Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Email alleges new police chief the real culprit behind FPF messes

WARM WELCOME? Email suggests otherwise

Two weeks into the job and the shiny badge of Fiji's new police commissioner, Joeli Baleilevuka, is already looking tarnished.

Coupfourpointfive, and presumably other blogs, was sent over the weekend a detailed email about the 'real' Baleilevuka, titled, "Is He Really who he claims to be or a Devil in disguise?"

The unsigned email from someone who obviously knows the ins and outs of the Fiji police force, alleges Baleilevuka is yet another in this military regime who has used his position to line his pockets.

The writer (or writers) says Baleilevuka was a lowly officer but rose in the ranks thanks to cunningly gaining the confidence of former police commander, Esala Teleni.

But he or she says Baleilevuka stabbed Teleni in the back and used his position as Chief Admin Officer to:

1) Get Teleni to sign off open cheques that he and another personnel officer used to purchase trivial and wasteful items that ate up the police budget
2) Make huge cuts for himself and two other officers by giving business to two key companies
3) Cheat fellow officers last year out of a pay rise thanks to a budget blowout of $ 6.5million
4) Buy weapons behind the back of Teleni and Cabinet 

The whistleblower also says Baleilevuka is as churchy preachy as Teleni and is listed as a senior pastor in the New Methodist Church. He or she also says the new police chief "bought a 580 hyundai tycun gold in clour with Souls to Jesus printed on it" and asks "where did the 49,000.00 came from?"

He or she says: "Joeli is the guy wearing the devil's good mask and trying to look like a good boy and trying to get support. The fact is he is the main cuprit behind all major incidents in FPF not Teleni. yes teleni because he trusted Joeli did sign the LPO's but Joeli made a contract with deluxe and Lotus so that meant that Teleni didnt have to sign and LPO's and Joeli had powers to make purcahses as he liked as CAO."

Click here to read for yourself the email on Baleilevuka:
 

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posted by Pacific in the Media at 3:47 PM 9 Comments Links to this post

Kings Wharf workers being questioned over missing $1million

The police and the Reserve Bank in Fiji are trying to get on top of the $1million heist from the Kings Wharf on Saturday night but have made no arrests yet.

The Fiji Village says the police are interviewing people who knew about the money coming into the country on Friday night.

It quotes assistant spokesperson, Inspector Atunaisa Sokomuri, as saying the people who were rostered over the weekend will be questioned as the container was cut open from the outside, and someone working at the time must've known something about the theft.

But the FijiVillage says the Fiji Ports Corporation is refusing to comment on the internal investigation with acting chief executive, Waqa Bauleka, calling a brief meeting with media to say it would be presumptous to make comments this early.

Meanwhile the Fiji Times says the head of the Reserve Bank held closed-door meetings yesterday.

It says the RBF public relations officer, Mervin Singh, confirmed Sada Reddy had been meeting with his senior managers but would not divulge any more information.

The Fiji Times reported yesterday that robbers removed the money after cutting through the side of the steel container at the King's Wharf on Saturday.

It's understood that after cutting the side of the container the robbers then pierced a hole in the vault before removing the carton which contained the fresh $20 notes.

How the robbers made their way through the wharf unnoticed remains a mystery.

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posted by Pacific in the Media at 1:38 PM 10 Comments Links to this post

Monday, September 6, 2010

Isn't it time to reclaim our lost dignity?

By Jone Baledrokadroka

Shiga Shigetaka is generally known among scholars of Japanese intellectual history as the pioneering advocate of ‘kokusui shugi’ (maintenance of Japan's cultural identity).  The  theory called for spiritual solidarity in the late 1880s when Japan was facing increasing pressure from the West. In translating the Shigetaka philosophy to the Fijian preservation of  our cultural identity, it goes something likes this: ‘noda i tovo vaka Viti’.

In 1886, after travelling through the Pacific and Fiji, Shigetaka warned against a too indiscriminate adoption of Westernization. His travels had reinforced his thinking that the Western culture had a demeaning effect in the South Seas. Shigetaka was also an anti-imperialist, who opposed Japan's march towards the "suicidal" World War Two.

After spending time in lengthy conversations with one of Fiji’s great pioneering Wesleyan missionaries, Reverend Fredrick Langham, the Japanese intellect found, “some similarity' between the Japanese and the Fijians. The common thread was this: both were ready and "willing to modernise, give up the barbaric practises of the past and alter their traditional national identity in order to become more westernized, while nevertheless maintaining their unique dignity and strength.” (Gavin, 2001:71). 

