (Fiji Times, 19 March 2015).

Minister Natuva’s response suggests that not only does he not have to worry about over-taxing his brain cells, but that Fiji’s Animal Farm is alive and well under the elected government of Bainimarama and Khaiyum.

(a) Given that Brij Lal opposed the illegal removal of a lawful democratically elected government of Qarase, only in Animal Farm can Minister Natuva claim this was “opposing the move towards democracy”.
(b) Only in Animal Farm can Minister Natuva “forget” that his “Government of the Day” was the illegal treasonous government of Voreqe Bainimarama who had to write into the 2013 Constitution, complete immunity for unspecified actions for himself and his collaborators, between 2000 and September 2014?
(c) only in Animal Farm can a peaceful law-abiding pen-wielding Australian academic, a former Fiji citizen and recipient of Fiji’s highest Honors, be considered by Minister Natuva (on the orders of Bainimarama and Khaiyum) to be “prejudicial to the peace defence, public safety, public order, security of the Government of Fiji”, which is backed by the might of only 3000 fierce Fijian soldiers and 3000 policemen. Heaven forbid, is brave soldier Natuva admitting that “one pen is mightier than the sword”?
(d) Only in Animal Farm, can Minister Natuva give no justification whatsoever (and not be asked by the media either) for banning Dr Padma Lal, an environmental economist and an expert on the sugar industry who has not been politically vocal at all, whose only “crime” is that she is married to Brij Lal, and perhaps the double misfortune of being my sister.
(e) Only in Animal Farm will great “women’s champions” like Madam Nazhat Shameem and Minister Rosy Akbar remain conveniently silent about the denial of the basic human rights of Dr Padma Lal to enter Fiji, because of her “crime” of being the wife of Dr Brij Lal.
(f) Only in Animal Farm will Indo-Fijian civil society organizations (the Arya Samaj, the Sanatan Dharam, the Sangam, the Gujarat Society) and the great girmitiya descendants and supporters of the Bainimarama Government (like Satendra Nandan, Subramani, Rajesh Chandra, Ganesh Chand, Mahendra Reddy, Rajendra Prasad, Thakur Ranjit Singh,etc.) keep totally quiet about the banning of one of the most peaceful and valued girmitiya “sons of Fiji” who has contributed his entire academic life to the written history of the Indo-Fijians (Dr Brij Lal) and the banning of their former USP academic colleague, luminary and Gold Medalist, Dr Padma Lal.
(g) Only in Animal Farm can an “elected government” ban decent law-abiding people like Brij and Padma Lal, while welcoming and rewarding foreigners who came to support the violent 2006 treason and the illegal Bainimarama Government, like John Samy, Shaista Shameem, John Prasad, Francis Narayan, Robin Nair, Peter Thompson, Sharon Smith-Johns, Graham Davis, etc.

Given Minister Natuva’s statement, a few members of the Fiji public might lose some sleep trying to identify which animals in George Orwell’s Animal Farm might accurately represent Natuva, Bainimarama and Khaiyum.
But the majority of Fiji citizens can always help themselves go to sleep by counting their own numbers (no prizes for guessing which animals they represent in Animal Farm).

Those who wish to read Animal Farm may easily do so at this link:
Click to access animal_farm.pdf
https://narseyonfiji.wordpress.com/2015/03/20/fijis-animal-farm-continues-letter-to-the-editor-20-march-2015/
https://narseyonfiji.wordpress.com/2015/12/12/then-they-came-for-me-no-voice-for-padma-edited-article-in-fiji-times-12-dec-2015/
https://narseyonfiji.wordpress.com/2016/12/12/bainimarama-ignores-senior-citizens-request-for-lifting-of-ban-on-professor-brij-lal-and-dr-padma-narsey-lal-24-oct-2016/
https://narseyonfiji.wordpress.com/2016/12/10/human-rights-are-not-for-begging-ed-in-ft-10122016/
https://narseyonfiji.wordpress.com/2021/02/13/when-the-line-is-not-drawn-ft-13-2-2021/

QUEEN ELIZABETH BARRACKS, BURNING. The fire caused millions of dollars of damage. Fiji Labour Party leader MAHENDRA CHAUDHRY: "Isn’t the FIJI ARMY supposed to have GUARDS on VIGIL all NIGHT?”

