Subject:       Bainimarama’s Expulsion of the Australian and New Zealand Diplomat Condemned.

Date:          4^th November 2009

The Fiji Democracy and Freedom Movement strongly condemns the latest action of Fiji’s Military Dictator Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama, who yesterday announced the expulsion of the Australian and New Zealand High Commissioners from Suva.

The Fiji Military Dictatorship must continue to be reminded of the fact that they gained power through illegal violent means, the barrel of a gun. The legal Fiji High Court have already made the decision that Bainimarama and his attorney general are illegal and took office through illegal criminal means.

The least they could do is spare us the indignity of having to listen to them try and justify their illegal grab of power and their continued weak claims of the need to maintain their illegal occupation of office.

The expulsion of the two envoys was again another knee jerk reaction from Bainimarama, and enhance his tendency to make erratic, ill thought out decisions that only suites him and is over inflated ego.

Also, it once again demonstrates that real power lies with his Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum. After all, it was only last week that Khaiyum threatened to go and see his Prime Minister about the rejection of a High Court Judges visa to take her son to New Zealand for medical treatment.

It appears that whatever Khaiyum says or advises, Bainimarama does without fully considering its follow on effect. It raises the possibility that the tail (Khaiyum) is wagging the dog (Bainimarama) and that Khaiyum is now the real power in Fiji similar to the influence of Rasputin in Tsarist Russia.

The expulsion further demonstrates that Bainimarama’s Military Dictatorship says one thing and does the opposite. It proves the many claims that those illegally holding powers in Fiji do not really care about the common people and that is why we need an elected government answerable to the electors as soon as possible.

The last thing that Fiji needs at the moment is negative reporting on the international stage. It scares away potential investors. It scares away potential tourists. It scares away potential aid donors.

And who takes the full brunt when such selfish and gung-ho decisions are made? Not Commodore Bainimarama and his air condition SUV travelling illegal hangers on and ministers, or his cocktail circuit mates. It is the lowly paid struggling common citizens of Fiji who continuous to struggling daily to put food on the family table.

Commodore Bainimarama again showed his arrogance and naivety when he hinted that he thought relations with Australia and New Zealand might improve with the change of government in these two countries since he grabbed power in December 2006. Once again, he let out that the PM’s job is beyond him capability when he truly expected that the mentioned change in governments was going to change Australia and New Zealand’s views of his illegal dictatorship.

Commodore Bainimarama, in his exact words say “they (Australia and New Zealand) are engaged in dishonest and untruthful strategies to undermine Fiji’s judiciary, independent institutions and economy”. It is a bit rich coming from someone who grabbed power illegally via the criminal act of treason and has continued to illegally occupy the seat of power in Fiji without putting it to the people of Fiji to decide.

This is the same man who has to one day answer for the goon squad that have taken thousands up to the military barracks and have their rights violated, or those have their cars smashed in or houses fire bombed.

Not to mention the cold blooded murder of special force soldiers after the failed mutiny at the military barracks have been put down or the deaths in custody of Verebasaga, Rabaka, Malasebe and Baleiloa after the December 2006 coup.

The illegal Military Dictatorship needs to be reminded that Fiji needs Australia and New Zealand more than these two countries need Fiji. These are two very wealthy nations and the expulsion of their diplomats is not going to badly  impact their economy as much as it is going to impact Fiji.

Fiji’s illegal Prime Minister also need to come clean on what he is trying to defend here.

The former President abrogated the Constitution on the 10^th of April 2009 after the Fiji High Court declared the coup of December 2006 and the subsequent action of the President in appointing the Bainimarama Government was illegal.

As a consequence, the entire judiciary and magistrates were all dismissed and those that make up the present judiciary and the lower courts were head hunted by Bainimarama’s attorney general, appointed by Bainimarama and rubber stamped with consent by the current illegally appointed President Nailatikau.

In other words, these are not independent judge, separate from the executive arm of the state but directly linked via the appointment process that made them become judges under his regime. Therefore, their work and judgements will be overshadowed by the nature of their appointment and the question of doubt will always linger over the cases they preside over.

