US Democracy Movement Push for Removing Fiji Troops from UN Operations

Posted on Matavuvale.com - 30 April 2010

http://www.matavuvale.com

Statement by Loruama Tawawili

President

DFFM USA

This is a special announcement for all freedom fighters from the President of the Democracy and Freedom for Fiji USA.

Our membership drive is in full swing and at this moment I am in Santa Rosa California making pocket meetings and having individual one on one meetings with people who want to know and are still very much afraid of joining us. The main reason for aloofness amongst the Fijian communities is the great scams on their immigration status that has made them very weary of any organization that tries to talk about this very important immigration issue.

Our movement in the USA is fully aware of this and so we have acquired the services of a well known Immigration attorney to help anyone who wants to file their papers with the USA Homeland Security or The Immigration Department to change their immigration status.

This Monday May 3rd, I will lead a Fijian Delegation to meet with USA Marin County Congresswoman Lean Wolsey and for the first time in this struggle, to free Fiji from Bainimarama's illegal power grab, a delegation from the USA Democracy and Freedom for Fiji Movement, will be talking about removing Fijian troops from Sinai operation with a USA Congresswoman.

This is a milestone in our struggle and when we look back to our beginning in San Francisco to the Flamingo meeting in Santa Rosa on the 5th Dec last year, to where we are today, we have indeed come a very very long way.

Let me remind Fiji nationals who are in the USA Illegally that with the illegal decree in place in Fiji today, the USA govt can legally protect you and grant you withdrawal of removal because you must prove beyond reasonable doubt that, you will be arrested and imprisoned if you are deported to Fiji. There is a Decree that states that if you say anything illegal or do anything against Bai's illegal regime, you are guilty of treason and will be arrested tried and imprisoned upon arrival in Fiji. The USA government has recognized that the Democracy and Freedom for Fiji Movement is an organization that is against the illegal regime in Fiji. Your membership with us will ensure your protection of being deported to Fiji.

To everyone in Santa Rosa and neigbouring areas there will be a tea party at Naca and Wati's Residence on Friday 4/30 at 8 pm so please bring soli for that too. Vinaka vakalevu.

Loruama Tawawili

President

DFFM USA

PSC halts rising civil service numbers

Fiji Live News - April 30, 2010 

Fiji’s Public Service Commission (PSC) has ordered a freeze on new jobs because it says a drop in staff numbers following last year’s compulsory retirement has been followed by an increase because of new staffing requests from within the civil service.

PSC chairman Josefa Serulagilagi said while staff establishment in the civil service decreased to 24,885 by the end of April 2009, the numbers have since then “continued to increase”. 

Serulagilagi did not specify how much numbers had increased by but attributed the increase to “demand for positions from ministries, departments and agencies”.

“Given the role of PSC in controlling staff establishment, it is therefore imperative to impose this temporary freeze,” Serulagilagi said.

He said the creation of all new project and line positions will freeze effective immediately until a study on the organisational review of the civil service is complete.

“The influx of requests from ministries and departments is of concern as requests without proper analysis of the situation of the ground gets put to the commission, there is little consideration given on how best delivery of service could be achieved with limited resources,” he said.

Serulagilagi said there is also a reluctance to change in terms of restricting strategies to fit the limited resources.

The action was taken by the PSC following approval by Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama as minister responsible for the Public Service.

Samoan PM’s comments ‘unfortunate’

Fiji Live News - April 30, 2010

Fiji’s Foreign Minister Ratu Inoke Kubuabola says comments by Samoa’s Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi about moving the Forum Secretariat from Suva are unfortunate.

Kubuabola said notwithstanding the comments, the Fiji government “looks forward to the Pacific Way, continued cordial relations with the Prime Minister, government and people of Samoa”.

He said Fiji had an unswerving commitment to holding general elections in Fiji in 2014.

