Sir Paul Reeves speaks out on Fiji
Posted by ZoeWare - 08/09/09 at 09:09 amSir Paul Reeves, the Commonwealth Secretary-General’s Special Representative on Fiji, says that the suspension of Fiji from the Commonwealth does not mean the expulsion of her people. In an interview just prior to his visit to Fiji on 8-9 September 2009, Sir Paul, who is the former Governor-General of New Zealand, said that he hopes the Commonwealth can continue to offer assistance in restoring democratic governance in Fiji.
In wide ranging other remarks, he said that he thinks that?conflict resolution, support for small states, and climate change should be the Commonwealth’s focus?for the 21st century. What do you think about what Sir Paul said? Let us know by leaving a comment below…
Category : Democracy & Good Governance, Peace & Conflict, The Official Commonwealth, homepage items
Tags: climate change, conflict resolution, democracy, Fiji, Queen, Sir Paul Reeves, small states
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September 8th, 2009 at 10:33 pm
This is all very worthy stuff and Sir Paul seems like a reasonable guy, but the real issue is why the Commonwealth was not able to do more on Fiji earlier. For an organisation that boasts that it is about principles, it has spectacularly failed to show any guts in recent decades when it comes to living out those principles. If the Commonwealth can be cowed into silence about a small and clearly autocratic member, what chance does it have of making a difference on a bigger or less straightforward case? This is not an association fit for 21st century purpose!
September 10th, 2009 at 2:34 am
Vinaka vakelevu Sir Paul.
Keimami niutaka na gone i Taukei ni na vinaka ka vukea na neimami vanua lomani o Viti na nomuni gole yani kina oqori.
Me sala vata kei kemuni na Turaga ka vaka deitaka na nomuni tuvatuva ena veika ko ni na laki raica mai se rogoca me rawa ni maucokona tale na veika me baleta na kena vakalesui mai na Yavu ni Vakatulewa mai Viti.
Vinaka.
Na Dina kei Na Dodonu ena qai laurai mai.
September 10th, 2009 at 3:48 am
In a nutshell, 2006-2009 coup effects has brought Fiji to its knees. As for the earlier coups it has not done any justice either. So our point No coup is a good coup. The richer gets richer & the pooer becomes poorer. Those opportunists and/or coup apologists find this times are the oppotune time to strike their deals be it business or their proposals for what Fiji should be.
Those that are powerless and without the giuns have no choice but suffer the consequences of Greed, Power struggle, Corruption, Military coups, fly-by night increase in wealth for some, immediate elevation of oneself by those executing and supporting these coups.
Indians used the platform to wave their flags of being ostracized in the first few coups & now the Indigenous Fijians are experiencing their turns of being mistreated by the current regime.
One only needs to look at the make up of whos who in the line ups for VB regime and its filled with failed politicians that did not even make the mark at the last elections.
Religious beliefs are now being dictated down to the people. Fijian chiefs ostracised from their own VANUA with their people.
Can we lament and say ‘why on earth di the white men brought Guns to Fiji? It is now what is speaking in Fiji. We hear that VB has given instructions to ‘shoot to kill’ if the need arises.
As Sir Paul rightly said, Fiji is a place where it reveres our Chiefly system & its tradition. They words matter to the ordinary Indigenous Fijians. Is it now being compromised by the values of other Societies. Why can’t the Indigenous Fijians be left to make decisions on what matters to them and not dictated to by VB & his Guns supported by his group of ‘veilecayaki’(s) team’.
Rule of Law abbrogated, Chiefly Institutions abolish, Indigenous Fijians treated as slaves in their very own ‘Vanua’ or homeland, their Chiefs thrownin cells, duly elected parties overthrown, Judiciary compromised, Constitutions abolished etc.
All we can say, this is the height of tyranny.
Sir Paul will be silently welcomed in the hearts of many Indigenous Fijians and for those that just wants some Sensibilities & Norm to be returned to our beloved Vanua.
Go Sir Paul, you have already made your mark in the last coup & we pray that this one will be even better. We earnestly believe that you will be a Breath of Fresh air, ‘Cagi Vou vei ira na lewe ni Vanua mai Viti’.
had done Fiji has undergone an experience that has caused Divisions at all quaters more
September 10th, 2009 at 3:55 am
Cn’t. from top posting.
You will be remebred as the ‘Knight with the shining armour’ bringing Hope & to restore some Sensiblities & Norm to Fiji and its people. This at the very least will end Coup experiences that have caused Divisions at all quaters in Fiji.
