Thursday, April 19, 2007

Army Outbursts



Ever since 5/12, Bai and his cronies in the army have been making some really wild statements in the media.

Bai has personally threatened and insulted journalists, politicians, chiefs, foreign diplomats, foreign ministers and even foreign prime ministers.

Driti has directly insulted and threatened the ambassadors, and by extension the governments, of the United States of America, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.

Bai has called the NZ Prime Minister and Foreign Minister liars and has barred them, and the Prime Minister of Australia entry into Fiji.

Bai has called the members of the Great Council Chiefs a bunch of drunkards who need to go and sit and drink home brew under a mango tree.

These outbursts are almost always a knee-jerk reaction to sensationalised media reports. They are always arrogant, aggressive and unjustified.

Bai and Driti have explained that their outbursts are the result of pure frustration at the "war of words" being waged against them by journalists, NGOs, foreign governments and organisations.

Personally, I think they are frustrated because they are only now just realising that they really don't know much about what it takes to run a country. It was always easier for them to criticise the government from the outside, but its a whole lot different when you're in the drivers seat.

Perhaps then, they should now admit that they have neither the experience, diplomacy or patience to run a country like Fiji.

As Sitiveni Livani aptly stated in his letter to the editor today (FT 19/04/07):-

At the end of the day soldiers are trained in the use of weapons, diplomats are trained in the use of words.