AUCKLAND COUNCIL: THE BLOOD-SUCKING DRACULA THAT NEEDS TO BE STAKED

Thakur Ranjit Singh

Contrary to initial optimism, Auckland Super City appears to have degenerated into an uncontrollable Frankenstein Monster- and a blood-sucking Dracula. Here, the elected representatives have been forced to abdicate their powers. Shots are called by the so called Council Controlled Organisations (CCOs) and overpaid unelected bureaucrats. It is a classic case of the tail wagging the dog. 

Rodney Hide created a monster, which has become a Dracula, sucking our blood. It needs to be staked to save us. Did Super city achieve economies of scale? Did we have reduced staff? Have wages deceased? Have services improved? Has borrowing reduced? Has spending reduced? What has Super City achieved? Isn't it time we killed this creature?

We have had so many complaints going to deaf ears. People took consolation from the fact that Mayor, Phil Goff would make a difference. Disappointingly, it appears he himself is intrigued by this monster and remains uninformed. 

NZ Herald of 5 October, 2017 made shocking reading:

One in five staff at Auckland Council is earning more than $100,000 as the wages bill for the Super City blows out for the third year in a row.

………..number of executives earning more than $200,000 has increased by 25 per cent in the past year, from 155 to 194….

 The council and its six council-controlled organisations (CCOs) employ 11,893 staff, of whom 2322 earn more than $100,000.

Brisbane City Council - often compared to Auckland Council - employs about 8000 staff, of whom 149 earn more than A$100,000.

 The advice I gave to Andrew Little when he took over from David Cunliffe was to remove dead-wood and ineffective Labour management team that had led to fall of their previous leaders. Unfortunately, he ignored it at his peril.

I have a feeling of déjà vu when giving a similar advice to Mayor Goff, a former Labour leader: Please clean up the mess you have inherited - please remove (read sack) the CEO and let him sign his redundancy cheque. 

Economies of scale, staff and salaries reduction, as aimed by a Super City has not been achieved. Almost 40 staff are paid over $300,000. At the same time, a city equal to, or larger than us, BRISBANE, has much fewer staff as well as only 149 paid above $100,000 compared to 2322 of ours. tHIS TABLE IS THREE YEARS OLD. This table shows how out of control Auckland Council's pay has become. There has to to be a rethink of our pay-structure.

CEO is ultimately responsible for the lackadaisical performance, neglect of duties and busloads of ratepayer dissatisfaction. 

As a former Director Administration and Operations at Suva City Council (second to CEO) I am bewildered by lack of accountability, dereliction of duties, shoddy communication channels, sloppy financial discipline and abdication of power by the elected Councillors to bureaucrats who have overpaid themselves.

People who voted in Mayor Phil Goff were optimistic that he will make a difference. He seems not to know what is happening, and seems to be informed about dysfunction in the Council via media. This author's experience at Suva City Council shows that heads would have rolled if such dereliction of duties of the CEO and Mayor were seen in a Third World Fiji. We all are shocked and throughly disappointed. 

Auckland Council needs to learn protocols and managerial discipline from Suva City, a Third World Local government. Our CEO and Council Staff held the elected Councillors in high esteem, even feared them. The Mayor, CEO, Senior Executives and all relevant parties were in constant touch, operated on same frequency and were always well-informed. We were modestly paid, in fact lower than private sector. Our Councillors received minimal per Diem, but were always in control. They held CEO (and staff) and the Mayor accountable. And the CEO kept the Mayor continuously informed. Most important, we diligently practiced financial discipline – and respected ratepayer money.

Those in the ivory tower need to come down to earth to see how we ratepayers feel about an out-of control Auckland Council.  It is time for ratepayers to call for action from Government to make Auckland Council more accountable to its ratepayers. Perhaps time has come for Government to review operations, effectiveness and efficiency of Auckland Council. Wonder if the Minister at all knows what is happening.

Auckland Council need to learn from Fijians. Do we have effective Human Resources, Finance and other relevant committees? And do the Councillors in relevant Committees know what is going on? Why we have such a big mess? Why deviation from budgets and objectives? Do they have one-to -one weekly or monthly meetings with CEO and Mayor to ensure things are moving according to budget, plans, and objectives? Do we have credible and effective communication channels?

