Since the Coalition Government came to power the prevalence of drugs has been pronounced and daily reports are coming through so fast.
The addiction to drugs is also very pronounced. How come beautiful Fiji is inflicted with such a dangerous curse.
In the past we claimed Fiji the way the world should be.
With present situation in Fiji we cannot claim this beautiful epithet and be an open society.
Numerous questions come to mind.
What has happened to our beloved country?
This curse of drug infliction was never part of the Fiji scene.
At the time of independence we did not need to lock our cars and did not have the need to lock the entrance door of our houses.
It was so safe and wholesome.
Under the benign government of Ratu Kamisese Mara we all lived in a free enlightened country.
Successive governments provided a free society.
Then we suffered 16 years of the FijiFirst Government of Voreqe Bainimarama and Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum and we lived in fear, the press was gagged and publicly we were denied of any truthful reporting.
During 16 years of misrule we were denied what was reality on the ground.
It is a known fact that certain a pharmacist in Lautoka brought in harmful drugs with shipments of pharmaceutical medicine and nothing happened to him.
It is a known fact that Fiji became a staging point of drugs from South America and the Bainimarama government freely allowed these drug dealers to sell drugs hidden in artifacts and shipped to venerable countries around us.
No reports surfaced during the 16 long years of misrule. Why was this curse not subdued and not allowed to surface and stiff action taken?
Today our country is riddled with a drug curse and we are not geared to rehabilitate our people with drug addiction.
Why was this curse hidden from public domain?
Who was responsible for this inaction ?
Who was making money on the side and allowing these drug peddlers to freely sell their drugs and cause untold harm and never prosecuted?
Lo behold with the Coalition Government of Sitiveni Rabuka installed in December 2022 suddenly the drug infliction was suddenly revealed and became public knowledge.
But it is too late. Drugs has taken a strong foothold.
First and foremost we must ascertain who all were involved in promoting this drug curse. This is to say the least is criminal negligence!
Secondly extremely strong and strict laws must be enacted as in Malaysia and Singapore where possession and dealing in drugs result in hanging sentence.
This is the only way to wipe out the drug infestation and save our country of this dangerous curse.
The present mode of attacking this dreaded curse is not the answer.
We need to uproot this curse once and for all and free our beautiful Fiji from the curse that should not be here and reclaim the epithet – Fiji the way the world should be!
- MAHENDRA MOTIBHAI PATEL CBE is chairman Emeritus of Motibhai and Company Ltd, which has ownership interests in The Fiji Times. The views expressed here are his alone and not necessarily shared by this newspaper.
