Fijileaks
  • Home
  • Archive Home
  • In-depth Analysis
    • BOI Report into George Speight and others beatings
  • Documents
  • Opinion
  • CRC Submissions
  • Features
  • Archive

Russell Hunter: "As Australia caves in, Bainimarama and his party may or may not win majority of votes but he WILL be declared a WINNER"

12/8/2014

16 Comments

 

"SODELPA, the obvious inheritor of the usurped SDL, complains too much and does too little. Its political navel-gazing continues while Bainimarama buys every vote he thinks he can see. Its leader is barely visible while the lieutenants preach to the converted on land and indigenous rights while largely ignoring the regime’s record...It now stands as a one-dimensional party that at least some fear to vote for, imagining (with some justification) that a Sodelpa victory would mean another Bainimarama coup."

PictureHunter
By Russell Hunter
The Former Publisher and CEO, Fiji Sun

Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama and his party may or may not win a majority of votes at next month’s election. But he WILL be declared the winner. And he WILL be Fiji’s next prime minister (or whatever other title he decides to adopt). He’ll win because he has to. Anything short of a resounding electoral endorsement represents a one-way ticket to jail for himself and most of his team, cronies and associates. Bainimarama will not allow that and has the power to enforce his wishes.

By any stretch of the imagination his should be a hopeless political task. His record in power is nothing short of appalling. Bainimarama has consistently (and openly) lied to those he purports to represent. The litany of untruths is well enough known. He has also slashed pensions, more than halved sugar production, channelled budget support to an already bloated military at the expense of other more immediate needs. He has militarised the public service and has personal control of the vital organisations and institutions of the state.  The national debt has ballooned under his dictatorship – despite his solemn eve-of-coup pledge to rein it in. Much of that debt is in the form of loans from China.

Reliable information is hard to find in the new transparent Fiji but by any account poverty has increased as a direct result of his actions. Wages are held down and prices allowed to rise as the business houses that have given him support now hold sway over economic policy.  Many will recall how he cited the Qarase government’s increase in VAT which hits the poor hardest as another trigger for his coup.

Corruption – the major (stated) reason for his coup – has not been addressed, the “show trials” notwithstanding. In fact the secrecy that now shrouds the fiscal and fiduciary actions of the Bainimarama regime are a guarantee that corruption can flourish as never before.

He has trashed Fiji’s status as a high-end, high value tourism destination to the extent that it is now seen as discount low-budget holiday spot. He has alienated the indigenous majority.

He has imposed a constitution that gives him control of everything up to and including indigenous land. The list of failures, favouritism and betrayals is mind-numbingly long.

The regime’s progress, particularly in access to education, cannot come close to counterbalancing its disasters.

How, then, can this man even dream of winning an election?

MEDIA

Well, he controls the media. Through an organisation with (like much of the regime apparatus) the Orwellian title of a media “development” authority.

All the pious and seemingly sincere claims by the authority personnel that media freedom is alive and well in Fiji can be safely dismissed. Journalists and editors are routinely reminded of the draconian penalties that exist for those who fall foul of the infamous Media Decree that gags all news sources. A few have enthusiastically embraced the restrictions in return for government advertising. Some are government owned and have no choice while a few continue to win the occasional minor – but important - victory.

None will talk on the record about the threats – for they know what will happen to them if they do – but those are nonetheless regular and real.

The authority itself yields to none in a dog-like desire to please its master. It has even absolved the Fiji Sun of all bias – which must have been a source of some embarrassment for the paper which has never sought to conceal its outright support for and devotion to the regime.

Fiji Television is kept on a leash via six-monthly licence renewals at the whim of attorney general and minister for all that his boss doesn’t want Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum while most media organisations more or less toe the line out of fear of retribution or hunger for a share of the public funds lavished on supporting this regime.

Those journalists and editors who have embraced such deceit are doomed to discover when the rule of law eventually returns that their integrity, while so easy to pawn, can never be redeemed. But that’s for the future.

What it means for the present is that they now have a vested interest in maintaining the Bainimarama regime in power.

So while blatantly buying votes through handouts of everything from sewing machines to bridges (all bought with the people’s own money and a declared reason for a coup when carried out by someone else), the regime can rely on an unending stream of praise and doe-eyed devotion from the nation’s media.

This in turn has engendered a spreading distrust of the media with most of those who have access – regime supporters and opponents alike – seeking to balance their information and opinion diet at sites such as this. The long-term effects on the media are difficult to foretell, but, certainly, damage is being done to a once-respected industry.

POLLING RESULTS


He even – however indirectly – controls the polls. The Fiji Sun’s Razor Poll consistently predicts an overwhelming Bainimarama victory while the Fiji Times Tebbutt poll foresees an only slightly less emphatic triumph. But the single fact that neither poll would see the light of day were the results otherwise renders them worthless.

FRAGMENTED OPPOSITION


Also in the regime’s electoral favour is the fragmented opposition. New parties spring up like weeds after rain while the old ones seek to reinvent themselves. All seek to maintain the fiction that this election is an opportunity for people to alter the course of their country’s destiny. Some simply seek a seat on what they hope will be the Bainimarama parliamentary gravy train where fat salaries and overseas junkets can be just for saying the right things.

