With less than two weeks to go until polling day, sadly it seems that the FijiFirst government will continue its tirade of personal and vindictive attacks on the People’s Alliance, Party Leader, Sitiveni Rabuka, and National Federation Party leader Professor Biman Prasad.
As a nation it’s sad to say but maybe we are getting used to and numbed by this type of onslaught of personal and vindictive attacks, but in my books it just isn’t right.
I have been bought up in a very just and fair household where moderation and mediation are the best ways to deal with matters.
But now literally there are no rules and attacks on candidates and their friends and families are now accepted. We even have PM Voreqe Bainimarama talking openly about and bloodshed in political rallies.
Is this the Fiji we want for our children? We really have dropped to an all-time and unprecedented low in moral values during the campaigning of this year’s election.
It does seem Mr Bainimarama and A-G Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum are literally obsessed with Mr Rabuka and Professor Prasad, naming them literally hundreds of times during this election campaign.
This is a sure sign of insecurity and desperation.
Maybe it’s time to spend more time talking about how we are going to fix our roads, fix our economy, fix our health system, fix our daily water cuts and electricity black outs, to name a few of our problems.
Now we have bhajanias being attacked by the Attorney-General.
I am not sure what he will achieve by degrading them, but this is just one of the many incidents where organisations, groups and individuals are degraded and looked down upon by some politicians, which is now the sad state of society we are living in, as our nation seems to continue to erode every day.
A leaders’ debate
There are also positives to campaigning as well. In fact it can be quite enjoyable when you meet so many different people across a wide spectrum of society and you also get a chance to see many beautiful parts of our majestic country.
One sure shot way to decide who should be your leader and take us out of this economic mess is to have a debate between the two main leaders of our nation, being Mr Bainimarama and Mr Rabuka.
The citizens of Fiji deserve to hear their views and opinions on a vast range of subjects from the economy to health, tourism and agriculture. Mr Rabuka is ready and has been ready for the last year to openly take on and debate Mr Bainimarama.
We now await the Prime Minister to confirm his participation, it’s as easy as that. For the sake of the nation, the citizens demand and deserve this debate, but we continue to wait for Mr Bainimarama to accept the challenge.
Last week, I took part in a successful joint leaders tour with the People’s Alliance leader Mr Rabuka and NFP leader Professor Prasad.
It was a roaring success. It took us to Kinoya in the Central Division and Rakiraki, Ba and Lautoka in the Western Division.
All the people we met and interacted with wanted just one thing – a new Government for Christmas.
After 16 years of rule, we are no closer to being Singapore, Australia or New Zealand as was boasted by the FijiFirst Government.
In fact we seem to be heading towards being more like Zimbabwe in Africa, if we continue to borrow money at this alarming rate and with no plan on how we are going to pay the money back.
One major statement coming out of the joint tour was that the economy would be in safe hands of a real economist like Professor Biman Prasad.
We need him to manage the economy of our country and restore confidence with well thought-out and inclusive policies that will slow down and stop this downward spiral of borrowing. We also have Mr Rabuka, someone who is able to face his mistakes head on and learn from them.
He is able to lead the nation with compassion and confidence, while having a true understanding of what it takes to be a real leader of the people and lead them with love, not hate, compassion not revenge and the ability to forgive and move forward.
What we have also learnt is the need for new ideas and new thinking – not just one or two people making decisions for all of us, but actual consultation and inclusiveness going forward.
Fifteen ideas
I will leave you with just 15 from a list of over 100 points that interest me in moving the nation forward that both Mr Rabuka and Professor Prasad would like to implement as a priority. They are:
• review and improve electricity services as a priority. These are getting worse, not better;
• review and improve water services as a priority. This is urgent. Having access to clean water is a basic human right;
• tertiary loans will be turned into scholarships, where you only need to serve your country in the private or public sector and even NGO sector for the period you studied your tertiary education, which is usually three or four years – then you are debt free;
• media freedom. This will finally set the media free to report on any matter of national interest without fear or repercussions;
• freedom of expression. People will finally have the right to speak openly and express their views without fear;
• Girmit Day public holiday. A special day will be set aside each year to commemorate and celebrate unity in diversity;
• Ratu Sukuna Day public holiday. This holiday will be reinstated to commemorate a great national leader who served his country with dignity and honour
• reduction of ministers’ salaries. This will be very much appreciated by the public. The salaries being received by some ministers can be about $5000 a week. Some of our people barely earn a hundred dollars a week;
• continuation and improvement on social welfare assistance, free bus fare, free education. There will be no cuts in any of these areas. In fact these will have to be increased if reviews find that the payments are too low;
• improve infrastructure, especially roads and medical services, which are now at an all-time low;
• drastically improve health services, which are in dire need of an overhaul and upgrading facilities for our health workers and the public at large;
• pay USP’s outstanding financial contribution. This must be done immediately to ensure all students can continue to have quality education and not suffer in any way;
• phase out FICAC and increase support to the Fiji Police Force, and strengthen the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions;
• economic summits with stakeholders across all industries and organisations, ensuring we listen to people’s concerns regarding various sectors and understand how Government can assist and be prepared to help alleviate any problematic areas
• review agro-marketing for better returns to farmers. This is crucial to bolster and encourage the revitalisation of our agriculture sector.
Well, there you have it. These are a few areas that we desperately need to improve upon. If you like the policies that’s great.
If not that is also fine as this is what democracy should be about.
Finally, as I’ve said many times before, use your democratic right to vote for whoever or whatever you want. I hope we will have a great turn out at the polls and the public will have their say. Adios and take care.
• AJAY BHAI AMRIT is a founding member of The People’s Alliance party and is also a freelance writer. The views expressed in this article are his and do not necessarily reflect the views of this newspaper.
