Fiji News

FOCUS ON FIJI activist tells minister to look at ‘triggers’

hUMAN rights activist Shamima Ali has called on Health Minister Dr Ifereimi Waqainabete to look into the triggers behind the exodus of nurses.

She claimed the resignations were a serious issue, as it could place an enormous strain on the health system.

She echoed claims made by the Fiji Nursing Association that the resignations were due to stress, fatigue, not being able to take leave, given time in lieu instead of overtime but not being able to take the time in lieu when they ask for it and not being compensated for the work that they were doing.

Dr Waqainabete said there were about 300 nurse vacancies and the ministry would cushion these vacancies by employing new graduates, rehiring retired nurses and re-engaging nurses.

She echoed claims made by the Fiji Nursing Association that the resignations were due to stress, fatigue, not being able to take leave, given time in lieu instead of overtime but not being able to take the time in lieu when they ask for it, and not being compensated for the work that they were doing.

While the Health Minister said there were 300 nursing vacancies, he could not provide a figure on the number that resigned over the past year.

He said, according to a brief he received six weeks ago, 25 nurses had resigned.

“From then ’til now, I do not know what the numbers are,” he said during a news conference where he was asked about the nursing situation.

Dr Waqainabete said the health staff had faced a challenging two years and the ministry had tried to support them as much as they could.

“Recently, we have been asking them to start taking their leave again.”

When quizzed if nurses had resigned because they were not properly compensated, Dr Waqainabete said: “I don’t receive the resignation letter, but I also know that in some instances the resignations were very short.

“I was told of some resignation letters that said thank you for the opportunity and that I’m leaving for personal reasons.”

Ms Ali claimed resigning nurses did not criticise the ministry or Government out of fear of victimisation in the reference process of the new jobs they sought.

“This is a very serious issue, the resignations mean that the load for divisional hospitals and their subdivisional hospitals and health centres and nursing stations is now more than doubled,” she said.

carrier drivers concerned that they have not received licences and being told by LTA official that they can only apply for licences to operate from Point a to B

CARRieR drivers from Labasa asked the Acting Prime Minister, Aiyaz SayedKhaiyum to look into their concerns as they had applied for carrier licences within Vanua Levu in 2018 and are yet to get the licences by Land Transport Authority.

While speaking at the Anuve Hindu Temple in Bulileka, one of the representatives said they are also concerned that they want licences to operate within Vanua Levu but they are being told by an LTA official that they can only apply for licences to operate from Point A to B.

The man says there were objections by some bus companies but the LTA Board had later said they cannot do that.

He also says they had paid $66 for the applications in 2018, and have been told that will be refunded and it will be used again for the new application where they had to include 2 passport photos, a base letter, police clearance and medical report.

In response, SayedKhaiyum says bus companies cannot object to carrier licences being given out.

An LTA official in the talanoa session said he will seek legal advice on the issues being raised on licences given from Point to B, and Sayed-Khaiyum said they will discuss further on this.

The carrier drivers say they want the matter to be addressed urgently.

Murgessan Pillay appointed as new oceania hospitals ceo

MURGeSSAN Pillay has been appointed as the new Chief Executive Officer of the Oceania Hospitals.

Pillay took on this role after being in the Acting General Manager position for 3 months.

Oceania Hospitals Chairman, Dr. Wame Baravilala says they are fortunate to have someone with his capability leading the hospital at this time of its critical growth phase.

He says Pillay has over 10 years extensive business, leadership, governance and risk management continue to build Oceania Hospitals into a premier medical services provider.

He adds the Board is confident that with Pillay’s experience and strong leadership skills, Oceania will have smooth implementations of major initiatives planned for 2022.

Pillay was the Chief Financial Officer at Oceania Hospitals before taking on the role of acting General Manager. He was also the Chief Financial Officer at Williams and Gosling Group and was the Deputy CFO for BSP Life.

Man who allegedly killed rakiraki farmer to be produced in court today

A man will be produced in the Rakiraki Magistrates Court today for the murder of the 28-year-old farmer whose body was found in Dreketi Settlement, Nalawa, Rakiraki on Monday.

He is charged with one count of murder.

Police had earlier said that the farmer was found lying motionless in a compound on Monday afternoon.

former fijifirst MP, Vijendra Prakash pleads not guilty

5 SODelPA MP’s had earlier pleaded not guilty to charges of giving false information to a public servant and obtaining financial advantage.

Former FijiFirst MP, Vijendra Prakash has today pleaded not guilty to giving false information to a public servant and obtaining financial advantage.

SODELPA MP’s Ratu Suliano Matanitobua, Niko Nawaikula, Salote Radrodro, Peceli Vosanibola and Simione Rasova had earlier pleaded not guilty to their charges of giving false information to a public servant and obtaining financial advantage.

Another SODELPA MP, Adi Litia Qionibaravi who is also charged with the two offences was not present in court today as she is ill.

The six SODELPA MPs and the former FijiFirst MP allegedly claimed a combined total of $186,749.20 in parliamentary allowances that they were not entitled to.

