REWA chief Ro Naulu Mataitini believes the uproar over Fiji’s electricity tariffs has transformed into a masterclass in political hypocrisy.
Responding to the views of former attorney-general Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum and Opposition Leader Inia Seruiratu of the price hike, Ro Naulu said the loudest voices condemning the proposed 25 per cent increase and the regulator’s process were the “architects of the system that made this crisis inevitable”.
“The former attorney-general and finance minister and the opposition now posture as defenders of the people and guardians of due process,” he said in a social media post.
“A critical examination reveals this not as principled opposition, but as a breathtaking attempt to evade responsibility for the fundamental flaws they themselves shamelessly engineered.
“Sayed-Khaiyum’s current lecture that the ‘Government cannot dictate to FCCC’ and that ‘such interference would be illegal’ is the pinnacle of irony.
“For years, his government systematically eroded institutional independence, where appointments and decisions often appeared to align with executive will.
“Now, he cosplays as a scholar of Australian regulatory purity (ACCC), demanding merit-based appointments to a body whose independence his own administration actively undermined.”
He said this sudden, fervent faith in untouchable regulators was less a conversion and more a convenient cudgel to beat the current government with, while ignoring his own legacy of dictatorial governance.
Ro Naulu said the core of the tariff issue was financial.
“EFL needs revenue. A significant driver of this need is the obligation to deliver returns under its current ownership structure.
“The Opposition furiously attacks the hike’s symptom but defends the cause — the 2021 sale of a 44 per cent strategic stake to Japanese investor Chugoku.”
He said the contradiction while there was an argument that the foreign shareholder had no influence on the tariff, the commercial reality of introducing a private profit expecting shareholder would shift EFL’s financial priorities.
“The Opposition’s defence of the sale lauding the $FJ1.25billion transaction wilfully ignores this structural tension between shareholder profit and public affordability they created.”
The retired soldier somewhat agreed with Mr Seruiratu’s labelling of the 21-day consultation pause as ‘political theatre’, adding that it was a stage created with a script written by the Opposition.