27/12/2021

* What had happened at the Army headquarters that the fire had not been spotted on time for it to be contained?
Where guards on duty in the early hours of the morning?
And what about the RFMF’s own fire fighting equipment?
*I do not believe that the army is so ill-equipped it does not have its own fire fighting gadgets."
Mahendra Chaudhry, FLP leader

Labour Leader Mahendra Chaudhry has queried how a huge fire could rage unchecked at the Queen Elizabeth Barracks completely destroying the 3FIR headquarters causing millions of dollars in damage.

“I am confounded that the fire was not spotted on time to bring it under control and contain its spread. Isn’t the army supposed to have guards on vigil all night?”

“I am also surprised that to date neither the Army Commander nor the government has issued a statement on the incident. There is a lot that needs to be explained,” Mr Chaudhry said.

“What had happened at the Army headquarters that the fire had not been spotted on time for it to be contained? Where guards on duty in the early hours of the morning?

“And what about the RFMF’s own fire fighting equipment? I do not believe that the army is so ill-equipped it does not have its own fire fighting gadgets.

“We call for a thorough investigation into the lapse at army headquarters while the nation awaits a report from the NFA on the cause of the fire and how it spread,” Mr Chaudhry said.

It seems the National Fire Authority was alerted at 3.30am or so and claims it responded immediately but the entire building had been gutted by the time they arrived at the camp.

The damage caused is substantial destroying a canteen, orderly room, regimental room, office spaces, transport office conference room, operation centre, support company, armoury, administration headquarters and training office, stores, bulk etc.

“The destruction must run into millions of dollars particularly if arms and ammunition were destroyed. The nation is awaiting an explanation from the Army and the government. Why the silence?” Mr Chaudhry said.

2000 Mutiny: Fire, Fire, Fire. My Pants is on Fire. Run, Run, Run, Frank

Fijileaks: How come NO SOLDIER was on guard duty at the time of the FIRE when ordinary and deeply religious Christian i-Taukei Fijians
were ordered to turn up for work on the Holy Christmas Day?

RIP: PROFESSOR BRIJ LAL passes away in Brisbane on Xmas Day. We did our best to get his Torturer Sitiveni Qiliho arrested in London but he escaped by fingertips. Again, strip Immunity for Rabuka & Bainimarama!

25/12/2021

The Alleged Shadowy Role of Indo-Fijian Muslims through Aiyaz Khaiyum. "Bula bhai, Who banned you and why?" (9 October 2016)
On 10 October 2016, the late Professor Brij Lal confided to us:

"Quite bizzarely, I was told by the QEB barracks that some of ASK's close Muslim supporters leaned on him not to allow me back into the country because, they said, I was the one on the Reeves Commission who had objected to the Indo-Fijian Muslim demand for separate seats in the 1997 Constitution. That is completely untrue. The issue was never raised in our deliberations simply because no one wanted more division in an already divided society. I believe now that it is Khaiyum who is the one who is blocking us from returning to Fiji, with the support of his Muslim cohorts. I never imagined this sort of zealous bigotry possible in a place like Fiji. So sad, so short-sighted but we will never bow before the bandits...I admire your courage and resilience. Their victory is phyrric.'

Professor Brij Lal
21 August 1952 –
25 December 2021

"You may keep us out of Fiji but you will never be able to keep Fiji out of our hearts." Professor Brij Lal to Fiji Immigration Department, 2015

Paul Tabori, The Anatomy of Exile: A Semantic and Historical Study, 1972

There is No Easy Walk To Freedom

CRY, the Beloved Country: So many of our PATRIOTS die in Exile because of the COUP virus that was started by Sitiveni Rabuka in 1987. The late Professor Brij Lal, one of the architects of the 1997 Constitution of Fiji, never again saw his beloved COUNTRY after he was arrested, assaulted, and spat at by Sitiveni Qiliho, now the Police Commissioner, and DEPORTED and BANNED from Fiji in 2009. The late Professor Brij Lal's only "crime" (according to the coupists) was to speak out against the 2006 treasonous COUP in Fiji, as he explained in his affidavit against Sitiveni Qiliho. We repeat again: both, Sitiveni Rabuka and Frank Bainimarama must NEVER be allowed to return to power in Fiji. There is no such person as a Bad COUPIST or a Good COUPIST.
Every passing DEATH reminds our families and friends of the pain, suffering, tears, and horrors of the racist and bogus nationalist Sitiveni Rabuka's COUPS, George Speight's failed but violent 2000 Coup, and Frank Bainimarama's
bogus 'Clean Up Campaign' Coup of 2006
RIP, PROFESSOR BRIJ LAL
"When you go home, tell them of us and say: For your tomorrow, we gave our today."

