Fiji social service fears poorest will be hit by dollar devaluation
Updated
Fiji's Council of Social Services says it expects the country's poorest people will soon start feeeling the effects of the devaluation of the country's dollar. Yesterday Fiji's Reserve Bank ordered a reduction in the dollar's value of 20 percent, hoping the move will attract tourist and investors. But at the same time, the miiltary Government has moved to lower the retirement age for civil servants to 55, a policy which had been blocked until the President scrapped the constitution last week.
Presenter Campbell Cooney
Speaker: Executive Director of the Fiji Council of Social Service Hassan Khan
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CAMPBELL COONEY: Fiji's unions had launched a successful legal appeal against the then interim Government's move to enforce a retirement age of 55 for all civil servants. But the scrapping of the country's constitution last Friday and the introduction of what President Ratu Josefa Iloilo's called a "New Legal Order", has led to the introduction of the "State Services Decree" and once again 55 is the civil service retirement age and no appeal on that will be accepted. But the Executive Director of the Fiji Council of Social Services, Hassan Khan, says there are exceptions and he makes the point it's not the retirement age but the exodus of skilled workers which is Fiji's problem.
HASSAN KHAN: Most of the people in civil services retire at 55 because only those who are required after 55 are teachers, doctors and nurses. These professionals we help to maintain because of the outflow through migration and that affects us more than the age of 55, the retirement age.
CAMPBELL COONEY: One civil servant approaching that new retirement age is interim Prime Minister and coup leader Commodore Frank Bainimarama. Mr Khan says retirement age, mandatory or not, has never affected the country's politicians.
HASSAN KHAN: Our Parliament has basically been a geriatric Parliament. Most of the people are over 65 in there, so it's really, for politicians it's not a big deal.
CAMPBELL COONEY: What is worrying FCOSS is the devaluation of the Fiji Dollar by 20%, announced by the Reserve Bank, the former interim Finance Minister, and former Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry went public, saying the move will have an adverse affect on the 45% of Fijians already under the poverty line, comments which briefly appeared in the Fiji's media, before being removed by censors enforcing directives that only good news be made available to the country's public. Mr Khan says he hopes the devaluation will do what it's supposed to, but he accepts there is a negative side to its introduction.
HASSAN KHAN: People have been in dire straits for more than 10 years now. The hardship has grown and it continues to grow. It was not getting better anyway, and it will get much worse now.
CAMPBELL COONEY: Meanwhile, one of Fiji's most respected economists has used a public address in Suva to criticise the actions of the military in staging a coup, the President's scrapping of the constitution and the Fijians' institutions and business groups which have supported them. On Wednesday night in Suva at the University of the South Pacific, he presented the annual Reverend Paula Niukula Lecture, addressing the the struggle for just wages in Fiji. Professor Narsey refused to talk to Radio Australia, but we were able to get access of a copy of his address. Here is some of what he said:
WORDS OF PROFESSOR WADAN NARSEY: Stakeholders concerned to encourage just wages in Fiji should note that with an unelected government in place, the workers are in no position to exercise influence on the military government through the ballot box. They have ruled for two years already. The military President has stated that there will be no elections before 2014. This military government will have ruled for seven to possibly eight years, longer than the term of any elected Parliament without any accountability to any workers or the people of Fiji at large.
CAMPBELL COONEY: But Professor Narsey also took aim at those Fijians who've been supportive of the country's four coups over the past 22 years.
WORDS OF PROFESSOR WADAN NARSEY: In 1987 and 2000, it was the Methodists, the Great Council of Chiefs and the majority of indigenous Fijians. In 2006, it has been the Catholic and Hindu organisations, the Fiji Labour Party and its stalwarts, leaders of NGOs which have edifying names such as Citizens' Constitutional Forum and the majority of Indo-Fijian citizens.
CAMPBELL COONEY: While the lecture was allowed to go ahead at a time when all gatherings of over three people are illegal without permission, the censorship still stands. None of what Wadan Narsey told the audience at the USP is being reported anywhere in Fiji.
