The scoundrel Senator Tora defends his utter stupidity by tooth and nail and with hammer and tongs. One thing is for damn sure,
Tora is a marked man. Fortunately for Fiji he is probably the only landowner without any compassion or with entrepeneurial vision.
Qarase's comments against the Fiji gay community, will only decrease his chances of winning 2006 elections. But his loss in 2006, is already been determined by his laxity in curbing corruption and to some extent creating the environment for it, as well as the controversial R.T.U Bill.
My sentiments of ending the communal style of voting in Fiji,is reaching the ears of polticians.
At least, I'm not the only person advocatng an immediate change in State policies. So that all the best laid plans by Fiji
Government officials can evaporate, without they even realizing it.
Selected letters to Fiji Times editor, Tues Aug 30th 2005.
Time for change
AFTER the removal of the Timoci Bavadra and Mahendra Chaudhry governments through coups, a phrase emerged in response to the treacherous act and destructive aftermath that caused a lot of suffering felt among all races in the nation.
The phrase was "leave them alone... The day will come when Fijians will fight amongst themselves".
The process on the Promotion of Reconciliation, Tolerance and Unity Bill and the planned formation of a one united indigenous political party will indeed activate rivalry amongst the indigenous provinces or tikina.
Every one would want a piece of the cake or a larger slice of it.
Truly the Scriptural prophesy of brother against brother is now in force all over the world.
Scripture warns of latter-day false prophets, not only involved in religion but also in politics.
Iraq, Zimbabwe and Sudan are examples of how power, greed and corruption could easily be related to 1 John 9-11.
It is indeed saddening to see one of the friendliest, most kind and peace-loving natures of the Pacific adopt the wayward political lifestyles of other troubled countries.
I truly believe that it is time for a change, even religion organisations have become dominant. Let's make that change at the coming national general election in 2006.
Edwards Andrews
Lautoka
A-G's report
I AM a taxpayer whose contribution towards betterment of our living standards and provision of essential services has gone to waste.
I have a mouthful to say. I know that it is just a waste of time and effort as action will hardly be taken, but I still choose to stand up and tell the powers that be that enough is enough.
To PSC chairman Stuart Huggett, please stop the talk and show us your worth. Show us that you don't mince your word when you say that action will be taken. Come out of the "will be investigating" assurances and show us that real action has been taken to right the wrongs.
To PSC CEO Anare Jale, cut the talk that heavy disciplinary action has been taken.
We are not fools. We know what happened to those who were responsible for the agricultural scam and the fisheries scam and tons of other scams.
Minor fines and side transfers are not the solution to stop abuse. It's similar to the case of trying to straighten a dog's tail by tying it to a straight piece of wood. Once the wood is removed, the tail will go back to its initial state.
Think like management personnel and do justice to taxpayers' contributions.
To CEO Finance Paula Uluinaceva, stop advising others how to do their job.. Maybe those officers at the Auditor-General's Office have much greater knowledge and understanding of the processes involved in budget preparation than the ones doing it now.
We have continuously seen instances where budgets have been prepared to please the nation and later on, the ministries come up with requests for additional funding under the guise of additional funds required for unforeseen circumstances.
Most of us are literate enough to understand the politics involved in showing an improved picture at the initial presentation of the national budget and then asking for additional funding later. Stop the farce. The taxpayers of this nation are well aware of the outcome of your assurances. The remedy to avoid the abuse is to get rid of the rotten potatoes completely before they contaminate the whole bag.
There is still time if you start now. Just take the first step and the rest of the path will become clearer and the missing pieces will automatically fall into place.
Sarita Kumar
Suva
Law system
WHILE Senator Professor Asesela Ravuvu makes some good point from Fijian's representation of law metered down to criminal activity where Fijians are concerned, I am hopeful the Professor would wake up from his slumber and face reality that the world with its fast pace has no time for dreamers.
We in Fiji, like most country in the world, not only have taken on board western systems of law, culture, modes of dressing and language, we have take on its God as well. This is evident from the amount o preaching done at the Upper House, all in the name of God.
To do away with expatriates and Westminster system of law that gives assurance for justice to all citizens of this country would be tantamount to inviting Rwanda-type genocide here. If not, then it could lead to disturbances caused by civil servants' strike like that happening in Tonga now.
We should now accept the fact that in order for our country to survive, it is not the religion nor race or traditions that do it, but the strength and health of its economy. China is a good example. With its one and quarter billion population, not one case of a beggar is known to exist. Can we not then lay aside race hate and all other forms of victimisation and deal with the matter where it matters most hard honest work, peace, love and concern for the welfare for all citizens of our country?
Rose Lagakali
Nadi
Taxpayers' funds
ONCE again, the Auditor-General and his officers have highlighted cases of mismanagement and corrupt practices within our civil service. As a norm, the Public Service Commission is assuring taxpayers that action will be taken and those responsible brought to justice.
Year in, year out, the Auditor-General highlights the same nature of abuses and the same boring assurances are given by PSC that action will be taken to avoid such cases in future.
