Obama reasserts the US as major player in Asia Pacific region

US president Barack Obama says the United States is a Pacific power, and he has vowed to deepen Washington’s engagement with the region.

Mr Obama outlined his vision at the start of his first Asian tour as president, as North Asia correspondent Mark Willacy reports from Tokyo.

Barack Obama arrived in Tokyo on the first day of his nine-day Asian tour, which takes in Japan, Singapore, China and South Korea.

The US president met with Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama for more than an hour, the two men discussing North Korea, climate change, and the war of Afghanistan.

Speaking at a press conference after the meeting, Mr Obama stressed his approach to the Asia-Pacific.

“Throughout my trip and throughout my presidency I intend to make clear that the United States is a Pacific nation and we will be deepening our engagement in this part of the world,” he said.

After his Japan trip, Mr Obama will fly to Singapore for an APEC summit before visiting China and South Korea.

- Radio Australia

Conman Ramsawrup and Pimp Deo Saran – Fiji’s biggest Eco Terrorists

FSC and its predecessor CSR has been pillaging and raping the environment and marine life for the last 125 years with impunity. With a compliant colonial government before independence and now an equally pliable regime, FSC can do anything and get away with it. As a legally independent entity, FSC should be subject to all the regulatory checks and balances and should be prosecuted for all breaches of law. But no they could not give a damn to anybody because they consider themselves above all law, accountability and regulatory requirements.

The government agencies do not spare anybody for even minor breaches of health and sanitation infringements, but turn a complete blind eye to the decades of environmental degradation and destruction of the Qawa, Ba, Rakiraki rivers and the open sea near the Lautoka mill. Poor fisherman are savagely fined for catching the occassional baby fish and there is FSC killing all kinds of marine life everyday and every minute. FSC has been engaged in the biggest acts of eco terrorism and environmental genocide ever seen in Fiji and it is time the authorities woke up to it.

The stench, stink and the abnoxious smell emanating non stop from the Qawa and Ba rivers from the black and thickly industrially polluted water with chemicals, poison and oil and fuel and the long-term damage to the surrounding vegetation, the black smoke from the mill boilers, the bagasse contamination ,the noise, the excessive carbon footprint makes the adjoining area uninhabitable. Throughout the world, industries are told to lift their game and make appropriate investments to minimise such abuse of the community. Not only that in many cases, companies and organisations have been retrospectively prosecuted for historical breaches.

All over the world, there is pressure on big companies to demonstrate conscionable corporate citizenship and just not make all other goals subservient to it heir bottom line. This is why there is now an international move to require companies to also file social and environmental balance sheets alongside its traditional accounting reports.

But not in Fiji as the unemployable conman Gautam Ramswarup led regime of Australian fraudsters ably supported by the supine local pimp Deo Saran are not worried about Fiji and its people. They are there to line their pockets and by all accounts they are doing very well.

Has the government got the guts to prosecute these bastards and hold them accountable? Or will they be allowed to freely replicate the tragedies of the Bhopal Union Carbide in Fiji?

The Labasa, Ba and Lautoka Town councils have also been hopelessly ineffective and they have blood on their hands as well. They can only make life miserable for the carrier operators, the market vendors, shopkeepers, hawkers, fisherman and the taxi drivers.

But when it comes to enforcing the by laws against these FSC criminals, they cringe on their arses or as my Kaiindia brothers say “ Ghaand phat jaye.”

Tyrant Frank Bainimarama building his own elite minority group

It is far more economical to raise the standard of living of 1% of the population with guns instead of the other 99%.

Instead of a colonial government working through the chiefs, you have a military despot working through the army.

The army guys derive their power not from respect, but from the aura of the gun.

That is the difference.

It is all a tidy little scam, but not likely to be supported by the People generally, investors, or internationals.

So what happens?

As the economy stagnates or tanks, the army keeps ripping off through intimidation and extortion.

Frank buying gun votes

Looks like Franko is buying gun votes.

He never had the support of the People generally and is losing the support of the Indians he hoodwinked with his false promises, now he is left with those few (1%) who hold guns and therefore have the firepower to rape and steal from the rest. So it makes sense for him to pay them well since they are the only source of his power.

He must be getting increasingly desperate though, as he loses support and makes blatant his corrupt and racist policies.

gdevreal

A peaceful solution to Fiji’s situation

Dear Oracle: (referring to a previous post by Oracle)

Are you just being rhetorical for the purpose of stimulating discussion as your quaff your cup of Yaqona under your palm tree? Or what?

Are we to suggest that your brand of “necessity” now with all alleged Christian flags flying is any more just than Frank’s necessary coup against corruption and the Qoliqoli? You’ve bought into the same mind-set friend.

