"If he (Davis) couldn't find it, he would make it up' - Frank Bainimarama
GRAHAM DAVIS, Grubsheet Feejee, 20 September 2020:
"I have quoted from the Military Council document almost in its entirety. It is from an impeccable source and as we’ve seen, the PM doesn’t dispute its contents. Nor has he disputed the announcement of his designated successor, nor indeed any of the facts that I have reported over the past few weeks. All of which makes this the astonishing statement that it is. Ask yourself this: If I was so unimportant and prone to fits of melodrama, why is this the most prominent story in the Fijian media today – not only the pro-government FBC and Fiji Sun but Fiji Village/CFL and Fiji One News? It is because I was a witness to the inner workings of the Bainimarama government for six years up close and wrote much of its narrative. And someone is extremely worried about the damage being done to his own position and what may be to come."
 Fijileaks to Fiji Media: "Go and ask Bainimarama if he was Inciting Sedition Against Khaiyum, citing Fijileaks. He can look up the Laws of Fiji, which are on his bookshelf (photo)" |  |
In his press statement, he told us: 'If you've read our Constitution, you know Fiji is a Democracy.'
Well, Fijian journalists should have retorted, "If you've read Khaiyum's Constitution, the Military Council is NOT your Cabinet. You had no right to approach the Military Officers."
FRANK BAINIMARAMA WAS INCITING SEDITION IN DECEMBER 2018
IF the contents of the Military Council's 'Secret 26 Point Blueprint for Change' to Bainimarama is authentic (and we believe it is authentic), then Attorney-General and Minister for Justice Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum must REPORT his Prime Minister to the Police Commissioner for INCITING SEDITION against him (Khaiyum), for Bainimarama as a Civilian Prime Minister had no right to approach his former Military Officers to seek advice on how best to remove Khaiyum and take back control of FFP machinery. For, Fiji was not in a state of anarchy and there was no need for the invocation of DOCTRINE OF NECESSITY (unlike 2000 and even dubious 2006 where Bainimarama had manufactured one) to run to the Military Council. What should Bainimarama have done? He should have conducted a post-election FFP post-mortem, with or without Kahiyum's permission, not by running to the Military Council but by summoning FFP candidates and party members. Bainimarama, by approaching the Military Council, and the Council by giving him its Blueprint, both committed TREASON against Khaiyum, a sitting Government Minister and Minister for Law and Order. The Military Council (RFMF) is required under the 2013 "Khaiyum Constitution" to be NEUTRAL, except when there is utter chaos, anarchy, and deeply mired in 'corruption' in Fiji. The former Land Force Commander Brigadier-General Pita Driti was jailed for approaching Frank Bainimarama with evidence of corruption against Aiyaz Khaiyum, and for he and his co-officers calling for Khaiyum's removal. We can't have two parallel laws when it comes to INCITING SEDITION, for Graham Davis is standing by the contents of the Military Council's 'Secret Blueprint for Change' Document, issued to Khaiyum's Prime Minister Bainimarama in December 2018.
The Military Council should have told Bainimarama to
"Piss Off", for in December 2018, he was a civilian Prime Minister calling on them to abuse their powers under the 2013 Constitution. But the right course of action was to take him up to the barracks, make him run around the military grounds (an expert in dashing through the cassava patch - "it was raining that day but there was dust in the air!"), LOCK him UP in a military cell, and then call the Fiji Police to charge him for inciting sedition against his own Attorney-General and Minister for Justice Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum.
It is still not too late, for the late Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase was convicted and jailed for offences committed in the 1990s. The 'Driti Precedent' must be applied to Frank Bainimarama, the Prime Minister of Fiji. Ironically, Bainimarama is not only alive but is Prime Minister today, courtesy of none other than Driti. It was Driti who led troops under his command to put down the November 2000 mutiny, provided cover from firing rebel soldiers, and escorted Bainimarama down the embarkment into the cassava patch so he could make that famous dash for his life. On his way, Bainimarama famously defecated in his pants, whether out of sheer fright or because of the call of nature, and had to be hosed and cleaned at the temporary Walu Bay hideout.
