The National Farmers Union (NFU) has once again been refused a permit by the interim government to hold its Annual General Meeting this year.
The NFU wrote to the Commissioner Western Joeli Cawaki on 26 March 2010, seeking approval for a permit to hold the Union’s annual AGM in Lautoka. This was followed up by a repeated request a month later following failure to get a reply.
Mr Cawaki responded on 7th May declining permission “in line with the Emergency Decree 2009”.
NFU General Secretary Mahendra Chaudhry has written back expressing surprise at the decision and rejecting the excuse given by the administration.
He pointed out that many other trade unions had been allowed to hold their annual meetings eg Fijian Teachers Association, the Fiji Teachers Union, Fiji Nursing Association, Fiji Trades Union Congress and the Fiji Sugar and General Workers Union to name a few.
Furthermore, all Provincial Councils have been permitted to hold their annual meetings. One questions why the farmers are being denied their right of association and their right to collective bargaining.
Is the interim government scared of giving democratic rights to cane farmers?
Last year, a permit granted to NFU to hold its AGM was withdrawn at the very last minute on orders from the Prime Minister’s Office.
Cane farmers have been denied the right of representation, and a voice, in the sugar industry with the dismantling of three key industry institutions - the Sugar Cane Growers Council, the Fiji Sugar Commission and the Fiji Sugar Marketing.
In January this year, check off facilities to cane farmers’ unions were withdrawn no doubt in an attempt to strangle the unions.
Government decision to continue to deny a permit to the NFU to hold its annual meeting prevents the Union from complying with its constitution and rules to conduct its AGM each year.
NFU has advised the relevant international organisations of the violation of the rights of their members and is pursuing the matter further with the authorities here: Source-FLP Website
9 comments:
How long will it take for mahen and the indo-Fijians to work out they have been bent over and prodded up the date by the military?
Reckon Methodist Cane Farmers' would be feeling really paranoid right now.
Is the democratic government scared of giving democratic rights to cane farmers, asked Mahend. Oh, not long ago he was telling us as Finance Minister that Fiji will not give its citizens the democratic right to vote until 2012 - now he has been kicked out of the regime, he is talking about democratic rights. This man should be publicly flogged with a cane rattan for supporting the coup; in fact he was part of the planning circle in the first instance
Can't help laughing at Choudary. He is finding out the hard way that no coup is good. As a victim of two previous coups he should have known that. But alas he chose to throw his support behind Vore just to topple Qarase. He must have thought Vore would install him as Interim PM. Yeah dream on Chaoudary...reality hurts.
Agreed. What a hypocritical cretin. He should have known better.
Blogger #2, what of the Methodist canefarmers?
A farmer is a farmer, be he Methodist, Muslim, Hindu or Buddist.
Dont generalise Methodist, because they dared to come to Fiji and prevent you from being eaten.
NFU Union was given their democratic rights in the last two elections after the democratic 1997constitution took effect.
But their democratic party leader was running away from the purported government to discuss the lease for the democratic farmers who gave the leader their mandate to him to do so to eliminate poverty for them.
But the NFU and their parliamentary leader was disfunctional as a result of not feeling the pain and siffering of his members as he could not after pocketing $2m of the 2000 coup victims funds. He has become blind just as the other SDL and SVT politicians.
FLP must be disallowed in the next democratic elections just as the SDL and SVT and NFP, so that a democratic election can for once take place, as the only democratic election conducted was in 1997 under Rabuka's leadership!!
Thereafter all others were invalid in process.
Blogger#2
The methodists you defend have no resemblance to those Methodists who risked being eaten.
Blogger#6
The methodists you defend have no resemblance to those Methodists who risked being eaten.
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