The problem with your “Christian final solution” is that it is not only that it isn’t a just solution – it simply isn’t Christian. You’ve forgotten that the perpetrators and the defenders of this unstable state of affairs are deeply panicked by the fact that if they don’t maintain their “brave” stand then they will be brought to justice. I don’t just mean the events of 2000, or even the events of December 2006.

We’ve got a situation here where the leader of the Military has led his troops into effective long-term isolation from their own regional security responsibilities. We’ve got a situation where a rump of South West Pacific lawyers and legally trained professionals have put themselves onto an ongoing collision course with the regional constitutionalism in public-legal affairs for decades to come. See latest post on Raw Fiji News. http://rawfijinews.wordpress.com/2009/11/13/fijis-illegitimate-chief-justice-likely-to-leave/ We’ve got some very compliant commercial and other interests …. I won’t go on – Raw Fiji News is better equipped than I am to explore all that: http://rawfijinews.wordpress.com/2009/11/12/aiyaz-khaiyums-qoliqoli-bill-2009/ …

And so – what is your suggestion. Extermination in the name of Christ? So much for peace and reconciliation! No. What Christians in Fiji are called to do is nothing other than what need Christians in the region are called to do … they are to follow the Apostle Paul and form their citizenship to bring justice – not manipulate their churches to gain an advantage from the latest military or para-military ego-trip. In that sense Fiji, like the region is probably going to have to discover the peaceful road of non-denomination and specifically Christian political SERVICE. And that means a conscious adoption of HUMILITY without PARALYSIS. Bold with Christian humility is the only way Christians are promised to be assisted in going down the track following their Lord. This is the ONLY way to avoid paralysis. A plan as you put forward to “exterminate the bastards” avoids the justice that will have to be meted out and it also forgets just how much we Christians, without God’s disciplining are prone to being “mere bastards”. If you think that is too crude go read Hebrews 12:1-13. And as an Australian Christian (if not a bastard) I want to acknowledge that the sad fruit of Fiji’s coup culture comes also as a judgment, as a disciplining judgment, to those of us who now realise just how much we haven’t been concerned about our neighbours. Let me try to expand to try and explain why I am actually rejecting your call out of a real solidarity with you concerning the problem WE IN THE REGION now face:
First, nothing in our Christian way of life, including our contribution to politics, should give any hint, any whiff, that we are involved in last judgment politics. By that I mean Christians have to face the fact that the last judgment is not in our hands to deliver and we should not live our lives as if it is. It is clear from the New Testament that any last judgment is what God will do when His plans for His creation and the redemption of the world are complete – that is the end time and the Bible is plain about that when it say that is what the angels will come to do at God’s command. That’s what the Lord will return to do. He will separate the lambs from the goats, the wheat from the tares. So anything that we Christians say that suggests that “We are coming to set the world right!” is just not within our mandate. That is not what we are about. Jesus’ teaching was emphatically in the other direction: God gives rain and sunshine to the just and the unjust alike and as long as God is doing that our task as Christians is to be like our Father in Heaven and we ought to be the ministers of God’s mercy to everybody around us. And that holds especially and importantly for our work in the political realm.

Following on from that, we should never claim to be doing God’s will. What you say? I think that that also holds for other areas of life as well. We are not God. Just because the Holy Spirit has brushed past us and aloud us to give a smidgen of faith to Jesus Christ does nt mean we become a little bit Divine with a little bit of Divine Authority that we can throw around with our declarations that WE ARE DOING GOD’S WILL. Frank may have thought that having his photo in the Sunday papers after Dec 5th 2006 drinking from the Communion Cup was good advertising for his couping ambition – but only God will decide whether we are doing God’s will. For us to claim ahead of time that what we are doing is God’s will presumes that we make the judgment that is God’s judgment. What we should be saying boldly to one another is this: “We are seeking to respond in obedience to God’s call to do justice!” But that is all that we should claim. We are trying to respond in obedience to God’s call to do justice.

And to follow that up we might try to explain why we think that certain restorative measures and even some retributive redress after this coup business has run its course can lead to peace and reconciliation – we may want to propose some serious punishments when these perpetrators of gross injustice are tried, but those policies, thos suggestions, will need to be just and need to be justly implemented … We think this is an obedient response and this will chart a truly new course (possibly with a reformed constitution and a reformed military) but say that boldly. We are convinced after working on it that it is a good policy. But then having said it we discover that someone else doesn’t agree. What is our response going to be then? “You don’t think so? You don’t think that this is a just policy? Well please show us why. If this isn’t an obedient response to God’s call to do justice then we might be doing injustice. And you may be helping us see a better way to go. You also might have a word from the Lord.” And we Christians must keep in mind that those who are not Christians may have a wise word that calls us to account when we are proposing (or worse doing) something that is unjust. We don’t rule that out. We try to posture ourselves so that we can listen carefully to all those who comment on what we have to offer.