Finally, it is a well known fact that anyone that accepts an illegal appointment by the Bainimarama Military Dictatorship automatically has a travel ban placed on them by Australia and New Zealand. This was part of a list of smart sanctions that was announced by these two countries immediately after the 2006 coup. So why the sudden drama?

The Fiji Democracy and Freedom Movement appeals to the Military Dictatorship of Bainimarama, if there are any level headed people left in there, to please consider the plight of the innocent lives of Fiji Islanders suffering from these poorly conceived decisions of your leader and be brave enough to offer some positive advice to your leader.

Usaia Peter Waqatairewa

President

FDFM Cairns Pacific Forum Meeting a Success

The Fiji Democracy and Freedom Movement continued its fight by lobbying leaders of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) at the recent Pacific Islands Forum Meeting in Cairns to drop its plan to table the roadmap by Fiji’s military regime for elections to be held in 2014.

Instead, the Australia-based Movement lobbied Forum leaders to accept the joint submission by Fiji’s deposed Prime Minister, Laisenia Qarase and Fiji Labour Party Leader Mahendra Chaudhry that the Presidential Political Dialogue Forum should resume and workshop a path for a return to parliamentary democracy with an election deadline of October 2010.

The MSG comprises Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and the Solomons.

“The Movement believes that the Qarase-Chaudhry Joint Submission should be the roadmap adopted by the Forum because those two leaders head political parties that attracted 85 per cent of the votes in the 2006 election,” Movement President Usaia Pita Waqatairewa said.

“They therefore represent the true views of the people of Fiji,” he said.

“Frank Bainimarama’s roadmap, on the other hand, does not represent the views of the people of Fiji,” Mr Waqatairewa said.

“Commodore Bainimarama’s roadmap reflects his own personal views and those of an elite few that have much to lose if Fiji is returned to parliamentary democracy.”

Mr Waqatairewa said the Movement succeeded in convincing the MSG leaders through meetings with their High Commissioners and the Solomon Islands Prime Minister that there is an alternative to Commodore Bainimarama’s Interim Government’s roadmap to democracy.

“Our cause was strongly boosted by the Communiqué of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Committee just days before the Forum meeting, which fully endorsed the Qarase-Chaudhry Joint submission leading to the Forum’s own endorsement of the submission in their communiqué after the Leaders Retreat on Thursday August 6,” he said.

He said the Movement also aimed to engage media attention and send a message for the immediate restoration of democracy and freedom in Fiji.

Mr Waqatairewa was met by a media scrum on the first day of demonstration outside the meeting venue and gave 10 separate interviews to a global audience during the two-day demonstration.

He had driven to Cairns from Sydney, meeting up with Fijian communities along the way in Armidale, Brisbane, Townsville and Cairns.

In the process, he managed to establish working committees for chapters in Armidale, Townsville and Cairns with plans to establish chapters across Australia for a nationwide movement fighting for the restoration of democracy to Fiji.

23/7/09

I write to offer my support and solidarity to the Gone Marama Bale na Roko Tui Dreketi, who was unjustly and unceremoniously detained in the past few days.

The boldness and courage of this Lady and leader in making a stand against the devious, self-serving, and ultimately self-defeating manipulation of the present illegal Regime, is a breath of fresh air in the cynical and dishonorable times we now live in.

As disgraceful as her detention is though, we must nonetheless accept in faith that this IS all part of God’s Plan, as the lady herself so eloquently put it in her letter to her people.

Jesus, Himself began the battle to throw off darkness and evil, and to replace it with His Kingdom, with His death on Calvary’s Cross.

Since then, Christians have always been impelled by the implications of their faith to struggle and stand against evil. St Telemachus for instance was, by his own death, instrumental in ending the barbaric practice of gladiatorial death sport in the Roman Empire. William Wilberforce, by his life of sacrifice, spearheaded the abolition of slavery in Victorian times. Lord Shaftsbury’s exertions kick-started the dawn of industrial emancipation and worker’s rights during the same era. Elizabeth Fry was the first prison reformer. Samuel Plimsoll spearheaded shipping safety regulations and reform. John Wesley, St Vincent de Paul (Ladies of Charity) and William Booth (Salvation Army) founded pioneering organizations to succor and minister to the poor in the preceding Century. Later the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King forfeited even his own life for his stand of faith and principle against the insidious scourge of racism.

