A New Day!

HnC is going to continue to blog on from http://hydenceek.wordpress.com/.

See you there!

Sorry Allen You're Wrong - Again!

In response to Mere Samisoni's letter (see letter here), Allen had this to say in today's Fiji Times:-

Maybe Mere Samisoni (FT 14/5) didn't read my letter right.

I said if the clean-up was justified, only then should someone from the SDL party apologise.

And the army had better hurry up with the evidence because its credibility is at stake.

Sorry Allen, Mere Samisoni did read your letter correctly, as did everyone else in Fiji.

You did say:-

At the end of the day (when investigations are completed by the clean-up campaign and the coup justified) I hope someone from the former government will be brave enough to stand up and say "I'm sorry'' to the people of Fiji.

Theres a whole world of difference between what you think you said and what you actually said.

Military Justice

Yesterday, the Ministry of Home Affairs confirmed that the Public Emergency Regulations will not be reviewed; ie it will not be lifted.

An official statement was then issued by the Ministry to the EU obviously aimed at explaining (ie. hoodwinking) the EU into believing the IG's actions are justified.

I don't know much about international politics and diplomacy but I would hope that the EU will recognise the deceptive purpose of that statement and will act accordingly.

I would hope also that the EU will not, in the general scheme of international politics, try to trade off the rights and freedoms of hundreds of thousands of Fiji citizens for favours (of the peacekeeping sort) from this military controlled junta.

The military are already running this country like its their own private club and the people of Fiji really don't want the international community to fund that anymore!

The statement by the IG to the EU is a complete fabrication of what is actually going on in Fiji and I hope the EU can see that.

One particular statement by the IG caught my eye. The junta said:-

…they would continue to uphold the principles of justice, dialogue, collective bargaining and the process of dispute settling machinery available to all parties who subscribe to it.

I realise this was intended to refer to the impending strikes by the Unions, but…"continue to uphold the principles of justice"?

Are they serious?

Does this military backed IG actually think it can say these words just days after its henchmen in the military unlawfully detained, tortured and humiliated a local businessman (in violation of almost every convention on human rights)… and be believed?

What exactly does "justice" mean to the IG (and its idiot AG)?

Or more pertinently, what does it mean to the military?

Put another way, what does military justice mean in relation to our general understanding of the word?

I think Groucho Marx summed up the answer to this quite well:-

Military justice is to justice what military music is to music.

No Security Threat!

In response to this national security issue, a blogger said...

This strikes me as an extremely non-transparent way to do things - especially when they are so politicized themselves,and they give absolutely no details on what the particular threat is.

I understand the need for secrecy, but for example, even Dept of Homeland security gives some details of the possible threats they are facing. Also, they have degrees and extent of alert (yellow, orange, red etc. at burrough, city, county, state etc.) depending on the type and possibility of threat they believe they face. But these guys just have a blanket decree with no details.

They don't give any credible explanation on how the blogsites post a threat to security, and we just have to assume they know what they're talking about, despite the fact that all the really highly trained and excellent officers from Waqanisau to Tarakinikini to Seruvakula to Rabukawaqa have already left the army.

Last month, I heard second hand from someone right inside HQ that there really wasn't any security threat as of March, and that they military was just using the Decree as a cover for their micro-management of political opposition to the regime, and as the platform to "ensure" the success of their "mission" (whatever that is/was).

Finally, even if there is a credible security threat now, the army has abandoned its primary role as the final guarantor of law and order in favour of trying to "leap frog" over all the other security organs and mechanisms, to try and achieve all its goals through "intelligence" and espionage.

But their real role is to physically interdict and security problems which have already and clearly gotten too out of hand for the courts or the police or the politicians to handle.

Instead, the army has ridden roughshod over all of that in their frantic effort to punish "crimes" that haven't even been committed yet, if at all.

And we can see the results with the wrongful detention and harassment of Taoi and Digitaki.

National Security

The military needs to explain to the people of Fiji why they feel that there is a continued threat to the "national security" of Fiji.

They do afterall have all the guns and - according to them - some of the finest soldiers in the world.

They also need to explain to the people of Fiji exactly what national security means to them so we can appreciate why they think its imperative to keep the Public Emergency Decree in play.

According to wikipedia, national security refers to the need to maintain the survival of the nation state through the use of economic, political and military power. And sometimes, through the exercise of diplomacy.