So it seems to me that that is the Christian foundation for serious political dialogue. Nobody should ever see us saying, “God and us have decided. Be with us or get out of here!” or “This is a just policy. We have reasoned it out from the Bible to the conclusion.” That is the way most people still think when they hear Christians talk about politics and really we have a big task AS CHRISTIANS to show that we are serious about serving God in politics and not just big naming ourselves. Others seem to think of us people for whom there is just no discussion. And they probably have good cause to think like this.

We ought to be able to demonstrate our intent to have serious listening to every other citizen. Serious discussion must take them all seriously as Image Bearers of God – to hear what they say because we too are blinded by sin and confused even as we try to be Christian. But that shouldn’t bring paralysis.

I hope I have not offended you. I think you really need to re-think your entire approach to Christianity; but then you are not alone in that. I join you in that. That’s why I have written this.

Charles Whyman

Fiji’s illegitimate Chief Justice likely to leave

ONE of Fiji’s sacked judges has predicted that the conduct of Chief Justice Anthony Gates has reached the stage where he is likely to leave the country before it returns to democracy.

Francis Douglas QC said Chief Justice Gates appeared to be “the conductor of the orchestra” in recruiting Sri Lank1an judges to fill the gaps caused by the dismissal of Fiji’s judiciary.

“It is likely that he went to Sri Lanka and recruited the judges because he has a place there,” said Mr Douglas.

“I suspect he intends to retire there so I don’t think he is too worried about what will happen to him if a democratic government comes to power.

“I can’t speak for him but he would probably leave before any election is held.”

Along with fellow Australian silks Ian Lloyd QC and Randall Powell SC, Mr Douglas formed a three-judge bench of the Fiji Court of Appeal that ruled in April that the government of Commodore Frank Bainimarama was illegal. Chief Justice Gates, who was among those dismissed the day after this ruling, was one of the first to agree to return to the bench despite the fact that the constitution had been overturned.

When Mr Douglas had joined the Fiji bench just before the upheaval of April 10, he believed Chief Justice Gates was trying to do his best for the country’s judicial system.

There had been hopes that a working legal system would foster the development of “a kind of culture that would lead to the restoration of democracy”.

But he said the position of the Chief Justice was now “almost untenable”.

While the Chief Justice might leave the country before an election, Mr Douglas said members of the Bainimarama regime might need to be offered pardons in order to persuade them to return Fiji to democracy.

“As a matter of Fijian law, they are in breach of the constitution. So if a democratically elected government were to be brought to power I think that could amount to old-fashioned treason or something of that nature,” Mr Douglas said.

The Australian government this week accused the Chief Justice, who holds dual Australian and British citizenship, of worsening Fiji’s relations with Australia and being linked to the military-backed regime.

The Department of Foreign Affairs issued a statement on Monday saying Chief Justice Gates appeared to have misled the Bainimarama regime over the impact of Australian travel bans on those judges who had taken office in Fiji after the abrogation of the constitution.

“The advice provided by Justice Gates appears to be contrary to information provided by Australian government officials to the interim government only days earlier,” the department’s statement said. “This misrepresentation of the basic facts contributed to the increased tensions and further demonstrates the close links between the Fiji judiciary and the regime,” the statement said.

Mr Douglas said he did not agree with the way Chief Justice Gates had conducted himself “but I have some sympathy for him”.

The Chief Justice had been only a few months away from pensionable age when the constitution had been overturned and he had devoted his entire working life to Fiji.

“I think he has found himself between a rock and a hard place. That is no excuse, but it is certainly an explanation,” he said. While Chief Justice Gates had recruited seven judges and magistrates from Sri Lanka, Mr Douglas said no self-respecting senior lawyer from Australia or New Zealand would be likely to join the Fiji bench.

- The Australian

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/legal-affairs/fiji-chief-justice-likely-to-up-sticks/story-e6frg97x-1225797161359

Fiji lacks national pride due to lack of true leadership

The problem in Fiji is we’ve become so westernised that we’ve allowed our bellies to direct our brains. Urban Fijians are more worried about putting bread and butter on the table and rural Fijians don’t give a damn because they have their farms and their yaqona.

There is no national pride because we lack true leadership. No longer do we have chiefs who will stand up for their people. Chiefs will bend like reeds in the wind to ensure they maintain their social positions at the expense of their own people.

Politicians like Qarase, Beddoes and Chaudhry are simply players in the political game – when it comes to the need to stand up and lead their people they go into self-preservation mode.

We all know that no man is bigger than the country he lives in. No man should be allowed to rape democracy and pilfer the national wealth – no matter what well-meaning intentions he might claim to have.

