Chaudhry has lost confidence of the Fijian people
Sep 24, 2004, 14:30

The leader of the Fiji Labour Party, Mahendra Chaudhry, has lost the confidence of the Fijian people, says the Minister for Information & Media Relations, Simione Kaitani.

The Minister accused the Labour leader of paying lip service to assisting the Fijians to become more fully involved in the economy,

Fijians, he said, should not trust Mr Chaudhry.

Mr Kaitani's criticism followed Mr Chaudhry's recent attacks on the Government's indigenous policies.

The Minister says Mr Chaudhry is a master of double speech.

"He says one thing in public to try to impress the Fijians, but does the very opposite in practice by opposing everything the Government does to lift the living standards of the indigenous people. "

Mr Chaudhry's comments, says the Minister, were obviously political propaganda directed at the upcoming by election.

The Labour leader's hyprocisy was evident when he attacked Government's affirmative action programmes.

"While he is criticising Government for not doing enough for Fijians, he has lodged a complaint with the Fiji Human Rights Commission that these programmes are a breach of the human rights provisions of the Constitution.

"He deliberately does not mention that there are affirmative action programmes for all citizens and that there are some specifically for the Indian and minority communities."

He has also complained to the Human Rights Commission that the various loans schemes Government has introduced through the FDB to assist Fijian entrepreneurs, are a violation of human rights.

He has even complained that the Government's micro credit schemes are discriminatory.

Mr Kaitani said Mr Chaudhry's decision to have a majority of Fijians in his Cabinet when he was Prime Minister, was cosmetic. It was meant to fool Fijians.
Mr Chaudhry, and a small group of hand picked Labour lieutenants, made sure they controlled Cabinet and decisions on major policies.

The Minister said Mr Chaudhry was practising double standards in his approach to land.

"He says Fijians should be assisted to make productive use of their land. Yet when Government proposes that agricultural leases on native land be issued under the Native Land Trust Act, rather than ALTA, as requested by the Native Land Trust Board and Great Council of Chiefs, he opposes this uncompromisingly."

Although the Fijians had rejected Mr Chaudry's proposal for a Land Use Commission, he was still promoting this idea.

When the People's Coalition Government was in power, said the Minister, Mr Chaudry oredered that the Fiji Development Bank's Special Loans Scheme for Fijians should be stopped.

The Fijian people had not forgotten what Mr Chaudhry's People Coalition Government did when it borrowed $8million of welfare assistance to cane farmers. There was also the cash grant of $28,000 to sugar cane farmers whose leases had expired. The beneficiaries were mainly his supporters.

Mr Chaudhry's Government's funding for rural roads was mainly for cane growing areas. Other parts of Fiji, where Fijians were in the majority, were ignored.

The SDL/CAMV Government was doing what previous governments, including the People's coalition, had not done. This was to provide increased development funds for rural areas.

It had invested $150 million in improving water supplies in urban centers, and more than $2 million a year for rural water supplies. $6million was for rural electrification.

Mr Kaitani says the SDL/CAMV government has scrapped outpatient charges and charges for beds in public wards in hospital and health centres.

It has also provided boarding schools grants for rural schools, abolished external examination fees in all schools, and was now paying for premium payment to the NLTB for renewal of schools leases on native land.

The $44 million funding signed with the European Union last week, showed Government's commitment to improving rural community schools.

Mr Kaitani says that to stimulate agricultural production, farming assistance is available to everyone.

Farming and resettlement help is provided to out-going tenants and in -coming landowners.

Government was reviving the National Marketing Authority to assist farmers in marketing their produce.

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