The case will be called again on the 14th of this month.

37,471 people assisted through Bus fare concession program

37,471 senior citizens aged 60 years and above and persons with disabilities have benefited from the Bus Fare Concession program, which was introduced in 2011.

Minister for Women, Children and Poverty Alleviation, Rosy Akbar says in recognition of the contribution of senior citizens and persons with disabilities to nation-building, the government had introduced this assistance to help this clientele with their travelling.

She says this is in partnership with the Fiji Bus Operators Association in promoting an inclusive society and leaving no one behind in its effort to assist all Fijians.

Akbar reiterated that the needs of our vulnerable population are very important to the Government.

The Fijian Government has allocated $5 million in this current fiscal year for the Bus Fare Concession program.

echoes of fiji a book by utkatu naiker Launched in Brisbane

The memoirs of Utkatu Naiker, a Fiji Indian resident of Brisbane, was launched at Sunnybank on 23 January 2022 by Mr. Vijendra Kumar, former Editor of the Fiji Times. It is titled ‘Echoes from Fiji: Global Footprints of a Girmit Grandson’ and covers a life extending over 80 years, lived in Fiji, Bangkok, Nairobi and Australia. The memoirs is a tribute to the girmitiyas, the Indian indentured labourers brought to Fiji by the British government from 1879 to provide labour for establishing an economy in Fiji after the Chiefs ceded their country to the British Crown in 1874.

It describes his growing up in Vatamai, a hilly, infertile area after the family’s cane farm in nearby Lovu, Lautoka was declared a Native Reserve, his observance of some aspects of the gradual emergence of an Indian community in the post-indenture period, his schooling under the British colonial education system, his training as a Land Surveyor and Town Planner in Australia, his experiences during the years before and after the colony’s independence from Britain and his professional service in Fiji and the United Nations at ESCAP in Bangkok and at the global headquarters of the UN Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat) in Nairobi. It also describes the obstacles he faced in Fiji from issues concerning land policies and housing affordability.

The book starts with two chapters on his growing up and training, followed by a structured mixture of four chapters on his professional work, one on coaching the Suva District soccer team, two on living in Suva and internationally, and three small concluding chapters, one of which reflects his thoughts on the girmit, the widely used common name for the indenture system.

The highlights of his professional career consist of three actions. He established the practice of town planning in Fiji with local governments. In 1965 he prepared the Lautoka Call: (07) 3192 5188 Planning Scheme in which he incorporated a provision for foreshore reclamation, designed the market-bus station complex for Nadi which encouraged intensive commercial development in the area, and provided commercial frontage facing the Sigatoka market. He also initiated a substantial change to town planning legislation to address changing development trends.

At the Housing Authority he managed, over a 10year period, the creation of ten suburbs in the SuvaNausori corridor which led to the declaration of Nasinu as a Town. This program included the construction of the Housing Authority headquarters at Valelevu to serve as the nucleus for a future civic and commercial centre. In Lautoka he managed the 10-year project for the redevelopment of the CSR Company’s large Drasa-Vitogo unplanned settlement extending across the southern half of the city from Waiyavi to Field 40. These projects and smaller ones in Labasa, Ba and Nadi provided secure, affordable housing to hundreds of families.

At the UNCHS he undertook a series of functions with increasing responsibility. For ten years he coordinated the implementation of the UN Global Strategy for Shelter under which he provided guidance to many governments for replacing their top-down housing policies with enabling strategies which provided access to secure land tenure, loan finance and services to people so they could build their own houses through self-help and various forms of community participation. He also promoted the application of the Housing Indicators for use by national and local governments and civil society to assess the success of new housing policies. He was the focal point for NGO relations on human settlements matters and was the Chief of the Habitat Foundation, the extra-budgetary source for supporting programs executed by UNCHS. He retired from the UN after 17 years but, due to the status of the political situation in Fiji ten years after the 1987 coup, he settled in Australia. In addition to the substance of his professional life, he briefly mentions community service actions in Fiji as a soccer referee and coach, inaugurating the Suva North Lions Club and building the Nadera Temple. He also covers some aspects of changes in the Government in the 1960s and 70s and the growing political and social insecurity under which the Indian population lived. This provides some background to the steady emigration that has created the Fiji-Indian diaspora in the developed countries of the old British Empire. There are references to the girmit at the beginning and end of the book, including success in finding his family roots in India.

COMMeNT FROM ViJeNDRA kUMAR, FORMeR eDiTOR OF FiJi TiMeS

“UTKATU NAIKER is, to the best of my knowledge, the only person from Fiji who was head-hunted by the United Nations Secretariat in New York to take up an executive position in one of its agencies. Because of his qualifications and expertise as a surveyor, town planner and a track record in low-cost housing schemes, he was appointed Human Settlements Officer at UN’s Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok in 1981. Three years later, he was promoted a senior executive of the newly established UN Centre for Human Settlements, also called Habitat, in Nairobi”