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Why now? Sounds like a vote buying gimmick, says Chaudhry
 Economy Minister Sayed-Khaiyum’s announcement of the long-awaited review of the national minimum wage (NMW) in a mini budget next month, has got to be seen as an election gimmick, says Labour Leader Mahendra Chaudhry. “The Minister is not being quite honest when he says that the last review was done in 2018 and the usual two-year review was withheld because ‘Covid 19 came along and a review could not be done earlier’,” Mr Chaudhry said. Actually, the NMW was last reviewed in the July 2017 Budget, effective September 2017, raising it from $2.32 to $2.68 an hour. The next review was due in 2019 long before the crisis caused by the pandemic hit the nation. |  |
This was not done.
“Our people have been facing extreme hardship over the past two years and have been crying out for some relief through an upward revision of the minimum wage.
“Where was the minister all these years? I don’t believe that he has suddenly woken up to their cries for an increase in the minimum wage rate because of rising cost of living.
“If government is sincere about providing relief to the suffering people, it should immediately raise the national minimum wage to $4 an hour as an interim measure pending the completion of a properly conducted review.
“Just as importantly, the minister should remove the 9% VAT on basic food items he imposed in the 2016 Budget. These measures will provide immediate relief to the poor,” Mr Chaudhry said.
“Where is the need for public consultation when the people themselves have been clamouring for a wage increase?
“And what sort of consultation does Mr Sayed-Khaiyum expect to carry out in less than two weeks in time to include it in his March 17 mini-budget?
“It appears yet another excuse for him to campaign at public expense,” said Mr Chaudhry
“Our people have been facing extreme hardship over the past two years and have been crying out for some relief through an upward revision of the minimum wage.
“Where was the minister all these years? I don’t believe that he has suddenly woken up to their cries for an increase in the minimum wage rate because of rising cost of living.
“If government is sincere about providing relief to the suffering people, it should immediately raise the national minimum wage to $4 an hour as an interim measure pending the completion of a properly conducted review.
“Just as importantly, the minister should remove the 9% VAT on basic food items he imposed in the 2016 Budget. These measures will provide immediate relief to the poor,” Mr Chaudhry said.
“Where is the need for public consultation when the people themselves have been clamouring for a wage increase?
“And what sort of consultation does Mr Sayed-Khaiyum expect to carry out in less than two weeks in time to include it in his March 17 mini-budget?
“It appears yet another excuse for him to campaign at public expense,” said Mr Chaudhry
The Fijian government is still indirectly funding the University of the South Pacific despite a 2020 decision to suspend grants to USP. Acting Prime Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says despite the government’s concerns on the state of affairs at the university, they have not stopped paying student loans and scholarships for USP students. - FBC News
"His [Khaiyum's] latest whopper [lies] is his pretence that the Fijian government is still funding the University of the South Pacific indirectly when the truth is that he cut off Fiji’s contribution to the University in 2020." |  |
The Big Lie – Große Lüge in German – was a propaganda technique that Adolf Hitler described as a lie so colossal that no-one would believe that someone “could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously”. His propaganda chief, Joseph Goebbels, put it more simply – “the bigger the lie, the more believable". And so it is that the Big Lie has become a political staple the world over, including in Fiji.
While the Attorney General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, continually rails against the supposed lies of the opposition and other government critics, he has long been in the habit of distorting or misrepresenting the truth himself. Which is why Grubsheet has taken to calling him Aiyaz Lasulasu-Jhooth – using the iTaukei and Hindi words for liar that he used against the opposition.
His latest whopper is his pretence that the Fijian government is still funding the University of the South Pacific indirectly when the truth is that he cut off Fiji’s contribution to the University in 2020. Fiji, he says, has in excess of $100-million disbursed to USP through student loans and scholarships “so USP is still the beneficiary of the fees being paid by the Fijian government on behalf of Fijian students”.
Nonsense. The payments under TELS – the Tertiary Education Loans Scheme – are government payments to individual students that they are eventually obliged to repay and are for their benefit, not the University’s. The same applies to government scholarships. These students might be gaining their education at USP but this is beside the point. The FijiFirst government has cut off all funding to the USP and has chalked up a staggering arrears that is having a significant impact on the University’s ability to maintain its programs.