This article is not written by an over-paid Council’ communication staff or a consultant. This is done by a migrant who was rejected to add colour to Council’s Communications department. Why the Mayor learns about Council dysfunction from the media? And who advised the Mayor that the past flooding in New Lynn was due to global warming? You need not be a rocket scientist to know if a month’s rain fell in one hour, no Council reticulation system can handle this Act of God. It seems I need to hold a training session for Council’s wanting Communication department!

Weekend Herald (7.10.17) tells of blatant mismanagement of senior management pay, spiraling out of control. In three years to 2017, we saw 25 % increase in Auckland Council, 21.5% in Auckland Transport and eye-watering 89% in ATEED. This was when inflation was running below 2%. Heads would have rolled if this had happened in Suva.

In contrast, the biggest saving of 20% was made by Watercare, which is headed by a migrant Fijian, Raveen Jaduram. It shows the benefits of employing people with wider international exposure from Third World Countries. They value limited resources, have tendency to be miser and possess better appreciation of other people’s money. This can only happen in an environment where cronies, people from old school-boys club, political connections and other social contacts do not access rear entry to executive, boards and other key positions. Unfortunately, migrants lack opportunities of such backdoor entries.

Auckland Council is still considered a white institution, The Mayor agrees that some 40% of Aucklanders are born outside of Auckland. Is this reflected in either the makeup of the Governing body of its staff make-up? Statistics speak quite the opposite. Wonder how many in this picture represent those 40%!

NZ Herald recently reported on the colour of the Council - it is still very White. And there is no ethnic or brown (read Maori) executive up to second tier of the whole organisation. Ironically Mayor Goff admitted in Q+ A (8.10.17) that 40 per cent of Aucklanders are born out of New Zealand. I wonder whether that is reflected in the makeup of the Council and its staffing.

SUGGESTED REMEDIAL ACTION:

• Remove CEO for lack of performance. 
• Give powers back to elected representatives.
• Freeze pay and staff-intake
• Undertake staffing and pay structure, in line with similar overseas comparatives. (Brisbane)
• Terminate contract of top executives, to re-apply. 
• Review internal reporting, communication channels and financial discipline.
• Set up proper measurable KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), linking pay increases against stringent measures.

Failing this, the Government should institute Section 10 of Local Government Act 2002, and seek Ministerial invention, even to appoint Crown Review Team or Manager. 

Please new Minister for Local Government-tell your officers to brush up Section 10 of Local Government Act 2002, and put up a case to you why you should not call up Auckland Council to provide special answers from concerned ratepayers. Fijians are now ridiculing this First World Local government to learn accountability and financial discipline from Suva City Council. Please stake this Dracula-Auckland Council, before it sucks more of our blood.

We ratepayers are fed up. We call the Government to put a stake through the heart of this Dracula, created by Rodney Hide. It has grown too fat, gone out of control, and is fast sucking our blood.

Please Minister, please Prime Minister, free us from this misery!

[Thakur Ranjit Singh is a political observer, a media commentator and journalist. He runs his blog, FIJI PUNDIT, and lives in Auckland]

Garba for Girmitiya Descendants: The Changing face of Navratri Festival for Fijian Diaspora

Thakur Ranjit Singh

As a child growing up in rural Rarawai, Ba, Fiji on a cane farm, we celebrated Ram Naumi, Holi, Diwali and other religious festivals originating and associated with North India- Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. They were Ayodhya and Ram-oriented, but Krishna pooja also featured in our lives, with a mixture of South Indians as well.

Navratri (or Navratam, as some Indo-Fijians called it) for us in rural Fiji was time for Devi pooja –and that was it –just Durga pooja. We never knew about celebrating Navratri through Garba dance. This was confined to Gujarati business community of Fiji, largely settled in urban centres only. The only Garba we knew was what we saw in the movies.

The dance teacher, Sonar Chand Ngangom, with ladies elegantly dressed for Garba.

Even Girmitiya descendants residing in urban areas did not show much interest and enthusiasm in Garba/Dandia as it was considered a “Bombaiya” or Gujarati event. In fact Fiji is a tale of two Indian communities. One was descendants of Indentured labourers, mostly cane-farmers, living in rural areas, generally on the lower end of economic scale. 

