Transcript
SITIVENI RABUKA: Well first of all the high profile freedom we enjoyed in our media is no longer there. We have one of the newspapers in court and one of the newspaper enjoying a lot of the work from government while the other one is starved from work with government.
People are still restricted in what they can freely say. The sedition law is still there while most other countries decided to do away with sedition laws because it demonstrates real freedom to objectively criticise governments.
Our election can be better. There are some doubts about the free and fair election profile of the 2014 general elections.
The debate in parliament are not open and objective enough. The opposition needs to be given time to objectively debate on issues raised by government.
So those are some of the things that are not free right now.
DOMINIC GODFREY: So those are some of the key issues you'll be addressing. So for example sedition, it goes right to the stem of existence for Fijian because there's a lot of things that can be construed as sedition and have been by the government. You'll make Fijians more secure in their ability to express themselves…
SR: Yes. We may not agree but we will agree to allow you to give us your opinion, those are the things. I may not agree with your views but I will defend your views.
DG: So open to criticism?
SR: Yes, open to criticism.
DG: But what does this mean for a sugarcane farmer in the west or for a villager in the Ba Valley who's suffering from the effects of climate change? They've just been through two cyclones, flooding. Their future is desperate in the west now. These promises of freedom, what do they mean to the average Fijian?
SR: Really not very much. For them the promise of giving them better access to quality facilities in the social services side of education, healthcare, old-age assistance. Those are the things that will probably be of more meaning to the villager and the cane farmer. The upgrading of the infrastructure to their areas to facilitate netter access to their own farms. The development of more markets for their produce. Those are of more meaning to that social level, the workers level. Minimum wage, which we need to raise. We put it into our manifesto and I started paying my workers the minimum even before the election. So for them, the social issues will be more meaningful rather than intangible promises of freedom.
DG: What about the military? Since your time, when you first rose to prominence, the military has been prominent in Fiji and these days still it's very prominent within Fiji. Its role as a police inside Fiji. Will this change with you at the helm?
SR: Yes. It will change because we would like to leave policing to the police and leave the army to government arm, governed by the act and also directed by the minister and cabinet on what it does. Rather than having any prominent initiatives in the maintenance of law and order. They should also be in support of the police. We also need to lower the profile from a military to a development arm of government. In the past the army was enjoying a high profile in our regional development. Cyclone rehabilitation, even road construction, providing assistance to the public works department. So those are the areas that we can bring back for the army. We'd like to maintain our profile in peace-keeping in the international scene but more in our assistance for development at home. Not so much as a military force but as a construction and development arm of government.
DG: The financial security and strength of iTaukei people is their connection to the land whereas traditionally in vakaviti, in Fijian society, commerce has been largely the domain of other parts. How do you propose to move this forward?
SR: We would like participatory development of the ownership, and the landlord and tenant relationship. Most countries around the world started with a formula and it became a universal formula. The six percent of unimproved capital value was quite universally accepted but now as generations are denied the use of their own customary land, the iTaukei is asking whether that formula can be revisited and revised so that they have a fair return on the use of their land. If they're going to be denied the use, then they must have a fair return.