"BACK TO DEMOCRACY FOR FIJI"

You are invited to share and pen your ideas, views or opinions that will facilitate/assist our country back to democracy. All positive and/or negative ideas and comments to steer us back to the road of democracy are welcome.

Whichever way one looks at our current situation back home, democracy has been completely raped. The rape of democracy in Fiji is a virtual degradation of the populus of Fiji. Their human rights are being deprived:

1. the right to decide their government;
2. who they want to represent them;
3. their right to free assembly;
4. free protest;
5. free to organise into groups so that they can talk about what is pertinent to their daily lives;
6. protest on issues they do not agree with....with no fear of intimidation from anybody.

With this military regime in place, the concept of freedom per the Constitution is a total myth!

And, we, the people of Fiji need to come together and be vehement about our total disagreement with the military regime. So give us liberty or death! The reality of the issue is that democracy in Fiji has been raped...from top to bottom...left to right....inside and out and vice versa!

Here we have a military regime that talks about freedom to the people and yet the very same military regime randomly arrest people, torture them, inflict unnecessary harrassment and emotional stress to those that seem a threat to them. The military regime talks about racial unity.......the communal concept of togetherness and yet Fiji is far more racially divided today than it ever was.

The so-called advisors, viz-a-viz, John Samy, these are rejects from their adopted countries and yet they are being rewarded with exuberant amount(s) of money by these rogue military regime who have no idea what they are doing. Lying to the international community does not augur well with this interim government and yet the interim Prime Minister continuously talks with a forked tongue when addressing international issues. The ministers talk about internal securities as if Fiji is going to be invaded.

All around it is clearly seen that the economy is in tatters and the Constitution is just a useless piece of paper. The rule of law is as what the military regime wants it to be.

The above are just some of my views (from a pro-democracy viewpoint). But, do not let that deter you from penning your comments if you share otherwise.

So, let us come together and voice our views/comments, whether they be for or against the military regime and have a very healthy discussion here so that in the end we can factually understand what our role is, what we need to do and how we can come up with ideas to help restore democracy back in our beloved Fiji!

Please feel free to write what you like or dislike about the military regime. Be sincere and honest about your thoughts, without getting personal or spiteful.

Kindly note, this "topic" will expire as soon as we have an election.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Mere Tuisalalo Samisoni on January 31, 2010 at 11:00pm: 1/2/10
Good one Mark,
Ha! Ha! Ha! Haa! Haa! Hee! Hee!
Rainima, I must send this to my children. They will explode.
Kasanita, you are right. I hear you.
Mere.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Saula Tuikoro on February 7, 2010 at 11:03am: Kasa...take the brain out you say...Thats not the kind of words the fighters of democracy should be saying...I think you guys are over the edge.....borders between fighter and terrorism I thionk; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Kasanita Kamakorewa Lindell on February 7, 2010 at 4:04pm: Yes I did too say that Saula Tuikoro! I am amazed at your lack of patriotism...go figure!!

And how you interpret that depends on your mentality and your perspective.

lol @ "I thionk"

Sa malo PUA!!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Suliasi Daunitutu on January 31, 2010 at 2:11pm: February 1, 2010
By Michael Field

