Natadola - the disappearing communique

Perhaps the most surprising development out of Voreqe Bainimarama's attempt at a golf-course summit was that the Australian media got itself all steamed up about it.  They thought it mattered, especially as they were not there. Natadola was evidence, the journalists thundered, that Fiji was splitting the region and that Australia had suffered devastating  diplomatic embarrassment. Egg, it was said, had been thrown across the face of Australia. Now that it is all over, and we've all had a beer or two, and perhaps a cup of tea and a bit of a lie down, the truth will slowly  emerge. Natadola and its communique will quickly fade away. It was nothing but an ego fest for one man.

 

Somare: the Pacific Way

Grand Chief Michael Somare has proclaimed that he and his friend Voreqe Bainimarama are the arbiters of what is the Pacific and who gets into their little club. "I don't consider Australia and New Zealand as Pacific island people," he said. He even managed to exclude Samoa, suggesting they were not really Pacific people.  Only two days before uttering this, this Pacific Man stood in front of a fellow Member of the PNG Parliament, Sam Basil, and said ''If you were outside I would kill you.'' Some club to be a member of. 

 

 

Fiji slipping back to anti-Indian regime

One of the more striking differences between Voreqe Bainimarama's coup and the others was the hints that it was really an Indian counter-coup. Somehow, it was believed, Bainimarama had used his indigenous army to end racism. Writing in the Pacific Economic Bulletin, Professor Biman Prasad of the University of the South Pacific, makes it plain that this is no longer so.Fiji is becoming anti Indian again.

 

"Pacific Bridge to Noble Wealth"

Scam or real?

The Natadola TalkFest came with a presentation entitled "Pacific Bridge to Noble Wealth" that was delivered by a crowd called "Pangea World", a new world kind of thing out of California. Voreqe Bainimarama and friends signed up to something about "the potential opportunities available for Pacific countries to integrate knowledge-based economies and tourism industries for sustainable development". But like all these kind of carpet-bagging things, certain clues give it away. On its website, Pangea World gives its offices as being at University Tower, 4199 Campus Drive, Suite 550, Irvine, California. "University Tower"? Sounds promising.

 

 

Fiji risking default

Fiji is in danger of defaulting next year on US$150 million ($207 million) of bonds accounting for more than half its foreign debt, one of the country's leading economists warns. The warning has not been published in Fiji where all media are subject to censorship by its military rulers. Writing in the Pacific Economic Bulletin, Professor Biman Prasad of the University of the South Pacific said Fiji had a five year sovereign bond maturing next September requiring a single payment of more than US$150 million.

 

 

Chaudhry charged with fraud 

Former Fiji prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry has appeared before a Suva magistrate this afternoon on 12 charges of money laundering, tax evasion and fraud involving NZ$1.8 million given to him by supporters in India when he was seized and held as a hostage.

Chaudhry's taxes; a background

It was a muggy Suva afternoon when the world finally saw a haggard Mahendra Chaudhry walk out of Fiji’s Parliamentary compound after 56 days as a hostage.

 

 

Et tu Brutus: Bainimarama knifed by his own

While Voreqe Bainimarama and his baggage peon were off in South Korea today on yet another begging mission, the Melanesian Brotherhood knifed him, in the very best Julius Caesar fashion. In diplomatic and political terms, Bainimarama has taken a king hit. No doubt, the Australian Spy and the assorted Camp Followers will quickly develop this devastating failure of the Melanesian Spearhead Group as some Canberra plot.  (As I write this there are unconfirmed reports the Australian High Commissioner to Suva, Sarah Roberts) has been expelled.

 

Threat to cancel elections

Bainimarama says he is "seriously thinking" about cancelling long delayed elections for 2014, because of what he says is constant interference by Australia and New Zealand. "In fact, I am all of a sudden thinking we might not be ready for 2014 for election if we don't get any assistance from Australia and New Zealand for instance," he told Tarana. "If we reach 2014 and we are not ready because of constant interfering, we are not going to give up our government to political parties..."

