THE Electoral Commissioner chameleon emerges in his 'Professorial Gown" to claim native Fijian issues and concerns should be made a priority but fails to warn that it must not be exploited at other races cost

24/4/2017

Fijileaks: For NFP to be a serious contender (which is quite likely) the party needs a secretary-general who is independent of Kamal Iyer. Baladas comes across as another Praveen Bala to us

Fijileaks to SODELPA and the METHODIST CHURCH: "It is time you informed the nation that if the 2013 Constitution is not reviewed before the general election, no native Fijian will take part in the election process; we have too many chameleons in the cloth of this professor who became one of the Electoral Commissioners only to cry foul after the 2014 election"

iTaukei issues
The Fiji Times
Monday, April 24, 2017

WITH Fiji's indigenous people accounting for about 60 per cent of the country's population, their concerns will be important in the 2018 General Election.

Also, political parties need to play their cards well if they want to get their votes.

Professor Vijay Naidu, of USP's school of Governance, Development and International Affairs, made reference to the 2014 General Election, saying Fiji's ethnic minorities voted overwhelmingly for the ruling FijiFirst party and its leader on ethnic lines because the voters wanted "security and safety".

This time, with the iTaukei population likely to be representing the largest category of voters, issues that have been affecting them for some years should be the key focus for political parties, the former electoral commissioner suggested.

These issues include land rights, qoliqoli rights, land rentals and natural resources.

"By virtue of fact, the iTaukei people are the customary owners and for several years, they have been preoccupied about the ownership," he said.

Prof Naidu said the 2018 polls would also be contested over the FijiFirst track record as government over the past four years, and whether or not their policies benefitted citizens equitably in terms of ethnicity, gender, age, geographical regions and whether citizens have enjoyed the freedoms associated with the democratic transition.

He said ethnic voting, religious voting and degree class-based voting would continue in the country.

He said it was "very much incumbent on the political parties to make appeals beyond particular ethnicities to win a wider cross section of votes.

"Citizens have common concerns, which include cost of living, housing, poverty, wages, employment, infrastructure and utilities.

"However, there are ethnic issues such as scholarships, land ownership and access, status of chiefs, perceptions of inequality and poverty and the loss of affirmative action policies which can be used to mobilise support along ethnic lines."

He said there were many advantages of voting along ethnic lines, but its disadvantages were divisive.

"The disadvantage is that voting along ethnic lines can be divisive and work against national unity and solidarity. There are issues that may affect particular ethnic groups which can be given leverage by the ethnically-elected MP.

"The closure of the Penang mill has an ethnic dimension for instance."

Prof Naidu said there were issues with the current single national constituency, which made it nearly impossible for election candidates and MPs to be identified with local communities.

"There might be block voting along ethnic, sub-ethnic and denominational lines, and MPs will know where their votes came from, and who to speak for.

"However, with the presidential type of leader-based electoral arrangement, most MPs tend to be quiet as church mice."

Prof Naidu adds: "With iTaukei being close to 60 per cent of the population, they are likely to be the largest category of voters although their registration as voters does not always correlate with their total population figures."

Fijileaks: Professor Vijay Naidu fails to warn that SODELPA, led by treasonist coupist Sitiveni Rabuka and flanked by many ultra-nationalists (reminiscent of 1987), must NOT be allowed to exploit native issues based on lies and false promises - after all Fiji's "MINI HITLER" and the Methodist GOD's the chosen one - Rabuka - tried to "gas" Vijay Naidu and others in 1988 when he directed his officers and nationalists "to fill up the protestors police cells with diesel fumes"; the entry of Rabuka as political leader has changed the election game and Naidu is failing in his duty to warn us to keep up our guards

EXCERPT from Professor Wadan Narsey

1988 coup protest and a night at the Police Station

On the first anniversary of the 1987 coup, a group of USP academics and other activists (including some Catholic priests) protested at the Sukuna Park. A “Group of 18” (including a certain Aiyaz Khaiyum) was arrested and put into the cells for the night, where in the middle of the night, while they were singing Fiji’s national anthem (and in the morning they sang Cat Stevens’ “Morning has Broken”), they faced diesel fumes being directed through their cell windows. The 18 comprised three Catholic priests, seven USP and associated staff, volunteer social workers, students, and a technician from FM96. We university lecturers, were (in order the names appeared in the Fiji Times front page news item:

