Media release – Thakur Ranjit Singh

ACT Party leader Don Brash promised that if his party got back into the next parliament in sufficient numbers, they would be encouraging whomsoever the Foreign Minister was to re-engage with Fiji, in the interest of both Fiji and New Zealand. Read more »

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Kim Bowden

Pacific-based journalists struggle to adequately play watchdog in countries rife with public and private sector corruption, according to Fiji media stalwart Shailendra Singh.

Despite highlighting a few standout cases of well-executed investigative journalism in Fiji, Singh called for more Fourth-Estate style journalism in the country during his presentation at the Media, Investigative Journalism and Technology conference held at AUT University earlier this month.

The experienced editor and media academic said one of the key reasons investigative journalism needs to be encouraged was because good governance was a major problem in the Pacific. Read more »

Pacific Scoop
Review – By Thakur Ranjit Singh

Michael Field, a veteran Pacific journalist, offers some “absorbing accounts of first-hand experiences within this historic unrest” in the region in his latest book Swimming With Sharks, just as his publishers say.

It is packed with anecdotes, displays an engaging sense of humour, and – like James Bond and Clint Eastwood movies – is spiced with witty one-liners.

Indeed, the book being published on Monday is bound to cause quite a few ripples – but most of them are focused on Fiji.
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Susanna Trnka ... a study of a communal impact of the Speight putsch in Fiji. Photo: Ranjit Singh

Pacific Scoop:
Opinion – By Thakur Ranjit Singh

A senior lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Auckland has lifted the lid on the oppressive life for some Indo-Fijians during the coup by maverick businessman George Speight, now imprisoned for treason, during 2000.

Dr Susanna Trnka’s research – drawing on personal experience while living in an Indo-Fijian village during the coup – has largely focused on the impact of political violence. Read more »

Reverend Akuila Yabaki Reverend Akuila Yabaki, argues Fiji must rid itself of its coup culture through seeking an egalitarian, non-race-based constitution.

Pacific Scoop
Thakur Ranjit Singh

Introduction: Fiji’s Reverend Akuila Yabaki, who heads Fiji Citizens Constitutional Forum (CCF) recently presented a paper to the Pacific Islands Political Studies Association (PIPSA) conference held at the University of Auckland. The paper was titled ”From paramountcy to equality: Constitutionalism, dialogue and ethno-political conflict in Fiji” and asserted how Fiji ought to rid itself of its coup-culture and institutionalise an egalitarian, non-race-based society. Read more »

Vijendra Kumar of The Fiji Times ... few Indo-Fijian editors since his era. Photo: Pacific Journalism Review

Pacific.Scoop
Opinion – By Thakur Ranjit Singh

The launch of the long awaited and anticipated special edition of Fijian Studies research journal is seen as a breath of fresh air for Fiji news media. It was appropriately devoted to media and “the struggle for democracy in the past 20 years”.
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Former MP Taito Phillip Field ... jailed yesterday for corruption. Photo: Nachofoto

Pacific.Scoop
Opinion – By Thakur Ranjit Singh

A rhetorical question posed by a senior citizen participant at last weekend’s Hindu Elders Conference in Mangere summed up the anger of the Indian community in New Zealand at the apparent cheap value of a migrant’s life:

“Would the judge have given the same sentence if the dead victim was John Key, Phil Goff or Helen Clark’s father?”
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Voreqe Bainimarama talking to Native Affairs presenter Julian Wilcox. Photo: Māori Television

Pacific.Scoop
Opinion – By Thakur Ranjit Singh

History has shown that countries with a cosmopolitan population but with a dominating mainstream white media tend to create stereotypes portraying ethnic minorities or non-whites negatively.

That is, until ethnic journalists come in to fill the vacuum and portray a more balanced picture.
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Fiji elections ... the case for a fairer system. Photo: Fiji Minfo

Pacific.Scoop
Opinion – By Thakur Ranjit Singh

I have a great deal of respect for Professor Wadan Narsey. He is one of the few – if not the only – University of the South Pacific academics who was prepared to sacrifice his comfort zone at the secure Laucala campus and job with a very good remuneration to join the politicians to fight a general election – something he believed in and had conviction for.

But after seeing dirty politics and electioneering Fiji-style, he got sick of it and threw in the towel.
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Cartoon: PJR/Malcolm Evans

Pacific.Scoop
Opinion – By Thakur Ranjit Singh

A recent Fiji Tourism advertisement on Television New Zealand, showing an Indo-Fijian lady doing a salutation Namaskaar in front of the iconic Nadi Temple, is not only unusual but historic as well.

This is because in the so-called pre-coup “democratic Fiji”, the other 40 percent of the population never existed in any tourism promotions and hardly existed under Laisenia Qarase’s democratic regime. They are the persecuted and envied Indo-Fijians.
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