Fiji expels NZ and Australia envoys | Kiwiblog

by David Farrar

They have not recorded the specific reasons why. It is over the respective Governments allegedly blocking travel through Australia (and possibly NZ) for their new (Sri Lankan) Judges to replace the ones fired.

The Commodore’s speech setting out his rationale is here – press conference judiciary-1 .

I’m not overly impressed by the Commodore citing the need for an Independent Judiciary, when he sacked the last set fo Judges because they got too independent.

Having said that, I’m not sure applying travel sanctions against the new Judges is achieving a lot either.

Apparently Frank is no good for intellectuals and native Fijian kaumatuas. They are the erudite people that us New Zealanders hear so much from. Joe Public loves Frank and the way he has dealt to the awful corruption amongst the Ratu aristocracy. But Joe Public does not engage with sodomistic activities with New Zealand journalists so we never hear in our country what he thinks. Friends advise that New Zealand’s blinkered attitude to Fiji and, more particularly, Australia’s extremely blinkered attitude, is costing both countries money. Meanwhile the Yanks are there, pouring dough in to neutralise the impact of the Chinese. The Ockers dip out but, much more importantly, us New Zealanders dip out as well.

Tauhei Notts:

Following on my response to XChequer on the general debate thread. The Yanks are NOT pouring money into Fiji. To the contrary, other than re-opening a consular and a peace corps office, the US has done little to nothing in terms of financial aid to the PIF countries including Fiji (despite 2007 being named the “Year of the Pacific” by Washington). Meanwhile the Chinese are pouring in developmental assistance and investment in port expansion, airport renovations, roadworks and general infrastructure upgrades that have potential dual purposes (i.e. military as well as civilian), and they do not much concern themselves with accountability or transparency requirements when contracting these projects. Whatever the situation on the ground in Fiji in terms of the Commodore’s support base, the language of business there is increasingly Mandarin-accented English. The geopolitical implications are going to be quite interesting in the decade ahead.

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