From Chris Merritt writing in The Australian

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.

Well said, Justice Douglas. No self-respecting lawyer would join Fiji’s illegal bench. Only those who are corruptible would support a system that is so obviously and thoroughly illegal.

We The People deserve so much better leadership than these $&*%^&$.

God bless Fiji

Please see this excellent piece by Pat Craddock at Cafe Pacific.

Under no circumstances is the status quo better for our country than the democracy we enjoyed up to 4 December 2006.

God bless Fiji

Fiji’s interim Prime Minister says he is being encouraged by some Pacific Island Forum nations to include them in next year’s Melanasian Spearhead Group meeting. It is Fiji’s turn to chair the MSG next year, and it is considering giving observer status to some island nations outside the group to enable them to attend the meeting.

Traditionally MSG membership is restricted to Fiji, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea. But since Fiji’s suspension from the Pacific Islands Forum and the Commonwealth, Fiji is barred from meetings such as PACER Plus.

Interim Prime Minister Commodore Frank Bainimarama says Fiji’s needs a forum to discuss issues of common interest to the whole region.

Presenter: Geraldine Coutts
Speaker: Commodore Frank Bainimarama, Fiji’s interim Prime Minister

• Listen:
• Windows Media

BAINIMARAMA: What is happened is a couple of leaders of the rest of the Pacific Island nations have come to see me, saying that there is now no forum for us to talk bilaterally and multilaterally, so they thought it would be a good idea if we they can talk to us in a forum such as that. Fiji will be chairing the MSG next year, so there has been some suggestion that in that MSG, I could also invite the rest of the Pacific Island nations to come as observers, not only as observers, but also be an opportunity for us to discuss issues that affects us.

COUTTS: So that you would conduct your own Pacific Island Forum without Australia and New Zealand?

BAINIMARAMA: No, no, I would be conducting the MSG Grouping meeting, but we will be inviting the rest of the Pacific Island nations, because that is what they want me to do.

COUTTS: Who wants you do to that?

BAINIMARAMA: I’m sorry, I am not at liberty to let you know, but the fact of the matter is that I have been approached by a couple of them to say that it would be a good idea for me to call them as observers, so that we can have a forum to talk on issues affecting a whole lot of us, including Fiji. As you know, we have been removed from the forum, so there is no forum that we can all talk.

COUTTS: It does seem that you want to get everybody together, the Pacific Island nations, including the MSG and hold talks of your own that would be similar to that of the forum?

BAINIMARAMA: Yes.

COUTTS: Who approached you? I know you cannot talk?

BAINIMARAMA: I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I am not at liberty to tell you

COUTTS: Yeah, I understand that, but I was just wondering because you met with a lot of the MSG leaders for a golf tournament recently, was this what was discussed then?

BAINIMARAMA: Yes, but remember I also met a lot of Pacific Island nation leaders in New York a month back.

COUTTS: So will Australia and New Zealand be invited to the forum meeting when you host or chair the MSG next year?

BAINIMARAMA: No, no, this is MSG meeting, it is not a forum meeting. It is not a Pacific Island Forum meeting. It’s a MSG meeting which Fiji will be chairing next year and so there has been a suggestion which I take very seriously in inviting the rest of the Pacific Island nation, countries to come and be observers, that way it would be an opportunity for us to talk as a group on matters affecting Fiji and the rest of the Pacific Island nations, because there is no forum such as that now.

COUTTS; That includes Fiji?

BAINIMARAMA: That’s includes Fiji.

COUTTS: So have you sent out the invitations yet for this meeting?

BAINIMARAMA: No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I need to talk further on that with the rest of the MSG group.

COUTTS: And so will you restrict it, when you send out the invitations, will it include countries other than Forum island countries, like the northern Pacific, would you invite them as well?

BAINIMARAMA: I really don’t know what we’re going to do in the next 12 months, before we have this meeting. But if the meeting ever comes up, then of course it will be made public.

COUTTS: So what kinds of issues would you like to discuss, that you feel that you haven’t been able to discuss?

