RESPONSE TO THE ADDRESS BY THE ALLEGED FIJI PRIME MINISTER RELATING TO THE REMOVAL OF THE PUBLIC EMERGENCY REGULATIONS

The removal of the Public Emergency Regulations is the core of the Fiji regime's attempt to ingratiate itself with and to procure the indulgence of the international community. Those Regulations have been very rightly stigmatised by the international community and observers outside Fiji have pinned very great hopes on the lifting of the Regulations as paving the way towards restoration of democracy in Fiji. The regime and its now very expensive publicity machine is of course well aware of this and, beleaguered as it is internationally, especially in light of its continuing absence from the Pacific Islands Forum and the Commonwealth, and other bodies, the continuing criticism of its reign of terror, its impending bankruptcy and the disfavour in which it is held by all right thinking persons, and having regard to its perilous position, and the divisions even within its security forces, is desperate to ingratiate itself with its critics. The above explains the scheming of the regime, via its alleged Prime Minister, evidenced in his New Year speech announcing the lifting of PER, and his announcement of 6th January 2012 (on the very eve of such lifting) substituting another vile regime of oppression. The statement of 6th January 2012 is herein focussed upon. The New Year statement itself referred to a small abusive group who must be prevented from disturbing the peace - a very apt description for the regime itself. The statement of 6th January is so riddled with lies that it requires dissection, even as a frog is dissected on the laboratory table. Only such dissection can show the monstrous evil and falsehood of the current regime. Paragraph 1 of the release refers to the "lifting" and "removal" of PER. In fact, what is now swapped for PER is even worse as will be pointed out. Paragraph 1 refers to the "lifting" as "an important step towards public consultations." The regime's notion of consultation is not however that of any sane being. For an example, reference is made to the Charter (an exercise in wishful thinking) which was previously "agreed" by the people. The process of "consultation" in regard to the Charter was as far removed from true consultation as the 'consultation" mentioned by the alleged Prime Minister. It will be force fed at gunpoint. That is all that the regime can do. Past experience shows this force-feeding on critical issues very clearly, e.g. in regard to the appointment of a Chairman for the Lau Provincial Council, when the Council democratically voted for a Chairman but the regime immediately appointed someone else. The entire history of the regime and its relations with the people show that what is meant by consultation is force-feeding. The latest example of this relates to the people of Namosi who are being signed up by the regime against their will to consent to the ravaging of their land by overseas miners. Paragraph 1 also refers to "truly democratic elections." There never will be truly democratic elections under the regime. That is because the holding of same would inevitably result in the prosecution of the alleged Prime Minister, not only for the murders of the Counter Revolutionary Warfare officers which he approved in 2000 and avoidance of prosecution in respect of which was the reason for his staging the 2006 coup, but also for his acts of treason and his campaign of terror by way of killings, beatings and rapes which is very well documented and continues to this day, leading to both the Pacific Islands
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Forum,(including Melanesian Spearhead countries), the Commonwealth and all right minded observers to conclude that the human rights position in Fiji is rapidly deteriorating. Paragraph 2 refers to terrorism, racial riots, religious and ethnic vilification and other disturbances. These are the bogies upon which the alleged Prime Minister relies to justify his retention of an iron grip notwithstanding the lifting of PER. It is informative to examine the hundreds of innocent people who through no fault of their own have been, and continue to be, variously beaten raped and killed by the regime. None of them can on any proper meaning of the word be called terrorists. Neither have any engaged in riots or activities such as the alleged Prime Minister describes,. Nor does the Army require any law to engage in such beatings, rapes and killings. The non independent judiciary is helpless to intervene. Does the alleged Prime Minister allege that such persons are terrorists? The alleged Prime Minister lives in a world of fantasy. To him, anyone who opposes him is guilty of sedition. To him, any independence of mind is treason. His own mind is diseased in its understanding. At present the regime is harassing a 74 year old lady, a business pioneer who founded the hot bread kitchen in Suva. She is supposed to have plotted the downfall of the regime. No doubt, the captive alleged DPP would approve any charges against her and the captive courts would find her guilty. What was she going to hold up the regime with? A French stick? The regime is also harassing the landowners at Namosi to allow their land to be torn apart by foreign mining companies. Their pictures pitifully asking for their land not to be disturbed have been prominent in the international media. The regime also does not like unionists doing their work, nor