”The timeframe takes into account the necessary reforms needed to be carried out for the future good of Fiji; the drafting of a new Constitution, which will also contain new electoral provisions with the fundamental democratic tenet of one man one vote and removal of race-based constituencies; consultation with the people of all 14 provinces and Rotuma on the draft Constitution; the creation and demarcation of constituencies pursuant to the new Constitution; revision of the National Register of Voters on a house to house basis; new Constituencies Lists; all the preparations required for the conduct of the elections; and the actual holding of the elections.”

”As regards the presence of the Forum Secretariat in Suva, it is not relevant since Fiji has been suspended from its membership.”

Disgraced South Australian Speaker Peter Lewis new Fiji coup apologist

POSTED BY PACIFIC IN THE MEDIA, APRIL 29, 2010

http://coupfourpointfive.blogspot.com

Another dubious and shady Australian character was recently heard praising the illegal regime’s coup when he delivered a public lecture at the Fiji National University, in which he claimed that the pre-2006 elections were outside the perimeters of democratic ideals. He is another Peter, not the conman Peter Foster but Peter Lewis, former speaker and member of the South Australian Parliament. 

In his lecture he added that pre-2006 elections were more likely to establish disproportionate privileges for ethnic groups. “Fiji’s recent experiences in regards to law and order itself show that those who exercised such power were ignorant of the consequences,” he said. Lewis said Fiji’s then constitutional structure provided some people with more than one vote electing representatives to the same Chamber and who were provided with more weight to their vote than others.

Lewis believes it is too simplistic to assume that Fiji’s Parliament and its government at the time of the coup was democratic just because people voted in elections. “To be democratic in the real sense, the electoral process needs to be based on one vote to each citizen and roughly equally populated electorate’s process regardless of their ethnicity,” he added. 

He also questioned why Australia and New Zealand had taken a tough stand against Fiji. Lewis said it was for the people to decide on. “I cannot understand why the relationship between Fiji, Australia and New Zealand differs when compared to other countries that are worse off,” Mr Lewis said. He said there was no bloodshed taking place here compared to other countries, yet Australia and New Zealand had better relationships with these countries. 

Who is this latest cheerleader of the regime? How did he end up delivering a public lecture on ‘Coups and Constructive Commitment’ at the Fiji National University? Ivan Peter Lewis was a member of the South Australian House of Assembly between 1979 and 2006. Between 1979 and 2000 he was in the HA as a Liberal MP. From 2000 until 2006 he served as an Independent. His decision in 2002 to support the Australian Labor Party resulted in a Labor State Government led by Mike Rann.

It was not long after his election in 1979 that he quickly gained a reputation as a maverick, defying his party bosses. In 2000, the Liberals had enough of him, and in July of the same year, expelled him from the Liberal Party. In 2002, he was re-elected when he contested his seat under the banner of the CLIC, the Community Leadership Independence Coalition. After the 2002 election, he gave his support to Labor, enabling it to form government. In return, he extracted a promise for the holding of a Constitutional Convention, and also that he be made Speaker, which he became, earning widespread attention for his colourful style of regulating parliamentary debate.

In 2002, he also came under the scrutiny of Australian media over his links to businessman and former criminal Terry Stephens. The two were alleged to have been involved in questionable business dealings regarding the sale of Lewis’s mining company Goldus to Stephen’s company Arrowlea. The Australian newspapers also revealed that Lewis’s nephew Gary Lewis, was an executive director of Arrowlea, which had its assets frozen after an Australian Securities and Investment Commission investigation found Stephens was a director of a company six months early after being convicted of fraud charges. Creditors of the failed venture later attempted to recoup losses through the sale of remaining assets. 

Peter Lewis accused one local MP, Ivan Venning, of conducting a ‘smear campaign’ against him. Lewis was exonerated of any wrongdoing despite submitting himself to extensive police investigations. Stephens was later convicted of lying to smear Lewis.

In 2005, Peter Lewis faced a potential no-confidence motion after he and two of his volunteer staffers, Barry Standfield and Wendy Utting, alleged a sitting MP was a paedophile. Before a vote could be taken Peter Lewis resigned on 4 April 2005. In 2008 Standfield and Utting, were found not guilty of defamation over the claims. The next year Lewis did not stand for his seat of Hammond but instead stood as an independent for election to the Legislative Council. The voters rejected him. He received only 0.6% of the votes. 

