Mick Beddoes - stoking of racial hatred, -typical of people who have thrived, for about a century, by stoking ‘anti -Indian sentiment among Fijians.
I happen to come across this rather ‘vindictive’ attack against me from Dr Ganesh Chand, who, until I read the venom he spewed, I had always held him in high regard, especially knowing the trauma and stress that he and all his fellow FLP colleagues endured in their 56 days of captivity as hostages of the Speight Group in Parliament during the 2000 coup.
I am not sure why he did not comment on my January 8th post about Purpose Driven Discrimination on my page like everyone else. But given that his attack relates to my post, I thought I should respond in the forum where the subject matter originates
His attack is in relation to his ‘interpretation’ of the contents of my annual summary of government appointments in Statutory and Commercial entities, institutions and Commissions which I have been posting every year since 2017. Although all the ‘data’ comes from government publications, websites and annual reports and is provided in the context of and in relation to our Bill of Rights and in particular Sec 26 (3) of the constitution, which I have titled ‘Purpose Driven Discrimination’ because in my opinion the consistent pattern of these appointments [2017-2022] make it clear that it is an ‘intentional and deliberate’ effort by Fiji First to ‘disenfranchise’ our majority indigenous community.
The reason I keep highlighting this is because I believe, very strongly that 'ethnic harmony' among all the multi ethnic groups that make up the family of Fiji is vital to our long term peace, progress and prosperity. By doing what they are doing Fiji First is 'spoiling' for a reaction, that will justify calling in the military and as a consequence postponing the elections. It is imperative that our indigenous brothers and sisters, not react.
I do agree with Mr Chand that authoritarian regimes always surround themselves with ‘stooges’. But I prefer to call them - collaborators, aiders & abettors, sycophants and enablers and Mr Chand will know this well, seeing as he became one when he joined the Military Regime of Bainimarama on September 25th 2007 less than 10 months after their December 5th act of treason by accepting an appointment as Director of FIT, then on 18th December 2009 just 8 months after the Fiji Court of Appeal declared the Bainimara Regime ‘illegal’ [and therefore Chand as well I would assume] Bainimarama and his co-conspirators got our ailing President Iloilo to ‘abrogate the 1997 constitution’ and reappoint them as government.
And just 8 months later Ganesh Chand accepted yet another appointment from than Minister of Education Filipe Bole to be the VC of FNU and he remained a regime ‘sycophant’ and ‘enabler’ for about the next 7 years, until his so called ‘amicable - resignation’ settlement in 2014 depending on which ‘lens’ one looks through.
But like many other ‘stooges’ or ‘sycophants who have done the same as Ganesh Chand, he also found out the hard way that Dictators also ‘use then abuse stooges’ once they have gotten what they want out of them, and even though the charges were eventually dismissed, Ganesh was never the less charged with ‘abuse of office’ as a sign of gratitude from is grateful former employers.
So when I read Ganesh Chands accusation of me as ‘stoking racial hatred’ with my annual summary of the ‘actual’ appointments made by government to Government Entities and related positions which overwhelmingly favour minorities to the exclusion of our 62% majority indigenous citizens and suggesting I lack the courage to write about the actions of the Military and Police and then insults my family by saying quote: Mick is typical of people who have thrived, for about a century, by stoking "anti-Indian" sentiments amongst Fijians. Fortunately, ethnic Fijians are now far more enlightened. They must reject Mick and his agenda decisively. I was a little pissed off.
Of course I know the Military & Police are majority indigenous, but it's been that way since before Independence and until members of other communities join the disciplined forces in significant numbers, and the government of the day returns to full ‘civilian rule’ it will remain that way for some time as long as we continue to reward the ‘wrong doers’
I also realize that it is more likely then not that over his 7 years or so of being a fully engaged with Fiji First as a ‘sycophant’ and ‘enabler’ Ganesh may have become sanitized and numb by his new remuneration and status at a time when the whole nation was suffering and reeling from the huge losses and hardship to families that coups bring, that he may have become radicalized, which would explain his ‘defensive reaction’ to my post in which he tried to ignore the actual discrimination practiced by his employers by pointing to the ‘disproportionate’ number of Indigenous members of the military and Police verses minorities, as if to say this makes all the discrimination ok?