Ministers of the Methodist Church. The regime recently became very excited about young boys painting certain graffiti expressing disagreement with the regime in public places, filing ridiculous and grossly disproportionate charges against them. Who then are the terrorists? None other than the regime itself. Its record of killings, beatings and rapes speaks for itself. Those who are opposed to the regime are not terrorists. Nor do they have any intention of carrying out any of the steps which the alleged Prime Minister says require to be guarded against. The regime is still killing as evidenced by the police officers body (not the subject of death by natural causes) found floating in the RFMF pool. The alleged Prime Minister refers to the passing of laws on terrorism, racial riots, religious and ethnic vilification etc in other countries. The alleged Prime Minister misses the mark. His opponents are not terrorists or practitioners of the other things he talks about. There is no genuine threat to guard against in relation to such matters. The threat is fabricated by his diseased mind.

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Also as Michael Field has pointed out, laws in other countries were passed by the democratic process with proper safeguards. They were not enacted by the process adopted by the regime, that of Decree. The whole process adopted by the regime for making of laws is illegal and undemocratic and comprises nothing more than the exercise of the will of the alleged Prime Minister expressed in Decrees drafted at great public cost by his controller the alleged Attorney General. There is no democratic involvement in the making of such Decrees. The process used, branded as illegal in 2009 by the Court of Appeal, is that used by the Stuart kings in the seventeenth century, a process which led to the execution in 1649 of Charles 1st. The use of the process would be laughable if its results were not so grave. Further, there are no safeguards to the interpretation of Decrees. The regime may interpret them as it pleases. The servile judiciary will endorse whatever interpretation the alleged Attorney General puts. The Decrees in some places refer to "independent" vetting. However, no institution in Fiji is capable of effectively vetting what the regime insists on. The new Decree will be interpreted as the regime pleases. It will be enforced as the regime pleases, by its thugs and goons and servile magistracy and judiciary. For all the above reasons the comparison by the alleged Prime Minister with laws passed in other countries is futile. Paragraph 3 is breathtaking in its dishonesty. It is worth reciting the entire text here "In Fiji we too have experienced terrorism such as the events of 2000, during which government members were held captive by terrorists for close to two months. They held the country to ransom while being aided and abetted by political elites, religious groupings and self interested individuals. Suva and other centres including Muaniweni was systematically ransacked, looted and terrorised." Paragraph 4 continues this theme:" We must never allow this to happen again. Nor must we allow those who will create such a situation to act with impunity." Paragraphs 3 and 4 are vital because they reflect a lie which has received in the past a degree of international acceptance and which has formed the basis upon which the international community has at times been willing, although reluctantly, to forgive the regime its shortcomings. Time and time again, the alleged Prime Minister has represented to Fiji and to the international community that in 2000 he saved Fiji from destruction and therefore he must be given credit to continue to hold the reins of power. This entire representation is however a lie, the biggest lie which even the alleged Prime Minister, a born liar, has told. His power has been based upon the acceptance of that lie. It is now known however that after the 2000 coup, the alleged Prime Minister himself commissioned a Board of Enquiry to investigate the causes of the coup. That Board of Inquiry extended from 21st August 2000 to 24th October 2000. It was presided over by the alleged Prime Minister's appointee, Lt.Colonel Jackson Evans. The findings of the Board were not to the alleged Prime Minister's liking for reasons set out below. He therefore ordered all copies to be destroyed apart from one held by his most faithful confidant and later Acting Commander, Brigadier Aziz. He trusted that party, whose
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totally unquestioning obedience he relied on, to bury the item. (For those not familiar with Brigadier Aziz, he was the officer the alleged Prime Minister entrusted with the task of delivering an ultimatum to the former Chief Justice to quit his post; this, and Aziz' later appointment to act as Commander, show the alleged Prime Minister's faith in him). However, a copy of the Board of Inquiry report did survive destruction, and it now brands as a lie the biggest lie of all told by the alleged Prime Minister and now by implication repeated in his latest speech, namely that he saved Fiji from the 2000 coup. The alleged Prime Minister did not save Fiji from the 2000 coup. On the contrary, he knew all about it long before it happened. He deliberately stood aside and let it happen. He endorsed it after it occurred. He falsely blamed his co participants for it and turned on them in an ultimate act of betrayal which