He owns eight mining leases, as well as interests in Goldus Operations and Mintech Resources. 

What is his motive for praising the present regime? Is he planning to make a bid for Fiji’s goldmines?

It is worth pointing out that his two staffers, the child abuse activists, were acquitted because of the confusion in the law of defamation in South Australia. Besides naming two high-profile South Australian political identities, they had also named two senior police officers as alleged paedophiles. Just imagine Lewis’ two staffers fate if they happened to be speaking out against Esala Teleni, Fiji’s illegal police commissioner. They would have been marched straight to the army camps to do that favourite ‘punishment exercise’ or worse, like Peceli Rinakama, would have disappeared without trace for weeks in gestapo Fiji.

The two staffers, who performed volunteer work for Lewis, claimed that they were exercising their moral right and free speech – which is sorely lacking in Peter Lewis’s new found friends – in the illegal regime in Fiji, who have clamped down on the media and are going further to kill free speech with their media decree.

It is time the likes of Lewis stopped singing the praise of ‘coup paedophiles’ and the Fiji National University should stop providing a platform to a failed Australian politician, whose unsubstantiated paedophilia allegations against politicians and police officers was described as ‘the darkest in South Australia’s political history’. His allegations were described as ‘a shameful abuse of power’.

Peter Lewis, while bowing out of the Speaker’s chair, was unapologetic about his actions. An investigation into the claims found there was no evidence to support his allegations of paedophilia, that a then serving MP had preyed on boys at a gay meeting place in Adelaide.

We do not need a lecture from such a politician, and delivered under the auspices of Fiji National Univeristy in Suva.

Editor's Note: 

Cabinet has approved the Fiji National University Decree 2009.

The Decree will establish the Fiji National University (FNU), which will be formed with the merger of six state-owned institutions namely the Fiji Institute of Technology (FIT), the Fiji School of Medicine (FSM), the Fiji School of Nursing (FSN), the Lautoka Teachers College (LTC), the Fiji College of Advanced Education (FCAE), and the Fiji College of Agriculture (FCA).

The University will commence operations in 2010.

Cabinet based its decision on a submission by the Minister for Education, National Heritage, Culture and Arts, Youth and Sports, Labour, Industrial Relations and Employment, Mr Filipe Bole.

Mr Bole said that an Interim Council for the FNU was formed earlier this year to carry out the necessary preparatory work in order for the University to commence operations from January 2010.

Fiji ‘has potential to surpass Dubai’
April 29, 2010 

A former Australian politician, Peter Lewis has drawn attention to Fiji’s abundance of reliable and constantly available fresh water due to the relatively high altitude of the country.

Lewis believes Fiji has the global answer to meet the need for low-cost and very long-term carbon-free energy for all essential types of industry needed for a new ‘green eco-friendly’ post-industrial era of civilization beyond the 21st century.

He described two sources first of which was multiple high valley dams connected to hydro-electric generators down on the plains while the second was the bore fields to line-up into steam turbine generators.

“Fiji will then have really cheap energy for a very long time with hot rocks geothermal power for base load needs and hydro-electric for peak demand top-up,” Lewis said.

“Fiji will then be in a very strong position to outdo Dubai and Singapore in less than a decade at the very same kinds of things which they do so well, to generate enormous wealth for their citizens.”

He however cautioned that Fiji must take and retain majority control of the process particularly the planning, design and the location of these facilities as well as the new industries and social infrastructure.

“The big energy consuming businesses will come when Fiji calls for expressions of interest and they will come to take up the long term secure future Fiji can provide,” Lewis highlighted.

But Fiji he said, must insist that they come so long as all their new Fiji companies are locally registered under locally established law, thereby giving enduring benefits to people of Fiji.”

He said these companies will come because they will be fleeing the heavy tax burden and other fees they will have to pay to go on using the old ‘high carbon emission’ energy sources they are currently using in the countries in which they are located.

“This is Fiji’s big chance to join the winners circle for the 21st century and beyond,” Lewis said.


