- Pro-democracy marchers bring Sydney traffic to a standstill
- SBS news coverage
- Island Mode Magazine coverage
- The Age online - Fijians march in Sydney in democracy
- Sydney Morning Herald - Fijians march in Sydney for democracy
- The West Australian - Fijians march in Sydney for democracy
- Yahoo 7 News - Fijians march in Sydney for democracy
- Nine MSN - Fijians march in Sydney for democracy
- AAP image
The recent protest march by Fiji democracy lovers has now apparently triggered movement by Fijians in the United States of America, with similar intentions:
A group of us will be staging a peaceful protest march with petitions to be given to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the United Nations Department for Peacekeeping Operations, New York, next month. The date is tentative (Friday, June 5) and will be confirmed once the rest of the Steering Committee confirms their availability.
The purpose of this march is to present a petition to this high office concerning:
- abuse of human rights;
- unwarranted arrest of innocent civilians;
- murder;
- torture of innocent civilians;
- no rule of Law; and
- to stop the employment of Fiji soldiers in all peacekeeping missions.
Email: maisawana@yahoo.com for more information.
13 comments:
Congratulations to our brave NSW cousins braving the elements in cold Sydney yersteray 'avo. Seems the Media impact may reap fruits as e-comms may be ringing hot in the offices of AFP, ASIS, ASIO, AHRC, ACOSS ARC, UNHR, The Hague and others places where…well, they have to respectively be seen to be amicably responding to this public outcry, if anything else, to justify their share of the Federal Budget and briefs to their respective HOD/CEO/MP/PM etc before morning tea this morning.
Since NSW Fijian pioneered this ’09 marches may be it is opportune time that Fiji be re-ceded to NSW as we were a protectorate of the old NSW Government when Grandma Queen Victoria had too much on her royal plate then to worry about these afro haired former cannibals, as we may be back to political square one not been able to agree to lead us as a nation.
In the meantime, however, it may be unwise for our US cousins to partition the termination of the Fiji Military duties from overseas deployment. Unless, of course if our US cousins decides to increase their foreign remittances by 1,000%, should 50 % of the present 350 Million @ year are attributed to Fiji US cousins.
Just that the present overworked under paid Military back home may not swallow these couple Battalion return to Fiji. The US Fijians 1000% increase in remittance would help with their mortgage, kid bus fare to school, and with most of these soldiers lump sum commitment to build or complete village halls, churches, seawall or Village housing.
Semi,
you speak shit.
Why don't you declare your vested interest with your close ties to the Military.
That was a very warm hunky dory grog session you had with the Military tp brass at that Colo i Suva Funeral a few weeks back
If you cannot organise anything just shut up and piss off.
“.that Colo i Suva Funeral” I attended “ and alleged to have a ‘hunky dory grog session” with all kinda brass was to farewell my kid brother, a dedicated and proud soldier of Fiji and the cross of Calvary for over 20 years.
Since 1978, sweat and blood of our soldiers in theatres of strive and wars have been source of enormous foreign paisa given by the United Nation and pumped into the Fiji economy to fund major capital projects.
Our soldiers paid enormous costs, sadly, some end with family breakup, other, long lasting physical and psychological wounds, while others the ultimate sacrifice with their lives lost on foreign soil.
Like many, I am proud of the achievements of the our men in uniform way back when my granduncle in the King’s Royal Rifle Corps back to the 1917, Dad and uncle Iliesa Jovili and other relatives service in the Solomon Campaign, me name sake assisted chase the communist out of Malaya and now kid bro in MFO, Sinai.
That is my “vested interest” in Fiji Military Tradition and is bloody proud of it, though I will not encourage my two sons and nephews to join the Military under this Dictator.
Unfortunately, I am unable to invite a faceless and nameless coward to any “hunky dory grog session” I may organise…eh…may just look for him/her with the help of my connections in the cyber highway.
Semi,
You have one thing right & that is Congratulating the people that are in this march & to those that worked hard to show the world that we care for Fiji & the people certainly not Bainimarama & his regime/
Your other rhetorics is good only for the 'bai ni puaka; in other words its full of gutter talks & crap!!! You strike me to be a person thats got one leg hanging on this side of the fence & the other dangling the other side of the fence...neither here nor there..becareful because the wise men in the Holy (Christian)Bible says people of lukewwarm character will be vomited out....
Bula,
Slowly but surely the message is sinking in about the very good reasons for a Military led Government in Fiji at the present time.
Ordinary folk in Australia and New Zealand and the US ,thanks to the efforts of many are learning the truth.NZ's most widely read website
www.whaleoil.co.nz has taken a pro Bainimarama stand.
Senior staff in the Fiji Tourist plants, Air Pac' FVB myself and other lobbyists have worked hard to spread the word that Fiji is safe and under good stable and now corrupt free Government.
Those people who continue to rumour monger and attemp to cause civil unrest do so to further their own ends . These people are a minority with no public support.
