Mika Loga
SUVA (Fiji Broadcasting Corporation / Pacific Media Watch): Fiji Broadcasting Corporation chief executive Riyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says the crowning of Miss FBC Priscilla Reddy as Vodafone Miss Hibiscus 2013 is significant to changes the country is currently experiencing.
He says people's "mindsets are changing".
Priscilla Reddy, a student at the University of the South Pacific, will represent Fiji at the next Miss South Pacific Pageant in American Samoa in December.
“Priscilla is not only going to represent FBC and has won the Hibiscus Festival which is the Suva festival but she’s going to be representing Fijians as well and that has brought about a lot of change and it’s a change in the mindset and we want to be supportive of these sort of things all the time because it means if we grow and the people of Suva grow, the whole nation grows. This brings about better understanding. It means everything better for the whole of Fiji."
The FBC chief executive has confirmed the organisation is already looking forward to participating in next year’s Hibiscus Festival.
“It’s about supporting Suva, we’re all from Suva, we are part of Fiji, we want to promote our city, and we want to do good things to contribute. FBC has just contributed towards the Constitution where some of our people got together and made a submission and got accepted and is part of the new Constitution where primary school kids right from class one to class eight will now be compulsory for them to learn basic i-Taukei and Hindi and I think this will change the country.
Reddy returned to her home yesterday to wind down from a hectic week before she resumes her studies at USP.
“It means FBC, whatever we do, we put our heart and soul into it. We have come a long way [since] about six or seven years ago. We ‘ve done extremely well. Our radio stations have gone absolutely nationwide in full stereo sound, we have got the biggest free-to-air TV station, we’re the most popular TV station.
We are doing things to promote better understanding between all the communities in Fiji. We make a very very serious effort in trying to promote goodwill and understanding and national identity, we call everyone Fijians. This year will be remembered as the culmination of the rise and rise of FBC. I think it’s a really, really sweet victory for us."
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Pacific Media Watch