led to the mutiny of 2000. He approved of the murders of Counter Revolutionary Warfare soldiers after the mutiny when he had known very well all along the intentions of those soldiers in regard to the coup. He still retains in incarceration some of those soldiers whom he betrayed. The alleged Prime Minister is as much responsible for the 2000 coup as anyone else. His suggestion that he is not is the ultimate example of canting hypocrisy. The things which happened in 2000 and which the alleged Prime Minister weeps over were as much his doing as anyone else's. His tears are crocodile tears. He was in his own words one of "those who will create such a situation." The entirety of the Board of Inquiry report, which is more than a thousand pages in length, will be made available for scrutiny. Only those scrutinising it will appreciate the full depth of the alleged Prime Minister's deception. Paragraphs 4 to 9 set out examples of foreign laws, no doubt supplied by the controller of the alleged Prime Minister, the alleged Attorney General, and contrast them with the new Decree. Those examples are not material for reasons already set out. Paragraph 10 refers to the Public Order (Amendment) Decree 2012, another undemocratic measure put through without consultation. This time the paragraph refers to a new bogie, "economic sabotage." It has already been pointed out that the sane and natural meaning of words does not appeal to the alleged Prime Minister. What is his understanding of the phrase "economic sabotage?" Does it mean anything that a normal sane person would describe as economic sabotage, or does it have a warped meaning to include any opposition to the regime in the economic sphere? No doubt, the alleged Prime Minister intends to refer to the legitimate activities of union officials in protecting the basic rights of unions and their members, his dissatisfaction with the existence of such rights as recently shown very clearly by him. The only economic sabotage being committed against Fiji at the present time is that being committed by the current regime. This is clearly shown by very recent authoritative statements showing Fiji slipping well behind its Pacific neighbours in terms of economic progress. This is a direct outcome of the bungling ineptitude of the regime. The regime purports to receive aid from China but this comprises not aid in any conventional sense but costly loans mortgaging future generations.

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As far as the latest "Budget" of the Minister of Finance (who is also the alleged Prime Minister) is concerned, as the Fiji Labour Party has accurately pointed out, it means nothing as no national accounts have been presented since 2008 and because of complete lack of transparency. There is little point to such a budget when no one knows where the money goes or where it is coming from. The Fiji Labour Party has also pointed out certain very stupid and unwise financial decisions of the regime, for example the pumping of millions of dollars into the collapsed Momi project, and has indicated the imminent collapse of the Fiji Sugar Corporation. Stunning recent price rises in basic food stuffs have also been highlighted and it has been pointed out that rises in the cost of living under the regime have far outstripped any gains by the public, thus increasing poverty. It should be mentioned at this stage that reduction of poverty was one of the "pillars" of the Charter with which the public was force-fed by the Army. Those interested in the regime's performance, or lack of performance in reducing poverty should examine this "pillar" carefully, which shows a targeted reduction in poverty exactly opposite to what the regime has actually achieved. The regime is committing economic sabotage against Fiji. No one else is. Turning again to the Public Order (Amendment) Decree 2012, same provides that any person who commits an act of terrorism shall be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to imprisonment for life. The alleged Prime Minister should be charged under that provision. There is no better candidate apart from perhaps the alleged Attorney General. Paragraph 11 boasts that Fiji will not go to the extremes followed in other countries. It points out that under the Fiji Decree lesser periods of detention are involved; that there is the "saving grace' of approval by the Commissioner of Police and the Minister, that a person arrested must be brought before the court, and that tracking devices will not be installed on individuals. Reply is made to paragraph 11 in sequence. Firstly, whether the actual written "laws" passed in Fiji are or are not on their face more or less severe than overseas laws, as has been pointed out they are not properly or democratically passed and in fact all of such are illegal. Also they will be interpreted as the regime wishes them to be interpreted without intervention from a servile magistracy and judiciary. Further they will be policed by a gang of thugs and goons not subject to control. The "saving grace" of approval by the Commissioner of Police is a joke. He is a functionary and servant of the Army who must do whatever the alleged Prime Minister wants him to do; likewise the Minister. Being brought before a court is no protection. The magistrates and judges are servile and unable to help. Not wearing a tracking device means little when random and uncontrolled detention, beatings rapes and killings are involved.

