Fiji

From the Fiji floods:

An email from a reader:

Re your tip off about Linda Nikora…’Dr Nikora is proposing that the limited places are restricted to Maori only as she does not believe any Pakeha are culturally competent to deal with Maori health issues. She then advised the students that she will be presenting on this issue to an upcoming conference in a bid to ensure Maori only treat Maori”…what don’t you understand about that? I as a Tongan brought up in Tonga understand the cultural paradigm of my fellow Tongans. Do I think a Palagi can understand the pyshology of Tongans simply because they’ve done degree in psychology? In short no…over the years I have witnessed Pakeha psychologists in trying to deal with Maori and Pacifica clients…many of whom admit having struggled to build a tangible rapport that led to positive psychological outcomes with their clients.

A particularly well regarded television psychologist is perhaps one of the most limited psychologists I have seen in dealing with Maori and Pacifica clients. There are many psychological nuances that gives one a decided advantage in building a rapport with people of the same ethnicity. In my particular case 51 years of being a Tongan has come in very handy and comparatively I feel well equipped and versed in dealing with Tongans than say someone that has not being a Tongan for the last 41 years. I readily accept a Maori psychologist is far better versed both culturally and in understanding the psychological paradigm of Maori clients and have bore first-hand witness to the rapport Maori psychs can engender with their own…which isn’t an abberation in any regard but more a cultural fit and understanding from both parties.

Mister Slater I saw you in a Manukau food court recently and it was evident to me immediately you were intimidated by Maori and Pacifica people and you were socially awkward and with respect not a man of courage and you would prefer dealing with people of your own ethnicity and social background. Not unusual in any regard and in point of fact a preference for most.

Strange…obviously I was cowering in the corner as I ate my lunch. What an amazing impression from a short lunch time observation.

Clearly you don’t know anything about me. I was born in Fiji. I have assisted on aid projects in Vanuatu and Samoa. I attend a gym owned by Buck Stowers, a Samoan, who I count as a dear friend, and at the gym I am often the only European customer. I assist from time to time at a decile two school in Mangere with the Young Enterprise scheme. This is a school that has just 4 Europeans on its current roll. Amongst those people I call friends are Fa’avae Gagamoe, Sam Lotu Iiga, Alfred Ngaro and Buck Stowers plus many countless people I interact with on a day to day basis in and around Manukau.

The last thing of course is there isn’t a single person or even a race of people that I fear or am intimidated by. I take people as I find them and do not judge on the appearances of just one lunchtime.

ᔥ NZ Herald

Good move by Frank Bainimarama to remove the Great Council of Chiefs:

Fiji’s military commander has disbanded the Great Council of Chiefs, a leadership tradition in the Pacific island nation that dates back more than 130 years.

Commodore Frank Bainimarama said the council was “an institution created during the British colonialism, and one that in modern times has become politicised to the detriment of Fiji’s pursuit of a common and equal citizenry”.

He had greatly reduced the power of the council before eliminating it yesterday. His latest move may be an attempt to prevent the council from being written into the new constitution he has promised to help produce within the next year.

The council was established under British colonial rule in 1875. Its 55 chiefs had refused to endorse Bainimarama’s rule.

Fiji’s tribal lands are vested in the women of the villages, not the men. The GCC was designed to give the men something to do and make them think they were important.

The old constitution gave power outside of the parliament to the select group in the Great Council of Chiefs. Unfortunately rather than ceremonial they became highly political and corrupt.

With a new constitution coming, one where all citizens are equal beofre the law without preference based on race the Great Council of Chiefs really needed to be disbanded.

It is good to see that Fiji is moving forward despite the best efforts of New Zealand and Australia to hamstring them.

Frank Bainimarama has announced another milestone in the reform of Fiji’s democracy. The most important step is a new constitution to replace the gerrymandered rubbish that was forced on them the last time.

For the first time, everyone will have a voice. This is a fundamental part of the constitutional formulation process that cannot be and must not be compromised.

The constitution must be premised on the fundamental values and principles set out in the People’s Charter for Change, which my Government has been advocating and implementing.

These principles and values are universally recognized and aspired to. Therefore, these principles and values are non-negotiable. They are:

• A common and equal citizenry;
• A secular state;
• The removal of systemic corruption;
• An independent judiciary;
• Elimination of discrimination;
• Good and transparent governance;
• Social justice;
• One person, one vote, one value;
• The elimination of ethnic voting;
• Proportional representation; and
• A voting age of 18.