Well it does not!
The Ganesh Chand I once knew would be up in arms about the extent of the discrimination against our Indigenous or any other citizens, the Ganesh Chand I knew would have spoken out against the ‘appointing Ministers’ accusing them as I do of practicing ‘discrimination’.
Sadly that Ganesh Chand is no more, we must now deal with an unceremoniously ‘discarded’ ‘ego deflated’ and ‘irrational’ former Fiji First ‘sycophant’ and ‘enabler’.
Anyone with an ‘ounce of intelligence’ knows I do not make the appointments, the Fiji First Ministers do and we all know who ‘directs’ the Ministers to do as they do and Ganesh Chand knows full well this is what happens, yet he defends his former employers blatant act of discrimination and accuses me, the person who has exposed their discrimination as ‘stoking racial hatred’.
Chand has used an age old method of defending the indefensible by going on the ‘offensive’ so instead of explaining why his former employers are discriminating against our Indigenous citizens, he has chosen to go on the offensive and accuse me and my family of ‘stoking racial hatred’.
My efforts in opposing the coups of 1987, 2000 and 2006 have been a matter of public record over the past 35 years, and while I am not willing to justify my efforts to a known ‘sycophant’ and ‘enabler’ of the Fiji First government.
His cynical and disingenuous attempt to write me and my family off as typical of people who have thrived, for about a century, by stoking ‘anti -Indian sentiment among Fijians says more about his own prejudice as a ‘sycophant’ and ‘enabler’.
I have always been a keen researcher of my family history because I treasure and consider my heritage as being unique and the standard bearer that establishes who we are and what we stand for as a family and as individual members of the family and this is based on the values, morals and ethics that we were bought up with and which we pass to our next generation as most families do.
So let me set my family record straight:
I am the eldest son of Malcolm Duncan Beddoes and Bess Jenny Sorby.
My Beddoes roots date back to Elystan Goldrydd, Elystan the Renowned, King of Rhwng Gwy a Hafren, (Prince of Fferlys) in Wales.
The Fiji family branch from Elystan Goldrydd began with the birth of Francis Beddoe in 1772 in Manorbier, Prembrokeshire in Wales and his grandson George's migration to New Zealand where he established a successful boat building enterprise and built the first hotel in New Zealand, the Masonic Tavern, that stands today in on Church Street, Davenport, Auckland, and then to Fiji and to settle in Taveuni, in about 1876. My great,great grandfather George [was born on May 29, 1832 in Penally, Prembrokeshire] and great,great grandmother Marion Fletcher [was born on 6 February 1828 in Castle Gresley, Derbyshire, England], they met and were married in New Zealand before moving to Fiji. They and their family were the first of the Beddoes family to settle in Fiji. Our indigenous roots start in Verata.
My Sorby roots go back to Norway where Thomas Wilhelm Sorby was born in 1845, he married Mere Balavu from Noco in Rewa. Their son Thomas Albert Sorby married Mere Shackley, daughter of Joseph Shakley and Ruth Smith in Nausori on May 22 1893. Mere was born in Koro Island on 20 July 1872.
Members of my Beddoes & Sorby families and all the branches to and from them, have also served Fiji in World War I, World War II, The Malayan Emergency, the Solomon Islands Campaign, multiple Peacekeeping Missions, and some members today are currently serving in the Australian, New Zealand and British Military and Navy.
I was proud to follow in my late uncle Ted Beddoes footsteps who served Fiji for 17 years as an MP and member of the Mara Alliance government. In 2001, I became the 2nd member of our family to be elected to Parliament and together we have given a total of 22 years of service to the people to date.
My own DNA test shows I am 52.5% Scandinavian, 6.4% North and Western European, 1.7% Ashkenazi Jewish, 26.1% Polynesian, 5.7% Papuan, 2.4% Melanesian, 4% South Asian [India], and 1.2% Native American.