Since the 2006 coup, Shigetaka’s tribute caricature of the Fijians quote, ‘while nevertheless maintaining their unique dignity and strength’ has been severely challenged by the military regime. More so since we have been told that resistance to instituted changes is futile.

What have we as a race done to deserve such culturally insensitive treatment from this misguided military regime? 

Given our short westernized history, we have shown great adaptation to cultural and political change, something that once rivaled even the Japanese. Weren’t we once know as  ‘the gentleman of the Pacific’  for being ‘noble savages’ from ‘fallen savages’ in such a short span of westernization?

I do not believe our politics is still so Machiavellian that we deserve to be rudely lumped together as extreme ethno-nationalists when our short westernized and extremely low ethnic violence history proves otherwise.

And why do we need a dictator who believes we need him to tell us what is good and what is not good for us? Where is our collective intellect when we have come to accept the misguided notion that authoritarian order will always suit us as a people and bring progress for Fijians?

Are we that scared and dumb that we are willing to sacrifice future generations with our docility? A docility that will keep you subservient like a commoner in our bygone chiefly system now forced to meritocratize with time.

Wasn’t it just four decades after the Christianization of our people that Wesleyan reverend Aminio Baledrokadroka and other native Fijian missionaries spread the faith to other islands of Melanesia? 

Wasn’t it only a decade and a half after cession that we had trained native medical practitioners? Didn’t we fight in the great world wars against tyranny?  Weren’t we part of a superior education system in the Pacific? 

Didn’t we have the best colonial administration system of all the Pacific islands?

We have moved beyond colonialism to a postcolonial world of hybridity, quite smoothly despite our political masters. We have magnanimously bequeathed our land in trust for development to the benefit of all citizens.

So why do we need a military regime? To regiment us as has been done and shown to be ineffective and brutal in states of Communism, a system our forefathers died fighting against? And which the world has turned against as it came to know better?

Do you really believe civic resistance is futile to your false perception of an all powerful military regime? Mahatma Gandhi, in a simple loin cloth, led 60,000 followers in a peaceful salt march that brought down an empire.

So where is the courage of your conviction for democracy and dignity as a people in this modern era? And what is stopping us from exercising our rights and protesting for dialogue and democratic elections now? 

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posted by Pacific in the Media at 12:08 PM 11 Comments Links to this post

Police 'closing in' on $1million wharf robbery

Sokomuri
The Fiji Times says robbers cut through the side of a steel container before removing $1million from the Kings Wharf, Suva on Saturday.
 
The money was in $20 dollars notes and was part of a consignment for the Reserve Bank of Fiji, which arrived from the United Kingdom on Friday.
 
It says police have mounted a massive hunt for the robbers and that they already have a number of leads and that raids were expeced in Suva as early as today.
 
A number of criminal elements and some homes in the Suva area are being watched closely by police in connection with the robbery.
 
The missing money was in a carton in a special vault inside the container. It is understood the robbers cut through the side of the container before making a hole in the vault and removing the carton.
 
Fiji Ports Corporation Limited officials were not available for comment yesterday on how it was possible for robbers to enter the wharf complex unnoticed by security guards. 

The corporation maintains a private company to provide security at the entrance and exit to the facility.
  
Sokomuri said it was not possible to reveal further information about the incident.
 
A special task force of detectives has been formed to hunt down the robbers and recover the money. This is believed to be the largest robbery of its kind in Fiji's history.
 
The police have appealed to the public for information.-Original story from Fiji Times, pic Fiji Village

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posted by Pacific in the Media at 11:04 AM 3 Comments Links to this post

Khaiyum blocked Auditor's Report on FNFP being critical of "TappooCity Suva"

TAPPOOCITY BUILDING
We are yet to see the Ernst and Young Report of 2007 titled "FNFP Special Investigation - Internal Report". Now, Coupfourpointfive has been informed that the Report has not been made public by Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum because a section of it is highly critical of the Tappoos, to whom Khaiyum, through his private company Latifa Investments Ltd, had sold his Berry Road property at a grossly obscene price. Our regular contributor, VICTOR LAL, had been examining the Report for some weeks now, and has filed the following story:

THE FNPF SPECIAL Report deals, in part, with Penina Joint Venture, a Tappoo/FNPF joint business venture. In December 2003, Tappoos and Fiji National Provident Fund signed an Memorandum of Understanding to redevelop land owned by FNPF known as the "Harbour Terminal Land" located close to Suva harbour. It was stated in the MOU that upon completion FNPF would lease this development to Tappoos.