And, while we call ourselves Christians we must accept that sometimes we must sacrifice human lives to correct the wrongs that have been done. Frank and his group of supporters need to be exterminated because that would be in the interest of the people of Fiji.

There’s no two ways about it. The country and the people that occupy it must be saved and those who have seen fit to install upon themselves the mantle of “saviours” need to be exposed for the fraudsters they are and they HAVE to be executed so that this chapter in our history does not repeat itself.

The Bible provides evidence that God wreaked death upon the Earth through the floods and through plagues to rid the Earth of those who were exploiting what He provided for all mankind.

We need to take our cue from the Bible. Frank and his supporters are usurpers who are inflicting great damage on their fellow countrymen. They need to be executed – that is the only solution to the problem we have.

Someone needs to begin that planning NOW. That somone should have some military background as strategies are needed to counter the cloak-and-dagger approach by the Military Council.

It’s simple, cut off the head and the body will die. Eliminate Frank and the Military Council will flounder as every man on the Council will be too busy protecting his back from the daggers that his fellow Council member keeps as a hidden agenda.

The country and its people have to be bigger than Frank and his supporters. Take our cue from the Bible – destroy for the sake of preservation what needs to be destroyed.

The Oracle

Frank Bainimarama approves $50million x-mas backpay for all military officers to keep them happy

Frank and and his think tank has approved a massive Christmas salary backpay for all military personnel backdated to 1996.

This was signed off by Frank before flyingn  out of Fiji to Brussels two days ago.

For the first time in Fiji’s history , an RFMF corporate backpay backdated 13 years that  will cost taxpayers of Fiji more than $50 million dollars will be paid out.

This payout is not for the civil servants, police forces or prison wardens but specifically for the military men and women.

Frank’s hype that the military will not benefit from the coup was all a lie and a smokescreen to temporarily convince the people that his act of treason should be allowed when in fact its now payback time from Frank to all his loyal servants for their continued support and loyalty to his tyrany.

This latest sweet-heart payout by Frank  is also meant to keep the soldiers  happy while he and his plotters continue to scratch  the bottom of the barrel for more survival self-preservation options.

Frank Bainimarama and his elite think tank want to wipe out ethnic Fijian supremacy

Frank’s think tank and key players in orchestrating the coup and manipulating the illegal governing of the Fiji Islands are now all exposed.

Many in that troubled state understand just how corrupt Frank’s junta is and over the past 3 years under his dictatorship, they have seen first hand who has benefitted and who the real manipulators are.

Aiyaz Khaiyum tops the list. Next to him is Anthony Gates, Nazhat Shameem and Christopher Pryde. Others include Colonel Aziz Mohammed, John Prasad, John Sami, Ramswarup, Deo Saran, Prof Mahendra Reddy, Sada Reddy, Shaista Shameem, Sri Lankan Ajith Kodagoda, Tom Ricketts, Bernadette Rounds Ganilau, Aslam Khan, just to name a few.

So where is Frank’s trust on ethnic Fijians who make up the Military Council and the Fiji Military Forces he is depending on to detain, torture and even shoot the  buggers who dare tell him that what he is doing is wrong and hurting Fiji?

A sweeping view of who’se who in Frank’s junta will clearly show that ethnic Fijians are simply pawns in Frank’s main game plan while it is the minority Indo-Fijians and others who are controlling and manipulating everything important in Frank’s small coup world.

They are the ones who are compiling and enforcing new illegal laws through decrees. They are reshaping Fiji’s law and judiciary in their usurped attempt to blotch-out their illusions about ethnic Fijian supremacy in their own land by tearing down their chiefly structure and everything attached to it.

Roll your eyes to the other side of the line-up and you’ll see native Fijians acting as Frank’s gun-holders and torture chamber commanders only. They’re not needed when it comes to important law-making that determines the governing of Fiji as a sovereign nation. Nor are the voices of the entire Fijian constituency required in drafting what they believe is good for their country and their future generation.

So what story does this picture tell you?

That ladies and gentlemen is the sad reality in Fiji where only a handful of overly ambitious elitish Fiji Islanders  are unlawfully re-writing Fiji’s supreme law and moulding Fiji’s government system to wipe away their fear of ethnic Fijian supremacy.

We think Frank and his team of high-profilers are whipping up a very dangerous and poisonous portion they will all drink one day.

They must never under-estimate indigenous Fijians whom they are simply relegating to do all their dirty work for them while they plot.

 Forcefully imposing their ideas on Fijians will not work.

They too are smart people who can read their dirty agendas and they know how totally wrong Frank & Co’s methods are.

The  military council and the military forces are  also getting tired of being used and abused by Frank and his think tank.

 Frank and his think tank will not last!

FNPF to move in on non-paying employers

Fiji’s main pension fund says it will consider taking legal action if it can’t recover millions of dollars in unpaid employer contributions.