This is the sort of constitutional discussion that is meant to be taking place in New Zealand, though I doubt we will be so bold as to address fundamental issues such as the removal of race based voting and seats.

Fiji is taking time to re-organise their political and constitutional arrangement to a system that meets the needs of all Fijian citizens. It shows committment for them to stand strong against bullying from Australia and New Zealand.

With the removal of Kevin Rudd and the appointment of Bob Carr as Foreign Minister a remarkable thaw has happened with regard to Fiji.

BOB Carr will begin to reverse six years of hard-line Labor policy against the government of Fijian dictator Frank Bainimarama.

Mr Carr will offer an olive branch to the military strongman, who seized power in the small Pacific island nation after a military coup in 2006.

The new Foreign Affairs Minister will travel to New Zealand tomorrow to meet NZ Prime Minister John Key to discuss Fiji’s banning from the Pacific Islands Forum in 2009.

Incentives for Fiji are likely to include lifting some of the “sticks” against the regime, including the forum’s ban on the junta – and some reversal of Australian sanctions set up in the wake of the coup.

These include a blanket ban on the supply, sale or transfer to Fiji of arms and related material, the provision of technical advice, assistance or training, a financial service or financial or other assistance to Fiji related to military activities or  any activity that involves the sale or supply of any export-sanctioned goods to Fiji.

I sense a change from New Zealand as well. This is great news for Fiji.

Murray McCully is in trouble for spending up on some flights in Burma. He really shouldn’t be in trouble for that. I certainly don’t begrudge him organising some safer flights than otherwise available in-country.

Labour have gone down the wrong path by using deliberately leaked information from fat, bloated civil servants that no one except Phil Goff likes.

Where they should have gone after McCully is the rank hypocrisy in swanning around a country ruled by a military junta, with a poor record on human rights, a country one of our SOEs (Kordia) is making a poultice of cash from, where we have no sanctions in place, we maintain diplomatic relations with and have our Foreign Minister visit and spend up large.

Meanwhile he refuses to talk to Fiji. Refuses to offer assistance to them, maintains “smart sanctions” against key people, blocks sports people travelling to NZ, places travel bans on senior officials and bad mouths the country at every opportunity. Fiji isn’t at war internally, it is perfectly safe to travel everywhere as many Kiwis do,with Fiji being a preferred holiday destination.

The contrast couldn’t be more stark. It disgusts me how New Zealand sucks up to appalling dictators and yet wags its finger at Fiji like a naughty school child. Little wonder we have ceded hegemony in the Pacific to China.

A few days ago the NZ media breathlessly reported, via Michael Field, that a bunch of British busy-bodies had prepared a report on the rule of law in Fiji after a sneaky undercover trip there late last year.

The Director of Public Prosecutions has responded to the report and since the NZ media continue to report in a bias and underhand manner all matter with regard to Fiji I am posting the response here:

Nigel Dodds, the Chairman of an obscure British NGO, Law Society Charity, has publicly spread false, outrageous and inflammatory allegations against the Fijian judicial system. The intellectually dishonest allegations follow a private visit to Fiji by Mr. Dodds in November of 2011, during which he claims to have interviewed many lawyers, judges and opposition politicians.

Mr. Dodds spent approximately four days in Fiji. Four months later, he is making an undisguised attempt to draw publicity for himself and his group as a supposed expert on Fiji’s judicial system.

Mr. Dodds never contacted the Director of Public Prosecutions or any other government official for his “report”.

“The failure to solicit any opinion from people actively engaged with the Fijian legal system strongly suggests that Mr Dodds and his organisation are either being used by certain disgruntled people in Fiji to promote a political agenda or are being deliberately obtuse. Either way, the report is intellectually dishonest and does their organisation no credit.” said Director of Public Prosecutions, Mr Christopher Pryde”

In an online critique of the report, one analyst asked, “Is this genuine charitable work? Or subcontracted political advocacy? There is little of professionalism here.”

The report, which Dodds did not provide to the Fijian government, makes racist allegations against The Office of Public Prosecutions.

Mr. Pryde said, “Mr Dodds seems to have a problem with Sri Lankan lawyers. The DPP’s Office recruits staff on the basis of merit, and is not concerned with a lawyer’s ethnic background but with their professionalism and integrity.”

