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Issue No: 245; 2 December 2000
The Fiji Electricity Authority should be recognised as an indigenous Fijian institution. This is the recommendation of consultant, Isikeli Fatafehi to the regime's Minister for Fijian Affairs. According to a Fiji Sun report today, Fatafehi wrote to the Minister on 20 November on FEA letterhead saying that the raw product for electricity was totally Fijian, and that 51.4% of the "competent and reliable" paying customers of the FEA were indigenous Fijians. He stated that the FEA was a "100 percent Fijian and Fiji Government" institution. Fatafehi has been a consultant for the NLTB. How he got the FEA letterhead remains a mystery. In July, landowners on which FEA's hydroelectricity plants are located took over the power generation plant after overpowering the soldiers on guard at the plant. They held the plant keeping the soldiers hostage for weeks before giving up after FEA agreed to pay them a ransom of millions of dollars. The agreement led to a payment agreement of $56m to the landowners. Now, reports the Fiji Sun, landowners want a greater chare of benefits from hydro-electricity generation. Landowners representative, Simione Drole, told the Sun that there were seeking an audience with Qarase. Drole was one of Speight's key man on 19 May when he provided
the signal to Speight that the PM had arrived into the Parliament chamber
signalling that Speight and his band enter the Parliament. Drole was later made
the Minister for Works in the Speight cabinet. He has so far not been arrested
or questioned by the police or the army despite proof being given to the police. |
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People's Coalition Government - Fiji Islands |