In all cases, these Christian saints acted out of the dictates of their faith, at great personal cost and risk, often against brutal or hardnosed Governments that were either indifferent to the injustice, or who were part of it themselves under the lobbying and control of those, who were directly benefitting from the status quo. But not one of them ever backed down, as to do so would mean betraying their consciences as well as their God.

Fiji once again finds herself faced by this kind of evil. In 2000 it was Speight. Now it is Bainimarama. In 2000 it was rebellion. In 2006/9, the rebellion has succeeded and the Barbarians have risen to power on the back of guns, brutality, lies and intransigence. The situation seems hopeless and the usurpers seem to hold all the cards that count.

But just as the injustice and evil of the past always raised up Christian movers and shakers of conscience to opposition, so are the lies, wickedness and travesty of Bainimarama’s Fiji raising up champions like Ro Teimumu Kepa.

The question for people like her is “Are we our brother’s keeper?” According to God’s law, and people’s man-made constitutional law and values, yes we are. These are for two reasons, the work of the Church in the community, and its prophetic role against the injustice of this coup. The Regime is WRONG to try and stop either.

In any crises management there are four pitfalls that stakeholders may fall into. These are panic, apathy, fear and denial. Good leaders are able to communicate the truth, and inspire peoples’ spirits in order to strategically motivate them out of those pitfalls into just and righteous action. Winston Churchill is the best crises manager known in history when he fearlessly asked for the British peoples’ steadfastness knowing that the technically superior German Army were preparing to bomb London. And England won the battle and the war.

Like the infamous Nazi propaganda machine, Bainimarama’s illegal Regime also hopes to use its ridiculous PER and hand-picked judiciary to deny Ro Temumu-Kepa and the Methodist Church leaders’ right to be their “brother’s keeper”.

But whatever unjust and unjustifiable trumped up charges and punishment they dream up, they will NOT prevail!

Dr. Mere Tuisalalo Samisoni, SDL member for Lami Open Constituency.

Fiji  Police detains Paramount Chief and Church leaders

Suva, July 23, 2009: One of Fiji’s senior most paramount chiefs  and head of the troubled island nation’s  largest confederacy, the Burebasaga confederacy, Ro Teimumu Kepa, has been detained at Central Police Station in Fiji’s capital, Suva.

In addition, two former presidents of the Methodist church of Fiji, Rev Manasa Lasaro and Rev Tomasi Kanailagi, were arrested by military security forces in the early hours of this morning and are being detained at the military barracks in Nabua, Suva.

As well, the National Director of the Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua (SDL), Peceli Kinivuwai, was arrested 10am Fiji time today and is also being detained at the military barracks.

In other news, the military-appointed court has refused to release the passport of  deposed Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase.

Ro Teimumu Kepa is a former minister in the Laisenia Qarase-led government that was deposed by military strongman, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, in the 2006 coup.
 
According to well-placed sources, Ro Teimumu was picked up from her traditional village, Lomanikoro in the province of Rewa  – in eastern Viti Levu – about midnight Fiji time.

Sources said up to 16 uniformed and civilian police officers made the arrest but charges have yet to be confirmed.

It is understood however that this latest crackdown is directly related to the military-led arrests of members of the steering committee of the Methodist church of Fiji.

The Church has been vocal in its opposition to the military regime and defied a ban by the regime to cancel its annual Church Conference, a major event in the church calendar, normally held in late August.

Ro Teimumu had given her approval for the conference to be held in Lomanikoro next month in direct defiance of the military ban.

On Monday night, the military arrested and late released the General Secretary of the Methodist Church, Rev. Tuikilakila Waqairatu.  In a series of crackdowns on the dissident Church, the military arrested and detained another eight Church ministers by Tuesday afternoon.