The FNPF's investment arm, FIL for short, and Penina Ltd, were examined. According to the Report, the respective contributions of FIL and Tappoos to the Penina joint venture were treated as being similar contributions whereas Ernst & Young (EY) understood that Tappoos received 49 per cent of the equity yet contributed only 27.45 per cent of the land. In 2005, FIL and Tappoos formed a joint venture named Penina Ltd, which was owned 51% by FIL and 49% by Tappoos, for the purpose of constructing a six or seven story retail and office complex named 'TappoCity Suva".

FNFP Board paper No.1707, dated 19 June 2003, indicates that FNFP purchased the Harbour Terminal land for $2,500,000 in November 1998 as a long-term investment. FNFP's tenants were predominatly small retail and food outlets, providing an average net rental to FNPF of approximately 6.78%. 

Documents indicate that from as early as 2001, FNFP was in discussions with Tappoos concerning the proposed redevelopment of the FNFP site, or the development of "Tappoos site, or both".

On 23 June 2003, the Board of FNPF approved in principle several of Management's recommendation regarding the Project, including that:

(1) FNFP purchase Tappoos Lot Ct2463, adjacent to the FNPF "Harbour terminal Land for $3,250,000 (subject to confirmation by an independent valuation); (2) FNFP finance the construction of a shopping complex tailor designed and built for Tappoos for up to $14,000,00; (3) Upon completion the redevelopment property would be leased to Tappoos at a rental to be determined but which would earn FNFP a net return of a minimum 8% per annum; (4) Tappoos would be granted the option to buy-back the development at a price and at a time to be determined. 

It was noted in the MOU seen by Coupfourpointfive, between FNPF and Tappoos Ltd that this price shall be the market price determined by a registered valuer in Fiji.

Following an assessment by FNPFof the various options available to it to take this project forward, it was noted in FIL Flying Board Minute No 004 titled "TAPPOO CITY PROJECT" and dated 16 December 2004 that a Joint enture arrangement with Tappoos was considered the most beneficial.

The Board of FNPF approved the pursuit of this investment through FIL on October 18, 2004. But the end result tells a very different story.

TO BE CONTINUED  
 

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posted by Pacific in the Media at 1:57 AM 2 Comments Links to this post

$1million destined for Fiji Bank stolen from Kings wharf

The Fiji Times is reporting that the police have launched a massive hunt for the robbers who stole $1 million from the Kings wharf on Saturday night.

The paper says the money, all fresh notes, was destined for the Reserve Bank of Fiji.

It says police spokesman, Inspector Atunaisa Sokomuri, confirmed the robbery and said a special task force had been put together to ind the missing cash.

The money was in a container which arrived from the United Kingdom late on Friday. It is understood a special vault was in the container.

A missing carton contained $20 bills and was due to be cleared by Reserve Bank officials.

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posted by Pacific in the Media at 1:36 AM 5 Comments Links to this post

Saturday, September 4, 2010

We stand by our story ... the Military Council wants Sayed-Khaiyum out

Coupfourpointfive stands by its story the Military Council has given the illegal attorney general, Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum, his marching orders.

The illegal regime of Voreqe Bainimarama is panicking, thanks to the hypocrisy and the corruption within their midst - all of their own making.

More to come on this story with Coupfourpointfive leading the coverage as per.

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posted by Pacific in the Media at 1:28 AM 11 Comments Links to this post

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Illegal Attorney General Khaiyum given marching orders by the Military Council

By VICTOR LAL

 KHAIYUM: Marching Orders
The pugnacious and out of control Attorney-General Aiyaz, Sayed Khaiyum, has been given his marching orders, in the form of a resignation letter, from the Military Council.

As tipped by this blog earlier this week, he has been told in no uncertain terms that he must relinquish his post, and leave Goverment.
ON NOTICE: Pryde

He has been booted out after a series of revelations by Coupfourpointfive that he has been allegedly involved in millions of dollars in kick-backs, nepotism in regards to jobs he's handed out, man of them with over-inflated salaries, to his cronies, including an expatriate High Court judge, not to mention his buddy John Prasad, who despite questionable qualifications, was handed the key to the nation's coffers. 

Prasad also raked in thousands of dollars in consultancy fees.

The fate of Khaiyum's side-kick, Christopher Pryde, the Solicitor-General, who had been drafting anti-Fijian decrees also hangs in the balance, with reports emerging that he is planning to flee back to his native New Zealand.

There is also widespread belief in the Military Council that Khaiyum and his cronies have doggedly pursued the selling of Fiji Times, so that it can be bought by one of Khaiyum's cronies. 