The Fiji National Providence Fund says employers owe nearly $US3 million in contributions to staff retirement savings.

The fund’s Tanya Tabuavou says companies in the security and construction industries have been especially slow in getting their employee contributions in.

“These sort of organisations are mostly the companies who provide services to the corporate or large organisations. And other companies are like a portion of the small hotel operators or the minor hotel operators.”

She says the fund will use audits and inspections to recover the unpaid money, with legal action a possibility later down the track.

- Radio Australia

No point in NZ government talking with Fiji’s junta : NZ academic

A member of New Zealand’s Centre for Strategic Studies says there’s no point in the New Zealand government trying to speak directly to the leader of Fiji’s interim regime.

The comment, from Dr Rod Alley, comes amid mounting calls for the governments of New Zealand and Australia to start talking with Commodore Frank Bainimarama and follows a flurry of diplomatic expulsions.

Dr Alley says Sir Paul Reeves’ meeting with the Commodore showed that any discussions with him are unlikely to result in a start to dialogue within Fiji, and a more subtle approach is needed.

“Maybe somebody who’s got wider Pacific links through the Forum could say well, a spat and it’s getting worse between New Zealand and Fiji is only simply going to damage the wider region. But I have to say the man’s conduct lately has been pretty obdurate and these options of somehow getting a line to Bainimarama are going to take patience and I’m afraid some time.”

Dr Rod Alley of New Zealand’s Centre for Strategic Studies.

News Content © Radio New Zealand International
PO Box 123, Wellington, New Zealand

Race is a fact of life

To pd12345.

We meet again on the same issue of strategic marketing when you removed my response to your comments on SDL policy which you continue to call rascist. And which you removed in the first week of November without giving me the right of reply even though you replied and posted it on my Wikipedia (the lowest of the low source of information because it is not a professional source) profile. You are acting with unfair advantage. Who are you?

I beg to differ. As a manager we have to measure the market and account for customer base, values and aspirations apart from money, time, capacity, asset use, economic, technical, political, information, moral, social relationships and structures and so on in the business plan.

If you want to succeed in today’s market economy your personal life, community life, professional life, national life and international life must be managed like a business. Otherwise you fail. And we Fijians have because we have not had the right strategic policies to back us, until the SDL policies.

I don’t know where you are coming from because you a hiding under a pseudonym but my guess is you are not a manager. Firstly, you have not read about the need to differentiate the market for the new economic order under research design that measure qualitative information through proposition testing and analysis by statistical significance, hypothesis and theory building. You got to University to find this moral professional standard NOT from Wikipedia source.

This is the research methodology that prevent bias from being used as a basis for policy and management/leadership decision making.

We did just that under the SDL Strategic Development Plans 2002, 2004, 2006
rolled over to 2007 -2011 that aligned to Paris Declaration 2004/2005, Millenium Development Goals and Pacific Plan 2005. I followed this up with my own research (Samisoni 2008) to prove that among 185 universal success factors and local market indicators, race and religion were value added variables. Given, human nature has two sides to the coin, (strengths over weaknesses and opportunities over barriers and threats) race and religion cannot be swept under the mat. VB and his stooges are using fear, barriers, weakness, demons, hate biases to support their “race free policy” for Fiji. One size cannot fit all in the new market information economy of today. VB has no doubt realized this fact to now support the SDL, Multi Party Cabinet (MPC) Qoliqoli Bill. In professional circles this is called Plagiarism(lowest of the low copying without acknowlegement of the source)

Again, race is a fact of life upon which human values with respective checks and balances have evolved. To suddenly remove this source of our humanity for the Indigenous Fijian people is destructive for our identity, integrity and self-worth. Furthermore, race and religion need to be counted in a multiracial, multi-religious society in order to serve the diversity of human aspirations given Indigenous Fijians are a collectivist society of 3500 years living with an individualistic group. Under this OPED system of strategic marketing, good governance result where the strategy is designed and processed to serve the people. By design it cannot be used as a tool to hide behind ignorance as in VB’s case nor a pseudonyms as in yours.

Dr. Mere Tuisalalo Samisoni SDL Member for Lami Open (deposed 2006).

Aiyaz Khaiyum’s qoliqoli bill 2009

We all remember that the Qoliqoli bill was one of the main reasons put forward by Frank Bainimarama for his seditious threats against the Qarase led multi-party government in 2006.

Bainimarama saw an opportunity and jumped on the hysterical outcry against the bill. We were told it would cripple tourism and rob all non-Fijian citizens of rights they had enjoyed from birth.

It was obvious that it was an emotional minefield. On the one side, we had Fijians who, since the first Great Council of Chiefs meeting, had demanded the recognition of traditional fishing rights. On the other side, non-Fijians felt they would be stripped of rights they had enjoyed since birth.

