SUVA: Great Council of Chiefs chairman Sitiveni Rabuka says he
believes Fiji's Mahendra Chaudhry government held hostage by rebel gunmen has
not failed indigenous Fijians.
He admitted this in a media conference called last night to announce
the decision of the council to support the President's steps to return
Fiji to constitutional rule.
The council meets again today to consider demands by rebel leader
George Speight and details of President Ratu Kamisese Mara's plan to end the
five-day-old hostage crisis.
Badgered by reporters questioning Rabuka about claims that he had said
the government of Chaudhry, the Pacific country's first Indo-Fijian
prime minister, had not served Fijians well, he denied this.
When pressed further, he said that not much more could be expected in
the first year of the Fiji Labour Party-led multiracial coalition
government.
As he stood up to leave, he added strongly: "I don't think it has
failed indigenous Fijians."
Chaudhry was detained by Rabuka's troops in the first coup on 14 May
1987 when he was finance minister in Dr Timoci Bavadra's deposed
Labour-led government.
Ironically, Fiji's Sunday Times published a two-day interview with
Chaudhry assessing his first year in office two days after the prime
minister and his government had been seized at gunpoint in Parliament.
Headlined "Reducing poverty is our poriority," Chaudhry told the
newspaper that his government was "making good on its promise to
alleviate poverty" and that most Fiji Islanders had "faith" in
his
government.
Outlining his government's achievements, which political observers
compare favourably with the seven-year rule of the post-coup elected
Rabuka government, Chaudhry cited:
* A reduction in the price of basic food items by removing customs
duty
and value added tax on such food.
* A reduction in charges for basic utility services, such as
electricity
and water.
* Introducing a micro-finance scheme which makes it possible for poor
people and those on lower incomes to be able to access loan finance to
begin small ventures and become economically independent.
* Assistance for women to become economically independent (mainly
through the micro finance scheme).
* Boosting budget assistance for education, health and welfare
programmes.
* Agricultural development in depressed rural areas.
"[Alleviating poverty] has been our first priority and, of course, at
the same time we have been active in taking initiatives and promoting
measures to attract investment to promote economic growth," Chaudhry
said.
"Overall we achieved an economic growth in 1999 of around 7.5 per cent
which is quite remarkable," Chaudhry told the paper.
Asked about the land tenure issue, he replied: "Why [has Rabuka's]
Soqosoqo ni Vakavulewa ni Taukei party (SVT) not resolved this problem
while they were in power for seven years?"
"Because they found that it was not an easy thing and there should be
a balanced approach to it.
"So they are accusing my government of not giving in to the Native
Lands Trust Board (NLTB). But our reasons for saying ALTA [Agriculture
Landlord and Tenant Act] should be retained are borne out by two
independent reports which the SVT government had itself commissioned.
"We have hardly been in government for 12 months and they want us to
do what they did not do in seven years."
* Meanwhile, as international condemnation of the armed civilian
takeover of Parliament continued, New Zealand Prime Minister Helen
Clark ruled out military intervention.
But Deputy Prime Minister Jim Anderton called for a New Zealand ban on
any Fiji Islander involved in the insurrection.
He also said he wanted an examination of any bank accounts held in New
Zealand by any of the perpetrators and for "Pinochet-style"
prosecutions in New Zealand against those accused of human rights violations.
+++niuswire
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