Although national security measures are imposed to protect society as a whole, such measures will necessarily tend to restrict the rights and freedoms of individuals.

The concern is that in cases where the exercise of state or military power in the name of national security is not subject to good governance, the rule of law or strict checks and balances, there is a very real risk that "national security" may simply serve a pretext for suppressing unfavourable political and social views.

Taken to its logical conclusion, this view contends that measures which may ostensibly serve a national security purpose (such a mass surveillance, intimidation and detentions and censorship of mass media) could ultimately lead to a police or military state.

In Fiji, the continued extensions to the Public Emergency Decree has raised two questions in the minds of ordinary citizens – to what extent, for the sake of national security, should individual's rights and freedoms be restricted and can the restrictions of civil rights for the sake of national security be justified?

King Bai, Driti and Leweni need to look deep into their souls to find the answers to these questions.

They must know by now that the seemingly innocuous decision to keep extending the Public Emergency Decree one more month is in reality severely affecting the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.

People are losing their jobs and their ability to put food on the table - all in the name of "national security".

I sincerely hope the military top brass are willing to accept the consequences of their actions (in this world and in the next) if it turns out they were wrong about this.

Mere Samisoni Tells It Like It Is!

Mere Samisoni wrote this Letter to the Editor (FT 13/05/07):-

Allen Lockington often makes keen observations and insightful comments on issues of interest in Fiji. His letter (FT 8/5) was not one of those times.

Specifically, his comment that there wouldn't have been a coup if the SDL party was performing as expected is fundamentally flawed.

First, this is the same kind of argument used by ignorant chauvinists to try and blame rape on the rape victim. Remember, Mr Lockington, it is the perpetrator who commits the crime, not the victim.

Second, whose expectations weren't we performing to? Can a government and nation be turned upside down just because we don't perform to the expectations of a small band of officers who don't know their constitutional, moral and professional roles and jurisdictions?

Finally, if we truly weren't performing to the expectations of the people of Fiji, all they have to do is vote us out.

They could have done that either on the floor of Parliament through a no-confidence motion, at the next polls or even in court if they had evidence.

As it is, the SDL was clamouring for the election to be held as soon as possible so the people can have the chance to have their say.

We do not fear the voice of the people, because we know they are not dumb as to fall for lies concocted without credible evidence against us at the moment.

By contrast, it is the interim Government and its political allies who are doing all they can to come up with lame excuses to avoid early elections.

What are they afraid of?

So the SDL Party does not need to apologise to anyone as we did not do anything wrong.

This is borne out of the fact that the military and the interim Government have only been able to come up with four types of evidence so far since the takeover:

No evidence,

Circumstantial evidence,

Concocted evidence, and

Evidence that was being processed through normal channels.

Since none of the first three are credible or admissible in court and the fourth would have been dealt with anyway, I put it to Mr Lockington that it is not the SDL Party but Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama and his co-conspirators who need to apologise to the nation for trampling on our rights and freedom with their expensive, waste-time coup.

HnC thanks Allen Lockington for drawing our attention to this letter. I guess Lockington is not afraid of a little bit of constructive critisim. Good on ya mate!

HnC can also confirm that the seemingly evasive answer given by Qarase on Close Up (when asked about Rajesh Singh's sacking) was in fact his repsonse to a completely different question which Fiji TV asked him over the phone earlier that day.

Want to talk about irresponsible reporting. There it is!

Fiji TV made it appear as though Qarase was responding live when in fact Fiji TV had recorded the conversation earlier that day, cooked the responses and replayed only the part they wanted the public to hear.

I do believe Fiji TV now owes Qarase an apology!

Double Standards

Its ironic that military spokesman Majaah Lewensky is now saying that Laisa Digitaki must first produce proof that she is being threatened by soldiers before the military can take action and begin internal investigations into her claims.

Because, if the military requires proof before action then why did they overthrow a democratically government before they had any actual "proof" of corruption.

Or maybe the military can change the rules if it doesn't serve their purpose.

Proof before action is a good rule.

If King Bai and his cronies had followed it, then maybe they wouldn't be looking like a bunch of idiots right now… six months down the line, an economy in ruins and no evidence of corruption!

Perhaps, Lewensky should advise his masters to practice what they preach.

IG Problems Affect CMDA

HnC has obtained reliable information that the illegal IG is almost broke.

