by Lekh Ram Vayeshnoi; published 13 December 2000

Much disinformation has also been given out on the land issue and Alta.

The truth is that the People's Coalition Government put no pressure on anyone to renew land leases.

It was the first government to make a written submission to the Native Lands Trust Board and that within the first two months of coming into office. At the time the coup took place, talks between the two parties was well under way with a subcommittee comprising Government Ministers and NLTB officials engaged in negotiations on the issue.
The decision of the sub-committee would have been put before the Great Council of Chiefs and Cabinet.

On the land use commission, Government's submission on this had been put before the GCC by Agriculture minister Poseci Bune and it had been well received by the chiefs despite all the adverse propaganda on the issue by detractors of the People's Coalition Government.

The fact is that the Government had a positive and enlightened policy to put vacant land into productive use for the benefit of the indigenous people of this country. Our agricultural and land use policies were designed to boost the income of people in rural areas, provide much needed employment and improve the quality of life of people in the villages.

The coup of May 19 did a great disservice to indigenous people in rural areas by depriving them of these development programmes. They had a government that was truly committed to improving the lot of the common people as it had promised in its election manifesto.

It is a tragedy for this country that the Coalition was denied the chance to prove its sincerity and commitment to the people of Fiji, of all races and put its policies into practice.

Even then in only one year in office, it had launched the economy well and truly back on the path to recovery. In fact, under the Coalition's expert hands the Fiji economy was poised for an economic boom not experienced in decades. Government finances were very healthy and Government had taken strong measures to bring down the cost of living for the poor people of the country.

The truth is before the people of Fiji and no amount of misinformation by the regime or other supporters of the interim regime can detract from this.

END
Lekh Ram Vayeshnoi
Assistant Minister for Information
People’s Coalition