Vice
President Takes Over In Crisis
By Tamani Nair
SUVA:
University of the South Pacific student vice-president Mele Apisai
has taken over acting leadership of the student body following the
controversial barring of the student president from entering campus.
She just arrived back in Suva from Kiribati along with other Kiribati
students last week and was yesterday bewildered by the crisis when
Pacific Journalism Online spoke to her. The president, Veresi Bainivualiku
was locked out by university officials following an alleged assault
on an Indo-Fijian student and threats against staff last Friday.
A disciplinary hearing is expected to be called by university authorities
to consider the affair. It is also alleged that Bainivualiku had
also made racist slurs aimed at Indo-Fijian staff and security officers.
The
Association of University of the South Pacific Staff (AUSPS) president,
Dr Biman Prasad, wrote to Vice-Chancellor Solofa calling for immediate
expulsion of Bainivualiku from the university. Instead, the university
barred Bainivualiku from entering university premises until the
disciplinary committee meets. But a date has yet to be decided on
the hearing. According to the university's secretariat administrative
assistant, Titilia Tuinaceva, the administration is waiting for
a report. The barring of Bainivualiku from campus has upset members
of the Fijian Students Association (FSA). A meeting was held at
the university's Orange Lounge on Tuesday, and a protest march was
planned for yesterday. But this was called off and the reason given
was that no action would be taken by the association until the outcome
of the disciplinary hearing. According to sources who had attended
the meeting, it was decided that the members would march to the
administration office and hand over a petition letter airing their
grievances. But this was denied by the president of FSA, Jone Fifita.
Fifita has also criticised the handling of the crisis by the university.
"When a group of Samoan students had a punch-up just before the
coup, no one was barred from university," Fifita said. "When it
came to Bainivualiku, he was barred barred straight away." The crisis
on campus has prompted international reaction from visitors browsing
the USP journalism website's feedback page, Pacific Journalism Online's
Talanoa. Peni Gavidi, of Canada, said after viewing a story that
the website ran on Bainivualiku. "It is sad to see that the country's
institutions are working against the development of what used to
be Fiji. "You have some elements of the army who acquired experience
abroad and then lashed it out on it's own people. And then you have
an educational institution whose students prefer to settle disputes
by a punch-up rather than dialogue. "One wonders what kind of leaders
are trained for the future." PJO tried to get comments from the
person who was allegedly assaulted by Bainivualiku but he did not
turn up for the interview yesterday.
Fiji
Times Chief Editor Given Work Permit
(PMW): Fiji's military-backed interim government has granted a work
permit to the expatriate editor-in-chief of the newspaper suspected
by the deposed elected government as having mounted a campaign against
it, according to local news reports. Russell Hunter, a Scottish-born
Australian with extensive Pacific experience, has been granted a
work permit for three years with the proviso that a local media
person be trained to take over the post when the permit expires.
The Fiji Sun reported on 24 August 2000 following a report two days
earlier by Fiji Television that Hunter had been granted a work permit.
Immigration and Home Affairs Minister Ratu Talemo Ratakele confirmed
the granting of the work permit, according to the Fiji Sun. The
newspaper quoted the minister as saying: "Also noted was the fact
that key posts needed to be taken up by overseas people to protect
investments in our country." Deposed Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry,
the first Indo-Fijian national leader of the Pacific country, as
Information Minister and his cabinet colleagues frequently clashed
with the media during their year in government. The Rupert Murdoch-owned
Fiji Times was several times singled out for bitter criticism and
at one stage was accused of "fanning the fires of sedition and racism",
a charge the newspaper rejected.
The
Chaudhry government was not popular with some sectors of the Fiji
news media and ownership as it pursued policies against privatisation
and which were perceived to be anti-business. The deposed government
gave priority to policies assisting the nation's high-level of poor
and under-privileged urban and rural people. On May 19, the Chaudhry
government was overthrown at gunpoint by failed businessman George
Speight and his rebels who claiming to be acting for "indigenous
rights". Less than a month earlier, on April 26, the Fiji High Court
rejected an attempt by The Fiji Times to quash the Chaudhry government's
decision to refuse a work permit extension for Hunter and he left
the country shortly after. During the Fiji political crisis, local
editors Netani Rika was acting editor of The Fiji Times and Samisoni
Kakaivalu edited the sister paper, The Sunday Times. The Fiji Times
Ltd also owns two weekly vernacular newspapers, in the Fijian and
Hindi languages, which are edited by local journalists. The interim
Information Minister and Communications Minister, Ratu Inoke Kubuabola,
one of the conspirators in the 1987 coups, has faced allegations
of being implicated in Speight's attempted coup.
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posters with messages that demand jobs and an end to poverty.
These foot-soldiers are mobilisi
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