 

 

Rainbow Warrior, the spies and the rookie cop

Over the weekend a group of detectives had a drink or two to mark the 25th anniversary of the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior. A rookie cop who helped crack the case, talks for the first time to the media. Fairfax Media's Michael Field reports.

Just a month out of Police College, young Constable Nick Hall found himself sitting with the heavy hitters of Auckland Central's CIB. In front of them were ``Alain and Sophie Turenge'', honeymooners from Switzerland. One of the detectives picked up the morning newspaper and glanced at the horoscopes. What is your sign? ``For both of them, two different horoscopes,'' Hall says. ``We read them out and they were so appropriate, so serious, I had to bite my bottom lip to stop myself laughing. ``There was 22-year-old Nick Hall, in the middle of what seemed like a James Bond movie.''  Hall had no license to kill, he had a French mother and he could speak French.

 

 

NZ sending soldiers to Solomon's elections

New Zealand is sending 37 soldiers to the Solomon Islands to join the Regional Force already there ahead of next month's general elections, Foreign Minister Murray McCully said. The platoon will be part of the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI) Combined Task Force. "The security situation in Solomon Islands is currently stable, and this deployment is simply a precautionary measure to ensure RAMSI has sufficient resources on the ground to assist the Solomon Islands police, which is leading election security efforts," Mr McCully said. 

 

Censorship and Fiji; what you do not see

Watching Fiji these days is a bit like astronomy and physics; you can look into the Universe and know that Dark Matter exists. It is just that it is impossible to see. Theory says it has to be there, and that is like Fiji.Censorship is an almost all pervading thing; anything even slightly critical is blue-pencilled out of existence.

However, not quite.

 

Air New Zealand crash report "superficial"

A ruling by French prosecutors that an Air New Zealand crash was pilot error, is superficial and unreasonable, one of New Zealand's leading forensic engineers and independent air accident investigators says. Private accident investigator Andrew McGregor of Auckland based Prosolve Ltd, says the French investigations to date are alarming for what they missed. 

  

Surf's up but economy and liberty flat

As unlikely as it sounds, Fiji's military regime celebrated its entry into the Arab League this week with a slew of decrees aimed at driving the media baron Rupert Murdoch out while opening doors for global surfers. The self-appointed prime minister and military head, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, daily hands down decrees that cannot be challenged in any court.

 

A night of music....

 

 

 

 

        

 

 

Homeless Josie May is Auntie Ethel

Hawaii's "Josie May", a homeless old woman who cannot remember her name and who has lived rough around Honolulu for a decade, is coming home to New Zealand. But she will return not as a penniless vagrant. 

 

Fiji tells Murdoch: sell your newspaper

Fiji's military regime has told media giant Rupert Murdoch to sell his Fiji Times daily within three months. Under the Media Industry Development Decree, announced yesterday by military-appointed attorney-general Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, publishers and journalists can also face thousands of dollars in fines for publishing material that is against the public interest or order, the national interest, offends against good taste or decency or creates communal discord. 

 

Action on shell companies coming

Commerce Minister Simon Power is set to take action on shell company creation but is not saying what it will be. He ordered an investigation into New Zealand's easy company formation system after revelations a Queens Street, Auckland, shell company, SP Trading, had leased a Ukrainian-based cargo plan seized in Bangkok, Thailand, loaded with more than 30 tonnes of North Korea arms.

 

NZ soldiers in dangerous Afghan position

New Zealand soldiers have been operating in one of Afghanistan's most dangerous areas, an American controlled border town under regular insurgent attack. New Zealand Army explosive experts have been based in Khost, on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, as part of the US Army's Task Force Paladin, a specialised bomb-hunting unit waging war against the improvised explosive devices.