The the only country in South Asia that I have any direct family link to is India and this is because 138 years ago a 20 year old Mary [Alias] Pakalia, from Agra -Uttar Pradesh, India, my great, great, grandmother on my Sorby side of the family, married my great, great grandfather John Hector Fitzpatrick Munro from Scotland, on May 2, 1884 in Serua.
Fast forward to the present day and still on my Sorby side my first cousins, the children of my mothers two sisters are Chinese and Indian, my own grandchildren are Croatian, Part European, Chinese and Australian. We have and will always be a close nit family. When I look at my immediate and extended family of both my Sorby and Beddoes lines we are without a doubt a melting pot of multiple ethnic communities where racial and ethnic intolerance simply does not exist for which I AM MOST PROUD!
I have friends and very close friends from most of the ethnic communities in Fiji, and most of them have been friends for decades and although the minorities represent just 3.8% of the total population, it is made up of about 9 different ethnic communities and the majority of these diverse communities voted me into parliament in 2001 and again in 2006.
And despite being elected in a communal minority seat, from my very first day in Parliament to my last, I made Fiji my constituency and traveled to Nasinu, Nausori, Levuka, Taveuni, Kioa, Rabi, Buca Bay, Kasavu, Savusavu, Wainunu, Nabawalu, Bua, Labasa, then back to Nadi and on to Rakiraki, Vatukola, Tavua, Ba, Lautoka, Nadi, then rested, before heading to Parliament and on route meeting in Kulukulu, Sigatoka, Korotoga, Korolevu, Pacific Harbour, Navua, Wainadoi, Vesari, Lami then Parliament. I did this 4 times a year before a parliament sitting to meet as many people as I could and opened my meeting to all citizens to attend. I made about 24 such Fiji wide tours including 2 to Rotuma.
If there is one thing that my family and friends know about me it is this. I will call out anyone for wrong doing regardless of who they are and what community they belong to because I can not and will not stay neutral or silent as long as injustices prevail.
I happen to come across this rather ‘vindictive’ attack against me from Dr Ganesh Chand, who, until I read the venom he spewed, I had always held him in high regard, especially knowing the trauma and stress that he and all his fellow FLP colleagues endured in their 56 days of captivity as hostages of the Speight Group in Parliament during the 2000 coup.
I am not sure why he did not comment on my January 8th post about Purpose Driven Discrimination on my page like everyone else. But given that his attack relates to my post, I thought I should respond in the forum where the subject matter originates
His attack is in relation to his ‘interpretation’ of the contents of my annual summary of government appointments in Statutory and Commercial entities, institutions and Commissions which I have been posting every year since 2017. Although all the ‘data’ comes from government publications, websites and annual reports and is provided in the context of and in relation to our Bill of Rights and in particular Sec 26 (3) of the constitution, which I have titled ‘Purpose Driven Discrimination’ because in my opinion the consistent pattern of these appointments [2017-2022] make it clear that it is an ‘intentional and deliberate’ effort by Fiji First to ‘disenfranchise’ our majority indigenous community.
The reason I keep highlighting this is because I believe, very strongly that 'ethnic harmony' among all the multi ethnic groups that make up the family of Fiji is vital to our long term peace, progress and prosperity. By doing what they are doing Fiji First is 'spoiling' for a reaction, that will justify calling in the military and as a consequence postponing the elections. It is imperative that our indigenous brothers and sisters, not react.
I do agree with Mr Chand that authoritarian regimes always surround themselves with ‘stooges’. But I prefer to call them - collaborators, aiders & abettors, sycophants and enablers and Mr Chand will know this well, seeing as he became one when he joined the Military Regime of Bainimarama on September 25th 2007 less than 10 months after their December 5th act of treason by accepting an appointment as Director of FIT, then on 18th December 2009 just 8 months after the Fiji Court of Appeal declared the Bainimara Regime ‘illegal’ [and therefore Chand as well I would assume] Bainimarama and his co-conspirators got our ailing President Iloilo to ‘abrogate the 1997 constitution’ and reappoint them as government.