Comments posted on Matavuvale.com (http//:www.matavuvale.com)

• Can someone just brand a "dakai da" (poo gun) on this YALO LEVU, Peter Lewis already? His idiotic, lunatic generalisations of Fiji 'joining the winners' circle, outdoing Dubai and Singapore' is becoming a REAL IRRITANT!!!!
• WTC is this "DISGRACED THUG" on about. A decade is 10 years...it has been four LONG SUFFERING years since his wind-tosser, scrawny chicken thug bud STOLE our government and RAPED us of our democracy. So within 5 years time Fiji will outdo Dubai and Singapore? - WHAT!!!!!!
• This person is a NUTTER!!!! Well can't blame the stupid sod since he is a Pauline Hanson/One Nation speaker/supporter (http://sa.onenation.com.au/ The Hon Peter Lewis at the invitation of the State Executive attended the last State Executive meeting on the 2nd March 2010) who is right now going on an anti-Muslim rampage in Oz:
• whose going to be the next failed Oz politician they are going to invite to preach to them and fill them up with more cow dung???
• An opportunist like Peter Lewis will settle for any toe anywhere and any how.
• I can see all the Investors running into Fiji now, wanting to be a part of Frank and Teleni's New world Order ! What has Peter Lewis been sucking on ? Frank's big toe.

Driti calls Samoan PM a parrot and puppet

POSTED BY PACIFIC IN THE MEDIA, APRIL 29, 2010

http://coupfourpointfive.blogspot.com

The Fiji Military's Land Force commander Lieutenant Colonel Pita Driti, has called the Samoan Prime Minister a parrot and a puppet, following Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi's comment that the Pacific Islands Forum headquarters should be moved from Fiji.

The Samoan Prime Minster told New Zealand media yesterday that it does not make sense for the Forum headquarters to be in a country which is not ruled by a democratic government.
Pita Driti told Auckland based Hindi station Radio Tarana the Samoan Prime Minister is saying that because he wants the headquarters to be moved to Samoa.

"That's what he has been lobbying for all along, he wants it to be moved there. But the problem is the rest of the South Pacific members of the Forum don't want it to be moved to Samoa because it's a backward country."

"Now he's trying to bullshit to say it should be moved to New Zealand or Australia," Pita Driti told Tarana.

Driti says the Samoan Prime Minster is a puppet of New Zealand and Australia and talks on the two countries behalf.

"He's a parrot and a puppet that's all. He should be ashamed of himself because he's not a strong man, he cannot stand alone and is relying on those two countries. He's trying to please them," Driti said.

Driti says Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi is trying to incite instability in Fiji by saying that elections won't hold elections as promised in 2014.

FSC records $8.3m loss for third quarter

by Timoci Vula

Fiji Times - Wednesday, April 28, 2010

THE Fiji Sugar Corporation recorded a $8.3million loss for the third quarter ending February 28 this year.

The Corporation recorded a net loss of $27.94m for the same period last year, its third quarter report revealed, while noting a decrease of 70.3 per cent in net losses.

The report released yesterday also revealed its turnover decreased by 11.1 per cent from $223.5m in the third quarter of 2009 to $198.6m this year.

Total liabilities, however, increased from $177.42m in the first quarter of 2009 to $232.96m at the end of the current third quarter.

FSC's total assets, according to the report, stands at $335.71m an increase from the $297.29m recorded for the same quarter last year.

The report revealed that no dividend was paid out to its shareholders in the third quarter last year as well as this year.

It also said no loans were secured during the quarter.

The Corporation has made no attribution as to its operational performance for the period under review but noted decreases in sugar exports to the United Kingdom, and also exports of molasses.

"152,943 tonnes of sugar has been shipped to the UK (this third quarter) compared to 168,683 tonnes shipped for the same period last year," the FSC's third quarter report 2010 stated.

For molasses however, the report said molasses export during the third quarter increased from 56,285 tonnes for the third quarter last year to 100,285 tonnes for the third quarter this year.