The Capital Markets Development Authority which is usually funded by the Ministry of Finance will not be funded by the government this year because there is no more money.

CMDA is Fiji's capital markets watchdog and it plays an important role in regulating the investment markets.

Yet this year, the CMDA will have to make ends meet with their left over budget from last year.

Rumour is that CMDA have only enough money left to last maybe a couple of months, after that, if nothing changes, they might have to suspend their operations.

Mahen "Sneaky Snake" Chaudhry must have known that once the international community turns its back on Fiji, it would onlybe a matter of time before the IG's coffers dry up.

Perhaps this is why he hasn't given up his other job as General Secretary of the National Farmer's Union.

But whats more concerning is the view of some political pundits that the destruction of Fiji's economy is just part of Mahen's grand plan to bring Fijians to their knees.

It seems Mahen is prepared to destroy the lives of a great many people to achieve his political goals.

I just hope senior officers in the military will realise this and do something about this man who is directly threatening Fiji's national security for his own policital gains - before its too late.

Fiji Lawyers Should Protest

Lawyers in Pakistan have been protesting against their tyranical military government for suspending their Chief Justice.

Forms of protest have included public protests, marches and wearing of black arm bands to court.

Perhaps the lawyers in Fiji should seriously consider following their Pakistani counterparts and do something like this...

And this..

Or maybe even this...

And if they're really determined, this...

Or this...

But they could end up like this...

Or worse, this...

But at least we can see how far lawyers in Pakistan are willing to go to protect their Chief Justice and the integrity of their legal system.

So how about it Fiji Law Society?

How far are you willing to go for your suspended Chief Justice?

Military Moves To Block Blogs

Intelligensiya emailed the following warning to HnC a short while ago...

"Fiji's Freedom Bloggers have obtained credible information that the military has been pressuring FINTEL, the international telecommunication gateway, to block access within Fiji to our various blogs.

It is understood the military initially made a phone call to FINTEL but were told to write formally to the Chief Executive Officer Sakaraia Tuilakepa (mobile number 9921934) with the request.

This morning the army's acting information technology manager Salusalu and another officer were seen at FINTEL. It has been confirmed that they were meeting with management and trying to persuade them to pull the plug on our blogs.

From our information, FINTEL is wary of the legal implications of blocking access, but the final decision rests with the CEO.

The military wanted access blocked by 3pm (1500hrs FST/0300hrs GMT) today.

NiuFM in Auckland is reporting confirmation from the military, quoting Land Force Commander Pita Driti, that they are closing down our blogs. See story here: http://www.niufm.com/?t=3&View=FullStory&newsID=1972

In the worst case scenario, all Internet access out of Fiji may be cut, Freedom Bloggers' sources tell us. It may even happen over the weekend.

Fiji Freedom Bloggers"

Chaudary's World

Mick Dundee wrote...

Once again we are subjected to the repetitive din by Mahendra Chaudry over the 2006 Election Results.

The Fiji Times Editorial (FT 10/5) quite rightly pointed out the inconsistencies in his report, rather than go into details I suggest reading the piece personally.

Chaudry indignantly defended his Audit Team's report in the Fiji Times (11/5) Letters to the Editor.

The most obvious fact is that no matter how much Chaudry derides the Election Officials and the outcome of the results, as a member of an illegal regime he has no mandate/legal authority to be carrying out any investigations into electoral fraud.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that there is a conflict of interest between his unsuccessful bid to legally gain control of Government, then assuming the Minister of Finance position in the Illegal Military Regime, then launching a "Ministry of Finance Audit Team" into discrepancies that led to him being robbed of the Prime Ministership.

I've got a few choice swear words lined up for this guy but suffice to say the man is in need of some serious psychiatric help as he continuously seems to have a problem accepting reality.

Until he learns to deal with the fact that he lost the elections fair and square we will have to suffer his ravings as long as his vocal chords are functional. Conspiracy theories abound in his mind and I am pretty sure he would give Agent Mulder of X Files fame a run for his money.

The irony of the situation is not lost on the members of the independent International Observer teams that were tasked with identifying and reporting any incidents of electoral fraud.

Chaudry has implied that despite the numerous teams from various International Bodies (EU, Forum Secretariat, Commonwealth, USP,etc...) they in turn must have either been extremely incompetent or comatose during the 2006 elections to not detect the underhand tactics employed by the SDL.