BAINIMARAMA: Well issues, issues that also includes Fiji, but which we don’t have a forum to talk in right now.

COUTTS: So because Fiji is suspended from the Pacific Islands Forum and the Commonwealth. You have tried to find another outlet so you can have discussions, so you can proceed. Is this is the first step for you actually saying you don’t want to be part of those organisations again?

BAINIMARAMA: Well no, we just want to continue talking with the rest of the Pacific Island nations and I guess with the rest of the Commonwealth countries. If we are suspended from Australia and New Zealand forum, I am sure there are other ways we can move forward without getting too involved in what Australia and New Zealand wants.

COUTTS: Now funding is always an issue and a lot of the funding comes from Australia and New Zealand and also from the EU. There is a story that is going around at the moment that the EU has offered Fiji a parcel of money, in excess of 200 million dollars, but Fiji has turned that down?

BAINIMARAMA: Eh I really don’t know that at this stage. No-one has offered Fiji any of that kind of amount in the last two, three months.

COUTTS: But money that has been offered, and Fiji turned it down because of the conditions attached?

BAINIMARAMA: No, as I said, I don’t know any of that type of offer. I have never been offered any of that kind of funds in the last, or Fiji has not been offered any kind of that funds in the last six months.

COUTTS: And is Fiji looking to the association of small island states for more support, because it seems after the climate change meetings, a round of the that some of the Pacific Island nations are adopted positions that more closely align those of the small island states, than it does the forum nations statements on climate change?

BAINIMARAMA: Well, you must understand that we share the same problems in climate change. Fiji and the rest of the Pacific Island nations, small island nations like Fiji.

COUTTS: So are they getting together on a formal basis then to make a presentation in Copenhagen with the Association of small island states

BAINIMARAMA: We are going to go to Copenhagen, with our own agenda, the agenda that has been endorsed by the small island nation forum in New York.

COUTTS: And s o what will you be putting to Copenhagen when you go?

BAINIMARAMA: Well, what we discussed in New York and that was what was discussed by the small island nations. But you must understand that we come from the same area. Geraldine, I have got something coming up very soon, so can we finish this off now?

COUTTS: Certainly, may I ask you one more question? You have appointed now Ratu Epeli Nailatikau as your president. When will that happen and for how long will he remain president?

BAINIMARAMA: Initially for three years, so the cabinet people will be coming up in the next cabinet meeting on Tuesday and we will finalise all those issues.

COUTTS: So can we expect to see a vice president appointed shortly?

BAINIMARAMA: Eh no, there will be no vice-president.

Oh brother. So we got thrown out of the Commonwealth, the Pacific Forum, the ACP sugar benefits, and countless other international alliances and aid programmes so that this idiot could be the small fish in the MSG.

Fresh, free and fair elections NOW.

God bless Fiji

The Commonwealth Broadcasting Association (CBA) has suspended its members in Fiji. The decision means Fijian broadcasters with full membership of the CBA will no longer get access to training and development programs funded by the Commonwealth. The CBA says the move follows Fiji’s suspension from the Commonwealth in September.

The Managing Director of the commercial broadcaster Communications Fiji, Will Parkinson, says while the decision is disappointing it will not affect operations. “To be honest, CBA is largely a public service broadcaster’s organisation,” he said. “Certainly we had value from it, but it really won’t affect our day to day operation.”

The CBA has told affected broadcasters they are able to be affiliate members, if they wish.

Yet another to add to our pile of losses, thanks to this incompetent, corrupt, illegal regime.

God bless Fiji

Fiji Times 23 October 2009, by Charlie Charters

Consider this: I worked with the last four people to sit in the hot seat, that of the most senior paid official of the Fiji Rugby Union. It physically crushed two of them, one dying in office and the other within a very few months of leaving. For a third CEO, the experience was such that he had a dramatic religious experience, joined a charismatic faith and even changed his name.

As for the fourth, probably the FRU’s most successful chief executive, I don’t think I would be telling tales out of school when I said Pio Bosco Tikoisuva was thoroughly unhappy for large stretches of his time in charge and couldn’t wait to leave.

