Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama says Government cannot accept anyone trying to make political football out of the health of the Fijian people.

He made the comments during the ground breaking ceremony of the Suva Women’s Health Unit at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital, Suva yesterday.

“We certainly cannot accept outright lies about the performance of our health system, or about the private medical information health system,” he said.

Mr Bainimarama said the loss of our loved ones was an incredibly emotional time for any family and to think that there were actually people out there who were trying to take advantage of these tragedies for their own agenda – “makes me sick to even think about it”.

He said he could not imagine the pain of those families, who have had to watch lies being told about their lost loved ones, on Facebook or elsewhere, all to score political points at their expense and the expense of Fiji’s health professionals.

“It’s a sick behaviour and needs to be condemned.”

As a society he said Government could not let grieving families, those of them who were most vulnerable, be lied about, exploited and abused on line.

“And I urge every Fijian to pause and think before you share that sort of information on your social media.” Mr Bainimarama said.

When there is a real issue he said Government had systems and people in place to step in and do what was needed to be done.

But getting on social media and spreading lies online, he said, was never okay and it was incredibly harmful to Fijian families.

“Make no mistake, these fake profiles aren’t lying for the good of Fiji.They are lying to confuse the public and promote different political interests,” he said.

However, Government was not focused on politically-motivated lies, but was focused on real steps to improve medical care in Fiji.

Edited by Percy Kean

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