The Lady Is A Tramp.

Fiji Times article quotes from the Rewa Paramount Chief, who was part of a church delegation visiting the Chair of the People's Charter, Archbishop Petero Mataca. The excerpt of the Fiji Times article:

Sorry: Ro Teimumu

Friday, October 26, 2007

REWA high chief Ro Teimumu Kepa has admitted to being a part of the delegation of concerned Catholic church members who visited Archbishop Petero Mataca.

The visit was to ask Archbishop Mataca to step down as the co-chair of the National Council on Building a Better Fiji. Ro Teimumu had earlier denied being part of the delegation that visited Archbishop Mataca.

"Yes, I was a part of the delegation but I did not want to say anything at first because I did not want to make it a public issue," she said.

"But now that the Archbishop has made a statement with regards to the meeting and the issue that was discussed, I felt it was time for me to say that I was a part of the delegation. "I really want to apologise for denying my presence at the meeting to the reporter who had called me and asked me about it."

Ro Teimumu, Ratu Suliano Matanitobua and Kenneth Zinck visited Archbishop Mataca. When asked if there was a possibility of a split in the Catholic church after the decision by the Archbishop, Ro Teimumu did not directly say there was a split but admitted there were a lot of people with strong feelings about the Archbishop's decision.

Raiwaqa parish priest Father Kieran Maloney said he strongly disagreed with Archbishop Mataca's decision to co-chair the National Council. He said the acceptance was disgusting but not surprising.

"We really want to urge people to continue to attend church because it is for the people too and not only for the Archbishop.

"The church is for us and we should continue to go to church and pray for the church and its leadership," said Ro Teimumu.

The failed defamation campaign against Archbishop Mataca, has forced those in the shadows to drag out the indigenous rights issue, in a feeble attempt to rekindle the flames of dissatisfaction in the minds of the ignorant. Their spin doctoring poorly and speculatively paints the People's Charter as a clear and present danger to the indigenous Fijian race. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Fiji Times article covers the opinion of the Aristocrats in the Rewa province. This comes in the wake of another Fiji Times article quoting from representatives from Somosomo Taveuni warning the teams for the People's Charter stating that, the village was off limits.

The excerpt:

Somosomo bans People's Charter teams

1635 FJT
Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Update: 4.35pm THE chiefly clan of Lalagavesi, Somosomo will not allow any teams conducting awareness programs on the People's Charter into Somosomo.

Traditional spokesman Epeli Matata said the teams may visit other villages on Taveuni but the chiefly village of Somosomo would be out of bounds for them.

The military has been holding awareness programs on the People's Charter.

Charter anti-Fijian: Rewa

Friday, November 09, 2007

REWA, one of Fiji's three largest provinces, yesterday rejected the proposed People's Charter on Building a Better Fiji largely because it disagreed with efforts to ignore the existence of indigenous Fijians.

Ro Dona Takalaiyale, the leader of the Sauturaga clan and spokesman of the Rewa Bose Vanua, issued Rewa's position in a statement yesterday. Ro Dona described the charter as "a creation of non-racial Fiji and written by two foreigners without input from Fijians or their elected representatives".

Ro Dona also voiced concerns about the interim Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama's public statements about his desire to abolish all communal seats through the People's Charter.

"Also Lt-Col Mataitoga's statement that Affirmative Action will be abolished under the charter. Also the charter is inconsistent with the UN Declaration on Rights of Indigenous People's Article 3-5 where indigenous people are entitled to participate in the political life of the state. "It is inconsistent with the 1997 Constitution where race is recognised as an integral element of the nation of Fiji," he said.

Ro Dona said the Bose Vanua also resolved to boycott any referendum or election that will be influenced by the Charter.

Commenting on the review of the Great Council of Chiefs, Ro Dona said the vanua remained steadfast in its support of the suspended GCC's stand that the interim Government was illegal and that its actions including the review of the GCC were illegal and unconstitutional.

"The Bose Vanua resolves that it will not accept the outcomes of the review of the GCC by the interim Government-appointed committee and that it would not participate in any reconstituted GCC arising out of the recommendations of the committee," he said.

Earlier this month, Ro Filipe Tuisawau, the nephew of Rewa paramount chief Ro Teimumu Kepa, warned the indigenous population to be wary of the People's Charter because it would not allow for indigenous issues to be raised in Parliament.

He said this would greatly affect the indigenous people.

It appears that the Fijian aristocracy have launched another mis-information campaign; to shore up support for their version of social slavery. While calling for Fiji's rapid return to democracy- a farcical suggestion because all right thinking people understand that, Chief's involvement in Democracy is an oxymoron.

It is also amusing to read the concerns about indigenous rights being undermined by the People's Charter; as if the aristocracy had been given a monopoly to exclusively comment of matters pertaining to all indigenous issues. It was this monopoly that reared its ugly head in Fiji post 2000 coup, when the Paramount chief of Rewa, Ro Teimumu Kepa paid a social call with George Speight and the Rebels holed up in Fiji Parliament; while dismissing any notion to visit hostages, who were still held in nearby meeting rooms within the Parliamentry complex. It was this monopoly of Fijian chiefs that indirectly formented the riots in downtown Suva both in 1987 and 2000.





Ro Dona described the charter as "a creation of non-racial Fiji and written by two foreigners without input from Fijians or their elected representatives". Ro Dona raises the issue of the 1997 Constitution and selectively omits that that document was written and compiled by two foreigners as well. It is also the high water mark of hypocrisy, not to question the formation of the Great Council of Chiefs, an aristocratic entity imported by the British. Of course, anything foreign that does not erode the cultural exuberance of the Chiefs is kept on a pedestal; while anything progressive and visionary like the People's Charter is denounced, ridiculed and disdained by the same layer of despots.




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