Pryde added, “The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions in an independent office and the Director of Public Prosecutions has the sole responsibility for criminal prosecutions in Fiji. This is without recourse to any Government minister, including the Attorney-General. The Office is non-political and independent in its decision-making.”

An interview by Graham Davis screened on Prime and Sky News last night.

Graham Davis is a top class interviewer. Frank Bainimarama stresses the point that NZ is more understanding than Oz.

Grubsheet’s interview with the Fijian leader, Frank Bainimarama, is being shown this weekend in Australia and New Zealand on Sky News and in Fiji in a news special on FBCTV at 7.30pm on Sunday night. In it, Bainimarama says Australia is now alone among its ANZUS partners in refusing to engage with Fiji. And he reveals fresh details of his plans to return the country to democracy in 2014.

In an exclusive interview with Graham Davis for Sky News, Fiji’s Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama has lashed out at the governments of Australia and New Zealand, accusing them of neglecting the Pacific Islands.

Commodore Bainimarama accused former Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd of neglecting the Pacific, adding Canberra’s lack of attention to the region – and especially its policy of shunning Fiji – had weakened Australian influence in the region and had created a vacuum that bigger powers were moving to fill.

He added improved relations between Australia and Fiji would only come if Tony Abbott won the next election.

The NZ Government and Murray McCully need to drop the stupid sanctions so that business people in Fiji can openly engage and help Fijian Government.

A guest post from Thakur Ranjit Singh on some comparisons between Fiji and New Zealand media environments. I agree on some aspects of the post but not on others, however it provides and interesting discussion post.

When watchdogs become lapdogs: Some New Zealand media in spotlight

With the fall of Murdoch Media Empire and Wikileaks Scandal, the concept of a free media has taken almost a fatal hit. With recent developments in mainstream television, controversies and questionable decisions by some media outlets in New Zealand, one is forced to revisit Propaganda Model.

Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky, in their book, originally published in 1988, Manufacturing Consent: The political economy of mass media (2008), have put forward a model as a framework for gauging, analysing and understanding the functioning of the US media. Their concept, called the Propaganda Model, stipulates that media is not a free agent that the public have been made to believe. They challenge the myth that the press is stubborn, difficult, persistent and present everywhere as searchers and defenders of the truth. What they state through Propaganda Model is that all facets of news are structured by the influence and consensus of the elite to ensure systematic propaganda. Effectively what they say is that the media serves and propagandises on behalf of those who control and finance them.

This is where the recent behaviour of Television New Zealand (TVNZ) and Media Works comes into question. Almost two months before the last elections, Prime Minister John Key hosted an hour-long show on September 30, 2011 on Radio Live. He declared that the show was an “election-free zone.”

However, the Opposition, complained to the Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) and the Electoral Commission claiming that the show qualified it as an election advertisement because it was so close to the November 26, 2011 election. The ruling of the Electoral Commission was that despite statements that the show was an “election-free zone”, Mr Key had associated himself with well-known people. In doing so, he took the opportunity to raise his personal profile unchallenged, and hence was likely to be seen to encourage people to vote for National Party under his leadership.

The then Labour leader Phil Goff accused Radio Live of granting special favours to John Key in exchange for Government’s decision to defer $43 million of licensing fees for Media Works, the owners of Radio Live and TV 3. He said it would have been a different situation if other leaders had been afforded the same opportunity. Goff said Radio Live had rejected the idea of allowing others to participate. The concentration of ownership of NZ media between Fairfax, Media Works and Government makes the picture murkier and give further credence to Propaganda Model.

In yet another media move that would raise concerns and controversy is a decision by TVNZ to dump the new Labour leader’s weekly appearance on its Breakfast show. They were courteous in telling Labour leader David Shearer that he was not newsworthy and he did not have an automatic right to appear on the show, and would have to create news to appear on its show. It is a typical chicken and egg situation- how is he expected to create news without TV exposure?

Coming on the heels of Labour’s complaint about PM’s free election advertising on Radio Live reported above, some feel it is the government-owned station’s act of getting back at Labour for being a naughty boy. Its axing may be due to the Electoral Commission finding Prime Minister’s appearance on Radio Live breached the Broadcasting Act and the case being referred to police. This fiasco, apart from illustrating the act of Government broadcaster licking the hand that feeds it (government), also raises questions about whether the media should treat party leaders differently in their coverage. However, according to Propaganda Model, TVNZ will look after the interests of its owner and financier – the government and the Opposition (Labour Party) can go and jump.

