"The AG’s [Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum] modus operandi isn’t genuine consultation and consensus building. He is always the smartest person in the room, with a monopoly on both knowledge and righteousness. And he routinely uses both the dispensing of patronage and the fear of retribution to silence his critics and ensure that those around him are invariably nodding in furious agreement with him or not in the room at all. A genuine democrat, he is not. And the conga line of permanent secretaries who have left – including the PS at the Ministry of Health in the middle of a pandemic – is testament enough to the gross dysfunction at the heart of government...The AG’s power has been consolidated over the years as he has progressively gained control not only over the government’s legal affairs but over the economy, the civil service, climate change, civil aviation (including Fiji Airways) and communications, including both technical communications and information. Which is where I came in, reporting directly to the AG from September 2012 and becoming the government’s principal communications advisor until I resigned from Qorvis in June 2018." Graham Davis, 11 August 2020
TAKING FFP to election defeat *For better or worse, the AG [Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum] has become a lightning rod for dissatisfaction in the country and a dead weight on the government’s electoral prospects in 2022. Rather than growing in the job and in the estimation of the electorate, he is actually shrinking in stature, looks physically depleted and is said to be increasingly isolated and paranoid. He has surrounded himself with people who reinforce his own towering self-belief and has become impervious to proper advice and criticism. And his notoriously thin skin has become a huge political liability for FijiFirst, with the latest evidence of that, his astonishing attack last week on an elderly woman who had the temerity to question him about government policy on a talkback session on the national broadcaster run by his brother. With a withering look recorded by the studio camera and an accusation that the woman was “speaking like a politician”, she was promptly cut off by the compliant presenter. It was an extremely bad look that translated into strong criticism of the AG on social media, even among formerly staunch supporters.
*The AG’s modus operandi isn’t genuine consultation and consensus building. He is always the smartest person in the room, with a monopoly on both knowledge and righteousness. And he routinely uses both the dispensing of patronage and the fear of retribution to silence his critics and ensure that those around him are invariably nodding in furious agreement with him or not in the room at all. A genuine democrat, he is not. And the conga line of permanent secretaries who have left – including the PS at the Ministry of Health in the middle of a pandemic – is testament enough to the gross dysfunction at the heart of government.
Scratch the surface in Fiji and you will soon also discover a climate of fear in which even people of standing in the business community and government are extremely cautious about what they say. This has steadily eroded business confidence, not bolstered it, as business figures are obliged to sit through rambling, off the cuff speeches from the AG, admonishing them for their lack of initiative, telling them how to run their own businesses and even more galling for them, lecturing them on their lack of patriotism.
Scratch the surface in Fiji and you will soon also discover a climate of fear in which even people of standing in the business community and government are extremely cautious about what they say. This has steadily eroded business confidence, not bolstered it, as business figures are obliged to sit through rambling, off the cuff speeches from the AG, admonishing them for their lack of initiative, telling them how to run their own businesses and even more galling for them, lecturing them on their lack of patriotism.
*Under the AG’s leadership, some of the most important institutions of state have been weakened or manipulated to the government’s advantage. One of the most striking aspects is the prevailing nepotism that allows his brother to simultaneously run the national broadcaster and play a key role in the FijiFirst election campaign..."
Riyaz Khaiyum *In November 2018, the AG’s brother, Riyaz, the CEO of the national broadcaster, FBC, asked me to lobby the Prime Minister to make the AG formally Deputy Prime Minister. But by then, the AG and his brother had just presided over the disastrous FijiFirst campaign that had taken the government to the brink of defeat at Fiji’s second election after the return to democracy and if anything, the prize had slipped further away.
*Under the AG’s leadership, some of the most important institutions of state have been weakened or manipulated to the government’s advantage. One of the most striking aspects is the prevailing nepotism that allows his brother to simultaneously run the national broadcaster and play a key role in the FijiFirst election campaign.
*Under the AG’s leadership, some of the most important institutions of state have been weakened or manipulated to the government’s advantage. One of the most striking aspects is the prevailing nepotism that allows his brother to simultaneously run the national broadcaster and play a key role in the FijiFirst election campaign.
HEAPING praise on money man nephew *And for his aunt, Nur Bano Ali, to head the Fiji Chamber of Commerce and effectively act as the sole recognised conduit between the business community and the AG in his twin role as Minister of Economy. Aunty Nur routinely praises the government in the Fijian media without anyone questioning her glaring conflict of interest – something that would raise eyebrows sky high in any other democracy. But by far the worst aspect for me is the creeping acceptance of what would once have been unacceptable and what Frank Bainimarama partly mounted his 2006 takeover to root out – corruption.
CORRUPT Minister in the ranks *Only the very naïve would expect any developing nation like Fiji to be entirely corruption-free. But I was shocked to the core when the AG told me in the closing stages of my participation in government that one of his own cabinet colleagues was corrupt. The defamation laws prevent me from identifying the person in question. But I left this encounter deeply disturbed that while FICAC – the Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption – is routinely sooled on anyone else suspected of being involved in corrupt behaviour, the same alacrity seemingly doesn’t extend to the AG’s own colleagues.
"The best course of action, in my view, is for Frank Bainimarama to reassert himself, initiate a sweeping cabinet reshuffle and set a reformed FijiFirst government on a radically new tack. There is a brace of talented ministers in the government whose personal qualities and professional abilities have been eclipsed by the AG’s insistence on control who can readily form the backbone of a reinvigorated front bench, surround themselves with proper advisors and seek the best counsel available both in Fiji and from its friends in the world, who genuinely want to assist. But the change must happen as soon as possible to give a new team time to regroup, implement fresh policies and embark on a less arrogant and more consultative approach to win back the popular vote."
Read Full Article: www.grubsheet.com.au/as-i-was-saying/
Read Full Article: www.grubsheet.com.au/as-i-was-saying/
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