PART 4: THE FINAL CHOICE FOR FIJI - BETWEEN THE GOOD GODZILLA RABUKA OVER THE EVIL ONE

 

PART 4:THE FINAL CHOICE FOR FIJI – BETWEEN THE GOOD GODZILLA RABUKA OVER THE EVIL ONE

Thakur Ranjit Singh

A Synopsis of Parts 1-3:

I gave reasons as to why I changed camps after being disillusioned with Bainimarama (Bai) after he abdicated his position to Khaiyum who seems to have been running Fiji, and running it down.  Bai does not seem to be in control of Fiji - or himself, as he is manipulated by his Deputy.

In Part 3, you saw how the thugs in suits, both Bai and Khaiyum bullied their way, removed and punished people through hook or crook, abuse of powers, threats, blackmail and shaming what is supposed to be a democracy. It seems to have been degenerated into a two-men dictatorship.

 

We continue with the justification to rescue Fiji from this rot. And Sitiveni Rabuka seems to be the reformed man standing who is our only hope to rescue what is left of Fiji.

The final Part 4 concludes with details of raping of governments machineries and a terminally ill system our hospitals have become which the leaders avoid by escaping overseas from a dying medical system in Fiji they failed to fund and improve for the common citizens of Fiji. And I conclude with some quotes and comparison why Fiji needs to be rescued by a good Godzilla or dinosaur from Jurassic World, where only good monster can beat the bad ones of its type and species - two former coup-makers of Fiji, Commanders of Military and Government leaders.

And that is a battle between a good Rabuka and an evil-harboring Bainimarama, who in realty is Khaiyum in surrogate. 

 

And here is my concluding plea to people of Fiji.

Part 4

Rape of Government Machineries

 

Where are the investigative journalists of Fiji to report on such blatant, shameful and gross abuse of power as I detailed in my three previous articles? But I appreciate they have all been bullied, gagged and muzzled by passage of shady and questionable Media laws, and control over other government machineries to oppress and intimidate them to enable the regime to continue with clowning the nation. FIJI HAS NO MEDIA FREEDOM – LAPDOGS IN FIJI SUN AND FBC ARE REGIME PROPAGANDA MACHINES.

 

Sitiveni Rabuka is the hope Fiji is seeking to rescue it from the evils which have engulfed it under the Fiji First Government. According to the latest polls, Rabuka's Peoples Coalition Party (PAP) would get the largest number of votes in the next election. Fiji hopes to welcome a change for the better.

Under the AG, Fiji has been rendered as a dictatorial state, masquerading as a democracy. All this while Bainimarama naps. Government institutions are abused, misused and used cunningly to hurt the opponents. And in this process, this contaminates and adulterates the epitome and the majestic principles of democracy: the fairness, impartiality and neutrality of the three arms of the government: JUDICIARY, LEGISLATURE and EXECUTIVE.

 

They should not only be independent of each other, but most importantly, also seen to be such.

 

Sacking of Ashneel Sudhakar with threats of framed-up jailing, the shameful framed up case at Nadi Airport on a respected business executive, passage of special laws to benefit cronies of the regime, sacking of Solicitor General Sharvada Sharma, deportation of USP Vice Chancellor, continued banning of Professor Brij Lal and his innocent family to the country of their birth, and appointment of a politically-aligned President against the grain of the Constitution. These are only a few of the multitudes of misdemeanour and abuse of power by the Fiji First Government, supposedly under Bai, which would shame any respectable and civilised democracy.

 

Shockingly, now you can hardly say which arm of government is which, as they appear to have been compromised, and rendered as mistress of the Attorney General, while Bai doesn’t seem to know what is happening. Water seems to have been grossly muddied, while Bainimarama enjoys the benefits that come with the leadership, with his string of relatives in lucrative positions, together with the AG’s. Fiji has indeed gone so much down the tube since Bainimarama promised to clean it that his lies have now become very obvious now. Fiji seems to have become many times dirtier than when he removed SDL and Qarase in 2006 with the supposed objective of cleaning it. Government machineries and those tasked to be watchdog of democracy are now commandeered by the AG, who seems to have unabated control over them.

 

Do the good citizens of Fiji wish to see our beloved nation in this state? Do caring Fijians wish to leave such a Fiji to our next generation? They will question our inertia and impotence in time to come.

 

The two coup-makers who some refer to as "monsters" who have hopes of getting the largest number of seats. Fiji has been shamed as a democracy under the rule of Fiji First. People seek a change which seems very difficult. But the argument put forward is that like in the fantasy movie Godzilla and Jurassic World, people have to depend on the good one to defeat the evil one. Fiji is hoping for the same : Rabuka's Peoples Alliance Party (PAP) to defeat Bainimarama's Fiji First.

