FIJI TIMES BLASTS CHAUDHRY OVER 'HATE' MESSAGE

SUVA (Pacific Media Watch): The Fiji Times today published a stinging attack on former prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry over what it claimed was a "message of hate" over neglect of the west - the country's economic heartland.

"Chaudhry has no shame," said the paper in an editorial, saying that the Labour Party leader openly advocated provincialism at the weekend opening of a new $200,000 chiefly bure for Tui Ba Ratu Sairusi Nagagavoka.

It said Chaudhry took the opportunity to "open old wounds and attempt to stir up animosity against the Fijian people of what he termed the eastern provinces".

The attack came as a two-day Court of Appeal hearing over the legality of the formation of government is due to open this week.

An international five-judge bench will hear the Fiji Labour Party's appeal over exclusion from the multi-party government formed by Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase after last September's general election. The party argues that with 27 seats in the 71-seat Parliament it is entitled to a 47 percent share of cabinet seats.

After a High Court ruling on Friday ousting Opposition Leader Prem Singh from the Nadi Open seat, the FLP now effectively has 28 seats. Singh was the only National Federation Party member of Parliament.

The newspaper, at times controversial over its coverage of the former Chaudhry-led government and the post-coup period, ran a front-page banner headline "message of hate: Chaudhry sets Westerners against Eastern provinces".

Neither of Fiji's two other daily newspapers highlighted such an angle on the bure opening.

According to the Fiji Times in its news report, Chaudhry told guests the people of Ba province had been denied their "rightful place" in government.

Chaudhry said the province contributed close to 75 percent of Fiji's foreign exchange earnings and deserved greater recognition, the paper reported.

The province was urged to "wake up to what had happened" because for the past 30 years it had been subjected to rule from the East.

"Let me assure you that it is no coincidence that twice, in the history of Fiji, democratically elected governments headed by prime ministers from the Ba province have been illegally overthrown," Chaudhry was quoted as saying.

Chaudhry was referring to Dr Timoci Bavadra's Labour-led Coalition Government, overthrown by third-ranked military officer Lieutenant-Colonel Sitiveni Rabuka in 1987, and the People's Coalition Government, led by Chaudhry and ousted by the George Speight putsch in May 2000.

In its editorial, the Fiji Times criticised Chaudhry for his attempt to "rake over the coals of animosity, which could so easily end in fragmentation of a peace-loving people".

Fiji Times, 13 February 2002

CHAUDHRY ACCUSES FIJI TIMES OF EDITORIAL MALICE

SUVA (Pacific Media Watch): Former Fiji Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry has accused the Fiji Times of editorial malice in its news coverage and an editorial attacking his speech about the neglect of the west.

In a letter to the editor published on 13 February 2002, Chaudhry claimed the banner news headline on the front page report, "Message of hate", was hysterical and distorted his speech.

An inside page editorial accompanying the news story on February 11 also carried the headline "A message of hate", claiming Chaudhry was stirring up westerners against eastern Fijians.

Chaudhry wrote in reply: "Your news report committed the cardinal sin of editorialising a hard news story while your editorial can only be labelled as hasty, hysterical and lacking in any rationality.

"It takes my comments out of context in order to justify yet another malicious attack on me.

"What I said in my address was the truth, a historical fact."

The Fiji Labour Party leader, whose power-sharing constitutional challenge against the government of Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase is being heard by the Court of Appeal this week, wrote that it was obvious from the "vicious reaction of your editorial writer that the truth in this case is quite unpalatable".

"No number of vituperative editorials from The Fiji Times can alter the facts of history," Chaudhry wrote.

"The truth is undeniable.

"Twice in the recent history of Fiji, democratically elected governments from the west have been overthrown at the point of a gun - the government of Dr Timoci Bavadra in 1987 and the People's Colaition Government in 2000 - elected on an overwhelming mandate by the people of Fiji.

"It is no coincidence, as I said in my address, that both these governments were headed by prime ministers from the west.

"The Fiji Times might like to explain to the people of Fiji, and particularly those from Ba, why every time a government headed by someone from the west takes office, it is violently overthrown."

Chaudhry wrote that it was a "fact" that Ba people had been neglected and denied their rightful place in the governance of Fiji.

"Your editorial attempts to confuse the issue by throwing in a red herring about Fijian and Indian race relations," he wrote.

"This is not at issue here and I made no mention of this in my address to the people of Ba at the historic occasion of the opening of the chiefly bure at Sorokoba."

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