Well the objectivity of the Independent Observer Teams is not in question as they had nothing to gain by whitewashing over any occurrences of vote rigging and it didn't make one point of difference to their future who was elected anyway. Apart from that they did not cost the Fiji taxpayers one red cent which is more than be said for Chaudry's "Ministry of Finance Audit Team"

But then this should hardly be a surprise as it has been a consistent tactic of Chaudry from his Unionist days to accuse and deflect when the pressure is directed towards him.

The funny thing about Unionists such as Chaudry, Anthony and Urai is that while they are masters in the political rhetoric of mudslinging and finger pointing at the powers that be, when assigned with something constructive they only know how to demolish it (Look no futher than the impending legal costs FNPF members will be forking out due to Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee's ineptitude in buggering up Natadola).

While these tactics may have served him well in his "former" capacity as a unionist it is now time for him to step up to the mark and show us the financial acumen he is purported to possess.

Chaudry, enough already with the elections it is a foregone conclusion that you risk further alienation or frosted foreign relations if you keep your head stuck in the sand.

You want to show us whether you are capable of being the Minister of Finance then move your ass and get us out of the economic doldrums that you and the rest of the Merry Band of Idiots have placed us in.

If all you have to show at the end of the year is a surplus budget due to reducing civil servants pay and cutting back on Capitol Expenditure Projects then I am sorry but you should be drawn and quartered for inflicting economic hardship on the populace as a whole as our foreign reserves dip even further into the red and investment swims off for more stable waters elsewhere.

If attracting and reassuring investors is a top priority for the interim government then the IG should immediately start complying with the EU conditions and return to democracy, commence a complete overhaul of the ailing water and road infrastructure (possible only through overseas financial aid) and arrest any further job losses.

Rather than moaning about the elections that you lost start getting your act together and do the job no one asked you to do. Unlike the Minister for Finance I am a realist and no amount of spin doctoring from political pundits (Ratuva, Shah, Lal, Nandan et al) is going to hide us from the tough times yet to come.

Have people accepted the coup?

Yes, it is a fact of life that we have to deal with.

Do we support it?

Some people do but I believe that most people are either forced to try and remain indifferent or fear reprisal, however as always the tide starts drawing when everyone's bread and butter starts to run out.

Will we survive this coup?

Yes, without a doubt our country has the resilience, the question for the rest of us is how much damage we are willing to silently suffer in the process before things get worse.

Chaudry before you embark on another wild goose chase to satisfy your paranoia, a word from the wise

"An unfriendly man pursues selfish ends; he defies all sound judgment." Proverbs 18: 1

"Where there is no honour there is no shame." David Mamet.

Mainstream Media

The mainstream media it seems is going out of their way to avoid making any references whatsoever to the various pro-democracy blogs.

Perhaps they view us as a threat to their business.

RFC and other bloggers it seems are scooping most of the stories which the media would like to break, so by the time we see the 6 o'clock news we have already read the breaking stories on the blogs.

More and more people are now getting their breaking news from the blogs and this is because we are able to print the kind of stuff the media are afraid to print.

RFC is hands down the most widely read of all the pro-democracy blogs and as of 2 minutes ago, it had profile views of 22,037. Anyone who blogs knows this isn't even the tip of the iceberg when determining the actual number of hits they've had.

Their actual readership will be about 70 to 100 times that number.

We are not competition to the mainstream media. But they cannot continue to ignore us.

Or can they?

I was encouraged to see two articles on us lowly bloggers in today's Fiji Times, if only the content were not so bleak.

The Fiji Times reported that military operations are currently underway to track down pro-democracy bloggers.

Driti claimed they are very close to catching the people behind three specific blogs, namely, RFC, Intelligentsiya and The Shame List.

Driti's comments seem to indicate that he has many people working on the "blogger problem" and that they are very close to identifying the bloggers. Now, he is either bullshitting us or he just loves to let everyone know the inside track on their secret investigations.

Either way, both his comments are inconsistent with the promises they made to the EU that they will not continue to act like a bunch of Nazis.

I hope the EU will take note of Col "Leg in Mouth" Driti's comments which are being made on the eve of the EU's Fact Finding Mission to Fiji on Human Rights Abuses.

DSG Forced to Resign

HnC can confirm that the story broken by Intelligensiya yesterday that Deputy Solicitor General Savenaca Banuve was forced to resign, is true.