Amelia Rokotuivuna     Atu Bain    Arlene Griffen Peni Moore
Patricia Jalal                 Jane Ricketts    Debbie Mue                Emma Druavesi
Judith Denaro               Vijay Naidu                  Wadan Narsey Fr Tom Rouse
Fr Paul Tierney             Fr John McEvoy           Kenneth Zinck Radha Krishna
Aiyaz Khaiyum             Larry Thomas

The names are interesting today, simply because so many in this group, so passionately opposed to the 1987 coup, became supporters of the Bainimarama military coup. What a fantastic research topic this would be.
There was social outrage. Fiji Times bravely fired off an Editorial expressing great concern. Lawyers Mehboob Raza, Sir John Falvey, Sidik Koya and Miles Johnson fronted up to represent the 18 in court (a commitment to ethics that is somewhat missing in the Fiji Law Society today).

Judge Davendra Pathik ruled that the 18 had “wilfully and unlawfully held a meeting at Sukuna Park without a permit”. Nevertheless, he granted the 18 “an absolute discharge without conviction bearing in mind the mitigating factors…. you are to be commended for your lofty ideas… freedom of speech and association was guaranteed for every citizen…”.

Compare these views of Judge Pathik in 1988, with his pro-Bainimarama judgments after the 2006 military coup.
https://narseyonfiji.wordpress.com/2016/07/29/usp-academics-in-the-1980s-political-storms/

Fijileaks: It is time native Fijians woke up and asked why two of the most revered institutions - The Great Council of Chiefs and the Methodist Church - have lost respect and have become objects of derision and vilification? The answer - they brought it upon themselves by siding with Sitiveni Rabuka in 1987 coups, which set them on path to self-destruct

Fijileaks founding Editor-in-Chief VICTOR LAL:"Those of us who personally suffered the worst excesses at the hands of Rabuka, the GCC and the Methodist Church must exercise moral duty and stand up to them and say - NEVER AGAIN WE WILL ALLOW YOU TO REPEAT YOUR OLD BAD WAYS- progressive native Fijians must join us in the CHORUS"

http://fijivillage.com/news-feature/Methodist-Church-is-a-campaign-mouth-for-SODELPA---PM-rk925s/

'The Great Council of Chiefs should not be restored because the chiefly system is flawed. The culture in which the chiefly system operates is politicised by the interest of the descendants of the 1874 chiefs'- Bulitavu

12 Comments

Gulong

24/4/2017 10:39:51 am

What an impressive title for such an unimpressive academic. Vijay Naidu has always been a fence sitter and never strays too far from the party line of who ever is in power. Next post please.

Alibaba

24/4/2017 07:52:41 pm

I have said from the onset that this coming election is Sodelpa and NFP'S to loose rather than FF to win. With the classic dumb BS that Rabuka has just started i.e. Goli Goli bill Christian state blah blah blah he is not heading in the right direction. These are the very thinks that cost the country its freedom well at least that is what Frank says were his reasons for the coup. I talk to young i-taukei from all Christian denominations and they don't really care about the chiefs , the goli goli and all that nationalistic BS. The Facebook generation is interested in freedom to say what they want and do what they want, they care about health care, jobs, a good standard of living, income equality and empowerment so that they can achieve their dreams. The former SDL's redundant polices may have some support with the ignorant older generation but my estimate is this is about 30% of the i-taukei community and dropping further year by year. By harping on about this archaic policies of the past Rabuka is just handing the election to FF. ASK must be rubbing his hand in glee. The only credible alternative to FF and SODELPA is NFP. If the NFP puts a strong racially balanced team in the race and give good solid alternatives to current FF policies with a progressive platform i am confident that the majority if not all the young will vote for them and a very large number of urban Fijians of all races will go with them as well. I think it is NFP'S time but they need need to do this right.

Sundar

24/4/2017 11:17:35 pm

Yeah, you maybe right, NFP too has found its much needed itaukei coupist - which it is now Pio-ing.

