The TRUTH on Michael Field – $$$$$$$$

We can’t help but wonder what the hidden personal agenda of Michael Field is.  He has certainly thrown out all ‘journalistic integrety’ and is now seen as nothing more than a bitter and twisted old man who’s writing is best served on a Anti Government blog site.

Perhaps  Field is not exactly honest about his intentions as an indepentant writer.

lets ask the question, is  he  receiving a nice pay packet from Anti Government supporters to discredit the current government. ???

At the end of the day we believe Field has  SOLD OUT and SOLD FIJI OUT.

YOU BE THE JUDGE….

Michael Field – unbalanced in more ways than one!

The article below is an extract from Crosbie Walsh’s web site Visit http://www.crosbiew.blogspot.com/ for more information

Last year the NZ Broadcasting Standards Authority agreed his (Michael Field)  comments against then Fiji attorney-general Christopher Pryde on a March 7 broadcast were an “uneducated, ill-informed, deeply biased, unbalanced, and false account of recent events in Fiji.” For more such comments, most of which contain highly personal, insulting, and one would think libellous remarks about almost every current pro-Government figure.

This once respected journalist on Pacific Affairs seems bent on destroying his own reputation for independent, informed and balanced commentary by a stream of one-sided, highly personalised articles on Fiji. He also seems to have launched himself on a personal crusade against Bainimarama.

Witness, for example, his latest comment “Warrant to Arrest:Fiji.”

This could have been an informed account of the Fiji Registrar of the High Court taking files from the offices of the Fiji Law Society.
Instead, he starts his “comment” with a hyperbolic comparison between Bainimarama and Burmese generals, Robert Mugabe and Augusto Pinocet, dictators responsible for the deaths of many thousands. He then proceeds to warn Bainimarama, who like Pinochet apparently also suffers a heart condition, that he may soon be unable to travel overseas for treatment.

These — one would think irrelevant — side swipes lead to an short account of the Court Registrar, Ana Rokomakoti, uplifting Fiji Law Society records for investigation. Field claimed to know she had no valid search warrant, and seemed to infer that because she was an army lawyer she should not also be the Registrar. This is an important story that may (or may not) be further evidence of unnecessary (or necessary) Government clamp-downs, Fiji Law Society intransigence, or both or neither. The opportunity was lost. Field preferred venom to vigour.

Here are three examples of the sort of argument and language he used.

“She does this, nominally at least, as Registrar of the High Court. But no one is overlooking the fact that she is a Major in the Fiji Military and is subservient to its head, the self appointed dictator of Fiji …”

“When the military are raiding lawyers, there is no justice left …”

“… sending some major into lawyers’ offices is military routine.”

This man, with many years of Pacific experience, produces a warped view of an important event, and not for the first time.
This is what he says about himself in his blog (my underlining):

“Published author on the Pacific, including the definitive account on Samoa’s independence struggle and Fiji ’s coup culture.

Radio New Zealand National Radio commentator on Pacific affairs and sought by international media for an intimate knowledge of the history, politics, characters and issues of the region.

It is not a pleasant task pulling someone down from their former high heights, but New Zealanders need to be better served by their journalists if they are ever to understand even a little of what is happening in Fiji. Field’s personal attacks on individuals may befit a blogger, but not a responsible journalist.

FIRST WORLD MEDICINE TO A THIRD WORLD SICKNESS

Debating Fiji’s Democratic Future

September 2002

Brij V. Lal

The Prime Minister (Qarase)  argues in favour of a racial system of voting because, he says, Fijians and Indo-Fijians overwhelmingly vote for their respective ethnic communities.

That is, indeed, true, but why has this been so?

There are other multi-ethnic states in developed as well as developing world where people are able to vote easily
across ethnic and other boundaries.

In Australia, one of the most multi-ethnic societies in the world, no one, including nationalist Fijians
who choose to live there, asks for separate racial representation. Why is it that in Fiji, Fijians and Indo-Fijians are apparently so deeply attached to their primordial roots? The answer is simple:

We have – always have had – a racially-based electoral system
which forces people to vote along racial lines.

This reinforces and rewards ethnic attachment. We erect a racial electoral system and
then blame people for voting along racial lines. At each step of the way, public memory in Fiji is racially archived. One is asked to state ones ‘race’ on the immigration card upon entering the country. One is required to declare ones racial identity when s/he takes out a driver’s license or opens a bank account. And then we blame people for thinking racially!

Thank you Joe for the following article. You can find the original article at http://www.fijianstudies.org/dload/vol1no1/dialogue_debating_Fijis_democratic_future.pdf

Vanuatu back Fiji at ACP

Fiji’s interim Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama provided an update on the political situation in Fiji as the 89th ACP Council of Ministers opened today in Brussels.

In his update he underscored the necessity of the President’s action in abrogating the 1997 Constitution following the Court of Appeals ruling of 9th April, 2009.

Bainimarama then highlighted that the abrogation of the Constitution by the President was considered necessary in the difficult legal situation Fiji was faced with on 10th April.

He told the council – the new Legal Order now allows the President to continue with the reforms that he had embarked on and which was supported by a majority of Fiji’s population and was encapsulated as a credible way forward in the People’s Charter for Change, Peace and Progress.

The Foreign Minister for Vanuatu – Bakoa Kaltongga, supported Fiji at the Council.

And he called on ACP Council and the EU assistance to Fiji to bring about a lasting resolution to the political situation in Fiji and support the implementation of the necessary reforms for the welfare and economic wellbeing of the people - Radio Fiji

Back FIJI from the inside

From Boo Boo (I think most will agree with this comment)

I see a familiar face or two amongst the few gatherers, even one giving a speech.

Most have been gone a while and have lost touch of reality in Fiji. When they left their home country, they sold up, took their money and invested in another country they now call their home.

They say they have Fiji at heart, but really, they left for a ‘better life’. My point is, they have left, so stay out. If they want any form of contribution or say in Fiji, have the balls to put your money where your mouth is – back your own country from inside, not from a distance.