Indigenous Fiji Newsletter

The following is the text of a newsletter received from Fiji. It sets out many of the grievances and suspicions of many indigenous Fijians. It is republished by Te Karere Ipurangi to illustrate the issues that concern many indigenous Fijians, that led ultimately to the present constitutional crisis.

Ross Nepia Himona te.putatara@actrix.gen.nz

MAY NEWSLETTER, 2000

1. CHAUDHRY ignored the concerns of indigenous FIJIANS over the the last 12 months, expressed via protests, marches and parliamentary objections from the Opposition and from his own Coalition party members, passing these concerns off as the rambling of a small group of disgruntled politicians who lost the last elections.

2. CHAUDHRY¹S government practiced the progressive removal of Affirmative Action for the indigenous Fijian community across all sectors in the last 12 months.

3. The blatant attempt over the last 12 months to weaken, or if possible destroy important indigenous institutions, namely NLTB and GCC.

4. CHAUDHRY¹S continuing attempt to retain ALTA against the wishes of the GCC and NLTB as the indigenous people have watched with dismay, concern and resentment.

5. When Mr. CHAUDHRY was in power he attempted to coerce the NLTB to continue granting leases to tenants under ALTA against the wishes of GCC and NLTB who have stated their policy of renewal under NLTA and that ALTA should be repealed.

6. Mr CHAUDHRY¹S Fiji Labour Party since 1987 has advocated the establishment of a Land Use Commission which is not in the best interest of indigenous Fijians.

7. Mr CHAUDHRY¹S arrogance was the trademark of his style of political leadership. This was offensive to indigenous Fijians and was made worse by his government¹s public attack on prominent Fijians like Laisenia Qarase and others.

8. Another troubling aspect of the CHAUDHRY led government was its ongoing attempt to divide the indigenous people of Fiji through the tactics of divide and rule.

9. In an attempt to hoodwink and subvert traditional indigenous leadership, a representative group of indigenous Chiefs led by an Indian were sent by CHAUDHRY to observe traditional land ownership in Sarawak, Malaysia.

10. Even before Mr. CHAUDHRY came into power he as a leading Opposition spokesman was always critical of Affirmative Action in favour of Fijians, so much so that when in power he ensured that this was removed. In its place the Social justice provision of the 1997 Constitution was implemented with unbelievable speed and lack of consideration and consultation with Fijians.

11. The Taukei Civilian Coup of May 19th, 2000 represents the culmination of 12 months of anger, disappointment, and outrage in the manner in which the CHAUDHRY government dealt with matters of importance to Fijians.

12. The ultimate affront to Fijian pride in the 9 indigenous Ministers in the Cabinet, 2 of whom were deputy PM¹s who appeared to be completely under the thumb of CHAUDHRY.

13. The events of May 19, 2000 could have been avoided if Mr CHAUDHRY had the humility and political courage to listen to the growing unrest of the Fijians and step down.

14. CHAUDHRY banked very much on the fact that he had an absolute majority in Parliament, and that was sufficient mandate for him the run roughshod over the concerns of the Fijians.

15. CHAUDHRY¹S government was secretly implementing its grand plan for the Indian Colonization of Fiji, which effectively seeks to entrench Indian supremacy in Fiji forever by undermining Fijians, their institutions, culture and traditional structures. This plan was discovered in CHAUDHRY¹S files after May 19th, 2000 and proves the program of treachery and deceit of Fijians by Indians that was accelerated by CHAUDHRY¹S victory in May 1999 and halted exactly one year later on May 19, 2000.

16. CHAUDHRY brought Mr P.V. Rao from India to work on Fiji¹s Y2K Program and personally ordered the Manager of Government¹s Information Technology and Computing Services (ITC) to grant Mr Rao unrestricted and unsupervised 24 hour access to all government systems from December 9, 1999. It is disturbing to note that Mr. P.V. Rao also holds a senior rank in the Indian Army. A memo to Permanent Secretary for Finance from Mr. CHAUDHRY dated 30th December 1999 states ³No ITC staff or consultant, except for Mr Rao, should be allowed to access the critical systems from now to well after the changeover date except to handle any complication which arises and is documented.

17. CHAUDHRY is guilty of using public funds on renovations and improvements to his private home in Vatuwaqa, which is a personal asset of his. This is inexcusable and illegal.

18. CHAUDHRY¹S approval of the appointment of his son, Rajendra as his Private Secretary is not only an act of blatant nepotism, but also evidence of his insensibility to the attitudes and concerns of Fijians.

19. CHAUDHRY¹S government has embarked on the Indianization of the Civil Service, Boards of Government, Commercial Companies and Statutory Authorities, as well as appointments of Indians to the Senior Executive positions in Housing Authority etc.

20. CHAUDHRY¹S government was in the process of appointing an overwhelming majority of Indians into positions of authority in all of our foreign embassy offices.

21. CHAUDHRY¹S appointments of the Senate were all part of the plan to enable the passage of controversial legislation, which further eroded the interests of the Fijians.

22. CHAUDHRY has in the last 12 months consistently displayed an ignorance and disdain for the two things that are sacred to a Taukei, i.e. Nona Kalou, Nona Vanua. His government has contributed to the impoverishment and disaffection of indigenous Fijians and his rule was the culmination of thirty fraught years of modern indigenous Fijian leadership that have sacrificed the economic and cultural well being of Fijians for the advancement of a few.

23. CHAUDHRY¹S Fiji Labour Party established its own secret Security Committee in 1999 using Fijian Labour supporters and others (Posiano Nauku, Viliame Bulilevu, Mrs Jokapeci koroi, Isireli Vuibau, Joeli Kalou) to spy on other Fijians ( Sitiveni Rabuka, Ratu Inoke Kubuabola and Apisai Tora) suspected of plotting to overthrow the Labour government via the assassination of certain Government Ministers if their ALTA attempts fail.

24. Documentary evidence reveals that CHAUDHRY sanctioned his Security Committee to illegally tape conversations and meetings attended by Marika Qarikau, General Manager, Native Land Trust Board with the intent to hand the tapes over to the former President, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, who as former Chairman of Native land Trust Board was to sack Mr. Qarikau immediately because Mr. Qarikau stood in the way of the retention of ALTA as desired by Indians. CHAUDHRY and MARA are guilty of conspiracy against the interests of Fijians on massive scale in land matters.

25. CHAUDHRY has a long history of arguing for racial equality under the umbrella of democracy whilst pursuing an underlying secret agenda of entrenching the interests of Indians in Fiji as supreme.

26. The payment of $28,000 to displaced cane farmers by the CHAUDHRY government is to the Fijians a gross abuse of public funds and serves to further entrench in the minds of Indians in Fiji their misplaced notions of rights to land.

ends

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