Refugee

24/4/2017 11:48:37 pm

Professor Vijay Naidu is a respected citizen of Fiji. His work in documenting the ‘Violence during Indenture’ is one of pioneering feat, and has been a basis for continued relevant discourse and research in history, sociology, development studies, political science and also gender studies, for many Fiji academics later. Indeed some collaborative works of Naidu/Lal/Subramani/Griffen/Pillay/Mishra/ Shameem (and Others) have given shape and definition of what constitutes our unique ‘Indo-Fijian’ culture and identity.

Vijay has steadfastly been a pro-democracy activist since 1988 and was a founding member of the multi-racial, CCF in early 1990s, influencing, encouraging students, academics and civilians (urban and rural) to actively participate, speak-out and make submissions, to the Reeves CRC. The Peoples’ 1997 Constitution, was hence, accomplished through a People driven initiative and a truly consultative process. The Reeves CRC had a ‘healing’ effect on those of us who felt our ‘sense of belonging’ suddenly and rudely ruptured by racist Rabuka.

We also experienced, first-hand, the compassion and humbleness of Professor Vijay Naidu. He visited the Girmit Center Refugee camp, on numerous occasions, personally assisting the victims materially, in sympathy and counselling. Professor Naidu is a good human being who has demonstrated strong feelings for the plight of the Poor.

But it was sad not to see Professor Vijay standing steadfastly defending the Peoples’ constitution, like we, the refugees did and just let a pitiable IP Thief and CHOR Khaiyum abrogate the Peoples’ 1997 Constitution, so wantonly and despite a standing dictum of the incumbent CJ, which says that no Fijian has powers to abrogate the Peoples’ Constitution. It was sadder still, to see Professor Naidu, give credence to the charade, which was the 2014 Election of the Crooks.

Gulong

25/4/2017 03:48:35 pm

Oh puleeeez, Refugee. Stop it. How can "documenting the violence during indenture" be "a pioneering feat?" Indenture is a coercive form of labour control in a coercive sector, which is the plantation economy. It is no where as violent as earlier forms of Spanish and British imperialism in the Americas, Africa and Asia and British imperialism in India itself where millions died from starvation so that corn and wheat can be shipped back to Britain and the thumbs of weavers in the cotton mills of Calcutta were cut off by the British so as not to compete with the cotton mills of Liverpool and Manchester. Violence is very much a part of the history in the formation of nation states and Fiji is no exception. The work of Vijay Naidu and other Indo Fijian academics makes out the only the indentured labourers in the sugar sector suffered from violence yet black burden Melanesian and Fijian labour in the cotton plantations and later the copra plantations suffered equal if not worse forms of degradation and humiliation. And prior to the indenture period for hundreds of years Fiji was one of the most bestial and violent places in the history of humankind under club rule and cannibalism. Naidu and other liberalist leaning academics st USP that you identified with the exception of Mishra and Wadan Narsey have been guilty of idolising the Fiji indenture experience without looking at it in the totality of imperialism and of other coercive labour control experiences in other parts of the world.

Refugee

26/4/2017 11:56:29 pm

Thanks for your prolific please but maybe you and Vijay are on the same page, after all.

Professor Naidu’s is an interesting study of ‘oral history’ of the survivors of Fiji’s Girmit era. A timely study which can now only be referred to but not replicated. It was the first (and only) study of this nature, so I call it a ‘pioneering feat’. The methodology is of ‘scientific materialism’ focused on exploitation (including violence as a means of extracting ‘extra’, unpaid labour), of supposedly ‘free’ labour (not a slave, paid a pittance), and being an essential need to the Capitalist CSR, a multi-national Australian, enabled by the Colonialist British through their Imperialist connections and systems of rule in other geopolitical spaces, under their influence, including the British India. So you see, Professor Naidu’s study of Girmiteer verbosity is contextually placed and is not in isolation with that era’s global expansion of and emergence of Capitalism in Fiji and its insatiable need for labour and land and the Colonialist ability (including their ‘human trafficking’ capacity) to deliver on both by its stern rule at home...and sure Imperialism.

And ‘idolizing’ the Girmit experience...? How you do that? If being liberal means being in Peace (and Progress and Prosperity too) with Capitalism and its culture of continuous accumulation, greed and corruption - as our choice of the economic system – Then none amongst our academics (not even Narsey) are of inclination aspiring a proletariat uprising, revolution, establishment of a dictatorship of the proletariat, nationalization of all assets big or small, socialism of equality AND then eventually Communism where we’d all rally that ‘religion is the opium of the masses’–and really piss the Methodists off proper.

