Standing up against what is wrong a matter of duty for all Fijians. What USA report did was wrong
The latest report on Fiji’s human rights record from Washington contains some outright lies and inaccuracies. It is obviously based on the country report sent by the Embassy of the United States of America in Suva. Our Ministry of Foreign Affairs should lodge a strong protest to the embassy, expressing its concern about the report’s content and its damaging impact. It raises a serious question about the sources of information although the report describes them as credible. If they were credible, how did they get it wrong? It’s apparent that no due diligence was done to ascertain the truth on the ground.
It looks likely they were based on hearsay, with no attempt to verify them. There is no excuse for this type of conduct because it is ethically and morally wrong. Washington should be asked to withdraw the lies against Fiji and apologise for the inexcusable lies spun against our small island nation.
We may be tiny, but that does not give the USA or any other country the right to say wrong things about us and expect to get away with it.
We need to stand up and express our concern over the disparaging remarks about our human rights record. We hope that other diplomatic missions based in Suva will learn from this experience and make sure that they do not make the same mistake. Diplomatic missions in Suva brief their governments at home on what is happening here as part of their intelligence gathering exercise. That’s their right and responsibility. What is in question here is the accuracy of the reports on Fiji.
To get a better perspective and accurate view of Fiji’s situation they need to talk to all stakeholders. The same goes for international and regional organisations and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), whose agencies are based here.
In the past, some of these organisations were guilty of producing factually incorrect reports about Fiji. These actions remind us of a colonial past where the colonisers ruled with unfettered power – enabling them to get away with a lot of injustices against the colonised. Fiji may be a small island nation in the Pacific, but it deserves to be given a fair go by foreign governments because of its sovereignty rights. Fabricating lies to support a particular political narrative is unacceptable in the world of international relations in this 21st Century.
Irrespective of which side of the political divide we Fijians belong to we must stand up against what is wrong because it is a matter of duty.
And what the USA report did was wrong.