As a junior officer, Voreqe Bainimarama spent a year serving with the Chilean navy (read more here), at the worst time of the brutal Augusto Pinochet regime.
Bainimarama's response, including fatal torture of soldiers who opposed him, suggests he learned the arts of oppression there.
Now, he is cancelling the pensions of those senior citizens who are suspected of opposing him.
This is one lesson he did not learn from Pinochet; in fact even Pinochet was not as stupid as this.
Pinochet's regime, which came into place with the 1973 coup against President Salvador Allende, who killed himself, was catastrophic for Chile, but with one notable exception; pensions.
Controversial Chicago School of Economic's guru Milton Friedman arrived in Chile and recommended the creation of Sistema Previsional, a national pension scheme.
Without going into detail, the scheme is compulsory for all civilian employees who opt into a defined-contribution system under private management.
A government agency supervises the behaviour of the private funds.
Its not perfect and the scheme does leave out some people, but it has created a vast and comprehensive social contract with the nation.
Pinochet has gone and democracy has returned, and Chile has found itself, thanks to Sistema Previsional with a saving system that now has accumulated wealth to around 70 percent of the gross national product.
Chile is hugely wealthy, thanks to the savings of its own people.
It's a remarkable reflection on the Chilean people, that even under the adversity of military rule, they were able to create this. It also says something about the greater society and culture that rises above its politics to create an inter-generational contract worth something.
When you are young, pensions seem far away and not worth worrying about. Its why, then, that it is useful to have an element of compulsion; you must invest five percent or 10 percent - whatever, and we, the state and/or employer will match that.
It is a social contract that in due course rises about politics. As it is generational in nature, there has to be trust.
The consequences of meddling with the contract, or simply breaking it as Bainimarama is now doing, are frightfully serious.
Long after Bainimarama has joined Pinochet in the Valhalla of dictators, Fiji will have to deal with the outcome of the breach of social contract occurring now in Fiji.
Like the original contribution a worker makes to superannuation at the beginning of their career, the breach in contract at the beginning seems small, and convenient, but the cumulative effect is major.
Bainimarama cut Sitiveni Rabuka's pension, presumably because he did not like him.
That is thuggery, not because Rabuka may or may not be a nice guy, but because his contract was not with this regime, but with the people of Fiji as a whole.
In a way, Bainimarama has created the same contract himself; when he is unable to work and is old, the state will, in some way, contribute to his care.
Now Bainimarama is going after other pensioners and while stopping a payment is an easy bureaucratic process, the fact is he now has Inland Revenue and the Corruption Commission (the ever vigilant goons on the watch for people running restaurants without a license) attacking the pensioners.
Trumped up charges are investigated and people at the end of their lives suddenly find themselves in a fight with young civil servants who shamefully abuse the old.
One wonders at the morality of Fiji civil servants who follow orders and attack the elderly like this; it has a kind of "only obeying orders" quality about it.
And of course, all those loyal little workers at Inland Revenue and Corruption must now know this too -- their own pensions are worthless. They too can be written off by direction and whim of who ever is in charge.
What's good for the goose....
The Corruption Clowns can freeze bank accounts and starve people.
The cruelty is obvious, and barely rates further comment.
I wonder if the Hong Kong lawyers who set up the corruption commission are now content to know that after all these years, the best it can do is prosecute restaurants for having no licence and stealing walking-sticks from the elderly.
But my point in raising Pinochet is a simple one; with pensions he could have created a greater Fiji, but instead he has used them to create a mean, frightened and ultimately sad Fiji.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Kasanita Kamakorewa Lindell on January 31, 2010 at 2:14pm: What in the world was he doing out there with the Chilean army in the first place?

Whose decision was that?

Who funded Bainimarama's Chilean affair?

For what reason?

Or is the man really that sick and wasteful?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Saula Tuikoro on February 7, 2010 at 11:10am: Kasa ...The ALLIANCE GOVT sent him there to prepare him for this day...Thats what is called VISION..The fijians in fiji are happy for they now have a Govt that is receptive and proactive.........; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Kasanita Kamakorewa Lindell on February 7, 2010 at 4:01pm: PROVE IT YOU DODO!!! @ Saula Tuikoro.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Saula Tuikoro on February 22, 2010 at 5:00pm: @Kasa... what other proofs do you need...there are things you and your likes should know and things you should'nt,,get my drift.......this blog is for what you and your likes should know...sa matata oya? no hard feelings stay safe..; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Suliasi Daunitutu on January 31, 2010 at 2:30pm: Pension is an entitlement which you receive after you retire and it continues till you die. My father received his pension until he passed away in the year 2000, and anyone could see the satisfaction and security this money gave him, from however minimal to a PM's entitlement, it serves as an umbrella on rainy days, something that they can plan trips around and keeps sanity when "ogaoga" or a soli is demanded from villagers.

It is also that money that makes a pensioner happy and somewhat proud to be able to walk up on the fortnightly Sunday to give his "Vakamisinari" when his name is called out, so it gives them a feeling of independence, which also turns into contention when a grandchild asks Tukai to buy his text books - that gives them a feeling of belonging, a chance to show that they still belong to the elite group of family breadwinners, and can help out with his fortnightly pension.

Now, if anyone of these faithfull servants who have given the best part of their lives serving their country - think that they can say anything to the current illegal regime, they are in for a rude shock. It is law and they will forfeit their pension if they do that. Gone will be those things that they proudly take part in, gone are the security of providing their own, and most importantly, gone is the recognition of their blood sweat and tears.

Chille, is the big scale advantage of the pension sheme, that little picture of a pensioner is the smaller scale version of abusing this very useful scheme that can destroy a person in more ways than one.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Suliasi Daunitutu on January 31, 2010 at 3:18pm: Regardless of how much they try to legitamise their regime, regardless of how many decrees they put in place, regardless of all their propaganda, regardless of what beautiful picture they want to paint to the Nation......THEY ARE STILL AN ILLEGAL GOVERNMENT..and we can see that under the surface of their pretentious and overbearing governance.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Taukei on January 31, 2010 at 3:40pm: Regardless of the oppositon the government is moving forward and implementing policies that would empower the country.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Saula Tuikoro on February 7, 2010 at 11:16am: Mata suli O kemudou ga dou sega tiko ni via recognise taka na Matanitu qo everyone elses does
I can sense so much negativity in you that only Jesus can help you please seek counselling...Kalougata tiko; ▶ Reply to This