 |
 |
 |
  |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Commodore Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama Prime Minister STATEMENT TO THE NATION Ni sa bula vinaka! Namaste! and Warm Greetings to you all. I address you today, first in regard to all the pronouncements that have been made in Niue and elsewhere this week on Fiji and secondly, on the focus of the Interim Government as we move towards Building a Better Fiji. We are a sovereign nation. Each one of the us as the citizens of this country, must now ask: are we going to be bullied and pressured into doing things that are clearly not in our national interest? If we succumb to such pressures, what next? What will that do to our self-worth as an independent nation? There are some from within our country who have joined the chorus from outside in condemning the Interim Government’s decision not to attend the Niue Forum meeting. Earlier in the week, I fully explained the reasons why Fiji had to take a firm stance. We were fully prepared for the Niue meeting. As asked, we had provided our extensive written comments on the Ministerial Contact Group (MCG) Report in advance of the Niue meeting. This included a constructive proposed way forward and a road map that we put up for consideration in the Niue meeting. However, we were compelled to refrain from traveling to Niue because of one reason alone: the action taken by the New Zealand Government to exclude Fiji from the post-Forum consultations. We came to that conclusion because the Pacific Forum Secretariat had advised us that the Post Forum Bilateral Dialogue meetings would take place in Auckland, and not Niue; and that the Fiji delegation had not been granted proper visas to attend these meetings. This was confirmed by a letter from the New Zealand Acting High Commissioner to our Foreign Affairs Ministry. I conveyed my sadness to my counterparts of the island countries of the Forum of the emerging and threatening dominance of the Forum by the two developed metropolitan powers, Australia and New Zealand. You all are aware of the high level public posturing by the Leaders of the two countries, both days before the Forum meeting and after they learnt that Fiji will not be in the Niue meeting. The Pacific Island countries will need to be vigilant to protect the Forum organisation becoming a foreign policy tool of these two countries. They now seem to have usurped the moral leadership of the region. Against this background, and the situation which Fiji is in now, Fiji’s people need to realise that in going forward as a nation, we may have to paddle our canoes on our own. Let me, therefore, report to you on the progress that we have been making to achieve our goal of moving Fiji forward towards sustainable democratic governance; and to achieving greater equity, prosperity and well-being for all the citizens of Fiji. Again, I believe that all this we can and we must achieve but we all need to join hands, and work together. We must harness our human and natural resources for the benefit of all. On National Unity We have been so divided politically and in other ways, particularly over the last seven years, that the people of Fiji are saying enough is enough; that it is now time that we moved seriously to unite our nation. To achieve this, we must start with genuine, trust-based dialogue, leading to agreement, so we can face all the big challenges that are before us. This means developing broad consensus on how we should resolve our fundamental and deep-rooted problems. That is why, on the advice of the National Council for Building a Better Fiji, His Excellency the President, Ratu Josefa Iloilovatu Uluivuda, initiated the President’s Political Dialogue Forum to bring together all political parties and other key stakeholders, to start the dialogue and consensus–seeking process. For my part, I have twice met with Laisenia Qarase, the leader of the SDL Party; and I have also met with leaders of the Methodist Church. We have differences, some of them deep seated and related to grievances and wounds of our recent history. However, our differences of experiences and beliefs should not hold us back from developing an understanding that we all have a shared destiny, and that we all must contribute to arrest further deterioration of our overall adverse situation, and to rebuild and uplift our country. The need for national co-operation is necessary and compelling. The world economy has been going through turbulent times. The outlook is that the crisis affecting the global economy will deepen and the situation is likely to get a lot more worse. In this context, Fiji will be hit hard. Ours is a small and vulnerable economy, highly exposed to volatile external conditions. Given our great dependence on oil and many of our basic needs such as rice, and manufactured goods, the great majority of our people, and the poor in particular, are going to be hit very hard. Despite the fiscal constraints faced by the Government, that is why we have provided some tax relief and cut certain duties and charges to help the most vulnerable in our country. We are a Government that cares for the poor people of this country, the poor in all our communities as this is upper-most in our minds and policies. I am very much seized of the need for us to do much more to alleviate poverty and to raise the standard of living of the poor. We should strengthen our self reliance in such basic things as food and energy. Also, we need to invest more on infrastructure such as roads, piped water, sewerage and power. During the Peoples Charter consultations, our communities in villages and settlements have raised some basic “bread and butter” type of problems and needs. I am now actively working on the release of funds for work to commence, as soon as possible within the next few weeks, in the rural areas for supply