Nasik Swami
SUVA (The Fiji Times/ Pacific Media Watch): The education reforms driven by the Voreqe Bainimarama-led government left the Prime Minister at the pulpit on the ground floor of Government Buildings yesterday defending his Education Minister and calling Opposition Leader Ro Teimumu Kepa unfit for high office.
Bainimarama responded at a media conference, saying: "The reported comments by the Opposition Leader, Ro Teimumu Kepa, in Monday's Fiji Times about the government's plan to open up its schools to rural and maritime students displayed an astonishing ignorance and confirm her unfitness for high office."
Ro Teimumu Kepa earlier this week said the persistent attempts to re-engineer and weaken the iTaukei community was tabu and those iTaukei who felt victimised would resist.
However, Ro Teimumu's reference to the iTaukei as "victims" of the government's policy was a "lie", claimed Bainimarama.
"The real victims are students living in rural and maritime areas who have been deprived of proper access to education because the sons and daughters of families living in urban areas have taken their places in government boarding schools.
He said Ro Teimumu's statements were "inflammatory, divisive and a threat to national unity in that they cast a government decision that was designed to be fair to all Fijians as a threat to the position of the i'Taukei where none whatsoever exists".
"The vast majority of these students from urban areas - many of them children of civil servants, those who work at managerial level in the private sector and statutory authorities and in the professions - are readily capable of attending a variety of schools as day scholars."
Fairness issue
The PM went on to say it was a basic issue of fairness and justice that these fully-funded government schools that also offer boarding facilities give priority to those who lack other avenues to gain an education.
"Our policy has been determined purely on the basis of need and it is highly irresponsible for Ro Teimumu Kepa to cast it in any other light. There is no threat to indigenous culture or the indigenous way of life.
Radio New Zealand International reported yesterday that The Fiji Times had defended its reporting of the comments by the parliamentary opposition, saying freedom of the press and the right to impart information was enshrined in the constitution.
The prime minister has accused the newspaper of attempting to advance its own political interests by reporting comments of the opposition leader Ro Teimumu Kepa about government-run boarding schools.
Editor-in-chief Fred Wesley said the reported comments made by the opposition were not opinions of The Fiji Times.
He said both the government and the opposition had the right to be heard.
"In 146 years as a newspaper company, The Fiji Times has been accused many times by politicians from all sides of having a political agenda. But we see ourselves as being our job to give our readers information from all sides of politics so that they can make up their own minds about current affairs."
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 New Zealand Licence.
Pacific Media Watch