SODELPA - ONE DIMENSIONAL PARTY


SODELPA, the obvious inheritor of the usurped SDL, complains too much and does too little. Its political navel-gazing continues while Bainimarama buys every vote he thinks he can see. Its leader is barely visible while the lieutenants preach to the converted on land and indigenous rights while largely ignoring the regime’s record. It made the monumental mistake of spurning Sitiveni Rabuka who would have brought vital cross-cultural support. It now stands as a one-dimensional party that at least some fear to vote for, imagining (with some justification) that a Sodelpa victory would mean another Bainimarama coup.

The Fiji Labour Party surely cannot retain its old appeal while continuing to harbour Mahendra Chaudhry while the NFP tries hard but will find it difficult to shrug off perceived Indo-Fijian bias.

Meanwhile the regime continues to churn out its self-serving decrees and even tinkers with existing ones to suit its own electoral purpose.

It would very much like to win this election but if it can’t, well, no matter.

Ominously, in his visit to New Zealand Bainimarama let it be known that nothing less than victory in all 50 electoral seats would satisfy his ambition. And he has the means to make that happen.

Add the continued and misplaced triumphalism among sections of the now minority ethnic Indo-Fijian community who finally have sight of their own holy grail – land – and support for Bainimarama becomes ever more evident.

FIJI SPRING?

It’s darkly muttered in Suva that they’re only storing up trouble and that land will be Bainimarama’s downfall just as it was for Mahendra Chaudhry before him but so far at least those have amounted to no more than mutterings. There has been no sign whatsoever of any “Fiji spring” of the like that felled governments in the Arab world. Otherwise the reactions of Fiji’s neighbours might have been entirely different (see below). The Fiji people, it will be argued, have the government they deserve.

And it’s a hard argument to defeat.

So why bother to have an election at all when the outcome (if not the result) is already known?

The principal motive is what all despots and dictators crave: acceptance. If Bainimarama can at least go through the motions of a free and fair election, Australia and New Zealand for their own rather shop-soiled reasons, have already given him the nod. They’ll look the other way, as will the EU. Others will follow and Bainimarama can strut the world stage claiming legitimacy.

Not only that. The aid tap will be turned on again, travel sanctions removed (though he shows no sign of removing his own travel sanctions on Australian and NZ citizens).

So while the election may well be an exercise of the inevitable, what may (or may not) follow the pronouncement of a Bainimarama victory is likely to carry more weight than the voting.


Picture
Picture
The MIDA itself yields to none in a dog-like desire to please its master.
Picture
16 Comments
Victor Piyar
12/8/2014 02:22:30 am

Russell Hunter is still upset, having been given the boot from Fiji.

Reply
FIRCA Officer
12/8/2014 02:58:08 am

There is nothing upsetting in Hunter's analysis. He is telling the truth, including the pathetic performance of Sodelpa.

He was deported because he dared to publish Bainimarama's Finance Minister Mahendra Chaudhry's $2million!

He spent a night in military custody - what about your hero Bainimarama - still on the run from justice

Read the whole article and with a detached emotionalism

Truth hurts - which leader in the world will say before elections "I will win all seats" - Saddam Hussein did and North Korean dictator

Great piece Russell!

Vinaka

Reply
Anonymous link
12/8/2014 03:48:26 am

Russell Hunter needs to move on with his life and not interfere with the happenings in Fiji. He got what he deserved....everyone does. Being booted out of Fiji is definitely a big deal for anyone, he asked for it and got it. He has to live with it, nothing with change with his opinion being posted on blogs etc.

Reply
spot on analysis link
12/8/2014 04:44:40 am

Hunter has provided a succinct analysis of the prevailing political situation in Fiji. I tried to cast a critical eye to see if I could find any weakness in what he says. I couldn't find any. I agree with all that he says. He actually articulates my own thinking and he has done a fantastic job.

Reply
regime thug link
12/8/2014 05:05:46 am

Victor Piyar you sure you are not one of the regime thugs who was engaged in giving Russell Hunter the boot from Fiji because you could not stomach the truth he was putting before the Fijian public as the then publisher of the Fiji Sun?

Reply
Victor Piyar
12/8/2014 07:13:24 am

@regime thug

I'm no regime thug.

I note that you call yourself one !!!

Reply
Dispassionate Fiji Sun Reader
12/8/2014 05:18:50 am

Come on critics of Hunter?

Just look at the Dacing Queen Nemani Delaibatiki - who never lived under this dictatorship and who did not pay any tax etc to the coffers, now running around as so-called commentator for Fiji Sun and acting as moderator for Fiji TV

I have great respect for Hunter than these present bunch in Fiji Sun, FBC, Fijivillage etc

Spot on, Russell - I am sure you have bagful of secrets about these Fiji Sun journos and pro-regime lackeys

Bravo, Fijileaks

Reply
Fiji Darkness
12/8/2014 05:25:33 am

Why Nemani is not asking for Auditor-General's Reports:

FNPF DEBATE
August 12, 2014 | Filed under: Fiji News | Posted by: newsroom

PDP leader Felix Anthony.
THE
TRUTH

NEMANI DELAIBATIKI

Felix Anthony was paid more than $160,000 over three years as a board member of the Fiji National Provident Fund.
The amount also included the fees the then Fiji Trades Union Congress general secretary and now leader of the People’s Democratic Party received for sitting on the boards of FNPF’s subsidiary companies.