The other was relatively richer free-settler Gujarati business community who came to Fiji to establish businesses from Gujarat, India. There was very limited social interactions, with Gujarati families being very highly stratified, with strong caste system, while girmitiya descendants had discarded this trait through suffering and sacrifices of their Girmitiya forebears in the cane fields. (That is story by FIJI PUNDIT for another day.)

Hence as a child or adult, I never got exposed to Garba. When my family migrated to Auckland in 2004, we were in more liberal and somewhat “westernised” Indian community where there was greater interaction with all classes and types of Indians, because of our limited population in a “foreign land”. Our festivals started being celebrated on community basis when Waitakere Indian Association (WIA) formed by Girmitiya descendants from Fiji initiated Diwali in 2000 and then Holi five years later. Today this has been emulated by others and we have huge multiple religious and social festivals. WIA also tried to expose us to Garba some years ago. However, due to lack of interest, this was discontinued.

MOTHER-DAUGHTER: Ragni Singh Chand, with mother Shashi Kala Singh.

Sunita Sharma, with her mother

Kashmin Kumar with daughter, Pooja Kumar

Then a miracle happened in West Auckland when Shri Ram Mandir, managed by Shri Ram Mandir Charitable Trust completed its very ambitious temple and community centre in Henderson in 2015. Its Managing Trustee Pravin Kumar was passionate about introducing and exposing Indo-Fijians to other Indian religious, cultural and social observations. His objective was that a Mandir should be more than just a place of worship-it should develop into a social and cultural hub where communities also socially interacted for networking and community wellbeing.

HUSBAND -WIFE TEAM-in action

Celebrating Navratri in Gujarati style was one of such initiative. Here, the Girmitiya descendants were exposed to this beautiful, and graceful dance.

Three years since its inception, Ram Mandir has been holding Navratri and associated Garba dance, and progressively escalated its celebration, and encouraged us to embrace something different. They took a very commendable step of teaching the steps of Garba to those for whom it was foreign. I, with my wife, were such people, who leant the steps of this very graceful way of worshipping Devi in this entertaining form of dances. It also was a good excuse for exercising. 

We are thankful to maestro of cultural dances and dance teacher, Sonar Chand Ngangom, who has been present over the years on hand to teach us steps, and now I am quite comfortable with what was taught. Combining those steps with Bollywood Garba-oriented songs make very enjoyable Navratri celebrations. This teaching continues till today, every day of the festival. Increasingly the descendants of Girmitiyas from Fiji have learnt the art of celebrating Navratri in Gujarati style, with Garba dance.\

The Mumbai Raas Garbha group: From left: Sandeep More (Dhol), Managing Trustee of Shri Ram Mandir, Pravin Kumar, Lead Singer, Bhavesh Mehta, female vocalist, Rini Dadheech and Milind More - (extreme right, on organ)

This year, thanks to Shri Ram Mandir in general and its Managing Trustee, Pravin Kumar who arranged artiste from India to come here and provide live music for the whole Navratri festival. We were blessed with Mumbai Raas Garbha (also called Garba) Group from India. This was led by lead vocalist Bhavesh Mehta, supported by female vocal artist, Rini Dadheech. Of course the life-blood of any Garba is the enthralling and rhythmic drum or dhol. Sandeep More, as the rhythm artist kept us right-footing with the booming dhol. And of course, no Garba is complete without the soothing religious, as well as enthralling Bollywood numbers. And for this you need an accomplished melody artist. We were lucky to have Milind Dhotre performing very skilfully. They all combined to create a religious and devotional musical atmosphere for those dance steps that many were still trying to perfect.

The Audience 

Our people are slowly coming forward to celebrate what had been foreign for us. At times yours truly, Thakur becomes the only Krishan Kanhaiya, (male) with all female Gopis dancing, as there are few men dancing. Hope in time to come, more menfolk will join us to grace the floors of the Mandir to happily and gracefully celebrate Navratri-Gujarati-style. We are thankful to Shri Ram Mandir for initiating this rich cultural and religious enlightenment to the descendants of Girmitiyas from Fiji.