HnC sources have confirmed that Banuve was forced to resign because he refused to be used by Sayed Khaiyum to do King Bai and Epeli G's dirty work - ie to fight the GCC case on behalf of the junta.

Banuve is a man of principle who stood by his convictions and gave up his livelihood rather than be used by these self-serving hypocrites.

Good on you Banuve. HnC salutes you!

HnC also heard that long serving Chief Registrar of the High Court, Musuka Tabete, also resigned yesterday following Banuve's resignation.

HnC will try learn more about the reasons for this but if it is true, then the civil service lost two very senior officers yesterday.

Conflict of Interest

Dear Mr Nasir Ali,

It seems to me that this junta which is purportedly spearheading the so-called "clean-up campaign" to rid Fiji of corruption is quickly becoming its own biggest offender.

Here are a few shinning examples.

1. Captain Esala "Full Chow" Teleni as your new boss, ie of the Independent Commission Against Corruption. Capt Teleni is also the Deputy Military Commander. Now, as Deputy Commander, Teleni has to produce evidence of corruption in order to justify (to his own soldiers) that the coup was necessary. Because if he can't do this, his own head might be on the chopping block. Now that he's the new boss of the Anti-Corruption Unit, we can all be sure that evidence of corruption will surface - by hook or by crook - Teleni will have his evidence! The IG should seriously consider removing the word "Independent" and just call it the Commission Against Corruption.

2. Mahendra "Sneaky Snake" Chaudhary as the interim Minister for Finance, National Planning and Sugar. Mahen accepted this illegal appointment without relinquishing his position as General Secretary of the National Farmer's Union. So now the fox is in charge of the Hen House. Good for the fox and Union he represents. Bad for the hens!

3. Jim "Jimsky" Ah Koy as the illegally appointed Chairman of Fiji Trade and Investment Bureau. This is the same sonofagun that secretly visited King Bai at QEB pre 5/12 to seek his patronage and throw his support for the coup. According to RFC, Jimsky's family owns 51% of Bayleys Real Estate, the New Zealand real estate company that has exclusive selling rights to the lots at Momi Bay. So what does Jimsky do, he uses his influence with the IG and his position as Chairman of FTIB to derail the competition - ie. Natadola Development.

4. Don Collingwood as the illegally appointed Chairman of CAAFI. Although he hasn't done anything unseemly yet, it is clear the Don has got a bit of a conflict on his hands. You see, he is still the Managing Director of Sun Flower Flying School. And the rules which regulate the operations of his flying school are enforced by the same body of which he is now Chairman. Conflict! Conflict! Conflict!


5. Anthony Gaytes as the Acting Chief Justice. This poofta and his partner in crime Judge Shameem are strong and outspoken supporters of King Bai. They are now doing exactly the same thing that the former CJ Tuivaga was accused of doing in 2000 - assisting an illegal regime to gain some semblance of legitimacy. At least CJ Tuivaga was doing it for a good reason and so still has respect of his peers. To make matters worse, Gaytes has not deemed it necessary to excuse himself from hearing Qarase's court case against the the very regime that illegally appointed him. Add to that the fact any new cases filed in the High Court that have a "political" element now have to be approved by Gates. Man this guy's going for gold!


6. Ana "Banana" Rokomokoti as a newly appointed Magistrate. She has shown her complete lack of good judgement by failing to distance herself from the military's treasonous acts of 5/12. As a former military advisor, coup-supporter, counsel to interim AG and self-serving "wanna-be-in-the-middle-of-everything" hag, this wicked witch of the west is going to find it hard to dispense "justice" in cases where the military is involved. With Ana on the Bench, the judiciary is well and truly infiltrated. Corruption! Corruption! Corruption!


7. Shaister "the Shyster" Shameem for continuing as the Director of the Fiji Human Rights Commission. This lunatic takes the cake! She started to show her true colours immediately after 5/12 throwing her full support behind the very regime that was taking innocent people up to QEB to be tortured on daily basis. At first, she straight out denied that it was happening. Then when she couldn't deny it anymore, she said the military were allowed to torture its citizens because our rights were curtailed by the Public Emergency Decree. Then she attacked the UN, USA and EU for criticising her lack of interest in actually defending human rights. I'm sure this one is somehow related to Driti.


And last but certainly not least...