Reply
Victor Piyar
12/8/2014 07:15:26 am

Accha Paisa banais na !!

All from workers money !!

Reply
FactsMatter
12/8/2014 02:37:54 pm

The question is NOT how much Felix got - BUT what is the ‘norm’ with the position?

How much was Felix’s predecessor (pre2006) getting? And – Also, how much is the present Chairman of FNPF getting?

Only then we are putting things into perspective – Also remembering and acknowledging the hard work Felix and his Team put into the completion of the $300Million plus five-star Natacola Resort and the Championship golf course.

Instead of ‘congratulating’ Felix on a job well done – You are unnecessarily maligning the man.

Felix’s and Urai’s nomination in the FNPF Board was through the FTUC nomination as the workers representatives. Employers and Government also nominate Board members – and the Board then chooses a Chairman – who in those three years was Felix – fair and square.

Felix the man!
13/8/2014 04:48:00 am

His input in Natadola saved workers millions and delivered success.

Compare Frank and Aiaz's, the Momi project lost millions and no results after dumping Felix. Maybe he could have got that off the ground also!!!

Workers money ...accha paisa lost workers money by Frank & Aiaz.

Felix and his board should receive a bonus for the achievement.

tualeita
12/8/2014 01:19:01 pm

Fiji Sun reporters are too afraid to ask simple and direct questions that the public need answers on or they will be prosecuted and found guilty by that kangaroo court we "only in Fiji" have or they, perhaps, will be "taken to task" as is Bainimarama's favourite phrase and pastime.

While Ro Kepa, Mahendra Chaudhary, Biman, Felix Anthony,and Linda Tabuya would willingly accept to face questions from foreign journalists, Bainimarama and Khaiyum are too scared to face them even when the guns and the military are there to back them.

Reply
regime lackey link
12/8/2014 02:30:55 pm

When someone - anyone - gets booted out of Fiji arbitarily, forcefully, with the threat of terror and without due process that is Fiji's shame. Who is responsible for bringing that shame on Fiji?
Only a regime lackey or a regime thug will condone the booting out of Hunter from Fiji.
Remember Father Kevin Barr too was about to get the boot out of Fiji and why? Because the respected padre and supporter of the regime decided belatedly to speak the truth about certain prevailing situations in the country and that got the Dictator in a fit of rage. Remember the notso nice things the Dictator said about the padre.
Critics of Hunter doing the same. American's I gather call it "dirtying the victim".

Reply
Fiji First Party (Original -Not Aiyaz's - CHOR Party)
13/8/2014 06:16:40 am

We couldn’t agree any less with your assessment of the present elections, Mr. Russell Hunter. And rest assured that Fijians generally have a lot of respect for you, your work and your passion for our beloved Fiji.

You dared to expose the Illegal Minister of Finance, the all-mighty MP Chaudhary when all other media organizations were dilly-dallying around the issue – of his TAX evasion.

You brought closure to 14 years of ramblings and rumors that MPC had been less than ‘honest’ in his dealings with the Refugees of the Girmit Center. MPC was indeed hiding funds. MPC was evading TAX on these funds and lying about it – for far too long.

MPC did not even donate a grain of ‘rice and dhal’ to these poor Refugees – that is a fact!

So the Girmit Heritage Party –which later became –FIJI FIRST PARTY- was indeed very happy with your exposure of this Con-Artist, Illegal Minister of Finance, MPC. Thank You –Mr. Russell Hunter, Thank you very much indeed.

However, your analysis seems to place all the Indo-Fijians in one basket - as supporters of this CHOR FRANKFIRST party. That is not the case.

Victor Lal, Attar Singh and the Original Fiji First Party (NOT the Fakes) the NFP and many, many Indo-Fijians have relentlessly and vigorously (where-ever possible) opposed the Illegal Bainimarama / Aiyaz Regime.

The other important thing is that LAND is NOT the ‘holy-grail’ for the Indo-Fijians. It never was.

Reply
Tuma
13/8/2014 02:59:23 pm

Don't sugarcoat it Mr Original Fiji First Party. Land is and will continue to be the holy grail for most Indo-Fijians and dare I say other races as well aside from the Fijians. It is stability, power and most importantly money and the future. Why do you think the Fijians are very protective and sensitive to it. We can build a lovely house on a piece of land and call it our home but deep down you know it really isn't because someone else owns the land its built on.

Reply
deportation link
14/8/2014 03:44:37 pm

Will the Dictatorship in Fiji now see "reason" to deport the Acting Australian High Commissioner Glen Miles for his security advice to Australians on the prevailing situation in Fiji?
The mob in the Fiji Sun - the dictatorship's propaganda paper - would love that, wouldn't they?

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    editor@fijileaks.com

    ARCHIVES

    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    Picture
    Picture