If you go down to the Suva markets, to the shops in Cummings St, to the the many little curry shops, to the Defence Club, to the Royal suva yacht Club .you will discover people who support the Commodore and what he is doing!.
The people who want to get rid of Frank have their own dark hearted agenda's which includes lining their pockets at the expense of the rest of the population. They Positive discrimination, demand & money ,jobs, exhorbinant leases, which they feel is owed to them.
They have no interest in work. They want political power based on their lineage. They want legal fees so they can feed off their endless petitions. They want to publish incandescent volatile and inaccurate press stories so they can sell more papers. They are an angry sorry & bunch of folk because at present no one is listening to them and the other side of the story is being increasingly discussed abroad.
Vinaka Moce
Stan Blanch
027 221 7606
Global roaming
stanb@ihug.co.nz
Seems like its time for another reminder
http://discombobulatedbubu.blogspot.com/2008/05/rising-signs-of-fascism-in-fiji.html
Take heed Maori Party; the Greens; Neilson and other portions of academia cuddling up to some of the USP buddy sympathisers; the recently departed diaspora claiming Frank's intentions were good and noble; a few self-interested, self-indulgent in the legal fraternity;and one or two others masquerading as journalists.
I'm keen to see you all squeel like stuffed pigs and feign non-involvement now the shit is beginning to hit the proverbial. Sorry fellas - your egos and your past recor has let you down.
Or maybe:
http://solivakasamablog.wordpress.com/2009/03/27/american-psychiatrists-diagnose-franks-insanity/
Or maybe:
http://discombobulatedbubu.blogspot.com/2007/06/national-diagnosis-alert-bai-is.html
Please, please please! Engage and have dialogue now - Fijians really really appreciate your concern and all know that you really understand the psyche and mind of Him the wonderful . After more than the two years that you've all already waited before now coming up with such a brilliant idea, we should expect some sort of resolution soon (soon as in Zimbabwean time). Frank will even dress up in his Sunday best, or perhaps even a bright new multi-medalled uniform to recieve you.
The ego really needs some more feeding and the semi-lucid parts of the brain need reassurance that the evil that's occurred (only one or two murders and a few beatings after all) are merely collateral damage on the road to a grater good.
Or alternatively you could all just get a fucking grip!
Tim:
No boy you get a fucken grip of yourself tosser.
Why dont you come clean and tell us people you involvement in NZ gay scene.
Stan Blanch,
Where are you from? You appear to like what Bainimarama is doing because they are trying to eradicate the Indigenous Fijians - thats whats coming through isn't it?
The issues that being being discussed by those that do not like your hero Bainimarama because he has made the ordinary people suffer to the lowest one can get. We live in Fiji and we eat the food & breathe the air. Take another look around and see how degrading Fiji s environment, the standard of living, the children etc. Obviously you have a Glass House where you are looking out from and do not feel for the ordinary people. If Bananarama had cared, he will help Fiji by excuting his coup & do his duties that he claims were the reasons for his actions & give Fiji back to the Politicians & people who then can go on with their lives.
Fiji people will not sit back and be taken over by a dictator who historically planned all this because if he had not, his name would have been roasted when investigations completed after the 2000 coup by a civilian person who had been orchestrated by Bananarama himself. Looks like you have not been around for long to know the finer details. Do us all a favour & Go do some Fiji Blog reading on Anti Bara-bas
Blanch you have been spreading your crap around for too long - since when were the likes of u down in the Suva Nadi or Lautoka Markets? ... as if anyone wud say who they support - mai yaso !
As for the folks at the RSYC - not all - but many down there run with the hounds and do not understand the Fijan psyche despite being here for many years... same as you, dog.
So please do us a favour - stay in yr safe Auckland armchair and confine your crap thinking to your pet budgee in your lounge.
Why the personal attacks - lets talk facts - it is a fact that there is widespread support for Banimarama and his claimed clean up - You do need a revolution to changethe system and Fiji's system with corrupt politicians using the system for their own benefits had to come to an end!! THe population in Fiji is evenly divied in their support and opposition of the Military Govt but most of the migrants from Fiji strongly support the coup in Australia, NZ, US and Canada although they might not fully understand the problems a non accountable military Govt can create.
For Fiji's long term gains the sfundamental systems that are in place do need changing for long term progress of the country
- non racial based polictical systems (Indigenous Fijian will be over 60% of the population by the end of this decade)
- better and more even distribution of income from NLTB - even the Common Fijian should recieve his/her share and the Chiefs should not take a disproportionate share
- merit based appointments through Govt and Govt owned enterprises to ensure progress for the country
- less reliance on Australia and NZ and improved relationships with Asia
Snoopy,
I can see you have put in quite a great effort to outline your Western view on an Island Nation. However, I still beg to differ with your argument. Fiji & its people have had too many coups hence the title Fiji Coup - Coup Land. No one likes that label for a country they love, certainly not for our Fiji. Fiji Military 'vetai cake' or (wananabes)Bananaman included have had far too much Power in their Blooded Hands. They sit up in their officers' mess planning what - How to execute a Coup in their backyard' Thats the problem of Idle minds & idle hands with guns & lots of gurkha jungle pracitice. They just want to vent their energy & flex their muscles and it is unfortunate that Fiji & its people become the victim.