It stops at that, only assurances. Rarely any action.
PSC will use the blame syndrome and accuse employees who are no longer in employment and the Public Accounts Committee will be left to get answers from those who know little about the abuse.
After some time, taxpayers will have no choice but to accept the fact that our hard-earned contribution towards the development of the nation has gone down the gutter.
We will be made to fork out funds for the same purposes come another year - with officers abusing with little to no action taken.
The Auditor-General and his officers, who are toothless tigers, will continue to highlight issues that will eventually be swept under the carpet. The report will be thrown in a remote corner to be laughed at by the abusers.
That leaves us, the taxpayers, to wait for another national budget where the Finance Minister will come up with his same old boring nation-building strategies and further burden taxpayers with an increase in VAT or income tax to reduce government debt and generate more revenue for the Government.
All this leaves taxpayers wondering whether this vicious cycle will ever end.
It is generally not possible to have a nil abuse scenario within the civil service because of the varying calibre of people employed.
But repeated abuse shows us how seriously PSC and the responsible officers of the civil service treat the Auditor General's report.
A famous English saying states: "Only a fool lets itself get fooled in a similar situation twice".
The abuse culture will not stop until we get the right people to manage our civil service. On a daily basis, we see the introduction of new faces in the civil service but we hardly see any vacancies being advertised.
We have graduates roaming the streets looking for work but the civil service has abundance of management personnel who have just made it through secondary education.
The PSC needs to clean its house first and see the right calibre of people chosen to do the job demanded of them. Do something constructive to justify the wages you take home.
Otherwise close the Auditor-General's Office so that taxpayers can at least be saved from paying people whose views will eventually count for nothing.
Rakesh Chandra
Nasinu
Fijian coalition
The response by Radike Qereqeretabua to Jone Raiova's letter (FT 18/8) cannot be perceived as merely observatory. I would like to make a few genuine stabs at Radike's verbatim and in the process educate readers.
Radike identifies Jone Raiova as an Army officer, which is the initial tangent in his letter that has nothing to do with the issue.
Radike proudly labels the group as "our" which by implication means he is a member or closely associated with the group.
Radike defends the concept of the grand coalition and drops in a few idioms that are more related to personal growth than national policy. If Fiji were to try and try again, like Radike insisted. Does he also mean trying another coup.
"It is, that National Unity is the ultimate desirable goal to ensure our national success in the longrun (sic)..." That statement proudly stated by Radike is self-contradictory. It is hard to fathom how the group can achieve national unity when the group's own core beliefs alienates themselves into this mono-racial Grand Coalition. Last time I checked Fiji was a multi-racial country.
Radike believes this grand coalition were given the mandate by God, to negotiate all matters pertaining to the Fijian race. I commend the group's initiative however, they don't' speak for all Fijians and never have. To suggest otherwise, will be the crowning excellence of fabrication.
I agree Fijians need to work together but working together does not mean voting together. Radike misses Mssr Raiova's main point of 'thinking out of the box', politically speaking. Fijians, like any other educated individuals, must have the freedom to tweak the variables in the political equation.
Fijians have learnt to demarcate political issues with cultural ones. This grand coalition attempt to blur that line, prior to the 2006 elections.
Radike and his group have been mis-representing facts to uninformed Fijians. Their words, in essence mean that there are no alternatives to the status-quo. Equating Fijian political unity with national unity is the main crux of their mis-information campaign.
I would like to remind Radike, if Raiova's comments were too intellectual for the group. Then it would be unbecoming for the Grand Coalition Initiative Group to be even considered leading anything in Fiji. Other than the applications of the garden fork, in a agricultural assistance program.
If the grand coalition was analogous to rugby players attempting to represent Fiji in the up coming world cup. Judging from the players on his team, I seriously doubt if they have the youth, adaptability, mental dexterity or physical fitness to warm anyone's reserve bench let alone Wayne Pivac's.
Radike's quote of George Washington ".. to persevere in one's duty is to be silent.." cannot seriously be applied to questions of political freedom.
I would like to juxtapose a quote from Federalist Thomas Paine in his article "The Rights of Man" published in 1791.
The mutual dependence and reciprocal interest which man has upon man, and all the parts of civilised community upon each other, create that great chain of connection which holds it together.
The landholder, the farmer, the manufacturer, the merchant, the tradesman, and every occupation, prospers by the aid which each receives from the other, and from the whole.
Common interest regulates their concerns, and forms their law; and the laws which common usage ordains, have a greater influence than the laws of government.
Society performs for itself almost everything which is ascribed to government. To understand the nature and quantity of government proper for man, it is necessary to attend to his character.
As Nature created him for social life, she fitted him for the station she intended. In all cases she made his natural wants greater than his individual powers.
No one man is capable, without the aid of society, of supplying his own wants, and those wants, acting upon every individual, impel the whole of them into society, as naturally as gravitation acts to a centre.
Reginald Lutu
Sacramento
CA
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