4 The Record
Satavu Epi, Nadroga
Is the new system being implemented by ‘4 The Record/Edwin Nand/FBC’ not to have ‘a break’ on the 3rd Sunday night programe which they used along during the previous interviews?
Maybe Edwin was trying very hard to get Mr Rabuka to confess and completely forgot the breaks!
Edwin, be fair to all the interviewers.
A nation honest with each other
Josaia Rayawa, Savusavu
Economic Blogger, Ben Bernanke, in his comment about how Americans feel about their economy, writes: “While perceptions of economic stress are certainly roiling our national politics, it may also be that our roiled politics are worsening how we collectively perceive the economy.”
There is a lot of truth that resides in that comment. Perhaps it is time we also get a good perspective of our Fijian economy. Understanding of statistics need to be translated into layman’s language so we, as a people, fully grasp what we as citizens are taking responsibility for and what our future generation are going to bear. If we are in trouble we want to know how bad, so all can work together to fix it. It is equally important to also know how ‘economically cushioned’ we are.
Governments don’t have to feel that they hold all answers; they need us just as we need them to lead.
Proverbs 11:14 reminds us that “without guidance, people fall, but with many counselors there is deliverance”.
Honesty is always the best policy. Sadly, though, this is the only policy that evades many political fronts on the global front. We don’t have to be like that in Fiji.
The Gospel of Matthew has a good approach, “Let what you say be simply ‘yes’ or ‘no’; anything more than this comes from evil”. (Matthew 5:37).
My prayer today is that we pray for each other, so that we are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honourably in all things”. (Hebrews 13:18).
Employment Ministry blunder
Savenaca Vakaliwaliwa, Canada
Allow me to use this column to show my frustration at the Government’s Ministry of Employment, Productivity and Industrial Relations for insisting that my group, who applied for a visitor’s visa to Canada, came out here as workers in July last year.
The ministry’s insistence that we came out here as workers and not visitors means that we have breached the conditions of our authorisation license as an employment agency and therefore have given them the approval to use our $20,000 bond deposit for the repatriation of any group member who feels they have been stranded here.
For the record, of the 16-member Fijian cultural group members who applied for a visitor’s visa to travel to Canada, 14 have applied for a 12-months visa extension to expire in January 2017.
Two members returned last year to spend Christmas in Fiji and I believe it is their complaints that has misled and justified the Ministry of Employment that we came out here as workers and to use up our $20,000 bond deposit, held in trust by the ministry, for a totally different visa class.
It seems that the Ministry of Employment cannot differentiate between a travel agency and a recruitment agency. We were both and in their eyes because they gave us our recruitment license. All overseas travel and visas arranged from our office is for employment purposes.
Furthermore, in this case, they failed their due diligence in not checking with the Canadian Embassy what were the conditions of the WX-1 Worker Visa that was granted to us when we all simply applied and paid for a visitor’s visa to Canada.
Is it this WX-1 Worker Visa that has closed the mind of the legal officer in the Ministry of Employment, when all this time we kept explaining to the ministry that WX-1 Worker Visa is not a full Work Permit, but allows visitors to accept any donations in kind from those who attend their performance?
From 2008, we have discussed with the officers in the ministry about the seasonal work opportunities in New Zealand and Australia, and the skilled work in PNG through the MSG skill share programme.
The Ministry of Employment advised that for Fijian workers to leave our shores a genuine job offer or contract must be sighted, showing all the terms and conditions of employment, duration, pay, accommodation, hours of work, etc.
Before the worker leaves our shores, the employee, the employer and the Ministry of Employment should sign an agreement to ensure that all the conditions of the contract would be kept by the employer.
I consider myself as a fairly intelligent person and I know in my heart that our group applied for a visitor’s visa, but granted a WX-1 Worker Visa which to us was still a visitor’s visa.
If we were offered a work contract and all the other conditions, we would have applied for a work permit and did the right thing as per our recruitment agency’s terms and conditions with the Ministry of Employment.
But this was not the case; this is just like any other Fijian group visiting overseas with a non work agenda. For the Ministry of Employment to turn around and accuse us for breaching our recruitment license in taking a group of Fijian workers to Canada without proper employment contract and documentation, kind of insults our very intelligence.
I am hoping that the Attorney-General and the Prime Minister would shed some sense into this decision by the Ministry of Employment, Productivity and Industrial Relations, because it seems that their legal officer cannot be corrected in his wrong stance and assumption. Suing and taking the matter further would end up taking the Government that I support dearly to court.
‘Dirty cop’
Tomasi Boginiso, Nasinu
Firstly, in a very opposite approach of appreciation by the Police in thanking the press for bringing the issue to their attention, the public have been encouraged to take their grievances to the Police first before the press.
I believe if we work both ways it will produce results.
In the case of the ‘dirty cop’ he will have to face the consequences of anything he has done.
He was calling as if he was in the insurance company, and for the victims to call the insurance was a step ahead of the cop.
Let this be a warning to other public servant who intend to carry out something similar, the taxpayers of Fiji will be on their heels in getting to the bottom of it with the Police and the media joining hands in solving crimes.
Feedback: jyotip@fijisun.com.fj