And just 8 months later Ganesh Chand accepted yet another appointment from than Minister of Education Filipe Bole to be the VC of FNU and he remained a regime ‘sycophant’ and ‘enabler’ for about the next 7 years, until his so called ‘amicable - resignation’ settlement in 2014 depending on which ‘lens’ one looks through.
But like many other ‘stooges’ or ‘sycophants who have done the same as Ganesh Chand, he also found out the hard way that Dictators also ‘use then abuse stooges’ once they have gotten what they want out of them, and even though the charges were eventually dismissed, Ganesh was never the less charged with ‘abuse of office’ as a sign of gratitude from is grateful former employers.
So when I read Ganesh Chands accusation of me as ‘stoking racial hatred’ with my annual summary of the ‘actual’ appointments made by government to Government Entities and related positions which overwhelmingly favour minorities to the exclusion of our 62% majority indigenous citizens and suggesting I lack the courage to write about the actions of the Military and Police and then insults my family by saying quote: Mick is typical of people who have thrived, for about a century, by stoking "anti-Indian" sentiments amongst Fijians. Fortunately, ethnic Fijians are now far more enlightened. They must reject Mick and his agenda decisively. I was a little pissed off.
Of course I know the Military & Police are majority indigenous, but it's been that way since before Independence and until members of other communities join the disciplined forces in significant numbers, and the government of the day returns to full ‘civilian rule’ it will remain that way for some time as long as we continue to reward the ‘wrong doers’
I also realize that it is more likely then not that over his 7 years or so of being a fully engaged with Fiji First as a ‘sycophant’ and ‘enabler’ Ganesh may have become sanitized and numb by his new remuneration and status at a time when the whole nation was suffering and reeling from the huge losses and hardship to families that coups bring, that he may have become radicalized, which would explain his ‘defensive reaction’ to my post in which he tried to ignore the actual discrimination practiced by his employers by pointing to the ‘disproportionate’ number of Indigenous members of the military and Police verses minorities, as if to say this makes all the discrimination ok?
Well it does not!
The Ganesh Chand I once knew would be up in arms about the extent of the discrimination against our Indigenous or any other citizens, the Ganesh Chand I knew would have spoken out against the ‘appointing Ministers’ accusing them as I do of practicing ‘discrimination’.
Sadly that Ganesh Chand is no more, we must now deal with an unceremoniously ‘discarded’ ‘ego deflated’ and ‘irrational’ former Fiji First ‘sycophant’ and ‘enabler’.
Anyone with an ‘ounce of intelligence’ knows I do not make the appointments, the Fiji First Ministers do and we all know who ‘directs’ the Ministers to do as they do and Ganesh Chand knows full well this is what happens, yet he defends his former employers blatant act of discrimination and accuses me, the person who has exposed their discrimination as ‘stoking racial hatred’.
Chand has used an age old method of defending the indefensible by going on the ‘offensive’ so instead of explaining why his former employers are discriminating against our Indigenous citizens, he has chosen to go on the offensive and accuse me and my family of ‘stoking racial hatred’.
My efforts in opposing the coups of 1987, 2000 and 2006 have been a matter of public record over the past 35 years, and while I am not willing to justify my efforts to a known ‘sycophant’ and ‘enabler’ of the Fiji First government.
His cynical and disingenuous attempt to write me and my family off as typical of people who have thrived, for about a century, by stoking ‘anti -Indian sentiment among Fijians says more about his own prejudice as a ‘sycophant’ and ‘enabler’.
I have always been a keen researcher of my family history because I treasure and consider my heritage as being unique and the standard bearer that establishes who we are and what we stand for as a family and as individual members of the family and this is based on the values, morals and ethics that we were bought up with and which we pass to our next generation as most families do.
So let me set my family record straight:
I am the eldest son of Malcolm Duncan Beddoes and Bess Jenny Sorby.
