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DIPLOMATIC blunder; VOICE OF Australia; WHIPPING MPs to shape; ISLAND NAMED after Tuilaepa?
Diplomatic blunder: Was the whole of Bainimarama’s cabinet in full agreement with the expulsion of Michael Green, the New Zealand envoy to Fiji? Word from the corridors of power is that his foreign minister was stalling the process hoping the interim prime minister would change his mind. When Bainimarama did not change his mind, the foreign ministry had to press the button to get the process going.
This involves the ministry having to write to Green’s Government on behalf of the Interim Fiji Government informing them of the expulsion. Protocol dictates the Fiji letter had to be sent to the Fiji envoy in Wellington who would then deliver it to the New Zealand foreign ministry. Apparently, the Fiji envoy in Wellington had to wait a few days to get the letter after he was informed it was being faxed across.
After numerous telephone calls back to his headquarters asking where the letter was, it was finally revealed that the letter was indeed faxed the day he was told it was coming. But instead of it being faxed to the Wellington office, it was faxed to the Prime Minister’s Office.
The foreign ministry only found out that they had faxed it to the wrong office when the PM’s Office called to inform them that they’ve got the letter meant for the Wellington office...but that was a few days later.
Voice of Australia: It seems there is no end to Australia’s efforts to have a media voice in the region. That bastion of New Zealand influence, the Cook Islands, looks like the latest to be infiltrated. Radio Australia is said to have signed up Cooks media entrepreneur Nick Henry to rebroadcast its service on FM radio in Rarotonga. Meanwhile, former Radio Australia boss, Jean-Gabriel Manguy, is off to Vanuatu. He heads an AusAID project which will give the Aussies a big influence in the running of Vanuatu’s state broadcasting. But all has apparently not gone the Aussie way. Plans for further developing a similar project at Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation (SIBC) ran into a local roadblock. Seems some in Honiara feel the Aussies already have enough influence through the Australian-led Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI). Having them embedded even more at the state broadcaster was too much. Will the Aussies eventually have their way at SIBC? Don’t bet against it. Who would have thought Cook Islanders, with their New Zealand passports, would be turning to Radio Australia?
Whipping MPs to shape: There’s a new fear creeping into Sogavare’s Government. A growing number of his top aides (ministers and backbenchers)—infact half of his MPs—are sick. They’re suffering from mostly lifestyle diseases such as diabetes. Sogavare is so concerned that he’s working with his health ministry to devise a strict diet and exercise regime to whip his MPs back to tip-top shape. “We made it very clear to them that their election to the posts or to be MPs, they ceased to be owners of themselves. They belong to this nation and they have a responsibility to make sure they’re healthy,” Sogavare told a local newspaper.
Still on the Solomons: Sogavare-appointed police chief, Fiji’s Jahir Khan, seems to be hanging on every word of the PM. Immediately after he started in Honiara, he was already putting in a supplementary budget of US$2.6 million to the government) to purchase weapons for the police patrol boats and the Close Protection Unit which guards the PM. His predecessor Australian Shane Castles was opposed to re-arming the police, which could be one of the reasons why he was not allowed back into the Solomons after he went on leave in Australia. Khan’s appointment was surrounded in controversy and his move to re-arm the police may further add fuel to this. Solomon Islands branch of Transparency International says it is not in the best interest of the country for the police to be re-armed. Executive Officer Joses Tuhanuku told Radio Australia’s Pacific Beat he was concerned at the prospect of giving guns back to police. He said there is no guarantee that rearming the police is in the best interest of the people.
Still on the Solomons police... Word is that police chief Khan, who is being paid by the Solomons Islands Government and topped up by Taiwan, could be recruiting more policemen from Fiji to work for him in the Solomons. One of those he could be luring back to Honiara is Fiji’s acting police chief—Romanu Tikotikoca—whose term expires early August—to head his community policing unit. Tikotikoca apparently was the first to be offered the Solomons’ police chief job after Shane Castles was dumped when he was working in Honiara with the Australian Gold Ridge company. Tikotikoca declined the job and opted to return to Fiji to head the police force there—but only to find when he arrived in Suva that the position was only an acting one.