The Military Council also believes that Khaiyum has been launching a personal vendetta against the Fiji Times after that paper ran a series of hard hitting editorials against Khaiyum and his unbridled grip on the military establishment.

The Military Council is also convinced now that it was tricked into agreeing to the Media Censorship Decree so that Khaiyum and his cronies own shady financial dealings never came to light, especially after the Fiji SUN's exposure of his one-time ally, Mahendra Chaudhry's millions in a Sydney bank account.

Khaiyum could not be reached for comment.

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posted by Pacific in the Media at 8:29 PM 19 Comments Links to this post

Where to now Fiji: the choice is yours

BALEDROKADROKA
By Jone Baledrokadroka

In reviewing Fiji’s Security Development nexus since Voreqe Bainimarama and his military regime usurped power on December 5, 200 the question is simply this - ?
 
What do you think is better: To live in an orderly society, even though all your liberties are limited, or to respect all of the rights and liberties, even if this causes some disorder?
 
If your preference is for the first, then the future of democracy in Fiji is grim. Indeed, you have fallen victim of the ‘Boiling frog syndrome’ as the military regime has made you a captive of ‘democracy denial’, and enslaved you to its monthly Public Emergency Regulation Decree extensions.
 
In many Latin American countries, where disorder and crime were persistent in the 1950s to the 1970s, it was fashionable to support strong-handed rule instead of popular participation in politics.
 
Today, the phenomenon has been totally overturned with the wave of democratization. Preference then was linked to, as suspected, education with the less well-educated being more likely to be willing to sacrifice rights for order than the better-educated.
 
The simple logic used by many dictators, hence, has been the perennial linkage of security to development.
 
With the Fiji media censored, regime propaganda has embellished  the achievements of regime decreed “order” that have translated into decreed “progress”. This is contrary to many suspicions of the true situation, as voiced by Fiji Women rights activist Shamima Ali (ABC Radio 1/9).
 
The hard question then is this: If security was championed as the fundamental benefit of a dictatorial regime is not translated into development - or better still enjoyed by the acquiescent people, then what use is that regime in power, especially if it didn't have  popular legitimacy in the first place?
 
This is where the Teleni and Prasad ‘resignation’ comes into play.
 
Apart from all other SNAFU’s, this is why former Police Commissioner Esala Teleni and Finance Permanent Secretary John Prasad had to exit the stage before another annual United Nations Assembly ‘have- pity- on- me’ address by Bainimarama. 
 
Teleni and Prasad's ‘resignations’ is a clear admission of ongoing failures, not to mention all the other botched half-baked police and fiscal strategies.
 
The two all-powerful state appendages, the Police ( headed by Ganilau) and Finance Ministry (headed by Bainimarama)  have failed miserably. 
 
The dictator finally realized that the finger was also pointing to him and his Defence Minister. So he had to spite his nose to save his face. High hypocrisy was exposed by him failing to live up to his own publicly-espoused rhetoric, “Only the military can bring about change”.
 
Both of the fall guys were the face of the present state of security and development – the stick and carrot of the regime after four years in power. 
 
Yet another cruel hoax has been played on the people. We have all been the victims of the abject failure of strategic policy and operational management of an almost bankrupt, confused government led by the blind. 
 
Who’s next? Don’t ASK me ..... ASK the military council.

Jone Baledrokadroka is a PhD in politics candidate at ANU Canberra

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posted by Pacific in the Media at 3:08 PM 9 Comments Links to this post

Talk of another coup revived

Coupfourpointfive understands there is tension and a lot of meetings among military officers - but what will eventuate remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, Voreqe Bainimarama continues to roam freely and Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum continues to get police protection outside his residence on a 24/7 basis.
Everything about this illegal regime is about who is making money and who is not. 
So there is certainly smoke, with key people fuelling it, but where the fire is burning only time will tell. 


Insight Report – By Tupuola Terrence Tavita, in Apia.
 
There could very well be a third coup in Fiji very soon, this time from inside the barracks. The word from reliable sources in Suva (who wish to remain anonymous) is that the powerful Military Council – most of them from Fiji’s chiefly families – have become disenchanted with how Commodore Voreqe (Frank) Bainimarama is running things.
 
The Military Council is maneuvering to call the shots from inside the barracks. One name that has come across more often now – and remember this one – is Ratu Tevita Uluilakeba – or popularly known as Roko Ului – a son of the late president Ratu Sir Kamasese Mara.
 