 

Fiji quake prophesiers seized 

Two men are in Fiji military custody over a failed prediction that the Pacific nation was to be hit by a natural disaster at 2.30 pm today. Fiji Rugby Union chairman Bill Gavoka and pastor Laione Lutumaimuri Nacevamaca have been seized by the military regime for spreading rumours. 

 

Fiji resort seized by military regime

Fiji's military regime has seized a partly New Zealand-owned failed resort in a bid to protect its ailing national superannuation scheme from worsening losses. Military appointed Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum has announced a decree over the Momi Bay resort, one of the once-star assets of failed finance company Bridgecorp.

 

Fiji and the zero-sum game

Remember the Cold War, remember when it mattered? In the mind of Voreqe Bainimarama and his band of slavish Haw-Haw Followers we are still in it. Somehow, to their way of thinking, the Berlin Wall did not come down and China is still killing sparrows in the Great Leap Forward.

Thus, we see weird, panicked claims that somehow Fiji is about to make some kind of diplomatic and trade policy switch that spells disaster to Anzac regional domination and control. (read full story)

 

Some thoughts

By expert accounts we are now standing at the deathbed of Communist Party (CPM) rule in India's West Bengal.

It reminded me of a photo I took in Kolkata once.

 

Its not something that will make much difference in the wider world, but it is important. CPM only rule in two other states, Kerala and Tripura, but they have a significant, if maligned, presence at federal level in Delhi.

CPM has ruled West Bengal since 1977 and a cynic might note that Kolkata has been in decline ever since. The state of 90 million people, home to Rabindranath Tagore and Subhash Chandra Bose, has come to be seen as an argumentative, vaguely romantic state of no real worth to the new India.

Old Khushwant Singh in the Hindustan Times is more than ready to bury them. 

If they go - and it seems they will - its an important moment in Asian history.

Ends

20 June 2010

 

PNG's latest volcano...

 

Papua New Guinea’s Manam Volcano released a thin, faint plume on June 16, 2010, as clouds clustered at the volcano’s summit. The Advanced Land Imager on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 satellite took this picture the same day. Located 13 kilometres off the coast of mainland Papua New Guinea, Manam forms an island 10 kilometres wide.

 

 

 

What China really wants in NZ murder arrest

Beijing cooperation in arresting a suspect in an Auckland murder investigation could be hiding diplomatic horse trading to get a naturalised businessman deported to face capital offences in China. Diplomatic and legal sources say China will hand-over 23-year-old Zhen Xiao, detained last week in Shanghai, so that he can face a charge of murdering Auckland taxi-driver Hiren Mohini, 39, on January 31. But the price could be deportation back to China of naturalised New Zealand businessman Yong Ming Yan, 39, currently before the High Court facing 12 fraud related charges.

 

Some thoughts

Does the monarchy want us?

In the largely moribund debate over whether New Zealand should scrap the English monarchy, it's always loosely assumed that it would be New Zealanders sacking them.

We would say to the House of Windsor, thanks for things, but we've grown up now and do not need you. 

But what if they just got fed up with us?

Or, as seems more likely, lost interest in distant isles faraway from London.

One can imagine Charles and Camilla sitting around the gas fire in the Palace.

"Wonder how things are tonight in Te Awamutu darling?"

"Oh, probably a tad bit cold Charlie, but on the whole, probably spiffing."

The Royals do not get a whole lot out of New Zealand these days.

Which is fair, they do not do a whole lot for us.

This mutual disinterest struck me watching the end of the England v Algeria football match at the World Cup. Among the crowd were Harry and Willie, looking as dejected and lost as all the other Englishmen. I don't begrudge them this; they are, after all, Englishmen.

And its going to feel artificial for them to cheer on New Zealand in anything really.

It's a paradox; in a globalised world there is no place for a global monarchy any more.

They're English - and they've lost interest in us.

The Monarchy might let us go as a customer....