Medical and Health Facilities

 

The latest issue is with the health of Fiji hospitals. We have an acutely deteriorating health service in the country, while the top leaders (read Khaiyum and Bai) are flown to Australia or Singapore for first class medical treatment, as our common people are left to die in poorly - equipped and grossly-neglected medical services here. People are now questioning whether Fiji Airways is used as personal transport for some leaders. There are many people who are crying and grieving today because their loved ones met untimely deaths in pathetically neglected Fiji hospitals, which have gone to dogs, with lack of medicines, bed-sheets, basic equipment and care and general run-down of the infrastructure under Fiji First.

 

The two "monsters" of Jurassic World. In the end, the caged Good one was unleashed to fight over the evil one which was causing devastation and havoc for people. Same is the analogy in Fiji where we need the good one to defeat the evil one, and reclaim what is left of Fiji. Rabuka is compared with the good one. 

I have personally received complains from many Fiji people in Auckland, lamenting at numerous untimely deaths of their loved ones in grossly neglected Fiji hospitals, with me losing some relatives this way as well where facilities and services in hospitals are criminally pathetic, grossly underfunded and neglected while aid funds from overseas are misused or corruptly converted to other less-prioritised facilities.

 

I am told that CWM, once well-equipped and a pride of Fiji now stinks of sewer as one goes to visit sick relatives. Our common people die in neglected Fiji hospitals while the leaders get first class treatment overseas. Shamima Ali, the bold critic of the regime has slammed Aiyaz Khaiyum and Frank Bainimarama for getting their hearts fixed overseas while cardiac patients in FIJI are left to fend for themselves with cardiac equipment at CWM not working or inadequate.

  

And in many cases, relatives are denied viewing and access to the bodies because non-Covid deaths are suddenly classed as Covid deaths and the bodies sealed at the whim of medical offices and police. There are numerous cases like this, and it is a crying shame. Many people I meet in New Zealand are so pleased to be here as they would have died long time ago in Fiji because of their run-down health services.

 

While Fiji First has been sleeping for the last 15 years, Rabuka of Peoples Coalition Party (PAP) has pledged that they would set up a permanent cardiac service facility and look at National Health Scheme. They would ask Doctor Vijay Kapadia, who is a Fiji-born General and Intervention Cardiologist based at the Gold Coast University Hospital in Australia, to help with the setting up at the CWM Hospital a permanent, well-equipped cardiac service facility, staffed by top local professionals. There are other former Fiji medical experts wishing to lend a hand but the neglect by Fiji First, their corrupt practices  and overbearing attitudes have made them reluctant to help.

 

As has been revealed in the chain of articles, Bainimarama seems asleep while Khaiyum (left) is considered the real mover and shaker, and the PM of Fiji. A vote for Fiji First means a vote for Khaiyum, and the continuation of the rot and the same evil in Fiji for the next 5 years.

I have been told that presently the best medical facilities, and neat and clean hospital in Fiji is Wainibokasi Hospital, in a dusty, rustic, rural district of Rewa. This is because it is left in care of some private citizens and not dependent on services and management by a very wanting medical department and Ministry headed by Minister who may nor know the difference or similarity between Panadol, Tylenol and Paracetamol, despite a qualified doctor MP who could have been a better Minister of Health.

 

How long will our people keep on dying and blame their fate, rather than the undeserving, careless and heartless leaders who are flown overseas (by Fiji Airways?) for their heart treatment? Isn’t it time to honour the memories of those who were “murdered’, untimely died at dying hospital services and neglected health system, honour their memories and change the leaders - AND THE GOVERNMENT?

 

A call to good, caring people to change the Government

 

I have said a great deal - much of it unsaid by any Fijian journalist not because of their lack of guts, but because media in Fiji have also been rendered as lap dogs, or paltu kutta of Fiji First. Specially-designed draconian media laws and other institutions infiltrated with other pooch discourage any journalist to stand up to the regime. My heart is crying out for Fiji, my country, a country which my Girmitiya forebears worked to make into a paradise. But it seems to be a paradise lost - unless we do something positive to reclaim it.

 

CWM Hospital, once a pride of Fiji is now in a rotten state and smells of faeces and sewerage. The poor care, underfunding, neglect, incompetency of the Minister, the Health Ministry and Fiji First government's lack of priority on medical services have been causing untimely death of people without receiving basic  care and facilities. All these while the leaders fly overseas for medical care as common people die in sick hospitals.

With such a depressing state of Fiji, I am reminded of two well said quotations by great people:

 

FOR EVEIL TO TRIUPH, IT ONLY TAKES GOOD PEOPLE TO DO NOTHING. And the second one is:

 

THE HOTTEST PLACE IN HELL IS RESERVED FOR THOSE WHO REMAIN NEUTRAL IN TIMES OF GREAT MORAL CONFLICT.