of roads, piped-water and power. The Engineering Unit of the RFMF and the Provincial Development Ministry will spearhead this work effort. Also, we must develop and diversify the productive capacity of our economy so we can better adapt to the external shocks over which we have no control. This year, and the years ahead, we must grow more vegetable and staple crops such as rice, cassava, dalo, bhindi, bhaji, and yams. The Government will also encourage the development of renewal energy sources such as biofuel, solar, and hydro electric energy. We also need to diversify our exports and this means we must have policies that create an environment that encourage our entrepreneurs, investors and innovators. We must rebuild confidence, create conducive conditions for increased investment, and we must grow our economy. It is for these reasons that I propose to convene a Mini Economic Summit in the first week of September. In addition to this, there are several other important initiatives that I propose to take over the coming weeks. Let me speak on this briefly now; details are to follow. A draft of the Peoples Charter for Change, Peace and Progress is ready. We are now starting the next phase of national consultations, at all levels of our society. We have allocated a period of about six weeks for intensive consultations at the local and grass-roots level. I am prepared to extend the time for consultations should that be necessary. The feedback from you, the people of Fiji, is of most critical importance in this particular regard. I should emphasise that at this stage, what we have here is only a draft document. It will only become the Peoples Charter when the majority of the people of Fiji endorse it. Only then it becomes a representation of the collective will of the people of Fiji. It is therefore a contradiction in terms for some to claim that the Interim Government will impose the draft Peoples Charter document on the people of Fiji. The Peoples Charter is not a legalistic document; it will certainly not replace the Constitution. It seeks to strengthen it. The draft Peoples Charter is a spiritual, moral and practical statement of commitments on how we should deal with our national problems and how we should conduct ourselves, as the people of Fiji, if we are to develop a just and sustainable future for ourselves, and for our descendants. It says clearly what needs to change in our country in order for us to rebuild a better Fiji. There is a lot of support amongst the broad cross-section of the people for a new approach and a new way, such as envisaged through the Peoples Charter. The question is whether the few vocal people, including the mainstream media, who remain opposed and who claim to know what the people want, are actually listening to genuine voices of the people, particularly the poor and the not-so-well off majority of the population. Our people are not expecting that Fiji will simply carry on business-as-usual, as we did in the past, after the next General Election. They do not want a repeat of the events of the last six years; and they certainly do not want any more coups. That is another message we are getting from most people, especially from the grassroots consultations. The Peoples Charter aims to carve out the moderate progressive, middle ground. It is not about offending people, but persuading them that there are changes that we need to make that need their support as patriotic and responsible citizens. The middle ground based on tolerance, mutual respect, love of freedom and commitment to the rule of law is what most of the people in Fiji want. The Peoples Charter aims to unify our people and to shift them towards the middle ground of political dialogue and action programmes. Anyway, this is where the majority of our people want our leaders to be also. At present, the case of our opponents and critics, the “Peoples Charter rejectionists”, many of who in the past thrived on divisive policies, seems to be merely that they are against change; that they want to go back to the past ethno-nationalist strategies which have consistently failed our country. And they disguise such motivation behind the argument that the Interim Government is illegal, that it has no mandate. If that is all they have to present, then I am afraid we are not going to make much progress. And we really need to make progress and have an agreement before the Election. It will be unwise for the Peoples Charter rejectionists to bring to the Political Dialogue Forum a series of positions on issues that have not been subjected to wide public consultation, scrutiny and contributed to by ordinary people as we will do. If the representatives of political parties are just going to present their own opinion made up in a few secret meetings, telephone calls and internet communications between a handful of so called “public spokesmen”, then they cannot be taken seriously. They will have to show evidence of wide public consultation on their demands, just as we are now doing with respect to the Peoples Charter. I would also like to see the Members of the Fiji Media Council, such as the Fiji Times, Fiji Sun and Fiji Television, not only to provide more balanced reports about our work on the Peoples Charter, but also to ask the spokesmen of political parties that have been loudly condemning the work of the NCBBF, to inform the people of Fiji of their alternative way forward after the Election. It is vital that we have an agreement before the Election on the way forward after the General Election. This will only be possible if people are well informed about the issues. Fellow citizens, I thank you all very much for giving your time to listen to me tonight. I am confident that Fiji, our nation, can count upon your support for moving Fiji forward. Vinaka Vakalevu, Dhanyabad, and may God Bless you. -End- |
|
|
 |
     |