Such expedient decisions by the media in pleasing the government are not only confined within New Zealand, but have gone abroad as well. This comes amidst allegation from Fiji Broadcasting Commission (FBC) that NZ government was blocking the newly established FBC TV from showing TVNZ news and features to Fijians.

FBC’s chief executive, Riyaz Sayed-Khaiyum (former TVNZ’s Asia Downunder reporter) said that while TVNZ Pacific Services were free of service across the Pacific, Fiji was denied permission for showing such to its people. All that was needed was any broadcaster to be given approval from TVNZ. However, reportedly two requests made last year by FBC TV had been rejected by TVNZ on the grounds that FBC TV was owned by government of Fiji. What defies sense or logic is that TVNZ itself is a government owned enterprise. And because of it being NZ Government owned, Khaiyum claims political pressures were exerted on TVNZ by Murry McCully’s Foreign Affairs Department not to grant the Fijians the approval to broadcast. According to what Khaiyum told Fiji Sun, this was confirmed by New Zealand High Commission’s Deputy Head in Suva, Peter Lund that the directive of refusal came from New Zealand Foreign Affairs. Effectively, this was a case of a Government exerting its ownership powers to prevent dispersal of regional information in the Pacific region. TVNZ, as a supposedly free media organisation was merely dancing to the tunes of its owners and financiers- New Zealand government. Khaiyum said the decision may only change with the change of government.

However, your truly is not holding his breath for it- Labour party has been no different in its treatment of Fiji. Just the players change, the game rules remain the same. In the meantime, people are getting used to the high standards and quality of TV services from the English service of Al Jazeera from Doha in Qatar. It is similar to the case of another Arab enterprise, Emirates Airlines, increasingly taking foot in the traditional Australasian market.

The cases above illustrate that Herman and Chomsky’s Propaganda Model stipulated over two decades ago still holds current in New Zealand. In this developed First World, some media still continue to be sympathizer and mouthpiece of, and jump to the tunes of those who finance them. In doing so, they abandon their watchdog roles to become lapdogs.

Endnote: The author graduated with Masters in Communication Studies (MCS) with Honours from Auckland University of Technology (AUT) last year. His research topic was: The 2000 Speight coup in Fiji: an analysis of the role of The Fiji Times and the impact of partisan media. The research is available at the following site: http://aut.researchgateway.ac.nz/handle/10292/2554

The research revealed that Propaganda Model of media was also in play during 2000, leading to Speight coup in Fiji.

[About the author: Thakur Ranjit Singh is a media commentator, a community worker and CEO of Media Relations Limited, a media promotions, event management, public relations and communications company based in Auckland.]

The NZ Herald has a remarkable article that shows just exactly why Qarase had to go in Fiji. There is none of the breathless fantasy of Michael Field or Barbara Dreaver, just plain facts, and the facts are damning of Andrew Hughes and Laisenia Qarase.

Qarase colluded with the Australian in charge of the Fiji Police at the time to lure Commodore Frank Bainimarama to New Zealand ostensibly for “peace” talks and they tried to arrange for New Zealand through Howard Broad to arrest him. They tried to fit him up on trumped up charges and have him detained in New Zealand:

In Suva, the Fiji police force had been awaiting an opportunity to arrest the commodore on the sedition charge but were unable to penetrate his heavily armed personal security detail – rarely less than 12-strong at any given time.

“I had earlier taken a brief of evidence to the DPP,” said Mr Hughes, “and it was agreed that there was a case to answer on a sedition charge.

“We wanted to arrest and charge Commodore Bainimarama but he was permanently covered by heavy security. I was very keen to avoid an armed confrontation between the police and the military. So we waited.”

As Prime Minister Qarase waited at Suva’s Nausori airport to board a New Zealand Air Force VIP jet to take him to the Peters-brokered talks in Wellington, he was surprised to be joined by Mr Hughes, who then explained that the arrest plan was unlikely to come to fruition. Mr Qarase was shocked.

The Fiji Police Commissioner boarded the flight and in Wellington he met a deputy secretary for foreign affairs but was again told the New Zealand Government’s position was that a political or diplomatic solution was preferred.