'I have no reason to lie on this' says Brij Lal
Updated
Pacific Beat speaks to Professor Brij Lal in Australia's capital, Canberra, his home and also home to the Australian National University. The Australian academic expelled from Fiji says he was subjected to 'intense verbal abuse' and 'foul language' when he was taken into custody.
Geraldine Coutts begins by asking if news reports that Fiji's immigration director, Major Nemani Vuniwaqa, saying he was not expelled are correct.
Presenter: Geraldine Coutts
Speaker: Professor Brij Lal, Australian National University
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LAL: Well, I have never claimed that I was deported. I was told by the officer interrogating me in absolutely no uncertain terms that I had to leave the country within 24 hours or else. Now, the historical records would show that I was booked to leave Fiji on the 4th December. I mean I have been there since August, I was doing research and still one full month more to go before I was due to return and this can be confirmed and changes had to be made on that night that I was expelled and this can be confirmed by officials at the Australian embassy who were very helpful and indeed even officials from Qantas. So I respectfully ask the gentleman who has made this statement to confer with the officer who was talking to me to see exactly what was said. I have no reason to lie in this. I mean I was there fully prepared and commited to another month's work.
COUTTS: Now, are they playing with words and semantics, choosing not deported as distinct from expelled?
LAL: Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is verbal games. They simply want to clamp down on any dissenting voice and I suppose mine has been a fairly prominent one for a long period of time and my comment on the expulsion of the High Commissioners was the breaking point so to speak and I think the message that is being sent to other people in the country who might raise their voice against aspects of what is being done and happening in this country is to watch out. I mean unless you subscribe to the version of events that the military is putting out, you are simply enemy of the state.
COUTTS: Now, not one word of this has appeared in Fiji's press. In fact, we know that stories were written up but the censors got to it and withdrew the stories about you. So, apart from the fact that you are a Fiji-born person, it's a bit sad to say that people in your own country, your homeland are not hearing about this latest story?
LAL: Well, I mean this is one example and I was rung up on that night by a person from the newspaper, the Fiji Times, and told that they were writing a tory, whether it was to be published or not is a different matter. But this is attacking news. Mine is not an exceptional case. A number of cases which are which throw bad light on some aspects of what the government has done or is doing, they never get published. There is total darkness. I mean the newspapers operate under huge censorship, the radios; the television broadcasts only that which is approved by the military regime. So I think this is perhaps the most difficult part of living in Fiji. The total blackout on information, which gives rise to all kinds of blog sites and all kinds of other channels promoting information, as well as misinformation and I think this is what is really hurting the people of Fiji, because they cannot talk about what is happening. They cannot exchange ideas in public. You are always looking over your shoulder to see if someone is listening or not and I have been told by many people that this is one aspect of this coup that is different, very different from the ones in the past. In the past, there seemed to be a pattern where after the initial period, leadership was handed back to a civilian authority, whether it was Mara in 1987, or Qarase and others in 1999. But this time around, the military is deeply entrenched and they are intent on remaining in power for a very long period of time.
COUTTS: Now, you said earlier that you hoped the cooler heads will prevail and that in a couple of months time, you might consider going back. Are you serious?
LAL: Well, I would like to go back, not necessarily in the next couple of months, but hopefully in the near future. I mean I don't want to tempt fate obviously, but writing about Fiji has been the preoccupation of my life, my obsession and I would not like to just leave that. But I will just have to wait and assess the situation, see what the thinking is and then hope, because expelling me or asking me to leave is not going to help solve Fiji's problems. It's simply a side event and I just hope also that the public emergency regulations which are being extended month by month by month will end and people will be able to express their views as they have done in Fiji for all this time, except since the abrogation of the Constitution in April this year.