Roko Ului sits on the Military Council and more importantly, is the commander of the Fiji military’s Third Battalion. This battalion holds the guys who carry the biggest guns in the military and look after the national armory.
 
Unlike Frank Bainimarama, Ratu Tevita has very strong traditional alliances. One of his sisters – Adi Koila is married to current Fiji president Ratu Epeli Nailatikau and another, Adi Ateca, is married to the current Minister of Fiji Home Affairs Ratu Epeli Ganilau.
 
Fiji sources say there is significance in changes made to some powerful positions within the Military Government. They say, departing Police Commissioner and Christian fundamentalist Esala Teleni was removed from his position. So was the recent permanent secretary of Finance, John Prasad – who holds a New Zealand passport and is believed to be heading back to Auckland this week. Sources say both calls came from inside the barracks – from the Council – for these two to get out.
 
Our sources say the Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum – who has been designing those draconian emergency decrees – will be next. Slowly the Council is cutting Bainimarama’s support from under him.
 
The plan will eventually remove Bainimarama as well. Our sources say he definitely will not last till 2014 where he has promised Fiji will go to the polls. In fact, they tell us, Frank won't last 12 months.
 
The criticism suggests Bainimarama made the perennial mistake of leaving the barracks and went running around pretending to be Prime Minister. Flying off to China, to the Emirates and Burma among other places to solicit international support for his junta. This while others in the military – in the Security Council – have been slowly asserting themselves in the barracks.
 
This is the reality of military governments and military dictatorships. You suppress the media, scurry the opposition, leaving you and your military ilk at the top. But then as best illustrated in William Golding’s award winning book Lord of the Flies, you start to turn on each other.
 
Tupuola Terry Tavita is the editor of the Samoan government newspaper Savali news.

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posted by Pacific in the Media at 2:41 PM 21 Comments Links to this post

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

More losses and inefficiencies

It looks as though the illegal regime has lost its grip on the sugar industry, with farmers trying to get rid of the current board after news they're going to miss out on the forecast price of $45 per tonne of cane.
 
The latest dissapointment comes as the group representing cane farmers pleads again for help from the junta and the Fiji Sugar Corporation denies there'll be a drop in price for cane.
 
An angry Fiji Cane Growers Association president, Bala Dass, didn't mince his words when he said the Corporation has found it convenient to blame farmers for the ineffeciency at the mills, which is now at an appalling level.
 
"This is the worst we have ever had. The real problem lies with the FSC itself. Things were bad last year and promises were made that the mill would be improved this year with the upgrade program. Now things have gone from bad to worse."
 
Dass had no problem telling media members of the Fiji Corporation Board, which was supposed to have met this week but which has now cancelled two meetings, should resign.

An ineffective regime has yet to stump up with the answers to the ailing sugar industry.
 
Meanwhile, official confirmation this week the junta cleaned out the Reserve Bank of almost $40 million last year.
 
The Reserve Bank's annual report says the $39.2 million was made up of the bank's entire profit of $16.6 million in the financial year ended 2009, and one fifth of the balance of the Revaluation Reserve Account of $22.6 million.
 
The RBF Governor and chairman of the RBF board, Sada Reddy, tried to paper over the disquiet saying the first four months of 2009 saw Fiji going through a particularly tough period economically, as foreign reserves fell to a low of "$430 million and liquidity plunged to below $20 million."

There is no end to the ineffeciencies of this illegal regime.

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posted by Pacific in the Media at 8:42 PM 4 Comments Links to this post

Sayed-Khaiyum's mother heads for NZ but not before one last good deed

More revealations today of the hypocrisy of the key lynchpin in the self-appointed government of Voreqe Bainimarama.
Hypocrite

Michael Field's blog says the mother of Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum is leaving Fiji for New Zealand,  the country her illegally-appointed attorney general son has had no trouble attacking.

Field says Sayed-Khaiyum's mother, Latifa, has permanent citizenship and is heading to Mt Roskill in Auckland to live off the Kiwi taxpayer.

So much for Sayed-Khaiyum's diatribe that Fiji's friends are India and China. If relations are so collegial, why is she not seeking refuge in Beijing or Delhi?

What hypocrisy from the man who has revelled in hatching decrees that have helped him line his pockets but made life a misery for the rest of Fiji.
Luxury on Naisoso Island

Field says mother was able to do one last good deed for son. He says some last minute deals were going down - a couple of beach front plots on Naisoso Island were being purchased for a couple of million dollars a piece in Mum's name.
 
We do hope the Military Council is taking note.

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posted by Pacific in the Media at 1:02 PM 13 Comments Links to this post