6:12 AM |
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Work with me, Bainimarama urges
Suva, FIJI [Saturday, 11 April 2009] – Fiji's re-appointed prime minister and military commander Frank Bainimarama says he has retained his cabinet because of the need for continuity and to fast-track reforms they have started.
In an address to the nation that was broadcast on national radio and television a short while ago, Bainimarama also confirmed that members of his "independent judiciary" would be appointed soon.
He said the Fiji Court of Appeal ruling on Thursday that declared his government unlawful gave Fiji's president Ratu Josefa Iloilo no other option but to abrogate the constitution.
With him and his nine-member cabinet sworn to office earlier today, Bainimarama said the people's charter – formulated by his regime in the last 12 months – would offer the road-map to general elections in September 2014 "by the earliest."
The cancellation of the constitution offered his government a new slate, a new beginning, he said.
Over the next five years, his intention would be to "build a better Fiji," including modernising the island's "government system."
In liaison with Iloilo's office, the military commander had given his government several targets that included:
- liberalising the economy
- eradicating corruption
- build better roads and bridges
- clearing politics off the sugar industry, and
- allowing "common, indigenous Fijians" to benefit from the land they own
"It is time that we get rid of politics from our government, there is no room for petty politics," Bainimarama said in his nationwide address.
"It is time to grow up, to mature."
In thanking the people of Fiji for being calm and law abiding over the last 48 hours, Bainimarama urged them to be "patriotic," and to "put Fiji first."
Noting that the public emergency laws had been enforced since the abrogation of the constitution on Friday, Bainimarama urged his citizens including the "news media" to observe and "cooperate" with relevant public agencies.
He also had a few words for the international community, countries which he did not name but referred to as "development partners," urging them to support his regime take the island nation back to parliamentary democracy.
Since Iloilo removed the constitution and imposed emergency laws, government information officers accompanied by police officers had been posted to newsrooms of radio stations and newspapers in Suva.
Fiji Television in its main evening bulletin today did say that two of its news items had been with-held due to instructions from the censoring officers.---www.islandsbusiness online
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