This might surprise some, who thought the job was all dancing girls and sponsors’ cocktails but, simply put there is nothing in the country comparable for generating stress and mangling up your life as being the helmsman of Fiji rugby.

So one can safely say that the reason Keni Dakuidreketi rema-ins acting CEO of the FRU has nothing to do with his own vanity or personal empire-building.

Last week Dakuidreketi offered his resignation to the FRU board after appearing in court on FICAC-related charges of abuse of office and fraud.

The board refused. “Much is happening in rugby and it is important that a steady set of hands remain at the helm of leadership,” FRU chairman Bill Gavoka explained to the Fiji Times.

Interestingly, you could not describe this board as pro-Keni. The current directors have served for just under six months, having been elected in April. And if anybody was tilted towards letting Dakuidreketi go it would be this group, because what characterised their selection as board members was that they rode into office on a wave of New Blood/anti-Dakuidreketi sentiment.

The outgoing board — of which Dakuidreketi was chairman — was unceremoniously dumped by the provincial unions, who picked five new board directors: chairman Gavoka, Waisake Radrodro and Meli Tora, plus the accountant Alipate Naiorosui and lawyer Kitione Vuetaki.

The only hold-over was Dakui-dreketi (who polled the second highest number of votes after Gavoka); aside from him not one elected member who served the previous two-year span of office survived.

Yet this board — with an overwhelming mandate from the provincial unions to put a new broom through Rugby House — have looked at all of the options and decided they need Dakui-dreketi to remain acting CEO in the short term.

He didn’t ask to stay on but instead was asked/implored to continue serving. To me, this is the most important piece of the jigsaw in support of retaining Dakuidreketi.

Like all sports, rugby has its rule book and rugby union has its constitution. And what we are seeing is the FRU’s constitutional process being upheld. You might not like the result (plenty of correspondents to the Fiji Times would seem to be outraged), but Dakuidreketi continuing to serve as acting CEO is not his choice but the FRU’s choice, as provided for by their constitution.

It is certainly not an ideal situation (for any party) but what would be considerably worse would be ripping up that structured process and fixing all decisions on the principle of He-Who-Shouts-Loudest-Wins.

Remember, political power flows from the provincial and affiliated unions to the FRU board. After six months in office, the board has a fair understanding of the practical, political and financial realities in which the FRU operates, any illusions about quick fixes and silver bullets having been well and truly pricked.

The board would also have a file from the local accountancy firm hired last year to head-hunt a new CEO; they would know which candidates were still available (not many, if any, I understand) and on what conditions. Taking all of this together, the board, answerable always for their actions to the provinces, have assessed the various options and unanimously agreed that retaining Dakuidre-keti is the best short-term option.

That’s not to say the matter is closed. The constitution also provides a clear mechanism for special general meetings to be called if the board loses the trust of its political masters (or does not deliver on any other significant matters, like the promised reforms).

If such a broad sentiment is held by enough of the unions, just the threat of an SGM might be enough to reverse the board’s position.

I would assume the FRU board has already taken at least informal soundings before reaching their unanimous agreement.

I say ‘unanimous agreement’ because the media reports I have seen say the decision was upheld by all the directors. Which is interesting because sitting on the board also is a direct nominee representing the Prime Minister.

So what do the board know that we don’t, especially those lusting for Dakuidreketi’s head on a plate? Did the Prime Minister’s nominee vote in favour of retaining Dakuidreketi as reported, if so what convinced the nominee to vote for retaining Dakuidreketi when the PM is campaigning for his resignation, or perhaps he abstained, or was simply absent from the meeting?

I’m afraid I can’t answer any of this.

What I do know is that when you become CEO of the Fiji Rugby Union (for a few weeks in 2002 I was acting CEO) you enter a world where nothing is as it seems or should be, and nobody would believe you if you said it was so:

Where you quickly learn the difference between those who talk, and those who do, that fantastic players can make surprisingly lousy coaches, and many of your best young prospects can’t wait to leave and play for some other national team, and when they do the local media will cheer and whoop, and call this a great day for Fiji rugby.