My Beddoes roots date back to Elystan Goldrydd, Elystan the Renowned, King of Rhwng Gwy a Hafren, (Prince of Fferlys) in Wales.
The Fiji family branch from Elystan Goldrydd began with the birth of Francis Beddoe in 1772 in Manorbier, Prembrokeshire in Wales and his grandson George's migration to New Zealand where he established a successful boat building enterprise and built the first hotel in New Zealand, the Masonic Tavern, that stands today in on Church Street, Davenport, Auckland, and then to Fiji and to settle in Taveuni, in about 1876. My great,great grandfather George [was born on May 29, 1832 in Penally, Prembrokeshire] and great,great grandmother Marion Fletcher [was born on 6 February 1828 in Castle Gresley, Derbyshire, England], they met and were married in New Zealand before moving to Fiji. They and their family were the first of the Beddoes family to settle in Fiji. Our indigenous roots start in Verata.
My Sorby roots go back to Norway where Thomas Wilhelm Sorby was born in 1845, he married Mere Balavu from Noco in Rewa. Their son Thomas Albert Sorby married Mere Shackley, daughter of Joseph Shakley and Ruth Smith in Nausori on May 22 1893. Mere was born in Koro Island on 20 July 1872.
Members of my Beddoes & Sorby families and all the branches to and from them, have also served Fiji in World War I, World War II, The Malayan Emergency, the Solomon Islands Campaign, multiple Peacekeeping Missions, and some members today are currently serving in the Australian, New Zealand and British Military and Navy.
I was proud to follow in my late uncle Ted Beddoes footsteps who served Fiji for 17 years as an MP and member of the Mara Alliance government. In 2001, I became the 2nd member of our family to be elected to Parliament and together we have given a total of 22 years of service to the people to date.
My own DNA test shows I am 52.5% Scandinavian, 6.4% North and Western European, 1.7% Ashkenazi Jewish, 26.1% Polynesian, 5.7% Papuan, 2.4% Melanesian, 4% South Asian [India], and 1.2% Native American.
The the only country in South Asia that I have any direct family link to is India and this is because 138 years ago a 20 year old Mary [Alias] Pakalia, from Agra -Uttar Pradesh, India, my great, great, grandmother on my Sorby side of the family, married my great, great grandfather John Hector Fitzpatrick Munro from Scotland, on May 2, 1884 in Serua.
Fast forward to the present day and still on my Sorby side my first cousins, the children of my mothers two sisters are Chinese and Indian, my own grandchildren are Croatian, Part European, Chinese and Australian. We have and will always be a close nit family. When I look at my immediate and extended family of both my Sorby and Beddoes lines we are without a doubt a melting pot of multiple ethnic communities where racial and ethnic intolerance simply does not exist for which I AM MOST PROUD!
I have friends and very close friends from most of the ethnic communities in Fiji, and most of them have been friends for decades and although the minorities represent just 3.8% of the total population, it is made up of about 9 different ethnic communities and the majority of these diverse communities voted me into parliament in 2001 and again in 2006.
And despite being elected in a communal minority seat, from my very first day in Parliament to my last, I made Fiji my constituency and traveled to Nasinu, Nausori, Levuka, Taveuni, Kioa, Rabi, Buca Bay, Kasavu, Savusavu, Wainunu, Nabawalu, Bua, Labasa, then back to Nadi and on to Rakiraki, Vatukola, Tavua, Ba, Lautoka, Nadi, then rested, before heading to Parliament and on route meeting in Kulukulu, Sigatoka, Korotoga, Korolevu, Pacific Harbour, Navua, Wainadoi, Vesari, Lami then Parliament. I did this 4 times a year before a parliament sitting to meet as many people as I could and opened my meeting to all citizens to attend. I made about 24 such Fiji wide tours including 2 to Rotuma.
If there is one thing that my family and friends know about me it is this. I will call out anyone for wrong doing regardless of who they are and what community they belong to because I can not and will not stay neutral or silent as long as injustices prevail.