As a leader, one must know when to speak and what to say, the Attorney-General and Acting Prime Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said.

Mr Sayed-Khaiyum made this comment at the Then India Sanmarga Ikaya Sangam Fiji (TISI), Sangam head of schools and management two-day Seminar at the Sangam SKM College yesterday.

Speaking on the theme, ‘Embracing Values For A Culture Of Honesty’, Mr Sayed-Khaiyum gave a statement reminding the TISI Sangam members of an incident during which a wrong assessment of the two Sugar Bills was made in front the President Major-General (Ret’d) Jioji Konrote.

He said: “If we want to talk about any public issues, they must always be unconnected to any influence. In Fiji we have had assessments of Bills in Parliament, we had His Excellency our President invited to public gatherings, who has nothing to do with day to day running of the Government, and in front of him a very wrong assessment of the two Sugar Bills were done.

“It’s an ambush of a political issue being rolled out in the wrong forum so you must always understand that as a leader, as teachers we need to know when to speak about what.

“We need to be able to know that if we are going to make a criticism or even make a positive contribution about a law or a subject matter issue, you must read about it yourself first,” he said.

Background

This incident had occurred during the 89th (TISI) Sangam Convention annual general meeting in Nadi on May 28 when the Sangam’s national president, Sadasiwan Naicker, had discussed his disappointment on the Sugar Bill.

Fiji Sun reporter, Waisea Nasokia, had recorded Mr Naicker’s speech.  He had said: “The second issue which directly affects the future of Sangam members and organisation itself, mainly the Reform of Sugar Cane industry Bill number 19 and Sugar Cane Growers fund (amendment) bill number 20.

“The reform Bill will take cane farmers back to days of the Girmit. It is worse than the days of CSR. We must not forget that we originated from cane belts,” Mr Naicker said.

He had said TISI Sangam itself was a cane contract holder.

“We cannot and must not be forces to become bondage with FSC and Government acting as our masters,” he said.

“It is my fervent hopes that prominent members of Sangam who are Cabinet ministers in the current Government will raise our concerns with Government as well participate in discussion on this matter during the AGM.”

Mr Sayed-Khaiyum commended the TISI Sangam members for taking the initiative to host the seminar on honesty. This was something unique in order to make the nation function better.

Edited by Jonathan Bryce

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