Don’t shoot messenger. Focus on real issue, get on with investigation
It says a lot about people when instead of focusing on the Fiji Independent Commission against Corruption (FICAC) investigation, supporters of a political party, egged on by some media organisations are more concerned about how the names came to be revealed. We have nine of our Members of Parliament currently under investigation.
FijiFirst has no issues identifying its MP. FijiFirst did not wait to be told by FICAC.
FijiFirst general secretary Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum had asked all their MPs to submit their allowance history. They did their own inquiry and left FICAC to carry out its own investigations.
When asked, they went on to name the MP while waiting for FICAC to complete its investigations.
Social Democratic Liberal Party (SODELPA) on the other hand had other issues, which they prioritised. Keep in mind that for a few weeks, SODELPA MPs had no idea who was in charge of the party and everything else that came with the suspension and subsequent unsuspension.
The FICAC complaint was lodged by a neutral person – the Secretary General to Parliament Viniana Namosimalua. Of course it is a big deal that nine of our MPs are being investigated for alleged abuse of their travel and accommodation allowances.
Fiji Sun broke the story of the complaint and kept at it; digging and pursuing all angles to identify who the nine are.
What does the other newspaper do? They thought it was worthy of front page to question how the names came to be revealed. How does that matter?
Anyone would have thought all media and all SODELPA supporters would have called for transparency and accountability. Instead, they are employing diversion tactics and think that the so-called leak of names from within SODELPA is a bigger news compared to alleged abuse of taxpayers money.
It is laughable that the talk of who leaked the names is bigger than what the nine are being investigated for. Ridiculous!