Regime admits its plan is not implementable

Regime admits its plan is not implementable

Sun, 4 Feb 2001 10:40:46 +1200

PEOPLE'S COALITION GOVERNMENT, FIJI visit our website: http://www.pcgov.org.fj

Issue No: 443 4 February 2001

The regime has admitted that the Blueprint it has for ethnic Fijians is not implementable because of funds shortage.

In a statement made to today's Sunday Times, the regime's Education Minister stated:

"It is obvious that we will not be able to fund even half of the projects that have been proposed."

The regime's Minister, Nelson Delailomaloma was responding to questions on the implementation of the Blueprint for the Advancement of Indigenous Fijian and Rotuman education. The 10-year plan is part of the Blueprint for the Advancement of Indigenous Fijians and Rotumans which Qarase had presented to the Council of Chiefs in July 2000.

Delailomaloma also stated: "We have not been able to prioritise projects as yet because what we're trying to do right now is to get as much money as we can.. Depending on the size of funds, we'll know which ones can be carried out.

Earlier another regime minister had informed a gathering of ethnic Fijians that the Blueprint needed funds to be implemented. The minister had privately acknowledged that the Blueprint was not implementable and was largely a public relations exercise to convince ethnic Fijians to support the Qarase regime.

Like Rabuka after the 1987 military coups, the Qarase regime has also offered ethnic Fijians all the material goodies that one can dream of. And like Rabuka, Qarase is also short on one essential ingredient: funds to purchase the goodies. Like Rabuka, Qarase also has been used to a handout mentality, thinking that funds grow on trees which can be picked up when it falls upon being ripe, and used to purchase cargo for distribution to buy people's support. The cargo-cult mentality of people launching their political careers through undemocratic means put Fiji back by over a decade in 1987, and by over 2 decades through the terrorist activities of 2000.

The continuous cargo-cult propaganda within the ethnic Fijian community, particularly in the rural areas has created a time-bomb which is now ready to explode in Fiji. The recent demands for multi-million dollar `compensations', `premiums' and `goodwill money' by claimants to land is only the tip of the iceberg. As these payments are made and avenues exhausted, other more violent and criminal avenues will be resorted to which the regime could only control through equally violent means.

ENDS

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