 

I rest my case. But yours is still pending. Please choose wisely for the sake of our beloved Fiji - and do not remain neutral.

 

Therefore, for the sake of my birthplace and the country I love, I have to make a choice between two leaders, and for the sake of future generations in Fiji, I WILL VOTE FOR A CHANGE – I WILL VOTE FOR A REFORMED SITIVENI RABUKA.

 

The good GODZILLA against an evil one

 

People question why I am supporting Rabuka, another coup maker. My answer is that I am being pragmatic, realistic, logical and practical. What choice have we got? There is no hope for any “clean” newcomers, most hardly scraping above 5% threshold.  Is that enough to rid Fiji of the curse of Khaiyum and Fiji First? NO.

We will take refuge in recent fantasy movies on evils we had: GODZILLA -THE MONSTER KING, and JURASSIC WORLD. In them, there was a bigger threat from a bigger evil, but the help came from the same type, same species, but more loving, compassionate and likeable creature to win the day for humanity, in getting rid of that evil

Fiji needs the same. It has a manipulated evil monster leading Fiji First, which in reality is in the clutches of Khaiyum. As outlined in my series of articles, they are causing devastation, suffering and shame in Fiji. Our only hope lies in unleashing the kinder of that kind, a reformed “monster”, the original coup-maker who has reformed and repented, a compassionate leader, wishing to listen and redeem his sins of 1987, to rescue Fiji from the doldrums and the current crisis.

When two monsters are there, and it is beyond common people  to defeat them, it is best to depend on the good one of this creature to beat the evil one. This was the case in the movie Godzilla where the good one saves the day. Similar is the case in Fiji and we depend on the good one, Rabuka to come to our rescue.

 And that is Sitiveni Rabuka, the good one.

So, that is the choice, between the evil and the good. If you are unable to forgive, then keep on being sour, vindictive and unforgiving, while the same evil takes over Fiji for the next five years. Do you want that? Vindictiveness and being unforgiving is a lazy form of grieving for the wrongs done in the past. Wake up Fiji, especially Fiji Indians, be pragmatic, as seek refuge in the good Godzilla

The choice is yours.

 

Yes, once I thought Rabuka was evil, later lesser evil as most of unforgiving Fiji Indian community may think, but I now completely believe he is the best alternative to rescue Fiji from the gutters. So much that, if situation were different and I was able to fulfil the requirements, I would have applied for a seat in Rabuka’s Peoples Alliance Party (PAP) and fought the election. That may happen in the following election in 2027 when I would be the age Rabuka is now. Or help my beloved Fiji reclaim its lost glory in other ways - certainly as a better speech-writer than Khaiyum is to Bai.

 

I would urge my Fiji Indian voters to pragmatically look where we have gone. Do you wish your relatives to continue dying in rotting and ill-equipped Ba Mission Hospital, Lautoka, Sigatoka, Nadi, Labasa, Navua and other hospitals, most importantly at CWM, once the icon of service and quality, but now degraded to a morgue and sewer smelling ghetto? Please make your choice, and do not then blame others. Ignore the voices and ill-conceived support of Sanatan Pratinidhi Sabha, Muslim League, Arya Samaj and others to the evils in Fiji.

 

YOU DECIDE, IT IS FUTURE OF YOUR LOVED ONES.

 

I plead Fiji Indians and others supporting Fiji First to review their positions in light of the quotations above. It is no longer sensible to blame your fate. People of Fiji need to become angry - so angry that they replace undesirable leaders, and bring a change.

 

Rabuka is that change.

 

SITIVENI RABUKA  - the hope Fijians have to rescue them from the clutches of Fiji First which is run by Khaiyum, who is the surrogate PM of Fiji. A vote for Bainimarama is a vote for Khaiyum, and the continuing devastation of Fiji for the next 5 years.

A vote for Bainimarama or Fiji First is a vote for Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum, and same hell for the next 5 years. Do you want that? You decide what the country deserves - and vote from your heart.

 

I will vote for Rabuka, for the sake of Fiji, and vote for the one who can give us democracy that delivers social justice and equality for all - and I honestly believe, Rabuka is that man standing now.

 

Go ahead, make my day – VOTE FOR A CHANGE – VOTE IN A MORE DESERVING AND CHANGED MAN- RABUKA.

 

Let the good GODZILLA or the good dinosaur from JURRASIC WORLD help us rescue and save what is left of Fiji.

 

[About the Author: Thakur Ranjit Singh is former Publisher of Fiji’s Daily Post newspaper, which Qarase and SDL regime ordered shut. Thakur was fired and removed from positions by two diametrically opposed Prime Ministers: Chaudhry and Qarase. This was for speaking the truth and being too frank and not mincing his words, as he is doing so here again. He is a media commentator, a journalist and runs his blog, FIJI PUNDIT. E-mail: thakurjifj@gmail.com]