The BBC quoted a businessman, Ashneel Singh, who said “Many of us Indians support the military commander and many of the indigenous Fijians support the democracy. But Indians had serious problems with the proposals put forward by the democratically elected Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase. He wanted to allocate the ownership of coastal land to the indigenous Fijians.”

But the fact was that the bill was poorly understood.

The bill transferred ownership rights over coastal areas held by the state to “traditional owners”. But it did so with important many caveats. For example, any rights that had been conceded by the state to others were not affected. No-one could lose any right to which they were already entitled.

Section 8 of the bill said that “the exclusive possession conferred by section 6(1), does not affect any legal rights and interests duly granted or obtained by virtue of this Act or any other written law.”

Similarly, the idea that all beaches would be closed was a myth.

In fact, what the bill said was: “The exclusive possession conferred by section 6 shall not be construed as affecting the right of members of the public to have free and undisturbed access within the qoliqoli areas for the purpose of non-commercial recreational activities”.

Members of the public could still access the beaches freely for their own personal enjoyment.

Commercial fisheries were another matter. Anyone who wanted to charge tourists to snorkel on a reef would have to seek the permission of reef owners to do so, but I could take my boat to a reef and fish happily.

One complication is the fact that there has been informal recognition of qoliqoli rights for many years. Problems have arisen when outsiders have blundered in without recognizing the feelings involved here. The Qoliqoli bill was designed to bring and end to such problems.

One great irony in this whole complex problem is that the American owner of Turtle island, Richard Evanson, who funded Epeli Ganilau’s unsuccessful 2006 election attempt in order to defeat the Qoliqoli bill, has long advertised his “private beaches on Turtle Island, which, for a fee, he’ll make available to guests for their private enjoyment. The fact is that the law in Fiji does not recognize “private beaches”.

Even the Qoliqoli bill would not disturb the rights on members of the public to enjoy free access to Turtle Island’s so-called private beaches. There are no private beaches. Evanson was opposing the transfer to traditional owners of a right he didn’t have.

So has the dictator suddenly understood that the Qoliqoli bill was not as disastrous as he thought?

May be the dictator’s announcement of a review of the Qoliqoli legislation is the start of his campaign to rebuild support within the Fijian community. That’s the view of fellow democracy blogger, Intelligentsiya.

Frank’s announcement of the regime’s decision “said that there is discontent among Qoliqoli rights owners on the use of their fishing rights without fair and just compensation.”

But then again, he’s going to provide a solution that will provide certainty for investors interested in foreshore development.

He knows Fijians will never be happy until traditional fishing rights are recognised but even his tiny brain is capable of remembering his grand stand in 2006 telling the Qarase Government they had to withdraw the Qoliqoli bill.

The theory of “reporters” that Frank’s being manipulated by someone else is probably close to the truth. The only question is who is pulling the strings this time.

If it’s Aiyaz, what does he hope to achieve?

Frank’s walking into a minefield here. Let’s hope his foot finds one very soon.

Navosavakadua

Why aren’t Fijians brave enough to walk their talk?

Currently, Fiji is being ruined by the greedy, unscrupulous and criminal behaviour of a very select group of people who attempt to hide behind the thin veil of “nationalism” and alleged “reform”….

Fiji and Fijians have now been under this rule for almost three years. There seems to be a lot of talk (rightly so) on these forums and blogsites about how “unfairly” and brutally this place is being ruled. On the other hand, there is no one willing to walk the talk.

Fiji is being ruled by Frank, Khaiyum & Gates..never mind the President..he is there as a rubber stamp for Frank. For all the talking that happens on the website, no-one cares enough about Fiji to take the steps to plot his downfall, no-one is willing to sacrifice to bring him down. In Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands, this type of rubbish wouldnt last a month..our Melanesian neighbours know how to skin the cat. Fijians know how to look the part carrying the latest weapon in some war torn country overseas but couldnt lift a their quarie finger for the vanua!

qasex

Frank is no different to politicians promoting their own self-preservation

The qoliqoli bill did have honourable intent to protect traditional Fijian fishing areas from exploitation and I think the wider Fiji community respects that, however, one wonders why this purpose could not be achieved by improved environmental enforcement to result in genuine environmental preservation and sustainability. Pragmatically the bill would have been difficult to administer and did have divisive implications for our society as its consequences where about denying access to “other” none vanua individuals the pleasure of enjoying our nations naturally endowed beauty. Evidently, in SDL’s opinion, being a vulagi in our nation relegates one to being a second class citizen with limited rights and opportunities, because our Fijian brothers and sisters suffer this same stigma in their own land, apparently due to the actions of the uninvited foreigners.

