The Attorney-General and the Minister of Economy Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum was very unfair to the Opposition; in that he did not give them enough time to study his revisions.

Even if he was busy with consultation and had to defer the budget revision date, back from March 14 to the 24, 2022, the minister’s proposals were not going to come into effect from April 1, 2022, anyway – this was some six days away.

So why were the Opposition not provided more time for “consultations” that the minister accorded himself.

Also, how could 18 pieces of substantive legislation, together with volumes of complex budget revision papers, be studied and replies promptly prearranged out early next morning, when the minster was still on the floor late in the evening – the previous day – still talking – presenting his proposals.

Mr Sayed-Khaiyum could have given the Opposition five days to take the proposals back for their own electorate meetings, with deliberations in their own shadow-cabinets, feedbacks from welfare and community groups, business interests including educational institutions and been afforded at least some “consulting”opportunity.

The Opposition represents 50 per cent of the population of Fiji in Parliament, and should have been given time and opportunity, to freely discuss all the matters contained in the bulky 18 pieces of legislation that were also due for passage, marked as consequential legislation.

Devil in the details

Had the Opposition been given more time and opportunity and not only one day — being the March 25, 2022 – immediately after the revised budget handed down on March 24, 2022 — many salient details in the revised budget and the 18 pieces legislation would have been hand-picked neatly.

We would not have the case where we discover things after the passage of the budget, as the Unity Fiji leader Savenaca Narube, a former Governor of the Fiji Reserve Bank, points out – that the “Devil is in the details” (FT 29/03/2022).

Some of us were not even aware, as Mr. Narube points out after the passage of the 2021-2022 Revised National Budget, that Mr Sayed-Khaiyum “had made budget cuts in the poverty benefit scheme, field services funding in the Ministry of Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation and the deduction of 46 per cent in the food vouchers for rural pregnant mothers (FT 29/03/22)”.

These had amounted to $4.3 million cut in the Poverty Benefit Scheme, representing some 12 per cent cut to 23,817 recipients.

Reduction by $7.4 million, in the field services funding in the Ministry for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation. Added to this the Bainimarama-Khaiyum government went on and deducted 46 per cent in the food voucher program for rural pregnant mothers.

In this National Women’s Month, including the fact that Mother’s Day and Easter holidays are just around the corner, I am sure that Fijians will surely see this action as a very cruel and insensitive transgression against them — a direct assault on defenceless, weak, poor, and helpless in our society.

This action targets women and children needlessly, at a time when we as a nation are trying our best to elevate self-esteem, prestige, economic status, eliminate violence against them — cumulative actions leading to and ensuring their welfare and stature in our community — simultaneously working on the creation of a gender balanced society.

A ‘Rubber Stamp State’?

It is concerning, if what the leader of the National Federation Party (NFP) says is true, that the Development of Informal Settlements Bill — one of the 18 bundled together with the revised budget by Mr Sayed-Khaiyum and passed in Parliament, last Friday on the March 25, 2022, was not in any way consequential to legislation giving effect to budgetary provision (FT 28/03/22).

If this is true, then it is important that matters relating to this very important matter, should have been subject to wide public consultation, select committee reporting, and discussion in Parliament before its passage in such a discreet manner. Could the Minister of Economy and the A-G please let us know, if this is the case?

If so, please explain to Fijians, why there were no such process and procedure followed for this subject. It should be noted that Fiji has thousands of informal settlements, and literally hundreds of thousands of Fijians still live, unable to own their own leases and homes elsewhere.

These people should be the first consulted, for any enactment of legislation, that will impact on them.

“Rubber stamping” of legislation in this manner deprives all parties of an honest and open discussion, and in fact does no one any good.

The nation will have to decide if they want a “rubber stamp State” or one that is open and transparent and will give all parties an equal chance to make representations to ensure that the laws formulated are fair, just and balanced.

Waiting, waiting, and more waiting

Opposition MP Lenora Qereqeretabua questioned the governing FijiFirst party as to where all the promises they had made disappeared.

“Promises made so eloquently, so vigorously, so loudly, are made to be kept”, she exclaimed, during the revised budget session on March 24, 2022. She surely had not one, but made many points, on this matter.

If Fijians were not aware of all the “waiting, waiting and more waiting” that we are doing, she reminded all of us.

It made me also squirm and sit up – there were so many backlogged projects. And many unfinished businesses and half-done incomplete projects in her list.

The eloquent manner of her inquisition of the sitting government MPs, who could not deny her claims, was just top notch.

She surely must have increased the blood pressure of the Minister of Economy, who was no where to be seen, and was expecting to round off the only day’s opposition to the revisions, by the end of the same evening.

Ms Qereqeretabua surely pinched the nerve of the MPs opposite, when she opened up the Pandora’s Box, reminding the entire nation — on national parliament TV and the print media journalists’ present — that Fijians were still waiting for Waila City, Lautoka Olympic swimming pool, Vunidawa sporting complex, Ba Hospital to open, still waiting for the new CWM Maternity Unit, the Lautoka High Court Complex, and amongst other things, the very important local government elections – and suggesting that the list was just too long (FT 29/03/22).

Local government elections saga since 2014

The moment Ms Qereqeretabua mentioned the local government elections, it quickly brought me to reality of all the promises that the Local Government Minister at the time, Parveen Kumar had been making and breaking to Fijians since 2014 – nine years later it is still an unfulfilled promise.

In 2014, Mr Kumar said the local government elections would be held soon after the 2014 elections. However, when 2015 arrived he changed the story and said that the Local Government Act needed reviewing and that the elections would be held only after the Act has been reviewed.

When questioned again some years later, he told a local newspaper in 2016, that a review team would be set up in January 2017 – and that the elections would be held after the review was carried out and endorsed by the cabinet.

The Fiji Labour Party web page, has an article titled, ‘Bala’s Bluff’ (December 29, 2017). It is an excellent expose of the time-line of all the false-promises made by the minister – as a Minster of the State, and a duly sworn MP of the FijiFirst Government, since entering Parliament in 2014.

Now come 2022 – some nine years have elapsed since 2014 promises, and ten since the enactment of the 2013 Fiji Constitution – nothing has changed and Fiji still has government appointed administrators, running all the affairs of the local town and city councils. Minister Kumar is still very much visible – elsewhere – but to date has not publicly apologised for any of these transgressions, nor provided any update, follow-up or explanations to Fijians – to date.

Opposition MP Lenora Qereqeretabua slogan “waiting, waiting, and more waiting” is very relevant. The Bainimarama-Khaiyum government owes Fijians an explanation as this matter can not be just swept under the carpet.

Town and city council rate payers should not be asked to pay any rates, which is a form of tax, without any representation being allowed, nor powers allowed to be exercised, to run their town and city’s affairs.

The FijiFirst Government of Bainimarama-Khaiyum have to recognise the simple fact that citizens who pay rates to municipal councils have a right to elect their own councils.

For all accounts, it appears that for Fijians, “waiting, waiting and more waiting” is the new norm, and that as long as our nationals are under the magical spell of the FijiFirst governance – it appears from all accounts, that Fijians will continue to wait and wait, without any results or answers.

• Dr Sushil K Sharma is a former British Aerospace and the Royal Saudi Air Force Aviation Meteorologist, Fiji Meteorological Service Manager Climate, Research and Special Services, and Associate Professor of Meteorology, Fiji National University. He is an accredited WMO Class 1 Professional Meteorologist. The views expressed are his own and not necessarily shared by this newspaper.