"This is to certify that I, Brij Vilash Lal, a Fiji-born Australian citizen, was taken in by the Fiji Military to the Queen Elizabeth Barracks in Nabua, Fiji, on 4 November 2009. At the barracks, I was placed in a cell and interrogated by the then Lt. Col. Sitiveni Qiliho. He covered my face with his spit and slapped me
continuously to the point of breaking my glasses. This ordeal has remained with me all these years, impossible to forget. At the end of the interrogation, he told me that unless I left the country by the first available flight (to Australia), my family would have to fetch my body from the morgue."
Professor Brij Lal's affidavit for The Metropolitan Police, London

To Whom It May Concern, Re- Arrest of Qiliho in London

"This is to certify that I, Brij Vilash Lal, a Fiji-born Australian citizen, was taken in by the Fiji Military to the Queen Elizabeth Barracks in Nabua, Fiji, on 4 November 2009.
At the barracks, I was placed in a cell and interrogated by the then Lt. Col. Sitiveni Qiliho. He covered my face with his spit and slapped me
continuously to the point of breaking my glasses. This ordeal has remained with me all these years, impossible to forget.
I was subjected to this interrogation for my principled and peaceful protest against the excesses of the Fijian military after the 2006 coup and for standing up for the vales of democracy, the rule of law and freedom of speech. During the entire interrogation, Qiliho kept reiterating the noble role of the military in the governance of Fiji.
At the end of the interrogation, he told me that unless I left the country by the first available flight (to Australia), my family would have to fetch my body from the morgue. I left for Australia the following morning. I did not know at the time that I would be banned for life from returning to Fiji.
Several years later in 2015, the then Immigration Minister Lesi Natuva told parliament that I was a threat to Fiji’s peace, security and order.
I have since written to the United Nations Human Rights Commission in
Geneva (to Ambassadors Susan Mansfield of Australia and Nazhat Shameem Khan of Fiji) about the breach of my human rights but to no avail. Fijian Opposition Leader Sitiveni Rabuka agreed to present a petition on our behalf to the Fijian Parliament but was dissuaded from doing so by the Speaker of the House Ratu Epeli Nailatikau.
My numerous enquiries to the Fijian Immigration Department have never been acknowledged. And so, we remain in exile.
Regrettably, I am not the only person to have been at the receiving end of Col Qiliho’s vile and vicious behaviour. He has been an integral part of Fiji military’s repressive apparatus, a fact that is widely known throughout Fiji.
He is now a Brigadier General in the Fijian military and is the country’s Commissioner of Police. It is distressing to see that one of those well known for wanton breaching of the human rights of ordinary law abiding citizens gets rewarded with admission to one of United Kingdom’s elite Defence Colleges, when a similar admission was refused by Australia."

Brij Vilash LAL, AM, OF
Member of the Order of Australia
Officer of the Order of Fiji
Brisbane, Australia

BELOW: Listen to the late Professor Brij Lal's interview on arrival on Australian soil. In this interview, he didn't disclose the whole truth, and understandably, for his wife and family were still stranded in Fiji. Nor did he disclose the identity of the "Colonel" - that torturer Sitiveni Qiliho

"Nothing lasts forever except words. I will re-double my efforts to bear witness to our time and place so that future generations will know what we and our country have gone through, to understand the motivation and the modus operandi of a couple of people at the helm of Fiji’s political leadership in the early years of the 21st century. The government’s victory is a pyrrhic one, hollow, morally compromised. You may keep us out of Fiji but you will never be able to keep Fiji out of our hearts. Someday, you folks will realize the fundamental unjustness of a decision in which you have acquiesced."

From: Brij Lal
Sent: Wednesday, 1 July 2015 9:30 AM
To: 'Edward Brown'
Cc: Osea Cawaru; Merewai T. Volavola; Karalaini Umu
Subject: RE: Hello
Dear Edward
Thank you for this. Since this will be my last correspondence with you on this or any other matter, I wish to put some things on the record, to get things off my chest.

When Minister Natuva said we could re-apply to have the travel ban on us lifted, I genuinely believed that we would be given a fair hearing. We are disappointed that we were not accorded that basic consideration. I am more than convinced now that Minister Natuva was genuinely open-minded at the beginning but the decision not to rescind the ban was foisted upon him by a couple of individuals in government –we all know who they are -- who don’t have the courage to own up to the decision but prefer to hide behind his sulu instead. Why such cowardice, such lack of openness? Because they can’t justify their decision in public?

