IT is reprehensible that FNPF actuary Geoff Rashbrooke keeps attacking the 2012 pensioners who are seeking justice for their pension contracts illegally and unilaterally cancelled by the Bainimarama government
In every reply of his, he keeps ignoring the substance of their arguments with debatable assertions.
In his last reply he contemptuously likens them to children arguing (“liar liar”).
What is most revealing about the level of understanding of this “experienced actuary” is that his concluding paragraph states: “if the people who disagree with me are truly confident of their case, then why not join me in seeking an independent commission of inquiry into the 2011 reforms”.
Geoff Rashbrooke, experienced actuary he may be, he conveniently and pathetically ignores the following that the wronged 2012 pensioners have stated over and over for years now.
The court is the independent
commission of inquiry
Every civilised society has an “independent commission of inquiry” mechanism to amicably resolve disagreements in society: that is called the “courts” or the “judiciary.
The late David Burness had taken his grievance to court in 2012 through a case mounted by lawyer Dr Shaista Shameem, current Vice Chancellor of the University of Fiji, helped by my economic arguments.
That “commission of inquiry” was thrown out by the illegal Bainimarama government through a military decree. So much for Rashbrooke’s call for an “independent commission of inquiry”.
It is pertinent that former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama is himself going to “court” for his perceived grievance of not getting his proper pension payout. Yet he himself denied the 2012 Pensioners their day in court with an illegal Military Decree 51 which the current board is hiding behind their argument “we sympathise with you, but our hands are tied by the law”.
Not the “2011 Reforms” but the
contract
Rashbrooke is now calling for an independent inquiry into the “2011 Reforms”. Hullo? The 2012 Pensioners could not care less about the “2011 Reforms” if they as long as they applied to new retirees.
The 2012 pensioners opposed the alleged “2011 reforms” being applied ex-post to already existing sacrosanct contracts already existing and offered by FNPF itself, a body corporate.
Rashbrooke has never addressed our proposition that contracts must be adhered to if the capitalist market economy is to function smoothly.
Rashbrooke has no standing
Who is Geoff Rashbrooke to call on 2012 pensioners to “join with me” in resolving the dispute. He has no standing in this matter other than that he is doing the dirty work for the FNPF board and the FNPF management who may have vested interests now in denying justice to the 2012 pensioners.
The 2012 Pensioners have called on:
· the FNPF board to do the right thing by the contracts they are legally liable to as body corporate;
· The Government to do the right thing for restoring the rule of law in Fiji;
· The Minister of Finance to do the right thing especially as he has acknowledged the illegality of the 2012 robbery and used tax payers money to provide partial justice: he also nominates some members of the FNPF board; and
· The Attorney-General to do the right thing and remove the illegal military decrees that threw out the 2012 Burness case from court and denied the 2012 pensioners their basic human right to go to court.
The Pension Buffer Fund
Rashbrooke over and over ignores that a democratically elected Fiji Parliament:
· Lawfully established the pre-2012 annuity rates however high they may have been;
· Lawfully established the Pension Buffer Fund and its source of funds;
· Pension Buffer Fund ought to have been properly credited with the fund’s interest rate because it was used by the FNPF to earn incomes and would have amounted to more than $900 million by 2012;
· that Pension Buffer Fund was more than adequate to pay for all the 2012 pensions estimated by the actuaries in 2012 and leave a sizeable profit for the general members; and
· Pension Buffer Fund would have paid all the lawful liability to all the pensioners since then (including the 2012 Pensioners today) and still have a surplus left over for the general members.
2012 pensioners have had enough of Rashbrooke
Geoff Rashbrooke should get the message that we 2012 pensioners have had enough of his false arguments which ignore the substance of what I have outlined above.
We suggest that Rashbrooke advise the Coalition Government to submit our 2012 pensioners’ case to the Fiji judiciary, the only “independent commission of inquiry” that can deliver justice to them, and that was stopped in 2012 from hearing the late Burness’ case.
The FNPF Board are welcome to oppose the case in court. This will be my last reply to Geoff Rashbrooke.
n PROF WADAN NARSEY is one of the region’s senior economists and a regular commentator on political and economic issues in Fiji. He is one of the affected 2012 pensioners. The views expressed in this article are not necessarily the views of The Fiji Times.