On the right road: How times have changed. Once the Solomon Islands was better known for abuse of public office rather than for crackdowns on it. But now those around the region frustrated by the way local politicians and public servants abuse the use of government vehicles should look to Honiara. The Solomon Star newspaper lists the impressive government crackdown underway there. Only public servants with permits signed by the head of their ministry are allowed to drive government vehicles. Only permanent secretaries and those involved in emergency services are allowed to take vehicles home. And to make sure this happens, police are empowered to do spot checks to ensure these policies are followed. Honiara’s road to halting state vehicle abuse doesn’t stop there. Politicians are also being forced to pay for any damage to government vehicles they are driving. Those who can’t pay up are being asked to surrender assets to cover the costs.
NGOs state of play: Word is that at least two non-government organisations based in Suva are finding it difficult to make ends met. One is operating with a skeletal staff (only two) and the other is barely keeping its head above water. They’re all waiting for that fresh dose of donor funding to give them a new lease of life. It will be a pity to see one of them, probably the first regional NGO to set up shop in Fiji, go under.
Strategic placing: Call it whatever you want, but from the general populace, it is military infiltration at its best. More military personnel are now being put to head strategic government positions. In Fiji, the police, prisons, immigration, government’s IT unit, and the protocol office are now headed by senior military officers. And that’s not all—a few of them are being earmarked for diplomatic postings too. The military’s number three man Colonel Pita Driti is heading to Malaysia on secondment to be Fiji’s envoy there; another one is heading to New York to the Fiji Mission at the United Nations; and there could be a husband and wife team heading to New Delhi to work in the Fiji mission there.
Word Games: The pressure is beginning to show in hosts Samoa as the clock ticks towards the South Pacific Games opening on the 25th of next month. Games Minister Faumuina Tiatia Liuga responded to criticism that roadworks might not be finished in time. He said they weren’t intended to be. They were part of a continuing project which just happened to coincide with the Games, said the minister. Soon after, Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi was quoted by the Samoa Observer newspaper as responding to the criticism of traffic jams. They were, said the Prime Minister, caused by the many roadworks required in preparation for the Games.
What’s in a name? If you hear Solomon Islanders referring to their new Police Commissioner, Jahir Khan, as Mr Commissioner and not Mr Khan, there’s good reason. The former senior Fiji policeman’s name pronounced out loud sounds awfully like a Pijin word not used in polite company. Let’s just say it refers to a part of the female body.
Changing times: The US Central Intelligence Agency is declassifying hundreds of pages of documents on secret operations from over three decades ago, according to its director Michael Hayden. The so-called “Family Jewels” document overseas assassination attempts, domestic spying, kidnapping and infiltration of leftist groups from the 1950s to the 1970s, according to a summary posted on the website of the National Security Archive at George Washington University. The documents also include accounts of break-ins and theft, surveillance of US journalists, the agency’s opening of private mail to and from China and the Soviet Union, and “behaviour modification” experiments on “unwitting” US civilians.
Too busy to brew a cuppa? Indian scientists have patented two new tea-based products—a pill and a fizzy drink they hope will give consumers the same pleasure as drinking a freshly brewed cuppa. A four-member team based in the northeastern state of Assam—the heart of India’s tea industry—said their chewable pill and a health drink were now ready to cause a buzz on the world market.
Naming benefits: Samoans long ago perfected the art of bestowing traditional titles on honoured guests and visitors who had done good for the country and could continue to. Asian Development Bank and world soccer bosses, New Zealand prime ministers and wrestlers turned Hollywood stars are amongst those who have been so honoured. Now is there to be a new trend? Villagers on the island of Apolima-tai want to rename their island Tuilaepa Island, the Samoa Observer newspaper reported. The island, between the large islands of Upolu and Savai’i, was for a long time regarded as one of Samoa’s most isolated communities. The renaming would be in recognition of Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi’s strong support for development of Apolima-tai. That includes improved water and power supplies, education, and providing a wharf.
Fa’afafine you’re in: Fa’afafine could be joining the police force soon if Samoa’s minister of police, Tole’afoa Apulu Fa’afisi’s assurance is anything to go by. He told Samoan MPs that fa’afafine are welcome to become police officers.
Tole’afoa says the ministry has a selection criteria for new recruits but it would not discriminate, as long as candidates have the right qualifications.
Prime Minister, Tuila’epa Sailele Malielegaoi, who is the patron of the Fa’afafine Association, says they have done good work for the people and they are very talented in doing both men and women’s domestic duties.
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