I would suggest the cause of the appalling statistics that demonstrate the steady and sad demise of our Fijian community is complex and is in need of open, genuine, non- racial and transparent debate to identify the root causes to commence an immediate reformation process. In the long term, it is in our collective best interest to ensure no one community is marginalised from our society, and equal opportunity is there for all being the great goal. However, pandering to a particular electorate with band aid “solutions” such as the qoliqoli bill is, in my view, short sighted.
Sadly long term growth and prosperity continues to elude Fiji, due in large to our policy makers and leaders not demonstrating true leadership and doing what is required, but instead playing village level politics as Frank is doing now, as was done previously. The evidence suggests, as before, the motivator is self preservation and ones own vested interests’ rather than the greater good of the nation’s prosperity. Increasingly it is becoming plain, Frank and his cohorts do not have a long term strategy and plan as they stumble from issue to issue and compound Fiji’s problems because of impulsive, ill conceived, forcibly imposed reactionary measures. How long will the pressure remain contained is what most are wondering?

pd12345

Israel wants answers from Solomon Islands over UN vote

ISRAEL is sending a foreign ministry official to the Solomon Islands next week to seek an explanation as to why it was the only country in Oceania to vote at the UN for the Goldstone report condemning Israel’s assault on Gaza.

Solomon Islands’ Foreign Minister William Haomae a year ago flew to Iran, following a meeting at the UN in New York with counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki, to explore the prospect of formalising diplomatic relations, and of benefiting from Iranian aid.

Prime Minister Derek Sikua also held talks with Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad when both were attending the UN General Assembly in September last year.

Mr Haomae said at the time that Iran’s assistance might be helpful in dam construction, training for the oil and gas industries — for which the Solomons hopes to attract exploration — and trade in general.

The Solomons foreign ministry issued a statement that “as a peace-loving state, we have adopted a foreign policy of `friends to all, enemies to none”‘ — also the foreign policy slogan of the first Papua New Guinea government of Michael Somare.

Mr Mottaki said at the same time that “co-operation within the framework of south-south countries is very useful”. Since then, diplomatic relations have still not been formalised between the countries, although they have signed a “co-operative memorandum” about exploring practical ties in the face of criticism from Solomons opposition leader Manasseh Sogavare, who said that Iran “works against every principle that all right-thinking governments of the world believe”.

Iran promised to fund the travel for Solomon Islands medical students to Cuba. Iran and Cuba have long had close relations. Former Cuban president Fidel Castro spoke admiringly of Iran’s “increasing its ability to fight big powers by the day”.

Cuban doctors are also working in the Solomons. Fifty Solomons students are already in Cuba, and a further 20 are to leave for Havana shortly.

However, it remains unclear whether all the funding pledged by Iran has been received in Honiara as agreed.

The two-year-old government of Mr Sikua, while perceived as more supportive than its predecessor of the Australia-led Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) that ended the civil strife there, is nonetheless seeking ways to assert its sovereignty.

The Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru and Palau joined Australia in opposing the Goldstone report into Israel’s January assault on Hamas. Fiji, PNG, Samoa and Tonga joined New Zealand in abstaining. Only the Solomon Islands voted in favour.

- The Australian

Frank & Co should be punished to serve as a warning to other wanabee coupsters

I  had an interesting conversation the other day in which someone said that Fiji’s laid back – wait and see attitude will never work against treasonous criminals.

The commentator said that ultimately, these people need to be punished for their crimes – because their crimes affect everyone in the nation. He referred to in particular, the coup in Romania under Nicolae and Elena Ceauşescu. As many of you may remember, Nicolae Ceauşescu was a particularly inept dictator who was summarly charged, judged and executed in the space of two hours. Brutal indeed.

While I have never been an advocate of capital punishment in any form, I can see some purpose to ensuring that Bainimarama and his cronies are punished as a warning to any other criminals in Fiji that seek to subrogate our rights. Perhaps we got it wrong with George Speight’s punishment – but maybe it wouldn’t have made any difference to Bainimarama’s madness.

Currently, Fiji is being ruined by the greedy, unscrupulous and criminal behaviour of a very select group of people who attempt to hide behind the thin veil of “nationalism” and alleged “reform”.

History will judge Bainimarama for what he is: a thief, a murderer, a thug, a traitor and a dictator.

What the people do with him and his cronies when they rise against him will be a measure of the people’s will to judge and punish him for his crimes as a warning to other criminals that seek to steal our future. The only way out for Bainimarama and his ilk at this time is to get out while they still have the skin on their necks.

radiolucas

The real reason why Frank Bainimarama wants to adopt Qarase’s Qoliqoli Bill

The Qarase-led SDL party’s Qoliqoli Bill pushed by them on the eve of the 2006 general election was meant to have strengthen their ethnic Fijian power base with the promise that the proprietory rights of qoliqoli areas from the beaches, lagoons, reefs and the deep open sea will be transfered from the State to the traditional indigenous Fijian owners.

