Fiji

The Fiji Attorney-General and Tourism Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum has ripped into the fact free attack on Fijian tourism by the CTU and in particular Peter Conway’s comments.

Conway, who last visited Fiji over 6 years ago is clearly only getting his information from his fellow union brothers in Fiji who aren’t that happy with having their previous lucrative rorting stopped by the Bainimarama government.

Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum responds to Peter Conway. The comments about Fiji Airways are good too.

The Attorney-General and Tourism Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum  replied to Conway, not by attacking him or the overseas unions, but  by accusing  trade unionists in Fiji of being behind a new international campaign to hurt the country’s important tourism industry and those depending on it for a living.  He is “confident that our visitors will see this propaganda for what it is – a crude attempt to punish Fiji for its reforms, which are designed, amongst other things, to erode the ability of a handful of elites to use their power to damage the Fijian economy and work against the Fijian people.

“This same hegemony of four or five unionists time and time again continues to demonstrate a disdain for ordinary Fijians by wilfully misrepresenting the situation in Fiji. “Overall, we believe the impact of this petition will be minimal. Our visitors – like the Fijian employees – are smart enough to see through it.”

“For trade union leaders to encourage a tourism boycott – an industry that supports the livelihoods of tens of thousands of Fijian families – is the height of selfishness and irresponsibility. A boycott would not only threaten the livelihoods of those directly employed by the tourism industry and their families, but also the livelihoods of all those who play a supporting role in the industry: the taxi drivers, the airline and airport employees, women and men who produce handicrafts and the list goes on.  Read more »

Croz Walsh give Peter Conway a good old fashioned shellacking, but in his ever so polite fashion, over the CTU’s campaign to hurt Fiji workers.

Peter Conway urges tourists to talk to local people to find out what is really going on.  But to my knowledge, he has not been to Fiji for at least six years and his only source of local information is from the Fiji unionists he is supporting — who the A-G thinks are behind this latest move by the ANZ unionists.

So hasn’t been in Fiji for more than 6 years and he is spouting on about conditions there?

More importantly, where does he get information to support his claim that “sixty percent of of people earning a wage are living below the poverty line.”?  It is the highest figure ever mentioned.  Some have talked of 35%, others of 45-50% but these lower guesstimates are about “people” — not “people earning a wage.”

“People” is a far more inclusive term.  It includes the employed and unemployed, children, old people and rural people in the subsistence sector. If we multiply Conway’s 60% with the Ministry of Labour’s 171,865 workers in Fiji  and then multiple each worker by three (workers plus their dependents), the result is 309,357 people, or about 35% of the estimated population.  A far cry from Conway’s inflated 60%.  Read more »

The Aussie and Kiwi unions have launched a campaign that will only try to hurt the economy of Fiji by targeting holiday-makers.

Trade unions in Australia and New Zealand have joined forces in a campaign to get tourists visiting Fiji to support workers rights.

In about 15 minutes the brand new Fiji Airways A330 touches down in New Zealand for the first flight in the new livery and brand.  Read more »

The Fijian government has released the draft constitution:

The Prime Minister has invited all Fijians to participate in the formulation of Fijis new constitution by providing their feedback on the draft document.

Fijians are urged to read it, discuss it, and debate it. We want to know what you think. To provide us with your feedback via Facebook, go to the Constitution tab and add your comments.  Read more »

News was released this week about some appalling bashings that occurred then some escaped prisoners were re-captured. The video evidence shows some pretty rough justice, and from our Westernised point of view looks pretty bad.

I didn’t blog anything about it at the time because I wanted to talk to my contacts in Fiji, both in business and the general community about the background to the escape…and the background of the people in the video.

Justice in Fiji is a wee bit rougher than what we would expect. But this was over the top, but when you put in some perspective about the Naboro prison escape in September 2012 you can understand the anger and retribution. That by no means  justifies it, but it simply provides perspective.

The Fiji Sun at the time wrote about the escape and the crime wave throughout Suva that resulted:

Five violent criminals who escaped from Naboro prison on Monday were yesterday being hunted in a massive joint operation by Police and Corrections officers.

Police were trying to establish if the escapees were involved in a spate of robberies in Suva after their escape, Police spokesperson Ana Naisoro said.  Read more »

Barry Soper get’s it so wrong on Fiji it isn’t funny

Barry Soper launched an attack on Fiji yesterday, unfortunately he was dead wrong. So wrong that the Fiji government issued a press release to correct his egregious errors.

I have written an opinion piece at Truth about it:

This really is a poor effort from Barry Soper who is normally much better than that. One wonders though why he deviated from his usual topics to have a swipe at Fiji?  Read more »

A reader emails about how Waitangi Day was celebrated in Fiji by the NZ High Commission:

Hi Cam

Well, Waitangi Day came and went in Fiji and, as usual, no evidence of any celebrations of NZ’s day in Suva at the NZ High Commission.

I have attached a copy of a little piece of satire distributed when this blew up as an issue in 2009.

In 2009 it was made very clear by the NZ High Commission in Suva that they politically disapproved of NZers working for certain organisations in Fiji would not be welcome at Waitangi Day celebrations at the High Commission Residence in Suva. This was despite assurances from the front desk at the High Commission that the celebrations at the High Commission Residence would be open to all NZers.  Read more »

Greg Sheridan writes in The Australian about the effectiveness or otherwise of sanctions and isolation on Fiji. This is a refreshing departure from the usual claptrap dished up by the mainstream media on the topic of Fiji:

Take Fiji. Recently Fiji’s strongman, Frank Bainimarama, appointed a constitutional commission under the leadership of the distinguished Yash Ghai to write a new constitution. When Bainimarama saw what it had produced, he tore it up. The international community (I know the word’s an oxymoron, but let it pass) generally condemned Bainimarama without qualification. The most common criticism was that the Fijian leader could not tolerate the constitution’s proposed separation of the military from politics.

Carr’s response was more modulated, more nuanced. He noted, rightly in my view, that the commission had proposed numerous undemocratic elements for a new constitution. One was the revival of the Great Council of Chiefs, which has been the source of so much destructive Fiji nativism, directed primarily at Fiji’s Indian minority. Another was the commission’s proposal for an undemocratic body to sit alongside parliament as a kind of advisory group, also charged with the task of appointing the president.

Carr was then criticised by commentators, many perfectly sensible people, on the basis that he was being too soft on Bainimarama. I think it was more a case of what Amanda Vanstone sagely identified on ABC’s Q&A on Monday as a politician injecting unwelcome complexity into a complex question where many NGOs, activists and some in the commentariat want simple responses.

New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Murray McCully was far more robust in his criticisms, so there was some difference between Canberra and Wellington.  Read more »

Yesterday I wrote at Truth about the facts of the case of Father Kevin Barr.

More information has come to light that shows that Michael Field is extremely economical with the Truth. People like David Farrar as well as Fairfax should be very wary of using his information about Fiji.

This time confirmation of the real situation comes from an email by Father Kevin Barr to Croz Walsh:

Dear Croz,

Greetings from Fiji!

Sorry I have not been in touch recently but I have been busy and did not have access to my internet.  Our system has had some problems.

You are obviously aware of the events of the past few days and the misunderstandings and misinterpretations that seem to have arisen. You might like to publish this statement on your blogsite.  Read more »