Indo and indigenous Fijians prove they can work together in NZ

POSTED BY PACIFIC IN THE MEDIA, APRIL 28, 2010

http://coupfourpointfive.blogspot.com

The Waikato region's previously divided Fijian community has united in a landmark event with Indo-Fijians and indigenous Fijians agreeing to work together in future.

The two groups have long been divided – a hangover from political and cultural divisions in their homeland.

But representatives from the Waikato Fiji Association (Indo-Fijians) and Fiji Waikato Community (indigenous Fijians) put aside historical differences last week and signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on projects to celebrate their culture.

The deal was done under the supervision of Internal Affairs Department community development and funding adviser Jenny Nand, who said the deal was a milestone for New Zealand's Fijian community but relatively simple to negotiate.

"It's about promoting the Fijian culture," she said. "It wasn't that hard to come to a common agreement outlining the key boundaries and the roles each organisation will play."

Waikato Fiji Association secretary Alvin Chand said it took only three or four meetings before they had hammered out a deal.

"The thing is we both want to make the community aware here that there's a Fijian community present and we want to integrate ourselves," he said.

In the past the two groups have put on separate Fiji Day festivals but this year on October 9, they will celebrate together for the first time.

Fiji Waikato Community president Jalesi Nakarawa said the Fiji Day partnership was just the first step.

"The long-term objective is working together and merging the groups," he said. It was something he had never heard of happening in New Zealand.

Mr Chand said he would talk to Waikato Museum about having an area to display traditional arts and crafts during October as a way to make the Fijian culture more visible.

-By Rob Kidd, Waikato Times

Vunibobo recalled because of the United Nations stand on Driti

POSTED BY PACIFIC IN THE MEDIA, APRIL 27, 2010

http://coupfourpointfive.blogspot.com

Fiji's former Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Berenado Vunibobo, was ordered home after the UN blocked Brigadier Pita Driti from leading a peacekeeping mission to Iraq.

We have been told that stiff opposition from NGOs and Civil Society, led to Driti's rejection. 

Driti is the Land Force Commander of the Fiji Military Forces and played a leading role during and after the 2006 military coup.

According to sources, Frank Bainimarama's regime was unhappy that a seasoned diplomat like Vunibobo was unable to convince the UN to endorse Driti.

Vunibobo has been succeeded by a regime apologist and former Secretary to the Governor General at the time of the 1987 coup, Peter Thomson.

His axing  is being seen as a warning to those who accept positions in the regime, that they can be discarded at any time.

Lewis questions Aussie and NZ stance on Fiji

Fiji Broadcasting Corporation, April 27, 2010

A former member of the South Australian Parliament has questioned the on going sour relationship between Fiji and its Trans-Tasman neighbors.

In a public lecture today on Coups and Constructive Commitment, at the Fiji National University, Peter Lewis challenged those present to decide whether or not Fiji needed the 2006 coup.

However, Lewis says it is up to the people of Fiji to decide if the coup has made things better or worse for Fiji.

He says he does not understand why the relationship between Fiji and Australia and New Zealand differ when compared to other countries that are worse off.

Lewis highlighted that there is no bloodshed happening in Fiji compared to other countries and yet Australia and New Zealand has better relationships with these other countries and not Fiji.

He says Fiji seems to be doing well under the leadership of someone who gained absolute power without elections, and the best way forward is to take the current Prime Minister at his word and remind him of it at regular intervals, through objective remarks.

