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Forum tightens up: Word is that the Forum Officials Committee (FOC) budget should make for interesting reading this year. Apparently all programmes have been asked to tighten their belts so that they can meet the $650,000 budget. Disgruntled staff are pointing out that programmes are having to be cut to make way for the Secretary-General’s renovation of his abode and that renovations for the master bedroom is a shocking $50,000.
Changes in the pipeline: Talking about the Forum Secretariat, the rumour there is that changes are in the pipeline and they are being devised by none other than the Secretary-General himself. WHISPERS has been told that the Samoan has been asking a lot of questions about consultants and how much it spends on hiring these consultants. He wants the Forum advisers who are being handsomely compensated to do a lot more work rather than just co-ordinate these consultants. He thinks, WHISPERS has been told that the advisers are being paid too much and they do too little work. Most of the work consultants do could be done by the advisers themselves. Apparently a lot of money has been paid to consultants and the Forum could save a lot if the work is done by the advisers themselves. If the Secretary-General gets this off the ground, it would definitely be a coup and of course good for his credibility.
Big bro move: Still on the ForumSec, due to leakages of documents, and the latest being the leaking of the Makurita Baaro’s report in which she reviewed the three years of the implementation of the Pacific Plan and the announcement of staff appointments in the media before the official announcements, the head honcho has been talking about monitoring all staff incoming and outgoing emails. Well, paranoia is reigning at the Forum HQ.
The Pacific Plan report? Well, no further word has been received regarding who leaked the report, although the ForumSec people have a fairly good idea who did it. The report was tabled at the FOC meeting last month and it was hoped it could be tabled at the Leaders meeting in Cairns this month. Well, that’s not going to be. FOC decided following a motion from the Cooks that they needed more time to go through the Makurita Baaro report recommendations. Will this be the end of this report? Or is this a deliberate attempt to ensure the Pacific Plan and the Fiji issue are not raised when the Leaders meet in Cairns? Sources within the Forum say if the Baaro report is shelved, it will be just a waste time and resources, and those interviewed by Ms Baaro would be very annoyed.
Pay battle brewing: Is a pay battle brewing at SPC (Secretariat of the Pacific Community) Suva establishment? The word is that staff at the Suva establishment have requested a salary readjustment following the 20 percent devaluation of the Fiji dollar. It is understood expat staff have been given a 15% readjustment, but still want more, and the local staff? Well, they have received $500 each—a one-off payment. The question being asked is: how was it calculated and against what? But the new deputy head honcho has threatened to take legal action against those seeking salary readjustments. And by the way, WHISPERS has been told that managements at the Suva-based SOPAC and Forum Secretariat have both agreed to compensate their staff.
Impressing the boss: The Fiji envoy in Japan must surely have something Bainimarama desperately wants. Bainimarama flew across the envoy to Fiji just to accompany him to the MSG Leaders summit in Port Vila last month. WHISPERS has been told the envoy has a very close relationship with PNG’s Grand Chief. The envoy must have made a very good impression on Bainimarama that he has now been recalled home to become the next foreign minister.
Kava talks: Have you heard the latest soul searching comments around the kava bowl between a former civil servant, a pacifist and a priest? Well it goes something like this: The former civil servant said, “What will our future descendants say about us when something happen in our homes? They would say we are cowards.” Then the pacifist said, “better live to fight the battle another day.” The priest then asked—when will that day be? Makes kava drinking quite serious and tense. But you can hear it quite often wherever there is a grog session. No PER (Public Emergency Regulation) around to police it too—only the bilo levu (the big kava bowl).
Pulp fiction: The expatriate managers of a super hush hush island resort are said to be less than impressed with a local lifestyle magazine’s coverage of their ultra exclusive getaway. So much so that they are believed to have dispatched a staff member from the island to buy all copies of the magazine on the mainland and destroy them. Rumoured to have cost upwards of F$500 million, the resort was shrouded in secrecy since its inception with a blanket ban on press coverage.
This set tongues wagging with all sorts of stories circulating about the island. In what appears to be a PR move to silence the coconut wireless, the managers conceded to having the local publication on the island, a decision they are now said to regret.
Obama/Vanuatu link: What’s the link between President Obama and Vanuatu? A coin? What? A Coin? That is right. The coin’s reverse design features a portrait of President Obama with a cameo of an eagle, the national symbol of the US. The wording above the portrait states, “President B. Obama United States of America” and is broken by four stars. The obverse features the Vanuatu Coat of Arms. Vanuatu is an archipelago of islands based in the South Pacific Ocean. Obama was born on the Pacific Islands of Hawaii.