FACT: Up to the end of December 2021, the Fijian Government owned USP $63.1-million in unpaid contributions as it continues to demand an investigation into allegations of mismanagement and abuse of office by its Vice-Chancellor, Professor Pal Ahluwalia. It isn’t going to get it. The rest of the University Council has backed Professor Ahluwalia on the grounds that he has no case to answer. And after the Professor's scandalous dead-of-night deportation from Fiji, he remains in the job and will run USP from Samoa.
FACT: It is Fijian students who are being disadvantaged by the Fijian Government’s refusal to pay its contributions. And regional governments are also paying the price because technically, the other countries that contribute to the university’s coffers are subsiding the education of Fijian students because their own government won’t pay. Which is why the AG’s most recent statement has caused so much anger at USP and its wider community.
FACT: The AG’s foot-stomping about his failure to remove the Vice Chancellor when no-one else on the USP Council thinks it is justified is definitely harming Fijian students. They are being disadvantaged along with students from other countries as more than $60-million dollars that Fiji owes USP continues to be withheld.
So why did Aiyaz Lasulasu-Jhooth try to pretend otherwise? Simple. Because an early election is now almost certain in Fiji. And it doesn’t take a genius to work out that the impasse at USP is going to be a major issue.
All told, the combination of Fijian students and their families adds up to around 25,000 votes. And many of them are waiting with baseball bats to smash the FijiFirst government for using their hard-earned taxes as a weapon in a fight that it has already lost and is jeopardising the education of young Fijians.
All of which has led a growing number of influential people to conclude that the AG isn’t just a liar, he has lost it altogether. Soon on Grubsheet, distinct rumblings at the top as the extent of Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum's recklessness dawns on the Fijian establishment. And how even at this late stage, with the election looming, his position isn’t as secure as he thinks.
While the Attorney General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, continually rails against the supposed lies of the opposition and other government critics, he has long been in the habit of distorting or misrepresenting the truth himself. Which is why Grubsheet has taken to calling him Aiyaz Lasulasu-Jhooth – using the iTaukei and Hindi words for liar that he used against the opposition.
His latest whopper is his pretence that the Fijian government is still funding the University of the South Pacific indirectly when the truth is that he cut off Fiji’s contribution to the University in 2020. Fiji, he says, has in excess of $100-million disbursed to USP through student loans and scholarships “so USP is still the beneficiary of the fees being paid by the Fijian government on behalf of Fijian students”.
Nonsense. The payments under TELS – the Tertiary Education Loans Scheme – are government payments to individual students that they are eventually obliged to repay and are for their benefit, not the University’s. The same applies to government scholarships. These students might be gaining their education at USP but this is beside the point. The FijiFirst government has cut off all funding to the USP and has chalked up a staggering arrears that is having a significant impact on the University’s ability to maintain its programs.
FACT: Up to the end of December 2021, the Fijian Government owned USP $63.1-million in unpaid contributions as it continues to demand an investigation into allegations of mismanagement and abuse of office by its Vice-Chancellor, Professor Pal Ahluwalia. It isn’t going to get it. The rest of the University Council has backed Professor Ahluwalia on the grounds that he has no case to answer. And after the Professor's scandalous dead-of-night deportation from Fiji, he remains in the job and will run USP from Samoa.
FACT: It is Fijian students who are being disadvantaged by the Fijian Government’s refusal to pay its contributions. And regional governments are also paying the price because technically, the other countries that contribute to the university’s coffers are subsiding the education of Fijian students because their own government won’t pay. Which is why the AG’s most recent statement has caused so much anger at USP and its wider community.
FACT: The AG’s foot-stomping about his failure to remove the Vice Chancellor when no-one else on the USP Council thinks it is justified is definitely harming Fijian students. They are being disadvantaged along with students from other countries as more than $60-million dollars that Fiji owes USP continues to be withheld.
So why did Aiyaz Lasulasu-Jhooth try to pretend otherwise? Simple. Because an early election is now almost certain in Fiji. And it doesn’t take a genius to work out that the impasse at USP is going to be a major issue.
All told, the combination of Fijian students and their families adds up to around 25,000 votes. And many of them are waiting with baseball bats to smash the FijiFirst government for using their hard-earned taxes as a weapon in a fight that it has already lost and is jeopardising the education of young Fijians.
All of which has led a growing number of influential people to conclude that the AG isn’t just a liar, he has lost it altogether. Soon on Grubsheet, distinct rumblings at the top as the extent of Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum's recklessness dawns on the Fijian establishment. And how even at this late stage, with the election looming, his position isn’t as secure as he thinks.