Unfortunately, Khaiyum not only ensured that Driti was behind bars but has turned Bainimarama into a 'CRY BABY', asking him to lash out at any legitimate criticism of Aiyaz Khaiyum's dictatorial rule in Fiji
GRAHAM DAVIS RESPONDS TO BAINIMARAMA ATTACK ON HIM:
Stung by successive Grubsheet articles revealing how the military wants changes to the government and also revealing the name of his designated successor, Frank Bainimarama has made an astonishing personal attack on me on the front page of the government-controlled Fiji Sun newspaper and on the government-controlled Fijian Broadcasting Corporation. (“PM slams claims made by ex-Qorvis worker”). While conspicuously failing to deny the substance of anything I have reported, the PM accuses me of trading in gossip and makes a number of snide personal references that are gratuitous and totally beside the point.
Once again, the PM has evidently been used by his Attorney General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, to engage in an ill-considered public relations blunder that elevates me personally and the substance of what I have written and drives even more Fijian readers to my website. Whether it was on the advice of my former colleagues at Qorvis Communications is an open question. One of them has already commented that: ” Someone should tell him (the PM) to keep a cool head. He’s doing his own negative pr by being so aggressively defensive”. If Fiji is going to pay Qorvis $800,000 this year in highly straitened circumstances on top of the many millions it has expended over the years, the Prime Minister and his de-facto number two could at least heed their advice.
Here’s the text of what the Prime Minister said to the Fiji Sun:
“It’s funny, people outside of Fiji often have the most to say and the least to offer the country. Graham is no different. I know him, and he did some work with Qorvis, but that ended sometime back.
I think I remember the stress was sometimes too much for him. I don’t know why he’s dealing in gossip these days, but I also remember even in the best of times he always seemed to find drama. And if he couldn’t find it, he’d make it up.
I have no idea what he wants now. Maybe attention, maybe a job. I really don’t know. I don’t care and we don’t want to give him either. But he needs to understand that an attack on Fijian democracy, our Constitution, any of our independent institutions, or any of my ministers is an attack on me.
If you’ve read our Constitution, you know Fiji is a democracy. We are not a dynasty and I do not handpick my successor. The only ones who choose the Prime Minister of Fiji are Fijian voters.
I know, because they have picked my government twice. As the leader of FijiFirst, I am appointed under our party’s constitution, like all our office bearers. And I will once again work hard to earn the votes of the Fijian people when I lead FijiFirst into the next election.
Until then, we have to recover our economy and get industries running again, get jobs back and get help to those who need it most. I am working on these issues every day. We don’t have time to waste on gossip blogs. But for old time’s sake, I wish Graham all the best in his retirement in Australia.”
And here is the text of the statement that I have released to the Fijian media in response and that it is obliged to publish under Fiji’s media laws guaranteeing the right of reply to criticism of this nature:
I thank the Prime Minister for drawing public attention to my blogsite – grubsheet.com.au – in that many more Fijians will know that far from me criticising him or eroding his position, I am in fact trying to strengthen it by calling for the government to re-invent itself so that it can win the next election.
I take it as confirmation that what I have said is fact that in his statement, the Prime Minister does not deny anything at all that I have reported over the past month or for that matter, dispute any opinion that I have expressed.
In relation to his comments about the Constitution, the Prime Minister knows that a political party such as FijiFirst decides its candidate as leader before the people get to vote on that selection. So his preference as party leader is critical and as I reported, he has told the Military Council that his designated successor is Inia Seruiratu.
While I thank him for his best wishes, I am far from being retired – being of the same age as the Prime Minister – and am working for his re-election to prevent him from going into enforced retirement himself. He remains a person for whom I have a great deal of respect and affection.
