May 18, 2009

Censor This: Military Regime in “Panic Mode”

Last week’s detention of the Methodist Church’s senior minister, Rev Manasa Lasaro, has been labelled as a signal of panic by the military regime.

Rev Lasaro’s recent release follows similar detention strategies of journalists who have not complied with the illegal Public Emergency Regulations.

Regional media agencies such as PACNEWS are set to flee Fiji’s shores following the intense muzzling of the media.

The military regime now toys with intensified PR attempts to control the news that people in Fiji receive and will particularly use media outlets that have been pandering to the slanted propaganda.

These media outlets could see a drop in their circulation, listener/viewer-ship and instead become propped up by Government subsidies from taxpayer dollars, if they're lucky.

Rev Lasaro has expressed the continued defiance of the church despite recent warnings from the regime to refrain from “destabilizing the country” lest their annual church conference also be halted.

The panic room situation developed a few weeks ago when the illegal military regime was forced to admit the selective release of convicted killers of Rabaka and Verebasaga.

Today’s statement from the EU detailing the severance of funds for sugar will not leave any room for Bainimarama’s regime to move at the upcoming ACP-EU meeting in Guyana which he hopes to attend.

This formal EU announcement follows the regime's overzealous PR attempts (read lies) on the EU’s position on Fiji.

The Sugar Cane Growers Council remains hopelessly optimistic that the EU will reconsider their position.

The ACP itself may not want to maintain their alliance with Fiji following this recent announcement, lest it place their collective bargaining position with the EU at a disadvantage.

At the end of April the ACP’s Committee Ambassadors had raised their serious concerns on Fiji’s illegal situation.

The military regime, upon receipt of signals of the international communities intention to isolate it, quickly develops policies to deal with the extra, un-utilised manpower plaguing the nation and heralds another diplomatic booboo by targeting Taiwan.

More panic attacks by the military regime reveal that internet café’s are being targeted.

The recent week’s clamp-down attempts by Bainimarama’s military regime only highlights all the more that they are quickly losing political control.

The regime knows that underground moves are afoot but the nature of it including logistical details which could aid their rapid restraint evade them completely, highlighting all the more the rapid loss of political power and their ostracization by society at large.

2 comments:

Tim said...

Frank and his not-so-merry-men are desperately trying to figure out how they can impress Hilary so they can get themselves one of those "RESET" buttons. Should it be their masculine charm?....bribery?...meaningful dialogue maybe?....or perhaps they should just try appealing to Bill's animal instincts

SEMI MEO said...

Sure, there definitely are uncertainties for the morrow in the home front, but nothing tantamount to total chaos as predicted by some prophets of doom in their very graphical conspiracy predictions. There is one treasured commodity this Dictator and his cohorts will never and can not censor or Coup out of us, that’s our Hope, hope in each other, and hope in God.
In spite of taunts and veiled threats from all corners, we still believe there remain in the Military Regime soldiers and senior Military officers of good sense, restrain, goodwill and equitable resolve for the good of all citizens of paradise.
There are still Methodists who in spite of any rumored decree to bar or ban public worship would still find solace in their own Temple; themselves, where God resides, and would further resolve they are not fighting against flesh and blood, hence, spiritually immature to take out to the street or vent anger on any being or property. For we may be locked or barred from the altar of our church but no one on earth, Dictator included, can lock us out of our altar within us. That’s what matters.
Just ‘cause some of us still believe in the words of the Good Book; God will make a way in the wilderness and river in the driest of desert. That’s our Hope!
Do we want blood shed? Never, because in any splatter of blood we see our own. Why then regress to such evil, un-Fijian and un-Christian state of hopelessness.
Could the heart of stone be turn to flesh?..sure can! Can Fiji be the way the world should be one more time? That up to the living, us to translate it from a dream to reality.
Let’s hope and pray for the best, shall we?. only, if you love your beloved country. Simplistic view?, sure is, ‘cause hope and prayer simply works!