[Thakur Ranjit Singh is a political observer, a media commentator and journalist. He runs his blog, FIJI PUNDIT, and lives in Auckland]

ELECTION 2017 - The Battle’s won, but the War is far from over for National

Thakur Ranjit Singh

Those with knowledge of Mahabharat (The Great Hindu War) would know about the Chakravyuh battle that was won by Kauravas, but the war was ultimately won by Pandavas. We have a similar case here - National has won the battle, but…… 

Chakravyuh battle is a labyrinth or web and refers to an army formation in which one can enter but cannot exit easily. We have a parallel here. New Zealand First has entered this labyrinth, with the campaign slogan: “Had Enough? Party Vote New Zealand First.” 

They have entered, seeking change. They cannot exit, without losing its credibility, honesty, morality and standing in society, if they decide to choose status quo. They would be accused of treachery by voters, who had enough, and abandoned National to join them.

Can Winston Peters come out of this web unscathed? Sure can, if he chooses to side with those who were also seeking change - Labour and Greens.

Both Bill English (left) and Jacinda Ardern (centre) are waiting for decision of Winston Peters (right) to support whosoever he thinks is fit to rule the country. But Peters cannot be accused of holding the country to ransom before he gets the COMPLETE results. If people question suitability of MMP, they should also question the time it takes to finalise the remaining 15 % special votes.

Campaign objective
Labour, Greens and New Zealand First fought the election to remove the current National Government. NZ First were most emphatic. They enticed people to shift to them if they needed change. It would be hypocritical, deceitful, unethical and insincere if now they decide to support the Government they campaigned to remove.

Therefore, if NZ First were to follow through their slogan for change, then they need to walk their talk and work with like-minded parties who campaigned on the same objective - CHANGE.
It, however is understandable for them to wait until the remaining 384,000 votes are counted, as this may further change their political fortunes.

Similar Policies
Among others, policies of Labour, Greens and NZ First agree fundamentally on at least the following issues:

TPP opposition, Pike River entry, Reserve Bank changes, Immigration, Housing, Retirement age and Shift of Auckland Port. Therefore they have more similarities than differences.

Despite many economic success stories told by National, spiced with lies, majority of New Zealand population has passed a clear message. And that is that they need more than a strong economy - they needed a change. And this has been overwhelmingly said by Maori who are at the receiving end of National’s neglect. Their party has been annihilated by Labour as a punishment for siding with the party which has ignored their plight for long.

Winston Peters will be confronted, among others, with such “achievements” of National:

The veteran politician enjoys being the King-maker, deciding whether to click right (National ) or left (Labour). Who knows, for a change, he may be known as the Queen-maker! (Source: NZ Herald cartoon)

Sale of land and water to overseas interests, foreign control on NZ, increase in homeless people, “houseful” signs in hospitals, degeneration of education and health services, increasing poverty and mental illness, stagnant wages , sale of social housing, people sleeping in cars, motels and Marae, uncontrolled immigration stressing and rising income inequality.

Final Act
For somebody who has been pushed out of Tauranga and now Northland and who has been habitually humiliated, latest in leaking of superannuation details by National, he needs to tread extremely gingerly.

While his European  blood in him will urge him to click right to support a party working for the rich, interests of largely businesses, the affluent and white people, his Maori ancestor genes  will urge their son from North to click left, to right the wrongs on forgotten people of his homeland.

This has been NZ First campaign billboard. Now, will  NZ First voters, who have had enough of National's rule for three terms and voted for a change, will agree to statu-quo? Would not it be hypocritical, deceitful, unethical and insincere if NZ First now decides to sleep with the Government they party campaigned to remove?

Whichever way Peters goes, you cannot remove the fact that a frail lady’s entrance changed the sum, put a fright on the right, and transformed the political landscape of Aotearoa. 

Jacindamania has ensured that even National has to shift left and do better for the ignored vulnerable population.

Hence ultimately, whichever way the dice falls, the final decision delivers well for all.

What Jacindamania has done to National is a medical miracle - it has given them a heart.

[Thakur Ranjit Singh is a political observer, a media commentator and journalist. He runs his blog, FIJI PUNDIT, and lives in Auckland]