Go with our Prayers Sir Paul.
God Bless Fiji.
Tena Koto Tena Koto Tena Koto Katoa.
Na Dina, Na Dononu ena qai vaka raitaki ga mai.
September 10th, 2009 at 8:42 am
‘Why Bainimarama will fail in his quest for a ?reformed Fiji?
Opinion – By Kalafi Moala in Nuku?alofa
The question is not whether Fiji?s dictator Voreqe Bainimarama will fail or not, but rather when? Yes, when will he realise that he will never succeed in his false and conceited quest for a reformed Fiji?
Someone could stop him dead in his path before he comes to his senses.
When the military ruler declared his coup to oust the elected Laisenia Qarase government in 2006, there were those who applauded him for his vision for a new Fiji, a Fiji that they claimed would be fully reformed and free of racial discrimination in its electoral system.
Even though there were those who decried the idea of another coup, many were nevertheless hopeful that maybe this coup was a good coup. Finally we have someone who is fighting for the ?good of the country?, they said ? for the good of everyone, indigenous Fijians, Indo-Fijians, and every other race that calls Fiji home.
There are no good coups. One coup sows the seeds for the next one, and so it goes on into a vicious cycle difficult to break. As one entertainer joked, after your third coup you can easily become a coup-coup land.
But that was 2006, and the sentiments that accompanied the many declarations of good intentions have all faded, and no one except Bainimarama and his cronies seem to have any more faith that this military dictator is better than his other coup predecessors. In fact he may be the worst, and furthermore he has already taken Fiji down the road to self-destruction and despair.
This is not primarily because of the external pressures ? the dismissals from the Pacific Islands Forum and the Commonwealth and, or even the many economic and political sanctions against Fiji as a result of actions of the Bainimarama government.
Those are bad enough, but whenever you have a government that violates the basic freedoms and rights of its own people, it is only a matter of time before there is an implosion that will not only discard that kind of a government but will also thrust that unfortunate nation into abysmal political, social, and economic turmoil.
Fiji is already on the edge of disaster, and Bainimarama does not seem to care, as he continues to deepen his imperious treatment of the various institutions that have held Fijian society together and guarantee its freedom.
Fanciful actions
Here are some of Bainimarama?s fanciful actions that have brought him the fear of the locals and the wrath of the international community:
- abrogation of the 1997 Constitution and the whimsical dismissal of the court justices;
- disregard of the chiefly system of Fiji;
- violent and hateful treatment of the media;
- violation of the rights of the Methodist Church to meet in their annual conference;
- creation of a New Methodist Church to be a religious instrument to prop up support for his policies;
- defiance of regional and international calls for restoration of democratic processes; and
- opposition to dissent, attempting to create a society not of national unity but of national uniformity.
There has never been anyone in the history of mankind that has done the kind of things Bainimarama is doing and survived.
Dictators and rulers in every generation, in any nation, have always failed. They were doomed to fail once they violate the very principles that make any society keep itself alive and growing.
Law of gravity
Just as a fall from a 60-storeyed building will most likely break every bone in the body, and surely result in death because of breaking the law of gravity, Bainimarama?s fall is guaranteed.
You do not break the laws of nature or the human laws of morality. The laws break you. Thus the question now is what can be done to soften the blow on the rest of Fijian society? How long will it take for Fiji to recover from this incredible nightmare?
In particular, the treatment Bainimarama has dished out to the Fijian media has been unprecedented. Foreign publishers and journalists have been deported. Those with dissenting views have suffered incredible harassment, and so have those who have tried to report the truth of what goes on in Fiji.
Censorship is imposed on every newsroom in the country.
Notable among those journalists whose rights and freedom have been grossly violated is Netani Rika, editor-in-chief of the Fiji Times. His house has been smashed by some of Bainimarama?s goons, and his car was firebombed.
Rika?s family had to seek refuge elsewhere because of the danger they encountered at their family home. Rika himself had received phone calls from the Commodore on several occasions, swearing at him, threatening him, simply for not complying with the kind of coercive editorial manipulation imposed on the Fiji Times.
More recently after a lecture tour of Queensland, Australia, in which Rika talked about the difficulties he was experiencing with his colleagues in Fiji, he was again threatened even before he returned home.
This time, it was a death threat. Rika had to take cautionary measures to protect his family, since he took this threat quite seriously.
Death threats against journalists are not common in the Pacific Islands, at least not like in Pakistan, Philippines or Sri Lanka where journalists are killed just for doing their job. Even in Bainimarama?s Fiji, you do not threaten to kill someone just because you disagree with him.