The qoliqoli bill proposed a qoliqoli commission to oversee the  fair distribution of income between commercial users of the qoliqoli areas with its ethnic owners, an issue that was causing much tension in certain tourist hot spots, mainly in the Yasawas.

Turtle Island American born owner, Richard Evanson and his then business associate, Andrew Fairley, led the charge in denouncing Qarase’s qoliqoli bill calling it all sorts of names.

They were soon supported by other resort operators who feared that the usually quiet but illogical tradional qoliqoli owners often tremple on their holiday makers by shooing them away from beaches, snorkelling and fishing grounds, which the natives say is their subsistence eating ground.

The qoliqoli bill became Fiji Tourism biggest enemy overnight as resort owners fought to preserve their tourists privacy and free access to Fiji’s sun, sand and sea.

Coupster Frank saw it as a great platform to launch his attack against Qarase and SDL spinning the qoliqoli bill as a racist bill against non-indigenous Fijians.

Within days of his public outrage against the qoliqoli bill purely aimed at smearing Qarase and SDL as extreme Fijian nationalists, Frank immediately received invitations to stay at exclusive Turtle Island Resort and other top of the notch resorts in Fiji.

With the invitations came the confirmations of financial support for Frank to topple Qarase’s democratically appointed SDL multi-party government.

These smart and well connected resort owners soon convinced Frank that with tourism alone, they can cripple Fiji’s economy if Qarase got free passage to pass the qoliqoli bill in parliament. But they needed a leader and a military leader with his gun support to prevent Qarase from taking over their touristy beaches and sea.

Locals like Bernadette Rounds Ganilau and others chipped in saying that the bill was destructive.

Fast-forward to November 2009 and suddenly, Frank is announcing on his pet radio station, FBC, that his junta is considering adopting Qarase’s qoliqoli bill.

So why the U-turn Frank and who adviced you to do it now?

We’re told that this is one of Aiyaz’s grand ideas again in his attempt to line Frank up in his march to win ethnic Fijians votes.

They say that Aiyaz also adviced Frank to launch this qoliqoli bill spin in an attempt to fizzle out the diplomatic stand-off between Frank’s junta and ANZ which attracted world-wide negative publicity for Frank & Co.

But the announcement was short-lived.

Frank uttered it only once to Riyaz Khaiyum’s radio station before he flew off to Brussels.

So what was that all about?

We see it as a poorly conceived disjointed farce that shows panic from Aiyaz and Frank’s side.

What’s your take?

- reporters

Performance at Lautoka, Labasa mills major worry

The Labasa Mill is crushing at about 50% capacity while performance at the Lautoka Mill continues to be highly inconsistent.

Figures for the week ending Monday 2nd November show that Labasa crushed only 25,828 tonnes of cane for the week – compared to FSC’s weekly target of 40-45,000 tonnes for the mill.

The mill is closed today as a result of a breakdown. Meanwhile, the Qauai River continues to be blackened and polluted by the dumping of huge quantities of cane juice that the mill is unable to convert to sugar.

Lautoka crushed only 28,621 tonnes – some 5000 tonnes short of FSC’s target for the mill of 33,000 tonnes for the week. Mill performance this week is expected to be much worse due to malfunctioning.

Performance at Rarawai Mill has shown a little improvement with 28,412 tonnes of cane crushed for the week just ended. But this is still barely two-thirds of capacity.

The Penang Mill has closed down for the season having crushed a total of 219,000 tonnes of cane. Of this some 38,000 tonnes were from the Rarawai mill area.

Army still wants Adolf Khaiyum out : Coup Four Point Five

Coupfourpointfive has been told that the Military Council still wants Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum kicked out of his position as interim Attorney General.

The Military Council’s attempts since July to have Sayed-Khaiyum sacked have been in vain because of resistance from interim Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama who was not satisfied with names proposed by top military officers as the replacement.

We can confirm that one of them was the Attorney-General in Mahendra Chaudhry’s Labour Government, Anand Singh, who in June lost his job as a legal consultant for Fiji National Provident Fund.

But sources have confirmed that the Council has once again renewed its efforts to have Sayed-Khaiyum removed.

Our sources have established that RFMF’s Land Force Commander Colonel Pita Driti has been personally contacting prominent businessmen and other personalities in the private sector, asking them to give him evidence of any business deals or any other activity that can be classified as corrupt, that have been conducted by Sayed-Khaiyum.

Coupfourpointfive has been told Driti has been the strongest critic of Sayed-Khaiyum and his insistence to have the interim AG sacked is a major reason why Bainimarama is sending him away from Fiji by nominating him to lead a 200 men peacekeeping mission to the Middle East.

- coupfourpointfive.blogspot.com