Drawing Line Between Party and Government

There are party workers who were attached to certain election candidates now holding ministerial responsibilities. Will they continue in the same capacity but as Government employees?

The new coalition Government is going through some postelection blues.

One is drawing the line between the party and the Government.

There are party workers who form the nucleus of the election campaign machinery who have crossed the demarcation line into Government territory.

Some of them think it’s business as usual or they might have been promised jobs if they won the election.

Unless they have been formally recruited with all the due diligence done they remain as party workers.

One advice the Fiji Sun and other media organisations received was any queries directed to Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka should go through Cheerrieann Wilson, one of the two The People’s Alliance party media liaison officers.

The other officer is Samisoni Pareti. Ms Wilson, a former Fiji TV One’s news anchor and Mr Pareti, formerly of Islands Business, were hired by the Rabuka team to help lift the party’s media campaign.

We could only assume Ms Wilson had been formally hired for a newly created position in the Prime Minister’s Office or part of the Department of Information. There was no prior official announcement of her appointment, if there was one. There are party workers who were attached to certain election candidates now holding ministerial responsibilities. Will they continue in the same capacity but as Government employees?

In many democracies it is not unusual to recruit campaign workers into the Government ranks to help ease the transition pressures from Opposition to Government. It provides continuity and stability. The party workers are loyal and have proved themselves in promoting the party policies. Now they are in a position to help implement those policies.

The change of Government has also attracted a resurgence of interest in civil service jobs because of the decision to remove short term contracts and the raising of retirement age from 55 to 60 in the first 100 days.

If we started the countdown from Wednesday when ministers started getting welcomed to their offices, there are 98 days left. The other incentives are to that there will be no pay cut and top jobs including permanent secretaries will be localised. The Government will also bring back the Public Works Department and review the Fiji Roads Authority. That will open up new employment opportunities and generate new interest.

Minister for Finance Professor Biman Prasad has echoed Mr Rabuka’s commitment for change. He said they would not introduce change just for the sake of change, but to benefit the people and the country.

To achieve that they would require the best people to achieve it - people they can trust with a proven record