Pensions Questions

In response from my earlier post on the illegal regime’s raid on our pensions, I have received a communication from one claiming to be Fiji Pensioners.

Going on appearances alone, this seems to be a letter from Mr Rickman regarding his pension. Included in the material is a considerable amount of detail which, if true, should surely be kept confidential.

In my opinion, we can not discount the possibility that this has not been sent to this blog from Mr Rickman. It could easily have been sent from the office of the recipient or another who is party to its contents.

Regardless of whoever has sent this in – it is not the intention of this blog to disclose the private details of individual citizens.

If the sender hopes to have this alleged correspondence published on this blog, it will not happen.

If Mr Rickman wants this published, he is welcome to do so elsewhere.

If another party is trying to have this information published on this blog – you lose!

God bless Fiji

Commonwealth calls for withdrawal of military from Fiji’s govt

26 April 2013, London

1. The Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) held its thirty-ninth meeting in London on 26 April 2013.

2. The meeting was chaired by Hon Dr Dipu Moni, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh. It was also attended by Senator the Hon Bob Carr, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Australia; Hon John Baird, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Canada; Hon A J Nicholson, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Jamaica; Hon Dr Abdul Samad Abdullah, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Maldives; Hon Dr Samura Kamara, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Sierra Leone; Hon Bernard K Membe, Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation of Tanzania; Hon Winston Dookeran, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Trinidad and Tobago; and Hon Nipake Edward Natapei, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and External Trade of Vanuatu.

3. CMAG welcomed the recent adoption by Heads of Government, and signature by The Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, of the Charter of the Commonwealth, encapsulating the core values and principles of the Commonwealth. It noted that the Charter reaffirmed the Commonwealth’s commitment inter alia to democracy, human rights, the rule of law, separation of powers, freedom of expression, good governance, tolerance, respect and understanding and the role of civil society. As the custodian of the Commonwealth’s fundamental political values, the Group pledged to continue to promote these commonly agreed goals.

4. The Group reviewed developments in relation to the country currently on its formal agenda, Fiji.

Fiji

5. CMAG reiterated the Commonwealth’s unwavering solidarity with the people of Fiji, and CMAG’s commitment to Fiji’s reinstatement as a full member of the Commonwealth family, through the restoration of constitutional democracy, the rule of law and human rights, in accordance with the fundamental political values of the Commonwealth.

6. Ministers expressed their regret at the Government of Fiji’s diversion from the previously-agreed constitutional process, which had earlier been welcomed by CMAG and which had attracted widespread public engagement and confidence within Fiji.

7. CMAG called on the Government of Fiji to ensure that the steps now undertaken toward restoring constitutional democracy are credible and inclusive, and similarly enjoy the confidence and support of the people of Fiji, including:

a. a transparent and consultative process to achieve a constitution that accords with Commonwealth and internationally-accepted standards for democracy, good governance and the rule of law, and that genuinely enjoys the endorsement of the people of Fiji;

b. the restoration of the structures necessary for credible elections, including an independent Election Management Body;

c. the ability of political parties and candidates to contest elections freely under fair and consistent rules and on a level playing field;

d. withdrawal of the military from involvement in government; and

e. full respect for fundamental human rights and freedoms in accordance with international law and without undue restriction, including freedoms of speech, association and movement, and a free and independent media.

8. The Group expressed concern about ongoing restrictions on human rights and reports of human rights abuse in Fiji, and emphasised the necessity of full respect for human rights and the rule of law, to create the environment necessary for credible elections.

9. CMAG noted the visit to Fiji undertaken by the Pacific Islands Forum’s Ministerial Contact Group on 12 April 2013, and reaffirmed the Commonwealth’s commitment to continuing to work in co-operation with regional and international partners in relation to the Fiji situation.

10. CMAG encouraged the Commonwealth to remain engaged with Fiji in appropriate ways, including the Secretary-General’s ongoing engagement with the Government of Fiji and other stakeholders, also encompassing further exploration of options for the provision of assistance to Fiji in relation to democracy and the rule of law.

God bless Fiji

Abduction Attempts In Fiji

There is an alarming increase in the number of abductions taking place in Fiji. Children are going missing on Viti Levu, with reports on Facebook telling of at least 12 children missing from the Sigatoka area alone. A young man reported to police that he had been drugged and abducted by an Asian and two Fijians in April.

What the heck is happening?

Under the illegal regime, the rule of law in Fiji has fallen away completely. That Savnish Kumar’s attackers were an Asian and two Fijians suggests this was a training exercise. The Asian teacher is showing our locals ‘how to’ commit a dire criminal act. He is training them up.

Is this the rise of a new criminal element – taking our children, our young, vulnerable, beautiful children for criminal intentions?

Or is this part of a cold, calculated strategy of the regime to take a leaf out of Indonesia’s playbook so they can make our prominent citizens ‘disappear’ like they do in West Papua?

The illegal regime MUST be stopped.

Tabu soro.

God bless Fiji.

Kill The Chicken To Frighten The Monkey

The entire Fijian community – within our islands and overseas – is still reeling in shock at the video which graphically captures the beating of Iowane Benedito, the alleged escaped prisoner.

Some on the blogs and social networks believe the clip has been leaked to the media. But could it be something even more sinister?