I have respects for Professor Vijay Naidu, despite his politics (which our freedoms and liberty allow). Like I said, he has demonstrated generosity of heart, compassion and humility -when and where it most mattered. And sometimes that is more important, real and touching than philosophy or politics. I’ll stop now.

TAB

25/4/2017 09:15:57 pm

Perhaps we should also look at the message rather then concentrating on vilifying the messenger? I believe that there is an undercurrent amongst the indigenous fijian community that all parties need to understand first before bringing it to the fore for national dialogue.

Welcome Home

26/4/2017 08:18:09 am

The appropriately-named Head of the ICRC Regional Delegation, Mr Fred Grimm, is seen in today's FT speaking to Fiji Police Officers at the Police Academy. His area of interest seems to have centred upon Powers of Arrest and the Treatment of Detained Persons with special regard to Immigration Detainees. These are all areas where great concern has been raised and deep disgust evoked by video recordings of gross abuse. It will be difficult to erase this justified outrage and disquiet. The images are engraved in our memories and compounded by the horror of Muaniweni will require many years of striving for excellence under Oath of a Duty to Protect all FIJIANS both citizens and residents into a most uncertain future. Visitors need to be reassured that their safety and security will be courteously assured at all times. Mr Grimm should be profoundly thanked and his continued watchful eye sought.

Really

26/4/2017 09:55:58 am

Refugee or Naidu Jr doing some airbrushing of the chameleon professor's image here? Hasua apan taraf khichi after all

GOAT

26/4/2017 11:52:02 pm

All of them are ex-CCF, Vijay , Aiyaz , Refugee, Mrs Ricketts, Dakuvula, Richard Naidu and a few others who wore many hats, one being" Movement for democracy in Fiji" , which Nikhil Naidu still does cake stalls for in Auckland. He needs to change the anti Rabuka posters now that, it's not 1987 but 30 years later.
Something fishy here, Vijay Naidu, Rajend Naidu ,Nikhil Naidu, Richard Naidu.......are these people related to each other? and if so I smell a dynasty of Gandhian proportions lurking on the political fringes of Fiji or perhaps a circling school of great white Naidu sharks ready to form the next government. Batao, batao.....Rajend Naidu could be the shadow information minister already , judging from his daily dose of cut and paste from the internet.
Hmmmm even Shameema Naidu (Ali) could handle the Womens ' ministry .....nah there's no dynasty here, just like someone said earlier....stay close to people in power, as it pays dividends.....integrity is a myth, and principles are for the poor , like taxes. There's a saying somewhere, that says some people change their political parties to maintain their principles whilst others change their principles for their personal gain.

Chiku

26/4/2017 10:41:04 pm

What Gulong and Really do here is to throw the baby with the bathwater which is precisely what Refugee laboured not to do in his perceptive take on Vijay Naidu. He acknowledged the good Naidu has done for democracy since the first military coup of 1987 and where he went wrong by giving credence to the sham 2014 elections staged by the 2006 coupists and their cronies.
Naidu's work on the Indenture system in Fiji is by no means a pioneering feat, although he had placed a special focus on violence under Indenture.
The title of pioneering work must be reserved for Totoram Sanadhya ( My Twenty-One Years in the Fiji Islands) who first alerted the world about the plight of the Girmitiyas and the abuses inherent in the Indenture system in Fiji.
Vijay Naidu acknowledges that himself in the Preface of his book.
Finally, Gulong makes the false criticism that Naidu and other Indo Fijian academics treat Indian indenture in Fiji without taking cognisance of the broader context of European imperialism and colonialism.
How could Naidu not have factored in that dimension of indenture after incorporating Hugh Tinker's A New System of Slavery in his work?

Welcome Home

27/4/2017 11:18:54 am

Something fishy here? There's always a bad smell when pertinent/relevant questions do not get asked. What environmental impact studies were conducted with regard to Fantasy Island new developments? Is the Nadi River and the entire River basin yet again impacted by ill-considered blocking of flood waters to the sea? EIS have been shelved or shoddily conducted so often because too little serious interest was taken. Why?

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