fijidemocracymovement.org

As we see off 2009 and move into the new year, I would like to take this opportunity to personally thank all our supporters and leaders in Australia and abroad for your principled, invaluable support of the motives and goals of the Fiji Democracy and Freedom Movement.

The Fiji Democracy and Freedom Movement was the first overseas based movement created to actively campaign for the restoration of democracy in Fiji after the Military Coup of December 5th 2006 and the follow own purported abrogation of the Constitution on Good Friday 2009. That coup forcefully removed at gun point the democratically and legally elected coalition government led by Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase.

As national president of the Movement in Australia, I am glad to note the launching of Movements in the United States and New Zealand all fighting for the same course and that is the restoration of parliamentary democracy and basic human rights in our beloved Fiji. I salute their initiative and wish them well.

As we come to the close of 2009 and anticipate the challenges of 2010, it is timely to remind us, as strong believers of democracy and freedom that our job is not done until the people of Fiji have been given the opportunity to speak through the ballot box in a free and fair general election.

I urge that we continue to fight and campaign for our course with renewed vigour in 2010. Let us not relent and let us keep reminding ourselves that we will not rest on our laurels while our beloved homeland burns under the illegal leadership of rogue elements set out to protect their own narrow and selfish interest.

Let us not forget the fact that Commodore Bainimarama, President Nailatikau and Aiyaz Khaiyum gained their positions of leadership through treasonous violent means. That the present Government of Fiji is made up of usurpers and no matter how much they try and spin it differently, their actions have made them criminals and they will have to answer for their crimes one day.

Let us remind ourselves that we aspire to a free Fiji where the common citizens will have the freedom to choose who to lead them and those that rule will always be weary of the need to perform in order to continuously have the people’s mandate to lead.

Let us also continue to remind ourselves that the people of Fiji have been taken hostage and tormented into silent submission by a vicious Military backed illegal government and it is our duty overseas to be the voice of those that suffer in silence under strict media censorship and freedom of speech regulations, imposed on the people by the illegal Bainimarama Dictatorship.

Let us fight for those who cannot speak or resist when the odds of guns and intimidation are against them.

Let us fight for those that must endure silently and have no say in important decisions that affect they daily subsistence and their future.

Therefore it is our duty overseas to be the voice of the common people and to shout out from the roof top what is wrong with the illegal Bainimarama Regime.

Finally, I strongly urge, that people not to be swayed by the consistent spins of the Illegal Interim Government who now control all forms of news coming out of Fiji’s Media Outlets. Let us be strong in our beliefs and views because we are fighting the good fight. Stand tall and be proud because you are doing a good and noble thing for your Country.

I would like to close off by taking you back to the banks of the Mbashe River, Thembu Land, South Africa in 1934. A group of teenagers were undergoing the Xhosa Tribe’s transitional circumcision ritual. This ritual transforms one from being a boy to a man overnight under Xhosa tradition. Included in the group undergoing the ritual was a boy named Rolihlahla, a living treasure better known Nelson Mandela.

As the main speaker at the giving of gifts and feasting following the ceremony, a chief called Chief Meligqili had this to say as a closing remark “These gifts today are nought, for we cannot give them the greatest gift of all, which is freedom and independence”.

I pray and urge that we the people of Fiji will be able to rise up as one in 2010 and give ourselves and our children the gift of freedom and independence.