Comments posted on Matavuvale.com

• Here is another donkey who thinks that brushing the dirt (no bloodshed) under the rug will make things right. How can you ask the people of Fiji as you suggest ? when they are under the PER rules and are not allowed to voice their honest opinion but are only allowed to suqar coat the illegality to get favourable preference.
• Peter Lewis...a donkey, a maverick, a neither here nor there individual, a disrespectful person...all the birds with the same feather as Voreqe and his bunch of thieves.
• Any foreigner who dare to make public statement in Fiji will do what Peter Lewis did. It is called DIPLOMACY in this chaotic world we live in. I call it speaking with forked tongues. I am sure that Mr Peter Lewis had a good time in Fiji, and must have been congratulated by the present government. What a bunch of low down unprincipled hypocrites some of these leaders have become. No wonder our whole world is in such a mess!
• This quote from Peter lewis statement in the post above by Suliasi Daunitutu. "Fiji seems to be doing well under the leadership of someone who gained absolute power without elections" This was part of his lecture at the Fiji National University. In this brief report from FBC we can figure out that lewis was only speaking positively towards the regime in Fiji. He could not say anything negative because if he did then that would be his ticket back home. What a coward! We should continue to support Australia and New zealand in the move to get Fiji back to democracy.
• Peter Lewis don't insult the intelligence of those honest Fijians who oppose the Military Coup.It is best for you not to say anything at all.Your naivety frightens me and two wrongs cannot make it right in million years.Voreqe is a traitor and a Dictator too, who had murdered his own people.To support him is wrong and supporting his cause is very dangerous.

Govt laying the platform for elections-PM

Fiji Village News - 27 April 2010

Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama has stressed that the Government is laying the platform for elections for 2014 and nothing or no one can stop that.

Commodore Bainimarama told the people of Sawaieke that the main reason why he has brought in Army Colonels to hold the top posts in the Divisional Commissioner's Offices. 

He said this is because they want the job to be carried out efficiently.

The Prime Minister also told the villagers, that come 2014 they should know who to elect into Government from the work that is being carried out.

The Prime Minister while addressing the people in Lamiti, Gau also blamed the SVT and the SDL governments for the setbacks over the 10 years. 

He said there were many racist policies brought up by the two parties.

Bainimarama told the people the two political parties brought about racial discrimination in order to hold on to power, and this was one of the main reasons why indigenous Fijians rushed to Parliament House during the 2000 coup, without fully understanding what they were doing.

Bainimarama also told the people of Lamiti that the problem with indigenous Fijians was that they did not speak their mind, or be up-front about issues, allowing politicians to manipulate them.

Commodore Bainimarama also stressed to the people of Lomaiviti, that his Government will not build Churches and Community Halls, as their main focus is the upgrading of school facilities, water development projects and other needs, that are of major concern to people living in the rural areas.

Most of the villagers that Commodore Bainimarama is visiting now, are apologizing for not supporting the government and the People's Charter. 

They are now saying that they support the Charter and the government's initiatives.

Former police officer sentenced to 12 years

Fiji Broadcasting Corporation, April 26, 2010

A former police officer who used a police vehicle to escort robbers away from the scene of the crime, has been sentenced to 12 years in jail by the Suva High Court today.

Saimoni Rokotunidau, has been sentenced by Justice Daniel Goundar to 12 years imprisonment and he has to serve nine years of his sentence before he can apply to be released.

In sentencing Rokotunidau, Justice Goundar says he breached the Police trust when he committed his robberies in 2009 and that a high degree of planning was involved before the robberies were executed.

While being a police officer last year, Rokotunidau helped a group of men plan and execute a home invasion, where his accomplices stole more than $7000 in cash and cheques.

The men, used a gun, a pinch bar and a cane knife in the robbery before Rokotunidau escorted their getaway car with his police vehicle.

Apart from this, Rokotunidau was also sentenced to offenses her committed between 2003 and last year.

He was charged a total of 23 counts ranging from armed robbery, robbery with violence and criminal intimidation.

Rokotunidau also had 31 previous convictions prior to his seven year robbery spree, which ended last year.


Comment posted on Matavuvale.com (http://www.matavuvale.com)

• This is the serial criminal that joined the New Methodist and straight away Teleni recruited him to be a police officer even though he had outstanding charges yet to be heard in court for offences allegedly committed from 2003 to 2009, the time he became a police officer.
• A sad reflection of how dumb the illegal Police Commissioner is.

Fiji to have new Constitution in 2013

Fiji Broadcasting Corporation, April 26, 2010

The country will have a new Constitution in 2013, which will reflect the will of the people a representative of the Prime Minister’s office has revealed.

Kisoko Cagituivei made the statement at the opening the Ra Provincial Council meeting last week, reassuring provincial reps that the new Constitution will be discussed widely with the people.