8. King "No Election" Bai as interim Prime Minister of Fiji. One could write a book on this bloke. Suffice as to say that the good King now has administrative control of every aspect of executive government, the judiciary and the police and army. He's broken every rule in the Book - hell he re-wrote the bloody Book because he didn't like the rules already in it. This makes him officially the Pacific's first ever Dictator!

Mr Ali, I imagine there must be quite a few more conflict of interest situations out there and I urge you to please look into these as quickly as possible - starting with your own appointment.

Your faithfully,

HnC

Don't Be Deceived

To all those good citizens of Fiji who are wondering if King Bai is finally beginning to win the support of the Fijian people because he was invited to open the Nadroga/Navosa Provincial Council meeting... wonder no more.

Hyde n Ceek can confirm that the people of the province didn't want King Bai there at all.

He was only invited because of Majaah Lewensky's vasu connections to Lomawai where the meeting was being held.

In fact, most of the major chiefs of the province did not show up to the meeting because King Bai was chief guest.

Did you happen to notice on TV how empty the grounds were.

There was no one there.

It was not the usual warm reception you'd expect from a Fijian province. I guess the chief guest was not as popular as he thought he was.

Also did you happen to notice that whenever Lewensky is lying on TV, he unconsciously adds more "aahhs" to his comments?

And, there was a lot of "aahhs" in his interview last night.

The Tugaga Na Ka Levu, Rt Sakiusa Makutu also did not show up because he just doesn't like King Bai. Rt Sakiusa is after all a Plaintiff in the GCC's court action against self-serving socialite and illegal Minister Epeli G (and his dopey PM).

So please rest assured. The events at Lomawai are an indication of the growing resentment against the junta, rather than the other way around.

Lockington's Response

Allen said...

"Hello there.

To be truthful I have a lot of respect for the former Prime Minister and likewise I also have a lot of respect for the Army Commander. Yet I take no sides. By the way I have a lot of mates in the SDL top brass .... I suppose they will accept a bit of constructive citicism from time to time because it keeps one on track.

But its good that my letter has generated some reaction. As for bitterness ..... this is one word that is most certainly not in my book ..... you may have read many of my letters that were against the Army and likewise this one was against Laisenia Qarase's reaction. Before the Coup I was a constant critic of government/civil servants/public servants etc ...! and I was a civil servant for 28 years!! One time I nearly got into trouble for speaking out against the top brass, even though it was the truth.

And hey, it would be interesting if I were invited to serve on a board maybe I will make a
difference .. because it will be to lend a helping hand.

And it would have been the same if the Qarase government had invited me. I should have taken the offer when it came to me just before the elections .... but I had been invited by so many parties that I chose to stay with the minorities.

So ends my humble reply."

And Hyde n Ceek said...

"Bula Allen.

Your explanation is noted but I am still not convinced your overt support of King Bai's actions (ie 5/12) is justified.

Nothing, short of mass murder by an incumbent government, justifies an illegal takeover.

Unfortunately, active coup supporters like you just encourage idiots like King Bai and his cronies to continue with what they are doing.

The vast majority of the people in Fiji can see its wrong.

The international community can see its wrong.

Why can't you?"

And a fellow blogger said...

"Laisenia Qarases somewhat vague answer to the question that he was asked was based on confidentiality of information.

Civil Servants I believe cannot give any confidential information they have acquired whilst in the course of their duties to anyone while in the service and even after they go on retirement or in this case thrown out of government.

I was also disappointed with his answer but I think what I have stated could be the reason"

Hyde n Ceek agrees with this and with what the next fellow blogger has to say...

"Allen, I believe the former PM did just enough to indicate to me that his keeping his cards close to his chest. The court proceedings that will follow after all this will be his pay back time.

Yes, like the others, I always enjoy your letters to the editor especially on issues that affect the general community, but my only concern in your letter is that you had compromised your position by supporting the events on 5/12/2006.

For someone I have always enjoyed reading your letters this was a blow below the belt."

See Lockington, the consensus is that you are a "coup supporter".

I imagine that your close buddies in the "SDL top brass" are not too impressed with you right now after your comments that their overthrow was justified.

I also imagine the families of Nimilote Verebasaga and Sakiusa Rabaka will not be too happy with the fact that you have "a lot respect for the Army Commander" who is trying to cover up the brutal murder of their sons.

I imagine all the good citizens of Fiji who have been subjected to torture and humilation at the hands of overzealous military personnel will not have as high an opinion of the Commander as you do.

