Bubu Stands Up Now

And so it is crunch time my makubuna's.

Now that the military seem's well and truly intent on finding Intelligentsiya bloggers, I would like to give an update on what led to this.

Intelligentsiya reported on Monday the death of a villager in Vanua Levu which we alleged was at the hands of soldiers - we did not name the man, his village nor give his age. In the days leading up to the posting, we had heard that line from various sources - each blogger received similar information. We have the individual's name and village. We attempted to check the story for several days while it was being talked about in newsrooms - but not reported.

While it may be possible that the man, whose identity we know, died from other causes, we stand by our report until facts emerge to prove otherwise.

If we have made a mistake, such proof has not yet emerged.

Intelligentsiya first learned that a "hunt" was on when it was broadcast on Legend FM and sent out in its text alerts.

We have not received any communication from the military, but have received lots of supportive emails from individuals the world over, especially those in Viti Lomani.

Major Neumi Leweni last night said a "major academic institution" was suspected of being the "base" for Intelligentsiya. We have no base. Each blogger is completely independent from each other and the interaction is only and all in the e-realm. Neither are we academics (Ok maku's got to be honest---I think I AM a bit of an academic as I've been through the school of hard knocks which has given me a MBA in Life Studies) , as Leweni's comments would suggest.

But circumstances aside, the recent remarks of the NZ Government hold especially true for people of Fiji right now.

That is, in the face of our current political crisis we people of Fiji as individuals, parents, students, professionals, technocrats, businesspeople, religious sects and communities, grandparents etc must ACT.

So Intelligentsiya is under attack...boohoohoo…gone today and yes another one will crop up tomorrow. Many of you who read it feel the same pains and passions that we do. But the question remains, who else out there cries for our country and is willing to ACT and continue this fight?

Will we remain tunnel-visioned and believe that all of our tomorrows will be brighter if we just let it slide or let the lawyers handle it in court later?

We don't get off that easy makubuna's. Our tomorrow's can only be bettered by our actions today. Complacency and the "don't rock the military boat" lament is not an option. If this is the only window that you see, please don't think for a minute that we will escape this coup cycle. We will, by passively condoning this coup, willingly and knowingly pass on to our future generations a heritage of more coups. Make no mistake about it.

We are told that our Constitution is still being upheld. So therefore constitutionally speaking, even under a state of emergency the freedom from cruel and degrading treatment is ABSOLUTE — has this been evident from 5 December?

To ACT does not mean that we are to go all out and hold a grand protest march. To act also means the following basic approaches:

• refusing to be fooled by attempts of this military regime of all their wonderful discoveries of corruption and clean-up—only an INDEPENDENT court of law will have the final say on that;
• passively refusing to acknowledge this interim administration and only if necessary reverting to titles but not names. When all this hits the courts (and it will very soon) the military regime will have to PROVE that they had the support of the people—Silence IS ASSENT….so whichever and however you SAFELY make your views known, make them known. For folks who maintain contacts with rural veiwekani please continue to communicate the REAL stories to them. We battle the likes of Sitiveni Raturala who is specifically tasked with winning the hearts and minds campaign of Kaiviti in the rural areas;
• asking questions EVERY TIME you watch, hear, read media reports. Do not believe everything that is presented to you makubuna's….the media are also working under trying circumstances and have been hauled up for "enlightenment sessions" at the camp. The acid test to this is that if all the hype from the military regime is one-way traffic, then there is a problem;
• resisting any hype about moving the country forward. The only way this country can move forward is through a democratically elected government. Therefore elections should be happening very soon if this military regime was really committed to moving the country forward.

We stand ready for anything and we know that the biggest battle right now will be the terror tactics and the propaganda war.

In the meantime, a heated cyber-scuffle from more of my makubuna's are happening in Fiji Village Talk in two strands - one cheering for Intelligentsiya (titled "Hoorah for Intelligentsiya) and the other suggesting our days are numbered (titled "Games up for Intelligentsiya).

As of midnight on Thursday, all Intelligentsiya collaborators had still not been "arrested". Leweni, I see on Fijilive, says the army knows who we are and are tracking us down. He also said they had lodged a complaint with police about the blog.

We refuse to be intimidated by this military "information warfare" and will continue to speak our minds in this time of fear and paranoia.

Stand with Intelligentsiya in cyberspace today and ACT. We firmly remain committed to democracy, the rule of law and the freedom of information.

For Fiji Ever Fiji.

Yours in freedom -- Bubu Josivini.