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Paragraphs 12 and 13 suggest that the regime has made improvements in the lives of its citizens. Paragraph 13 has the effrontery to refer to measures to empower Fijians. In fact, emasculation rather than empowering has been the theme of the regime's policies. It has passed a Land Use Decree, operable only by the alleged Prime Minister without right of challenge, imperilling all Fijian land. Its puppet "Judge" in Lautoka has with the alleged Attorney-General's approval issued a ridiculous judgment, totally in conflict with the Deed of Cession, suggesting that all Fijian land was long ago alienated to Queen Victoria, hence presumably anything the regime wishes to do with Fijian land is in order. The regime has not empowered but diminished the Fijians whom it has been killing, beating and raping. The regime has unlawfully restricted Fijians freedom of worship. The regime's economic policies have bankrupted Fiji and caused greatly increased poverty. The reference in paragraph 13 to strengthening the economy is laughable. Paragraph 14 refers to an overall decrease in the crime rate. In fact a large increase has occurred, comprising the killings, beating and rapes which the regime has engaged in. Further, any statistics compiled by the regime (The Bureau of Statistics was for a time headed by the alleged Prime Ministers brother) are notoriously unreliable. Paragraph 14 refers to a stable society. There can be no stability in a reign of terror. Society is not safe for everyone. It is safe only for the regime and its supporters. Paragraph 15 refers to prevailing corruption under previous governments. But no regime is as corrupt as the current regime. Anyone wishing to put this to the test should check how the alleged Prime Minister has suppressed for years the reports of the Auditor General and in particular that commenting on how he came to receive two hundred thousand dollars in alleged back pay. That person should also ask the alleged Attorney General for details of the dilapidated buildings sold by him at a premium price and how those involved boasted of buying him by the unwarranted excess. Both such persons should file independently vetted asset accretion statements showing all their holdings and properties. They should be quizzed on their multiple salaries drawn from multiple sources. Paragraph 15 refers to mismanagement of the economy. The regimes mismanagement beggars description. Paragraph 15 refers to political uncertainty. What is more uncertain than life and death in a reign of terror carried out by a military regime? Paragraph 16 accuses Fijis neighbours of causing the ills criticised in the release. That is an exercise in escapism.

