Reply to My Say column
I refer to Nemani Delaibatiki’s column My
Say (24/04/2017) which is an edited version of his My Say on FBC. He refers to the leaked list of alleged candidates of SODELPA which revealed some senior civil servants’ names and then Delaibatiki goes on to sermonise about the rules of the civil service and the need for professional loyalty, etc.
He justifies what he had done in exposing them without any ethical or professional justification (as a journalist) for possibly jeopardising the jobs of these civil servants. Apologising to these people who are not in positions to publicly defend themselves has not even occurred to Delaibatiki.
He goes so far to allege leaking of information from the public service as possibly made by these people. From reading the Fiji Sun over the last seven years, I have never read any report that is based on information leaked from a Government source.
I am sorry that my friend Nemani, one of Fiji’s most experienced journalists, has really gone low in standards.
He writes as if it is a crime for a person to have his or her own political belief and to apply confidentiality to a political party for a possible career in politics when he retires, or when his contract is not renewed. Would he release for public knowledge people who apply for vacant positions at Fiji Sun before their application is considered? What Delaibatiki is doing with his slashing columns is to accuse the civil servants concerned of disloyalty to the Government of the day for doing something about their future and that of their dependents that is not illegal.
Do these people who have done nothing wrong to him or the Fiji Sun deserve this wrath from him?
In the United States, in the 1950 there was an infamous man call Senator Joseph McCarthy who drew up a list of thousands of innocent people in prominent positions in the US Civil Service and other places of employment who he accused of being secret communist and destroyed a lot of their careers.
What Delaibaitiki has done is similar to “McCarthyism”.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Mr Dakuvula is entitled to his opinion. He has had many in a varied and various background. This includes serving as chief assistant secretary and press secretary in the post-coup Sitiveni Rabuka-led SVT government from 1992-95.
Mr Dakuvula has read more into the My Say column than was actually said and embarked on an emotional response.
In the process, he distorted the substance of the article.
For the record: The Fiji Sun is independently owned and operated. It cannot be compared with a political party such as SODELPA which seeks to govern the country.