FijiFirst heats up the campaign trail
Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer (LGBTQ) group member Varon Ali explained to supporters and residents of Kashmir, Lautoka the reason for his continued support for the FijiFirst party.
The 23-year-old activist of Lautoka is among the many in the LGBTQ community who have been vocal.
Ali, while raising a point at the FijiFirst Party’s campaign on Thursday, said this year’s vote for the 2022 General Election would ‘definitely go to FijiFirst’.
Speaking to the FijiFirst party general-secretary, Aiyaz SayedKhaiyum, he said the first vote that was cast in the 2018 General Election went to the FijiFirst Party.
“I would like to speak my mind, this is my second vote this year and my very first vote was given to you and I’m so proud that my vote went for a greater good despite it not helping me in any way, but it has helped the greater side of society,” Ali said.
“They have taken our country from grassroots level to higher levels. We should be so appreciative that they have done something for our younger generation and senior citizens.”
Ali said the LGBTQ communities were however at times treated unfairly.
“For our LGBTQ, we don’t get job opportunities; Government has given free initiatives for the tertiary education loan schemes and young entrepreneur loan schemes, we get discriminated against that we don’t have talent, we don’t have skills,” Ali said.
“I’m a Form Five dropout and I would like to do a major in psychology. I study astrology part time on my own and we don’t get acknowledged for the things we have.”
Ali added that the LGBTQ community would want a Government that would support the community’s dreams and support each individual as they were.
“Because I wouldn’t have voted for who they are if they wouldn’t have led my country to a greater place,” Ali added.
Director credits company success to solid policies by Government
Island Hoppers Fiji director Craig Keighley said the company’s success has been based on the successes of the Fijian Government and policies it has put in place.
They eventually boosted business growth for tourism operators.
“We need a strong, solid regulator or governor in government to provide the framework around the business. I can say at a personal and company level, the past 15 years have been the most stable, the most productive, the most complimentary business we have ever experienced. Inside Fiji and outside,” he said.
“We had other domains, other companies and we have great respect, trust, and faith in what you guys have done to date and to give an example, although the business has been here exceeding 50 years, obviously, there’s been lots of different versions of government over the 30 years.”
He said the company had experienced a period of growth beyond what it could have imagined or forecasted and that was a direct result of solid government.
“We don’t need a Government trying to manage our business, we just need to know the framework for compliance and the framework for growth and so when you talk about strategic level thinking and developing industries, that’s what we want to talk about,” he said.
“Lowering compliance levels and simplifying administration issues by the Fijian Government lessened the bulk of time that would have been spent by businesses.”
Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said that choosing the right Government meant choosing competent people to lead the nation.
“We have to understand that in choosing a Government you also have to ensure that there’s a Government that thinks about economic stability, not just for example, in the physical security you see a billboard says equality, security and stability. Businesses like these, they want stability in policies, they don’t want governments to chop and change things,” he said.
“The political parties are saying, SODELPA is saying corporate overtax will go up to 20 per cent, then foreign companies the foreign owned, they have to pay 5 per cent more tax then they have to pay some other additional resource tax all of these things are being said.”
Bulitavu enlightens villagers on strategies to grow economically stable
FijiFirst candidate Mosese Bulitavu, has outlined to villagers in a campaign rally in Macuata on the need to commercialise their resources and become economically stable.
The former Vanua Levu Member of Parliament Bulitavu said there were certain requests from individuals and groups for projects aimed at generating reasonable income.
“We just had to enlighten them of the way forward,” he said.
During his recent campaigning sessions with villagers, he outlined the way forward was to encourage villagers to commercialise their resources by registering trusts for resource-owning units.
“Then birth commercial arms to commercialise their resources,” he said. “One good example is the Labasa District (Tikina) which owned the Roqomate House property in Labasa Town and had rented this to Government as an investment to their property.
“This principle could be followed and implemented by other landowners as well.”
Mr Bulitavu said this economic recovery method must be advocated to all landowning units in the provinces of Cakaudrove, Bua and Macuata (CBM).
A firm believer himself in stabilising economic prosperity he believes this economic-driven ideology must be advocated.
“It is an economic-accelerating priorities for the CBM as I take it upon myself to bring an era of economic liberation to the people of Vanua Levu,” he said.
Mr Bulitavu appreciated the growing demand of supporters that had switched their support to the FijiFirst party in the North’s vote battleground in Cakaudrove and Macuata.
“I am getting more supporters not only from Macuata, but from Cakaudrove and Bua as well,” he said.
FijiFirst track record best guarantee for Fijians, says SayedKhaiyum
The best guarantee that you have from FijiFirst is our track record, Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said.
He made this comment after a question was raised by a supporter of the party during the campaign at the Hari Lal Investment shop at Kashmir in Lautoka on Thursday.
Amit Chand questioned Mr Sayed-Khaiyum: “What guarantee have you got for us to vote for you?
Mr Sayed-Khaiyum responded: “If you look at the amount of developments that’s taking place in Fiji, it’s the most sophisticated level of development that’s taking place in Fiji under any Government.
“There are a lot of examples and I can stand here for the next two hours and tell you all the things we’ve done, but that is the guarantee.
“You have absolutely no guarantee in any of the other political parties; they don’t have a track record, even Rabuka when he led the Government, we used to have a National Bank in Fiji, it’s gone.”
“You only have one vote, one tick. “From FijiFirst you can choose whoever you want to from FijiFirst. When you vote for FijiFirst, all those votes get counted towards FijiFirst.” Edited by
Bryce