Politics & Inequality - all you need to do is look atound you in the world. It had been mapped out by Imperialists and colonialists & now evil globilzation to rob & rape, people of their land, resources etc in the name of Capitalism & development. Goldmine in Vatukoula is now living memory of that. MNC have taken all the gold they want, too much instability in Fiji & they vamooshed living the people to live with land that has big unsafe holes underground.
While we are on this - how about the innocent people that got wiped out as sub-humans & unwanted elements or uncivilized or backwards etc etc in the name of gaining wealth. The other crude -name for it is genocide.Yes, people that did not fit the Westphalia model got wiped whichever way it takes. One need only look to the mid 1960s to witness what two superpowers did to Diego Garcia.The native people got driven out of their lands for monetary gains & are now suffering in slums in the Mauritius.
Right now Suva in Fiji will become a slum if this coup stays on its current course.
You have tried well to lecture Fiji people about the voting system, the inequality etc etc How about getting your head around the Fiji complex problems by familiarising yourself with the extensive discussions top bloggers have put their skills onto regarding these. That will bring you up to speed.
In short - as Fiji people we are tired of the long list of reasons experts like you are bringing out. In reality those issues can and could have been dealt with in the normal manner certainly not a coup. Fiji people will never see progress if at evry turn of the century there is a coup waiting to happen.
To conclude - Thanks but No Thanks!!
We really pity the present leadership of the Methodist Church; President Rev. Tugaue and Gen Sec Rev. Waqairatu. These two “boys” as passionately called thus by the two former Presidents are now left the buck passed on by their predecessors of the last and early this century.
It is now time for these two post modern Leaders of the Methodist Church in Fiji and Rotuma (..eh…and Rabi and Kioa) to firstly, acknowledge their divinely mandate bestowed on them respectively as collective decision and blessings of the previous conference. Though they were rivalries for the top job during the last election, we have seen the brotherly cohesion they have marvellously jelled in to become a formidable Church Leadership and, politically untainted in extreme views and activity, yet, at such a time as this in our History. Apart from personal friendship, the two were College mates in Davuilevu and may have a “David /Jonathan” blood bond.
Secondly, we beg, having reminded of their mandate to be, simply, more autonomously decisive.
They must wake up to the fact that those who still call them “boy”, whether passionately or demeaning tone, are, with due respect, PAST Presidents. Yes, Presidents of the past. We are breathing today’s oxygen and eating today manna, not yesterday!
We do not have to bore ourselves again by revisiting the indecisiveness of these two former Presidents during their respective watch. For the benefit of those who now ask; they may have glorified the evil act of the first ever Fiji Coup after that evil act was condemned by the then sitting President, and may have benefitted from the spoils of the 2000 Coup. Both, as supreme leaders of Fiji’s largest multiracial Church, unashamedly in Public proclaim their extreme nationalist views. This blatant and wilful act led to sorrowful incidences where out of the wood works rose extreme nationalist with Taukei patriotic doctrine in one hand and the Holy Bible in the other.
Many assumed the umbrella of immunity, extended to the perpetrators of the first Coup covers them too. May be, but aren’t we Christians seek “immunity”, forgiven, restitution from the Court of Heaven for our misdemeanours here on earth? Even lay Methodist Sitiveni L Rabuka found it within himself to seek this higher “immunity”. It is on record he publicly apologised on many occasions, seek forgiveness from our Indo-Fijian community, and probably forgiven by many.
What’s holding these two Presidents back from kneeling at the altar of repentance they have, over the years, invited us to come to. If the altar of repentance is good enough for King David, a former Fiji Prime Minister, my cousins in Jittu Estate or Siberia, Labasa, and for the rest of us, then may be, just may be Spurgeon Snr’s may shame us all should we be so stubborn to a point on uselessness to the world:-
"An unholy church! it is useless to the world, and of no esteem among men. It is an abomination, hell’s laughter, heaven’s abhorrence. The worst evils which have ever come upon the world have been brought upon her by an unholy church." -C.H. Spurgeon Snr.
May be, we beg these two Presidents to gracefully resign from ALL church duties. Let’s formulate a generous retirement package for former Presidents to comfortably retire, other than reappointing them of lower posts best suited for many young and promising Talatalas. This would assist avoid the temptation of former Presidents lurking in a corner office, still ordering the “boys” around.
And get that Methodist Conference up and running with invitation to the non-methodsit members of the Military council as oserves, resource people or what ever, just get that conference back ‘cause Foreign Fijians wanna come home to spend and spend and spend euro, us and aussie and nz dollars this August!!
May be in the same conference the Dictator be reminded of the legacy his Methodist lay preacher Dad left for him to emulate. Let's begin some where in our journey back to sanity.
Goodness, our children are crying evey day for a solution!!
Great to see a though-provoking article from you Semi Meo.
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