Rabuka and his policies
The manifesto announcement by The People Alliance leader, Sitiveni Rabuka talks about the reintroduction of the Great Council of Chiefs (GCC).
My question to Mr Rabuka is when has the chiefly system been abolished? We still have chiefs who are given high respect! I assume that Mr Rabuka, by saying that he will reintroduce the GCC is basically saying that a team of chiefs will be meeting at least once annually.
His policy fails to inform on the reasons for this meeting, where cost would certainly be met by the taxpayers and land lease money. May I ask Mr Rabuka on whether he plans to use these meetings to:
1. Accelerate sugar cane land lease expiry, as was noted after his coup in 1987; Lease money redistribution to see chiefs getting more than other landowners, as was the case under his SVT Government; and
Policies to support segregation and apathy, as was witnessed after his coup in 1987.
The policy lacks monetary foresight. I would have thought that this would be one of the key focus areas for The PA given that the party leader would have learnt his lesson after he was instrumental in the collapse of the National Bank of Fiji (NBF), which saw customers having deposits, sale of assets of the bank, redundancy of workers and taxpayers meeting the cost.
I still remember how, under his leadership, the military, at the point of the gun, removed the executives at the then NBF, with the late Makarava team.
Mr Rabuka has announced that he will replace all permanent secretaries and chief executive officers of statutory authorities. He has not announced what methodology it will be based on and whether he will replace the open merit recruitment.
Will he use the same system, as he had on the point of a gun, remove the Police Commissioner, PU Raman in 1987?
Mr Rabuka confirms that he will call for municipal elections. This is contradictory to what happened in 1989 after his coup in 1987 where no council elections were held, but rather appointments.
He does not say in his manifesto how he will support municipal councils financially in building our towns and cities.
I await a response by Mr Rabuka, through this column.