Minister Natuva’s defence in parliament of the original decision to ban us from entering Fiji was based on a false premise, based on a lie. He said that we were banned because I was opposed to the return of democracy in Fiji after the coup of 2006.

Nothing could be farther from the truth. In fact the claim is a travesty of the truth and of the historical record. I was among thousands in Fiji who wanted a timely return to parliamentary democracy. The claim that we were banned because we were a threat to peace, security and good order in Fiji is, quite simply, laughable. It was widely and justifiably ridiculed at the time it was made.

I stood up for the values of democracy, the rule of law and a strict observance of the protocols of constitutionalism. This is never a crime in a civilised democracy. For all its claims to the contrary, Fiji has a long way to go in this regard. But 2006 is moot now. The coup makers succeeded, I failed. So why ban us now, when other critics of the coup are free to enter Fiji?. Why are we singled out? Is it because the pen is mightier than the sword?

The situation is very curious. Fijian diplomats, government ministers, members of parliamentary delegations fraternise with me in Canberra but their government keeps us out. People with coup-tainted pasts grab every opportunity to visit Australia where they were once unceremoniously banned, and do so without embarrassment or shame, but do not allow us to enter Fiji. Doesn’t this double standard trouble people, including those in government?

I can understand the Fijian regime having a gripe with me over my stance, but what crime did my wife commit that she is permanently banned from Fiji? Padma has never uttered a comment of political nature in the public. The government’s reaction is pure petty vindictiveness, nothing less.

We hold our heads high. We will never kowtow before unjust power and authority. There comes a time in everyone’s life when you draw a line in the sand and say: this far and no further.
We have been advised by people close to the government, well connected to the powers-that-be, that if we apologized to the Prime Minister and his unctuous Attorney General, that our case would stand a very good chance of speedy resolution.

But apologize for what? On the contrary, we feel we are owed apology by those whose decision keeps us from visiting the land of our birth.

Nothing lasts forever except words. I will re-double my efforts to bear witness to our time and place so that future generations will know what we and our country have gone through, to understand the motivation and the modus operandi of a couple of people at the helm of Fiji’s political leadership in the early years of the 21st century.

The government’s victory is a pyrrhic one, hollow, morally compromised. You may keep us out of Fiji but you will never be able to keep Fiji out of our hearts. Someday, you folks will realize the fundamental unjustness of a decision in which you have acquiesced.

In the end we all have to live with ourselves. And we all know that all that tyranny needs to triumph is for good men and women to remain silent.
Sincerely
Brij V LAL
Canberra.

BOTH, Professor Brij Lal and Russell Hunter died in Brisbane

The late Professor Brij Lal was particularly critical of Bainimarama-Khaiyum's decision to expel New Zealand and Australian diplomats

CUT YOUR COAT ACCORDING TO YOUR CLOTH: It is time Australia and New Zealand stopped pumping millions into projects in Fiji for fear of the FFP government handing over an island to Chinese to build naval base

22/12/2021

CUT YOUR COAT ACCORDING TO YOUR CLOTH
It beggars belief that the Beggar-in-Chief - Aiyaz Khaiyum - had all these fanciful projects in the BUDGET knowing full well that he did not have the money to fulfil his promises

FICAC RAIDS FIJI ELECTIONS OFFICE: Three parties slightly revise their Letter of Complain content. When will Coupist Rabuka and his political chambermaid Prasad crawl out of rat hole. Two hammering coalition pact

22/12/2021

The offices of DPP, Solicitor-General, Attorney-General, Auditor-General and Police Commissioner acknowledge receiving complaint letter from FLP, Freedom Alliance and Unity Fiji

Fijileaks to NFP's BIMAN PRASAD: You can run but you can't HIDE under Coupist Sitiveni Rabuka's sulu. Voters will remember your refusal to
sign the letter against Saneem and Suresh Chandra

OSTRICH: Keeping his head down while secretly negotiating Coalition

The Saneem-Chandra Allegations are NO LAUGHING MATTER. Here is a man who is he claiming that if he forms next government, he will find out all the CORRUPTION that has been taking place under FFP Government . We understand Rabuka's stance, for HE has a history of Liu Muri in Fiji

<<Previous

Forward>>