The regime is on the back foot. They know they are at an all-time popularity low. They know they can no longer hide behind their lies. They know their decrees aren’t worth the paper they are written on. They know that discontent is seething among We The People.

If you cast your mind back to December 2006, back when We The People still believed in our inalienable rights (before the illegal regime went ahead and ‘alien-ed’ them), there was quite a bit of discontent which was being publicly expressed. At least, it was being publicly expressed until the illegal regime detained at their barracks our most visible, respected and admired rights advocates – all women other than one young man – holding them without access to legal representation, and criminally assaulting them. They killed innocent young civilian men in custody. Before the coup, they had killed the CRW soldiers, also while in custody.

The shock, revulsion and outrage at that time was comparable to that we all feel today. How dare they?!

They dare, because this is yet another tactic used to effect by illegal regimes in other parts of the world.  In China, the tactic is referred to as ‘killing the chicken to frighten the monkey’. The regime knows they cannot lock us all up. So instead they visibly target a select few, commit grave atrocities, and let word of it be spread among the population. They don’t need us to be completely scared. They just need us to be scared enough to not take action, to not speak out, to not have the courage to stand up and say ‘NO MORE!’.

They are cowards. And their time has come. Do you really think they will let us have elections in 2014? We must take action NOW before our country is further ravaged by the rot. We need strikes and demonstrations, up and down the country. We need to show the world that this illegal regime does not have our mandate, our support nor our meek compliance. We need justice.

Tabu soro.

God bless Fiji.

Final Petition of William R Marshall

The Petition of the regime’s former Justice of Appeal has kept lawyers amused all day.

The only version currently online is in reverse order. If anyone has a copy in natural order, please send it through via Comments and it will be posted on this blog.

God bless Fiji

What is needed

If you haven’t yet seen it, take a look at Lt Col Tevita Uluilakeba Mara’s latest post on YouTube – a hard-hitting strike against the regime in which the Lauan Chief positively identifies BainiVore as having lead the beatings of Fiji’s women democracy activists who were tortured in December 2006. Other soldiers in the room who had held back from beating the women, soon joined in, in true Monkey-See, Monkey-Do style.

This is the first time any member Fiji’s military has admitted to and apologised for taking part – even passively – in beating civilians for having spoken out against the junta. May others in the military follow his lead.

What OmniVore has achieved with a small section of our military forces, is to convince them that normal ethical considerations no longer apply to them. In this morally disengaged state, they can be manipulated to commit acts which they would acknowledge in the cold light of day are atrocities against our own people.

There are many psychological experiments which show how to balance authority and conformity to influence individuals to behave in ways they know are wrong. In the Milgram Experiment, which took place after the trial of a Nazi war criminal in Jerusalem, Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram tested the theory of whether accomplices in the Holocaust simply followed orders, even when those orders violated their beliefs. Subjects were instructed to administer electric shocks to another human if that person gave a wrong answer, with the shocks becoming stronger on each successive incorrect response. Although before the experiment, Milgram and his colleagues believe only a small percentage of the subjects would administer the maximum shock (450V), in fact 65% did so. In his summary, Milgram noted:

Ordinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terrible destructive process. Moreover, even when the destructive effects of their work become patently clear, and they are asked to carry out actions incompatible with fundamental standards of morality, relatively few people have the resources needed to resist authority. (Milgram, Stanley (1974). Obedience to Authority. Yale)

Another illustration of this principle is if you select a random group of people, give them each a sledgehammer and instruct them to destroy a high-value object, such as a car. At the beginning, the group will hesitate and then, when once one member of the group overcomes their qualms and begins to destroy the car, the rest of the group will join in, increasingly with gusto. This particular experiment is very popular with psychology undergraduates.

Another reason that the soldiers and officers are able to follow BainiVore’s atrocious orders is BECAUSE NO-ONE IS TELLING THEM THAT IT’S WRONG.

This is where We The People have made a rod for our own backs through our inaction. None of the soldiers fully understand our collective disgust with the regime because none of us will voice our rage.

The time has now come.

We KNOW that the illegal President would happily disengage BainiVore & iArse if the conditions were right. We KNOW that there are senior officers in the military who are willing to risk insubordination to overthrow BainiVore & iArse. We KNOW that, once BainiVore is incapacitated, iArse is toast. We KNOW that BainiVore FEARS any sign of public protest – and he always has. Now that he has seen the strength of public protest in North Africa and Asia, BainiVore KNOWS that We The People hold the key to topple him. We KNOW that BainiVore won’t issue live ammunition to his soldiers because he fears that they will use it against him. We KNOW that, if we work with the governments of the Forum countries and international Aid and donor agencies, they will keep a close eye on the wellbeing of our people as we march to Freedom.

In 2006, a young man told me that all it takes to get rid of the illegal regime is one bullet in BainiVore. As an advocate of peaceful, non-violent protest, I would never agree with violence (the young man was tortured by the regime shortly afterwards, and I think now agrees with the pacifist viewpoint), but it is undeniable that, with BainiVore out of the picture, the regime’s House of Cards falls away.

We need to co-ordinate with the senior officers. If we hold our peaceful protest for the world to see, and to distract the military’s attention, the senior officers can stage their own coup. And we could be back to free and fair elections before the end of 2011.

So – how badly do you want freedom? Tabu soro.

God bless Fiji