Angie Heffernan, dared to call a spade a spade and now she is paying the price for it. Richard Naidu called it as he saw it, at least from the legal from the perspective and he has been intimidated. Only time will tell whether he will be speaking his legal mind publicly again. Many others who dared to speak have been silenced. Amongst them Laisa Digitaki, Attar Singh, and Jaganath Sami.

People though are still not waking up to the reality of the new order. An order or fear. An order of abuse and one based on gun power. Some still publicly support the military despite the abuses attributed to them. Infact many seem to question the absence of the same individuals during the events of May 2000. How short sighted and vengeful.

Little do they realise that the events of the past have had totally different dimensions. Such human rights abuse by an institution as powerful as the Military didn’t occur then. Any such events back then were at best, isolated actions of a few and nothing more then criminal acts. The current situation is a contrived and concerted effort by the people in power (and yes I am referring to the so called interim administration) to consolidate their illegal rule by silencing the right thinking individuals of the society. The means are justified under the so called emergency decree. What nonsense!

Some such as Rick Rickman who is regular writer in the Fiji Times letters to the editor, seem to push the focus elsewhere by usually blaming our neighbours for our problems. These individuals seem to think that Australia and New Zealand somehow are responsible for our coup. I fail to understand how their actions in support of democracy can be criticised. They have a right to deal with any nation as they please. Democracy is what is dear to them and the destruction of a democracy surely saddens them as much as it should to any right thinking person. What must be appreciated at least, is the fact, that they at least don’t run their countries with fear.

Our current illegal PM’s mindset says it all. He is happy to deal with countries that have equally bad human rights records. Chief amongst them is China. Infact the last letter by Rick Rickman in the Fiji Times of 25th January, he describes the China as a state which “…is not a democracy, does not have freedom of speech and a free press and does have a great many political prisoners.” I can see that happening in Fiji, if the present situation and the band of criminals continue to keep this country hostage.

Labels: Angie Heffernan, Attar Singh, China, human rights, Jaganath Sami, Laisa Digitaki