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Paragraph 16 and 17 boast of the regimes alleged achievements. These matters may be dealt with thus: Outlawing racism: There is no indication of any practical outcome. Codifying equal rights for women: Likewise Creation of FICAC FICAC is a monstrosity, an instrument used to harass opponents of the regime. This has recently been drastically exposed by a brave Sri Lankan official horrified at the abuse committed by FICAC. The alleged Prime Minister since inception of his regime has pressed and pestered FICAC into political prosecutions, and FICAC has of course complied. Creation of the Independent Legal Services Commission The Commission is also a monstrosity, a servile tool for the appointment of servile magistrates and judges. The retired High Court Judge appointed to the Commission is a disgrace to his profession. As with FICAC, there is nothing independent about the Commission. Indeed the word independent is the most oft quoted miusdescription of the alleged Prime Minister, closely following the word sedition . New Child Welfare Decree This is a piece of paper Provident fund The regimes activity has been in stealing from the fund to compensate for its economic mismanagement. The alleged Prime Minister in fact demanded that Board members of the Fund release hundreds of millions of dollars to Government which proposal some of the Board manfully resisted. This resulted in his sacking the recalcitrant members of the Board, including Felix Anthony who until this day is not allowed to leave Fiji or even to meet his fellow unionists. Land lease monies. No evidence is offered of more equal distribution. Fiji Sugar Corporation The Corporation is on its death bed and the regime is trying to hide this. Returns for landowners and security for tenants. The regime's attack on Fijian land has already been detailed. Paragraph 18 The paragraph boasts of doing great things. Investments are referred to. The validity of such is not proven. The "investment" in Momi has already been mentioned. The Chinese loans are disastrous and expensive.

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The effectiveness of other asserted beneficial measures is not shown or evidenced, as indeed is true of everything mentioned in the statement, the benefits consist of bare assertions without independent proof. The regime can say anything it likes without proof since any objector or clarifier will be automatically severely dealt with. Expansion of ties to other nations is mentioned. But this is an escape scenario only calculated to avoid the unwanted scrutiny which democratic governments bring to bear. Record numbers of visitors are quoted. This proves nothing. The typical visitor comes to the international airport, visits a resort and then returns happy. The evils of the regime are committed out of sight of the ordinary visitor who is kept in ignorance of the evils of the regime. This is a pattern for all tropical dictatorships where there is a tourist industry on which the relevant regime depends. All achievements asserted comprise bald assertions by a person who knows that his say so cannot be challenged. One "achievement" is cutting of taxes. However as the Labour Party has recently pointed out, most Fiji citizens live in poverty below the level to which taxes have been reduced. Thus the reduction in tax is of no benefit to them and poverty continues to increase. The speech goes on in paragraph 19 to refer to persons fanning the flames of prejudice and intolerance. It also refers to "self interested individuals." None of those whom the regime has been and is persecuting have been fanning any flames. The fanning of flames is another bogie dishonestly introduced by the alleged Prime Minister, who himself fanned the flames in 2000. The only guilty self interested individuals are parties such as the alleged Prime Minister who in 2006 stated that he would not benefit from the coup but who has so benefitted ever since. The speech goes on to state at paragraph 20 that blog sites opposing the regime engage in racial or religious vilification, defamation, encouraging terror and violence or simply lying about Fiji. The one who is lying about Fiji is the alleged Prime Minister. The alleged Prime Minister forced informed comment underground. There is no defamation in anything published about the alleged Prime Minister, the alleged Attorney General or any regime members on any blogsite. They all deserve everything they get - and more. The vast bulk of blog site criticism is very well justified. The solution for the alleged Prime Minister is of course to lift all, restrictions creating blog sites and to rely on the popularity of his regime and the law of defamation to see him through. If the alleged Prime Minister wished to rely on the law of defamation, why does he need so many other laws to protect his frailty? Subsequent paragraphs refer to personal agendas and self interested individuals. Those words aptly cover the alleged Prime Minister and the alleged Attorney General who have become rich under the coup which the alleged Attorney General devised and which his puppet the alleged Prime Minister carried out
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Paragraph 24 asserts:" There is nothing more I want than a Fiji with a truly democratic government." That is another lie. A truly democratic government would prosecute the alleged Prime Minister for treason, murder, and a host of other crimes. To sum up, the speech reveals the sheer extent of the evil which is the regime. The promise of elections made in it is totally false. there is no true glimmer of hope in it for a better future. That will only be obtainable by a true return of the Army to barracks and the holding of true democratic elections not in any way whatsoever controlled by the regime.

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