Opinion on social media: Get your facts right
National Federation Party provisional candidate Feroz Gulam Mohammed has once again shown why Fijians should not blindly trust everything and anything they read on social media. At 3.54pm on Saturday, Mr Mohammed posted on his Facebook account — which he uses to campaign — that Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama “sneaked” out of the country.
He posted up “PM SAYS MOCE FIJI AND GOES FOR HOLIDAYING OVERSEAS”.
On Sunday, he put up another post on the same matter and once again stated that Mr Bainimarama had left the country for a holiday. This post was shared 60 times on different forums.
This is, of course, an outright lie and a pathetic attempt to show Mr Bainimarama in a bad light, especially in a time of crisis. Despite being corrected by wellmeaning Fijians that the Prime Minister was very much in the country and had in fact been at the flood victims clothes drive at Rups Complex in 9 Miles, Nakasi, Mr Mohammed refused to acknowledge that he had lied.
He did remove his post after 40 hours and after hundreds of gullible Fijians believed his lie. Previously Mr Mohammed flasely claimed about Sigatoka Hospital running out of oxygen. When he was corrected on this, he said he was “told” by people.
Not good enough justification from a person vying for our votes. Now he has once again lied. Will he be taken to task by the National Federation Party hierarchy?
Is this the level to which the provisional candidates of this party stoop? Are they held accountable? Is this the type of campaigning going on as we not only lead up to elections, but as we try to find our footing as a nation after natural disasters?
SODELA's Jale O Baba had also posted a status insinuating that Mr Bainimarama was in Hong Kong watching the 7s tournament.
One gullible person even posted a picture of a random Fiji fan waving Fijian flag at the 7s match and claimed it was Mr Bainimarama! That post was still on Mr Baba's personal page when this edition went to press.
And, then there was SODELPA provisional candidate Ezikiel Sharma, from Labasa, who was hell bent on his false claim that Mr Bainimarama was not in the country. He shared posts made by those who have not set foot in Fiji for more than a decade, claiming that Mr Bainimarama was in Brisbane. The Fiji Labour Party (FLP) joined the fray with Facebook posts and a statement from party leader Mahendra Chaudhry.
“It is inappropriate for a Prime Minister to undertake an overseas visit at a time the nation is facing the threat of a potentially destructive natural disaster,” Mr Chaudhry said in the statement. He claimed in the statement that there were “reliable reports” of the Prime Minister leaving for Brisbane, heading to Hong Kong, after visiting flood-affected areas in the Western Division.
FLP made the same claims in Facebook posts last Saturday and Sunday, which were still up when this edition went to press. Where are we going wrong as a nation when such people think they can secure votes by lying to the Fijian public?
Mr Bainimarama was not out of the country this past weekend.
He will leave the country for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting next week. He did not go to Brisbane or to watch the 7s team secure another win at So Kon Po. But at least two provisional candidates and one media manager of SODELPA spread lies that he had left Fijians to suffer and took off for a holiday.
Who will hold these people accountable? Their respective parties have failed to do so in the past and there is little hope that they will do so in the future.
As we head for the general election the lies of the likes of Feroz and Ezikiel will become more bold.
It is up to us to seek the truth before we trust everything posted on Facebook as the gospel truth.