Fiji’s clean sweep: That Fiji is fast becoming the Pacific’s centre of excellence in journalism was reflected yet again at the recent Pacific Islands News Association’s media awards. Out of the nine awards announced at the association’s media summit in Port Vila, Fiji journalists got eight. It included the Tavake Fusimalohi Media Freedom Award that went to editor in chief of Fiji Times Netani Rika, reflective of the islands’ journalists fight to work amidst strict censorship. Their almost clean sweep of the media awards however will only fuel criticism of the “Fijianisation” of the regional media body, a thought advocated by countries like Samoa and the Cook Islands.
MSG out the window: Still on the Pacific media summit in Port Vila, it seems Melanesian solidarity went out the window when it came to elections for the top job of the regional media body. Defying a gentleman pact brokered at the last media summit in Honiara in 2007, Vanuatu went ahead and nominated its own for PINA presidency, opposing Fiji’s nomination of Stanley Simpson. Of no help either was the split in the Fiji delegation when professional rivalry caused Fiji Television to refuse to support Simpson, and instead backed Vanuatu’s nomination. Even backing from fellow Melanesian ‘wantok’ Solomon Islands was not enough to give Simpson the required vote. Legal eagles do wonder though about the legality of the elections, questioning why a non-financial member was allowed to attend and participate at the AGM. Also being questioned is whether a public relations consultant could hold an executive position in PINA when they are not even allowed full membership in the media body.
Quilting for cash: A woman on remote Pitcairn Island is hoping a quilt she has created will help get her family to New Zealand for medical treatment. A report from AAP said Nadine Christian’s hand-stitched quilt, which took three months to complete, depicts the travels of the HMS Bounty from England through the Pacific in the 1780s. She is putting the quilt up for sale on the internet auction site eBay and plans to use the proceeds to help pay for the 5300-km journey to New Zealand for her and her four children. She plans to take her four children to have medical check-ups, but said it was her youngest, two-year-old Adrianna, who needed medical treatment the most, because of issues with her eyes and ears.
Envoy status: A former Pacific islands government envoy to Malaysia, who has remained in Kuala Lumpur following political developments in his home country, has been told to return his red diplomatic passport. But he's refusing to do so, despite a replacement passport sent to him. Repeated attempts to get him to return have been futile. He is seeking refugee status there. He is being supported by a church group and Pacific islanders there!
Gender double-talk: How serious are the Pacific Governments in relation to gender? Well, this is what the first 2008 annual Programme Performance Report prepared for AusAID’s Pacific Regional Programme said: “The Pacific region has the lowest female political representation rates in the world (2.5% of women members compared to a world average of 18.2%), rates of violence against women are high, and women are under-represented in terms of employment and educational status. Most PICs have signed up to CEDAW but progress towards commitments has been limited. Most AusAID-funded regional initiatives identify gender as an issue but reporting on gender remains weak.”
Real estate on the radar: An exclusive freehold real estate developer in Fiji has come under the government radar. Government sources say the developer could be breaching his business agreement. It is understood the developer pulled down a church building belonging to the landowners, drawing the landowners’ wrath. It is the most expensive thing the landowners own. The church costs $49,000 to build.
Campbell’s replacement: The hunt is on for John Campbell replacement as CEO of Air Pacific, Fiji’s national carrier. Campbell’s term expires in June next year. Few locals are putting their hands up for the job.
Recruitment questioned: Practise what you preach is what a UN agency in Suva has been urged to embrace following questions on transparency and openness in its recruitment policy. Whispered around the dark alleys of the island city is the growing number of interns and temporary staff being recruited from offshore, and the concern that local islanders are being pushed away to make room for these expats.The other whisper is that local immigration authorities are slowly turning their eye on the unpleasant trend.
RRRT heads to Vila? Samoa should be happy with the whisper that a key regional body on promoting human rights is packing up and moving out of Fiji. RRRT now part of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community in Suva, it has been whispered, is moving to Port Vila in Vanuatu. A key factor is the failure by the regional body to acquire the necessary work approvals for senior executives of RRRT. It is whispered the imminent relocation is linked to the sale of a new but popular eatery in the Fijian capital.
Fiji at Cairns meet? A request from Fiji to consult on the margins of the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders meeting in Cairns early this month was rejected after the Forum Secretariat had sent members Fiji's request. Only one country responded with a 'yes' and that was Dr Derek Sikua's government, WHISPERS was told. Nothing was heard from the rest of the Forum members. Fiji is being suspended by the Forum.
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