Ends

20 June 2010

 

 

Fiji's military head hints at another election delay

Fiji coup leader Voreqe Bainimarama has hinted at another delay in the country's return to democracy. In an interview with a pro-regime newspaper he claims people are asking him to cancel planned 2014 elections. 

 

Chinese "aid" raises questions in Fiji

 

On paper the building of a new hydro electricity scheme in Fiji's highlands looks a good idea. The Nadarivatu hydro scheme could significantly enhance renewable energy for the main island of Viti Levu. It would save FJ$25 million (NZ$18 million) by ending annual consumption of 22,000 tonnes a year of diesel and heavy fuel oil for power generation. 

 

 

Striking images of a survivor

 

Kabunare Koura was the sole survivor of a massacre by Japanese troops on Banaba at the end of World War II. Kabunare, an i-Kiribati,  was wounded by Japanese Imperial troops and pushed off a cliff left for dead, survived to eventually identify to Allied troops the Japanese soldiers responsible. Images of him, taken shortly after he was found, have emerged. View them here:

 

Still clueless in coup coup land

Now it looks comic. A man with a waxed bald-head, wearing an impeccably sulu suit, trips over a step as strode onto the floor of Fiji’s Parliament. “This is a civil coup,” George Speight called out, “hold tight, nobody move.”  It was 10.40am on Friday, May 19, 2000.

 

Fiji's superannuation fund collapsing

An investigation is underway in Fiji after the nation’s military regime was forced into a substantial writedown of its compulsory superannuation fund, partly as a result of the collapse of New Zealand finance company Bridgecorp. The Fiji National Provident Fund was last week written down FJ$327 million (NZ$232 million), an amount greater than its annual member’s contribution. 

 

Tonga slipping into crisis after lawman quits

Tonga was slipping into a deep political crisis after a top lawman quit amidst claims of high level corruption and government moves to stack the courts in a bid to avoid prosecution over the Princess Ashika ferry tragedy. Australian Attorney General John Cauchi,  SC,   Friday resigned with a three page letter in which he said the government was out to ``destroy the integrity and the independence of the judiciary''. In a tense interview, he said there was lots that he wanted to say ``but while I am sitting in this country its better for me not to say anything. ``When I am safely back in a country that respects the rule of law, for all of those listening into this conversation, I will feel free to say something more.'' During the interview Mr Cauchi asked that a call be put through to the Tongan Police Commander Chris Kelley,  a New Zealander ``and get him to despatch a personal police guard for me.''  Mr Kelley replied that he had no reason to be concerned about the immediate safety of Mr Cauchi, ``but I will call him immediately.''

 

No man is an island - Fiji's post-coup politics 

In the decade since it came to power, Fiji's military regime has attempted to make itself the dominant grouping within the ethnically divided country, with the result that the civilian population is increasingly disenfranchised.  A culture of censorship and secrecy has not been able to conceal the country's growing economic problems, with likely negative consequences for social stability.  Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama's professed desire to create an electoral system not linked to ethnicity is likely to be frustrated by the far-reaching demographic shift now taking place in the country. 

Michael Field in Jane's Intelligence Weekly

 

Tonga heads down democratic route 

Within hours of the ferry Princess Ashika sinking, taking 75 women and children to their deaths, Tonga’s King George Tupou V took a royal gun salute and headed off on Scottish holiday. While it underlined the gross insensitivity of Tonga’s royals, the lack of reaction to his holiday timing suggested he had become an irrelevancy in Nuku’alofa’s political life. At his coronation in 2008 he had already thrown in the towel, ending of the near absolute power Tongan monarchs since 1875. This date for Tongan democracy has now been set: November 25 in a general election which will produce Tonga’s first fully representative Legislative Assembly. The democratic moves have regional implications with the possibility of a weak commoner government in a power struggle with the traditional elite backed by an American/French trained and armed Tonga Defence Force.

 

Rabuka's remarkable apology for '87 coup

Auckland's Pacifika festival