Stung by successive Grubsheet articles revealing how the military wants changes to the government and also revealing the name of his designated successor, Frank Bainimarama has made an astonishing personal attack on me on the front page of the government-controlled Fiji Sun newspaper and on the government-controlled Fijian Broadcasting Corporation. (“PM slams claims made by ex-Qorvis worker”). While conspicuously failing to deny the substance of anything I have reported, the PM accuses me of trading in gossip and makes a number of snide personal references that are gratuitous and totally beside the point.
Once again, the PM has evidently been used by his Attorney General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, to engage in an ill-considered public relations blunder that elevates me personally and the substance of what I have written and drives even more Fijian readers to my website. Whether it was on the advice of my former colleagues at Qorvis Communications is an open question. One of them has already commented that: ” Someone should tell him (the PM) to keep a cool head. He’s doing his own negative pr by being so aggressively defensive”. If Fiji is going to pay Qorvis $800,000 this year in highly straitened circumstances on top of the many millions it has expended over the years, the Prime Minister and his de-facto number two could at least heed their advice.
Here’s the text of what the Prime Minister said to the Fiji Sun:
“It’s funny, people outside of Fiji often have the most to say and the least to offer the country. Graham is no different. I know him, and he did some work with Qorvis, but that ended sometime back.
I think I remember the stress was sometimes too much for him. I don’t know why he’s dealing in gossip these days, but I also remember even in the best of times he always seemed to find drama. And if he couldn’t find it, he’d make it up.
I have no idea what he wants now. Maybe attention, maybe a job. I really don’t know. I don’t care and we don’t want to give him either. But he needs to understand that an attack on Fijian democracy, our Constitution, any of our independent institutions, or any of my ministers is an attack on me.
If you’ve read our Constitution, you know Fiji is a democracy. We are not a dynasty and I do not handpick my successor. The only ones who choose the Prime Minister of Fiji are Fijian voters.
I know, because they have picked my government twice. As the leader of FijiFirst, I am appointed under our party’s constitution, like all our office bearers. And I will once again work hard to earn the votes of the Fijian people when I lead FijiFirst into the next election.
Until then, we have to recover our economy and get industries running again, get jobs back and get help to those who need it most. I am working on these issues every day. We don’t have time to waste on gossip blogs. But for old time’s sake, I wish Graham all the best in his retirement in Australia.”
And here is the text of the statement that I have released to the Fijian media in response and that it is obliged to publish under Fiji’s media laws guaranteeing the right of reply to criticism of this nature:
I thank the Prime Minister for drawing public attention to my blogsite – grubsheet.com.au – in that many more Fijians will know that far from me criticising him or eroding his position, I am in fact trying to strengthen it by calling for the government to re-invent itself so that it can win the next election.
I take it as confirmation that what I have said is fact that in his statement, the Prime Minister does not deny anything at all that I have reported over the past month or for that matter, dispute any opinion that I have expressed.
In relation to his comments about the Constitution, the Prime Minister knows that a political party such as FijiFirst decides its candidate as leader before the people get to vote on that selection. So his preference as party leader is critical and as I reported, he has told the Military Council that his designated successor is Inia Seruiratu.
While I thank him for his best wishes, I am far from being retired – being of the same age as the Prime Minister – and am working for his re-election to prevent him from going into enforced retirement himself. He remains a person for whom I have a great deal of respect and affection.
HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF: Bainimarama has a history of lashing out at TRUTH, fed by those surrounding and manipulating him. In 2008, on the instigation of his then Interim Finance Minister Mahendra Chaudhry and Interim Attorney-General Aiyaz Khaiyum, he (Bainimarama) had attacked our Founding Editor-in-Chief, and even ordered the kidnapping and deportation of Fiji Sun's then Publisher Russell Hunter out of Fiji, for our revelation that Chaudhry was hiding $2million in his Australian bank account. When they fell out, Chaudhry was arrested and convicted over the $2million stash in Australia. In Graham Davis case, he has turned on his very own who was a witness to the inner workings of the Bainimarama government for six years up close and wrote much of its narrative
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Bah, Bah, BARR: And remember Bainimarama lashing out at Father Kevin Barr, suggesting that if he didn't like his plan to change the Fiji flag, he (Father Barr) should relocate from Fiji to CHINA. Thank God, Father Barr remained in his beloved Fiji and died peacefully at the Home of Compassion last week
Father Barr Passes Away. Archbishop Peter Chong: "We thanked Fr. Barr for his service and gift to Fiji. We helped him pass from this world to God'. Mercifully, Father Barr was not dragged and deported to CHINA
Fijileaks: BOTH Frank Bainimarama and the miliatry officers who entertained him, and then went on to present to him the Military Council Blueprint, are guilty of inciting sedition and hatred against Aiyaz Khaiyum in his capacity as a duly elected Minister in the Bainimarama Cabinet. The precedent is the charges laid against Pita Driti
Graham Davis on Military Council Document, 10 September 2020
"Shocked to the core by his near defeat in the November 2018 election, the Prime Minister, Frank Bainimarama, summoned the people he trusts most – his military colleagues who helped him seize power in 2006 and who are still the ultimate authority in Fiji. They are the members of the Military Council – senior military officers still in uniform...The Military Council had been dormant for several years when it was suddenly reconvened by the Prime Minister in the election aftermath. His old comrades were given a specific invitation to advise him about how to respond to his near defeat at the hands of his bitter opponent – Sitiveni Rabuka, the former Prime Minister, RFMF commander and instigator of the 1987 coups who led the SODELPA opposition into the 2018 election and came within a small margin of winning.
The Military Council produced a 26-point blueprint for the direction it believed Frank Bainimarama should take his government and the nation. The contents of that advice have never been revealed – until now – and the Prime Minister is yet to act on its recommendations. But elements of the military and some of his cabinet colleagues want him to do so as a matter of urgency as the clock ticks inexorably towards the next election in 2022.
It is, by any measure, an astonishing document that even 20 months on, will send shock waves through the Fijian establishment and body politic. Not least because it shows the Military Council laying the blame for the government’s poor election showing squarely at the feet of Bainimarama’s Attorney General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, who it accuses of arrogance and of putting the Prime Minister’s legacy at risk.
The document is bound to cause a collective tightening of sphincters in the AG’s immediate circle. Because pressure is building on the PM to end his 20 months of prevarication and at least implement the most pressing of the Military Council’s recommendations. It is also clear that the only thing between Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum and political oblivion is the support of one man – Frank Bainimarama."
"Shocked to the core by his near defeat in the November 2018 election, the Prime Minister, Frank Bainimarama, summoned the people he trusts most – his military colleagues who helped him seize power in 2006 and who are still the ultimate authority in Fiji. They are the members of the Military Council – senior military officers still in uniform...The Military Council had been dormant for several years when it was suddenly reconvened by the Prime Minister in the election aftermath. His old comrades were given a specific invitation to advise him about how to respond to his near defeat at the hands of his bitter opponent – Sitiveni Rabuka, the former Prime Minister, RFMF commander and instigator of the 1987 coups who led the SODELPA opposition into the 2018 election and came within a small margin of winning.
The Military Council produced a 26-point blueprint for the direction it believed Frank Bainimarama should take his government and the nation. The contents of that advice have never been revealed – until now – and the Prime Minister is yet to act on its recommendations. But elements of the military and some of his cabinet colleagues want him to do so as a matter of urgency as the clock ticks inexorably towards the next election in 2022.
It is, by any measure, an astonishing document that even 20 months on, will send shock waves through the Fijian establishment and body politic. Not least because it shows the Military Council laying the blame for the government’s poor election showing squarely at the feet of Bainimarama’s Attorney General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, who it accuses of arrogance and of putting the Prime Minister’s legacy at risk.
The document is bound to cause a collective tightening of sphincters in the AG’s immediate circle. Because pressure is building on the PM to end his 20 months of prevarication and at least implement the most pressing of the Military Council’s recommendations. It is also clear that the only thing between Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum and political oblivion is the support of one man – Frank Bainimarama."
