All Is Well
briefed the media yesterday on the status of his earlier call on the ‘demilitarisation of the civil service’.
Mr Tikoduadua and Major-General Ro Jone met in the morning when the Commander assured the minister that all security details that were seconded to the former Prime Minister, former Attorney-General and Chief Justice had been returned to the camp.
In an interview with the Commander at his residence last night, he said: “I had made my statement in the closing parade last year, we have stood our ground, we’ve honoured the process, and we’ve honoured the outcome.”
He said the RFMF was ready to work with the coalition Government.
Return of security detail
Major-General Ro Jone said the RFMF had been involved with this responsibility in the Office of the Prime Minister, the Office of the Attorney-General and also the Chief Justice.
“It’s just the personal security detail that we provide them with,” he said.
“The process of us reintegrating them back into the RFMF actually happened when the former Prime Minister received the notification that he was to be Leader of Opposition. So, when we had gone there to start the process he had already started the process.
“The personal security detail had actually started trickling back to the RFMF. It was not much in terms of manpower.” He said it was the understanding with the RFMF that should a new Government come into place, due processes would have to be followed.
“Because this was an arrangement we had with the previous Government, for us it was a normal process,” he said.
Weapons to Armory
Major-General Ro Jone said another concern was the accountability of the weapons that were released with the security detail. “As of yesterday, I had actually gone down and spoken to all the personnel that were part of the security details, I had inspected the weapons and they have all been returned to the armory, which has happened over the last 24 hours,” he said,
The personnel who were seconded were for:
■ Former Prime Minister - sixmen detail;
■ Former Attorney-General four-men detail;
■ Chief Justice - two-men detail, driver and Personal Protection Officer.
At least 50 to 60 personnel were seconded on a rotational basis to various ministries.
Reassurance
Major-General Ro Jone said he looked forward to the opportunity that was ahead of them with the new government.
He said only the government had changed, the role and responsibilities of the RFMF did not.
“What we do within the camp, I’m glad the minister has given me that free hand to do what I need to do, the constitutional authority gives me executive control for all RFMF personnel,” he said.
“We are excited about having
the new minister coming in, he is coming in with new ideas that we could also look up to being a former military personnel himself, being part of the Force Training Group. “I’m glad that in our discussions today he has given me the reassurance that they will not do anything about our role and responsibilities, our composition, looking at our pay and allowances.
“That re-assurance is what I and the senior officers and I’m sure the other soldiers are happy about.”
Fear mongering assessment
Major-General Ro Jone said in terms of assessments of fear mongering statements, the RFMF did its own assessments as well.
“What we are seeing is that there are a lot of social media comments. The hype of all of these is coming from social media,” he said.
“On the ground, the people are living normal lives today and this is something we are happy about and I believe the police have their own methods as well.
“The big issue here is how we manage social media. That is something we are trying to manage though we have no control over it but it’s how we can manage those perceptions and I call on the people to be responsible with messages that they come across.”
He said they also had a mechanism in place that’s looking into this issue. “As I discussed with the Minister today, we will be doing our due diligence as well. The way I’m looking at it now, it’s just rhetoric that’s going around.”