When every outbound tour requires a dance with the immigration department to make sure those owing child support are allowed to leave. Where the richest companies in the country profit off the back of your sport without investing a cent and were the wealthiest beg for complimentary tickets, yet the poor queue to pay in hard-earned cash.

Where the leading lights of the game say one thing in the public (often with bible in hand) and do another in private.

And the rules, politics and conduct of international rugby seem to do their very best to keep small, developing world nations like Fiji as screwed down to the floor as possible.

Perhaps it was knowing a little of this bizarre world that the FRU board made their decision.

With a completely new fifteens management and a relatively new 7s coach, perhaps a bit of experience in the cockpit was what they judged the situation merited.

I don’t know, but I do know it was Fiji rugby’s decision to make. They made it within the precepts of their constitution and the best way to reverse it is to uphold that document, work through the provincial and affiliated unions, and not shred it in the rather vapid court of public opinion.

So it boils down to this, you ignore your constitution at your own peril.

OK – so our national game ‘gets it’.  Why are We The People being thwarted from our own Constitution? Don’t let the bullies win.  Tabu soro.  Free and fair elections NOW.

God bless Fiji

New Zealand Herald Wednesday Oct 07, 2009
By Claire Trevett

The European Union has invited Fiji back to the negotiating table over millions of dollars of sugar industry subsidies the country is in danger of losing.

But the EU’s Pacific director, Roger Moore, doubts that external pressure can produce a swift return to democracy in Fiji.

The European Union has invited Fiji for further discussions over the sugar cane development money – worth about $500 million – despite failing to meet its initial commitment to hold elections this year.

Mr Moore was in Fiji last week on his way to New Zealand for a meeting about aid. He did not meet interim Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama because on the day he was in Fiji, Suva was was evacuated for fear of tsunamis.

But he hoped Fiji would agree to renegotiate the conditions for the release of the sugar money within a month.

If no replacement agreement was found, Fiji risked losing the money.

He said he made it clear that Fiji would need to provide a “viable alternative” to the promises it had already broken regarding elections for the money to remain within its reach.

“My own view is that Bainimarama is somebody who has a vision and he’s going to go for it. And there’s not much that’s going to deflect him. I don’t think it’s going to be external pressure that’s going to force it.”

Mr Moore said the EU was largely taking its lead from the Pacific Islands Forum “and particularly New Zealand” in dealing with Fiji. The EU had found New Zealand “is the island that knows Fiji better”.

“If New Zealand knows the place best, then let them take political leadership. We would rather lend them our economic and political clout.”

He did not believe there should be a civil uprising in Fiji – “they’ve got quite a good Army and it’s well disciplined. That could be a rather messy way of dealing with it.”

He was instead hoping for an agreement on the substance of the electoral reforms needed and on land access issues between the main political groups in Fiji.

Mr Moore was in New Zealand heading an EU delegation that met Australian and New Zealand officials yesterday to discuss ways the three could better co-ordinate their aid efforts in the Pacific.

The European Union is one of the largest donors in the Pacific, with Australia and New Zealand.

Yesterday’s meeting followed a compact signed by Pacific Island Forum leaders in Cairns in August, calling for greater co-ordination of development and aid funding and for it to be focused on improving economic growth.

Mr Moore said he agreed with Prime Minister John Key’s views that China should also be encouraged to work with the other countries.

“Will they buy into it or not? We will see.”

He believed New Zealand’s free-trade agreement with China could be helpful in that process.

“I think the closer we get to operating with China, the better, and certainly one agreement is going to help another.”

The EU has committed about $1 billion to aid in the Pacific to 2013 to assist stability and the environment.

This is a dangerous sign, people. International bodies and foreign governments are now starting to accept the illegal Dictator, and treating him as our head of state. Vore does not deserve such treatment. We The People owe it to ourselves, and our beloved Fiji, to not legitimise the unspeakable, murderous pig.

We want fresh elections!

NOW!

God bless Fiji