?Island paradise?
But that which was not common is now the norm in an island nation that is destined to crash land because the skipper flying this ?island paradise? is consumed with a vision that is impossible to implement.
The vision is not only wrong, but his way of trying to fulfill it is wrong and grossly immoral. Even God Almighty does not coerce people to believe and love him.
He has gifted humanity with the freedom to choose, for as a God of love, he understands that love must involve the freedom to choose.
Bainimarama wants a society that must conform to his ideal, and he is doomed to fail because you cannot force a people to obey. Well, maybe for a while, out of fear, but that is an impossible social scenario to sustain.
If dealing a harsh hand to the media was not enough, Fiji?s dictator decided he was going to bring the country?s largest church group to subjection. A Methodist himself, he seems to take pride in the fact that he needs to suppress any and all dissenting elements within the Methodist Church.
Two of the Methodist church leaders were arrested for allegedly violating the Public Emergency Regulations (PER), and so was Rewa?s paramount chief, Ro Teimumu Kepa, for announcing the Methodists will still have their conference at her district despite the dictator?s ban.
Kepa declined to make any immunity deal with the State and opted to make a not guilty plea for inciting under PER.
Whether the Methodists will stand up in defiance of the Bainimarama edict or not is of no consequence. The Commodore had already acted to create and support the New Methodist Church, a fundamentalist brand of the Church that is seeking mass conversions to its ranks, and certain actions from the Police are now touted as ?orders from the Holy Spirit?.
According to Rika, it?s a ?Jesus crusade? that is comparable to the rule of the Taliban. Bainimarama?s government believe that if they can convert everyone to their brand of Christianity, they will consequently create a ?peaceful society?.
And so, Fiji is experiencing a rollercoaster ride in which a dictator takes out all the fundamental pillars that have held together society, and seeks to impose a personal utopian vision on a people whose lives have started to be aversely affected in every realm.
Kalafi Moala is the publisher and editor-in-chief of Taimi ?o Tonga and the Tongan Chronicle. He is also a former chair of the New Zealand-based Pacific Islands Media Association and twice winner of the PIMA
Na Dina’ Fiji Truth.
FCTM Team
Labels: Fiji, Fiji Truth, Kalafi Moala, Pacific Scoop, Regime
http://nadinafijitruth.blogspot.com/2009/09/pacific-scoop-cites-kal...
September 10th, 2009 at 11:30 am
Completely agree FijiBoot, as nice as it is that this old man is heading over… what is he going to do? Fact-finding? Having a bit of a chat? The problem with the Commonwealth is that talking and concensus is just not possible with 50 odd countries all with different aims and ideas. A association of democracies cant even unite to condemn this dictatorship.
September 11th, 2009 at 9:16 am
Sir Paul Reeves has just concluded his visit to Fiji, and released the following press release:
http://www.thecommonwealth.org/Templates/Internal.asp?NodeID=213478
To quote him:
?While I do not wish to pre-empt my report to the Secretary-General, I can say that I depart Fiji with a clear understanding of the Interim Government?s plans for Fiji following the abrogation of the Constitution in April. I welcome the importance Fiji attaches to its relationship with the Commonwealth, and the willingness of the Interim Prime Minister and his government to remain in discussions with me.
?I reiterated to Commodore Bainimarama and his Ministers that the Commonwealth stands ready to support an inclusive and time-bound national political dialogue, to facilitate the return of constitutional democracy. I also emphasised the importance Commonwealth members place on the fundamental principles that underpin our organisation, including representative government, respect for human rights and the rule of law.?
September 13th, 2009 at 7:21 am
Great stuff ZoeWare,
Just revamping on Sir Paul Reeves trip to Fiji, here s an interesting link that might give you some idea whats going through the ordinary Indigenous Fijians in Fiji & abroad.