Face it Lockington. You're a coup supporter.

Admit it and move on.

Ana Compromised

These comments from a blogger summarises Major Ana's situation quite accurately...

"What a joke! Here is someone appointed to a position where she will have to
make high standard judgements of right and wrong on the public cases presented
before her.

But she has already empirically demonstrated her own complete lack of judgement by failing to resign from the military's treasonous clean-up coup of 5th December.

Not only that, but by implication of not resigning from the military from 5th December, she is likely to be guilty of a whole range of crimes from misprison of treason through to aiding and abetting a capital crime.

And yet somehow this highly dubious, if not disgraceful, person has the gall to want to sit on the venerated bench of our Magistracy.

Who could seriously respect such a judge, or any of her judgements?"

Idiot AG

The release by the interim AG of the minutes of the Judicial Services Commission meeting which appointed the acting CJ Anthony Gates, is wrong.

The interim AG should be bound by some general rule on confidentiality when comes to the discussions of JSC, especially in relation to the appointment of Judges.

Even if there are no rules governing confidentiality, the interim AG should know that it is unethical to release that kind information.

The Judges who are appointed by the JSC would generally not want the discussions which led to their appointment publicised.

Khaiyum has set a very bad precedent and he has shown the nation just how immature he is, professionally and morally.

It seems Khaiyum is so desperate to protect his King that he can longer differentiate between right and wrong.

Many of us are looking forward to watching him being tried in the very near future for taking unlawful oath.

Allen Lockington Confused

Allen Lockington's letter to the editor in today's FT reads:-

I watched Close Up program on Sunday, May 6 and thought that former prime minister Laisenia Qarase was defensive when asked some relevant questions by the show's host, Netani Rika.

In one instance, he could have just said that former minister for youth and sports Rajesh Singh had been terminated because he did not tow the line.

What's so hard in that?

If the Qarase government had been performing as expected there wouldn't have been a coup.

Now it has become very expensive for everyone.

At the end of the day (when investigations are completed by the clean-up campaign and the coup justified) I hope someone from the former government will be brave enough to stand up and say "I'm sorry'' to the people of Fiji.

For my part, I think the first three paragraphs in Lockington's letter are fair comment. I watched Close Up too and was also disappointed at the way LQ evaded the question of why Rajesh Singh was terminated.

LQ's answer that it was "no longer relevant" is not very reassuring.

The people of Fiji generally don't like to be treated like idiots.

Its the same kind of answer Lewensky gives when explaining yet another extension to the Public Emergency Decree - "Its not for public consumption".

Lockington is right, we have a right to know.

I voted for LQ and I expect my government to be more transparent than that.

But Lockington is very wrong when he blames 5/12 on the perceived substandard performance of the SDL government.

Democracy is about changing the governments you are not happy with by "voting" them out, not by force of arms.

I would have thought Lockington of all people would have appreciated that point.

Finally, Lockington's comments on the justification of the coup and clean-up campaign are just plain (for lack of a better word) stupid.

LQ and his government were put there by majority vote of the people of Fiji.

The government of day does not therefore need to "apologise" to the minority for carrying out the election promises they made to the majority that voted them into power.

That's Politics101 for you.

Lockington's comments show a personal hatred of SDL and LQ that goes well beyond the want of an explanation for the sacking of a man who probably deserved everything he got.

His comments are laced with so much bitterness that he has inadvertently crossed over from the realm of coup-apologists into the realm of coup-supporters.

I will not now be surprised if Lockington is illegally appointed to some Board.

King Bai Not Standing For Elections

I was very disappointed to see the article in Saturday's paper that "fearless" King Bai had decided not to stand in the next general elections.

King Bai has always suggested that he carried out 5/12 with the popular support of the people.

Why not put this to the test.

Is he afraid that he will not get any votes, except maybe that of his immediate family... and oh yes Leweni and Driti?

Its high time King Bai put his money where his mouth is and test by vote if the people really did support his coup.

Or is he afraid more than 90 percent of the people will say "frak you King Bai" you ruined this country and for what?

Please King Bai. Do not be a coward.

Be a man and stand up for your convictions.

What are you really afraid of?

Whatever it is. You really showed your true colours once again, you clown.

Good job. Now we all know that even you are aware that you don't have the basic qualities required to lead this country.

What a joke!