Cagituivei says the Constitution will be promulgated in 2013 in time for the General Elections in 2014.

The actual work of preparing the new constitution will start in 2012 to give everyone ample time to hear Government’s views and contribute to discussions on the country’s new supreme law.

Former President Ratu Josefa Iloilo abrogated the 1997 constitution in April last year and mandated the Bainimarama government to prepare a new constitution which will pave the way for general elections in 2014.

Stern warning issued to PWD employees

Fiji Village News - 26 April 2010

Permanent Secretary for Works Cama Tuiloma

A clear warning has been sent out to all the PWD employees working at the Mechanical, Electrical and Plant Pool department to stop stealing various equipment.

Permanent Secretary for Works, Cama Tuiloma has told the workers that he has heard that the department is a notorious place for thefts and stealing of parts and components, and even whole plants, vehicles and equipment. 

Tuiloma said people have been stealing the items and then selling them for their personal benefit for years.

He said apart from stealing parts, he has also found out that vehicle abuse and theft of fuel is rampant in the Mechanical, Electrical and Plant Pool Division.

Tuiloma said vehicles brought in from other ministries and departments for repairs, are not properly repaired and sometimes cannibalized and returned to clients after a long time, only to break down again. 

He said this is the reason why the ministries do not take the vehicles to the division for repair.

It has been clearly stated that anyone caught stealing will be sacked.

It has also been highlighted to the division workers that many have established certain work habits like sitting around and doing nothing, conversing with workmates, wasting time and not being productive and wandering in and out of the workplace as they please.

Tuiloma said many workers come in the morning, do half a day=s work, insist that they need to do overtime, and expect a full salary at the end of the week or two weeks. 

He said some of the senior staff also has these habits and these have to stop now.

Editorial: Media restrictions will hit Fiji's people

The Dominion Post - 26 April 2010

http://www.stuff.co.nz

Tin Pot Dictator and his Wife

The primary function of Fiji's proposed new media regulator is "to encourage, promote and facilitate the development of media organisations and services". It sounds reasonable.

There is just one problem. In order to perform its duties the Media Industry Development Authority is being given the power to fine and lock up journalists, editors and publishers, censor news reports, search premises, seize documents, and shut down news organisations.

Coating a dictator's iron fist with a veneer of legality does not soften the blow.

If the New Zealand Government was minded to relax the restrictions it has put on Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama's regime, the new media restrictions unveiled earlier this month are reason not to.

Every attempt at encouraging Fiji to return to the democratic fold has been met with truculence and obstruction.

New Zealand's high commissioner to Fiji has been expelled, its deputy high commissioner has been expelled, its head of mission has been expelled.

When the Government tried to promote dialogue by proposing the reappointment of deputy heads of missions in Wellington and Suva, the commodore killed the idea stone dead by nominating military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Neumi Leweni for the position of counsellor at its high commission.

A central figure in the coup that installed the commodore in power, the lieutenant colonel is banned from New Zealand because he is a member of the Fijian military.

The commodore is labouring under a misapprehension. The misapprehension is that he is the big man in the Pacific.

He is not. He is a tinpot dictator who has gained power at the point of a gun and is destroying his country's economy and prospects and the institutions, already weakened by three previous coups, that underpin good government.

The news media is one of them. Journalists, editors and publishers will bear the immediate brunt of the latest restrictions, but the real losers are the Fijian people, who have already lost the right to learn what is happening because of "emergency" regulations put in place last year.

Now the restrictions are being made permanent and the penalties for breaching them more severe. Individuals face prison terms of up to five years and fines of up to $73,000; news organisations fines of up to $364,000.

Journalists, unable to protect their sources and liable to detention for publishing anything an authority appointed by the regime considers to be against the public or national interest, to breach the bounds of good taste or to be likely to create communal discord, cannot do their jobs.

Free speech is a fundamental pillar of democracy. "Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter," said Thomas Jefferson, the author of the American Declaration of Independence.

Fijians, regrettably, have been denied the choice by their self-appointed president.