Take responsibility for what you say in Parliament
National Federation Party MP Lenora Qereqeretabua was one person people expected to get her research right.
One of the biggest takeaways from the current Parliament sitting is the need for parliamentarians to take responsibility of what they say inside Parliament. Let me give an example. On Tuesday, an educated professional who now works in the accounts department of a reputed company and has worked in Government previously shared his views that the fact SODELPA’s Mitieli Bulanauca said that the coronavirus vaccines would implant a chip to track people, it must be true.
The young gentleman was not being sarcastic. He and many, many other Fijians like him firmly believe that when MPs talk in Parliament, they speak facts and that their research is spot on.
There are people who firmly believe that our MPs have access to information, which the general public does not and that they use the Parliament as the platform to reveal such information.
This is dangerous. This cannot go unchallenged, but the bigger problem is the inability of political parties to take their own members to task.
COVID-19 claims
Why is Mr Bulanauca’s utterings dangerous, especially in the current climate?
He said: “I believe, however, that COVID-19 is translated to mean Certificate of Vaccination/Virus Identification and the 19 stands for Artificial Insemination. They are still looking for a vaccine and when one is approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO) whose integrity is now questionable for siding with China or communism you will be artificially inseminated with, with the certificate to it under your body or skin by which you can or cannot be allowed to trade or buy things by.
“Mr Speaker, Sir, Corona is equivalent to 666, this COVID-19 is a step towards that already written in and by the word of God, it is just now being revealed.”
He had earlier said: “We are all going to die anyway, as long as we do not turn (and) continue to threat (sic) and scare people with some unpractical, irrelevant meaningless rules and laws.
“Why stop churches and prayers with at least two people with curfew at 8pm? We wanted to solve the pandemic problems by our own ways and methods.”
In his one speech, Mr Bulanauca managed to instil fear within people and possibly turned them away from getting vaccinated if and when a vaccine for coronavirus is found. He has told the masses to believe in God, there is no need for curfews. He has told people like Sakiasi that the coronavirus is a plan to control world population. He did not cite a single research or study to back his rant, but despite that he managed to impart a dangerously stupid message to many who believed him.
Lenora Qereqeretabua
National Federation Party MP Lenora Qereqeretabua was one person people expected to get her research right. But, that was not to be. She brandished a tinned fish in Parliament and claimed: “On 20th June, 2018, Mr Speaker, the Malaysian Ministry of Health banned this very brand, took them off supermarket shelves. Why? Because this tinned fish had been found to contain roundworms. And yet, this is what our Government gave to people in Kadavu and God knows where else?”
She was lying.
That was not the product banned in Malaysia. As Minister Inia Seruiratu pointed out:
“Sir, here with me is the health certificate that brought that product into Fiji. What she was referring to is “Canned Mackerel in Tomato Sauce” or “Canned Mackerel in Vegetable Oil”.
“Mr Speaker, Sir, Motibhai is the agent and we are governed by Government’s Procurement Policies.
This contract is given to Motibhai and the above-mentioned goods are in conformity with the sanitary requirements and feed for human consumption, but she was referring to what was banned in Malaysia.
“Mr Speaker, Sir, according to what we have found out, what was banned in Malaysia was sardines. That is the difference between “sardines” and “canned mackerel in vegetable oil” or “canned mackerel in tomato sauce”, I need to clarify that because if it is “sardines”, unfortunately the “canned sardines” is not here, bring the “canned sardines” after this.”
Sardines and not mackerel were banned in Malaysia. So, every person who saw Ms Qereqeretabua’s statement which her team also streamed live on Facebook would of course believe her. It is not a must that they also saw Mr Seruiratu setting the record straight. Neither Ms Qereqeretabua nor her party leader or president saw fit to correct her lie. She should have had the courtesy to apologise if her intention was not to deliberately mislead the Fijian public.
There are many, many, many other examples of statements made in Parliament which were outright lies. Sadly, all of it came from the Opposition MPs.
This is an abuse of parliamentary privilege. And when people with no medical background start telling people that any vaccination of coronavirus will mean implanting a chip in their bodies, it becomes very dangerous.
There have been times when NFP’s Biman Prasad and SODELPA’s Niko Nawaikula have said in Parliament that they can say what they want. This is not the attitude we need.
This will become a big issue if our politicians use Parliament as the platform to further their agenda or have the attitude where they think they can get away with saying anything, as long as they get a few extra votes during general elections.