http://www.matavuvale.com/profiles/blog/list?user=130pnmbt5uv65
September 27th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
The Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group has had another meeting – and Fiji was the main topic of conversation…
http://www.thecommonwealth.org/Templates/Internal.asp?NodeID=214035
October 1st, 2009 at 9:18 am
Commodore Frank sends a clear message to the world in a recent press release:
http://pidp.eastwestcenter.org/pireport/2009/October/10-01-ed1.htm
October 27th, 2009 at 8:47 am
So much for Frank Bainimarama beating his chest against the Super Powers & big Players. Heres an excerpt from Raw Fiji News of what Bainimarama & his jolly good mates are doing to Fiji; read more, ”Sada Reddy a political mouthpiece for tyrant Frank Bainimarama” October 27, 2009 Strings of disjointed and misleading rants released from Fiji?s controversial Reserve Bank Governor, Sada Reddy, is becoming just that, economic and political rants that doesn?t match reality on the ground. Observers have commented that Sada Reddy is now becoming a full-time political spokesman for his dictator boss, Frank Bainimarama. So far, an average of 3 press releases are pumped out from Sada?s pro-junta Reserve Bank PR machine per week. It is a huge contrast to previous Governor?s who were hardly on the public limelight and would only speak when needed on their monetary policies. With Sada Reddy, the Governor of Reserve Bank?s role have changed somewhat. Sada seem to have included the junta?s fiscal policies in his job description and Frank doesn?t seem to have any problem with it too. But it doesn?t just stop there. Sada has even gone as far as blaiming previous elected governments for all the problems Fiji is facing. And just like his boss Frank, he has refused to acknowledge that the biggest cause of Fiji?s problem is the coup culture perpetuated by twisted motives of lawbreakers like himself and Frank. Sada Reddy is no longer a neutral Governor of Reserve Bank. He should be man enough to admit that he is a scum bag governor who is now the official political mouthpiece for Frank Bainimarama. small mouth http://rawfijinews.wordpress.com/2009/10/27/sada-reddy-a-political-mouthpiece-for-tyrant-frank
December 1st, 2009 at 7:28 pm
Voreqe will face the consequences of his actions and what he has done is not acceptable to the tradional FIJIAN WAYS OF LIFE.As a human being who claimed to be a christian is not fit for purpose and his days are numbered so as the followers who are disrespectful of our chiefly system.The curse of the Vanua is dealt hurtfully to those who over step the mark. The Church especially the Methodist will arouse all members to continue and fight for the restoration of Human Rights in Fiji.As we approach the most important day of our Christian Calender I will ask of you to attend the Traditional Christmas Service and pray for a Wind of Change to take place in 2010.The power generated through prayers can move mountain and the Holy Spirit works in a mysterious way for thousands of years.As for Voreqe stop the tough act because you and your followers are deluding yourselves in bringing about changes in Fiji.Never in a million years for a Dictator to be a good force for change and the power of the people’s ballot is mightier than the gun barrels you are using to endanger the majority of the citizens of Fiji.To those of you who blindly support the Coups someone mightier than Voreqe will avenge the terrible in- human acts that had been dealt under the belt.Australia and New Zealand will survive and Fiji who rely on the Aust.and NZ aids is alienating her self.The very hands that feed the Fijian mouths are slowly disappearing and the rest of the South Pacific Nations are willing to receive such wonderful gifts.If Voreqe thinks that China is a donor of good will he better think again.
January 16th, 2010 at 12:38 am
Vinaka vakalevu na veivaka yaloqaqataki,Oase Malamalanitabua, Thank you for those great thoughts.
The Indigenous Fijians were the intial target at the outset of this Bainimarama 2006 coup. Now it has spread to anyone who speaks up against the regime. It is obvious that the elite group who now rule Fiji with dictatorial style of leadership under the military regime wants to erase or re-write Fiji’s history. The problems are most of these authors are non Indigenous Fijians and opting to pen Fijian history. My observations, to these elite group, Fijians means anyone from Fiji. This in itself contradicts the old fact that Fijians are Indigenous Fijians or ‘Ai Taukei’. Yes, it is understood we all want a sense of belonging but it must be executed in the right way and not dictated to by a few who God knows where they sprung from.
Sir Paul’s part during the Rabuka coups in Fiji in which he assisted in defining Fiji’s current constitution had its shortfalls too. But did Fiji really need these gun men wielding their guns freely in such a once peaceful nation??
Fiji’s hope rest with Fiji citizens worldwide to show their disagreement, the Commonwealth as Fiji has its deep rooted origins with Great Britain which it values dearly. The International Communities needs excert pressure via appropriate means for Fiji’s current regime to stop the Human Rights Abuses, constant intimidation army style tactics, militarization, push by certain segments of dictating what will work for Fiji, restore Rule of Law rather than being dictated by one man who now claims the title’Yavu ni vakavulewa’, & restore Fiji’s constitution.
This must be done asaspo so that the people of Fiji & those with vested interests can go on with their lives and choose freely who they want to run the affairs of its nation.
May God Bless Fiji.