National Federation Party (NFP) provisional candidate, Hiroshi Taniguchi, plans to ‘expel’ 20 per cent of civil service workforce. Mr Taniguchi made this statement on his website recently.

The Japanese educator who has been living in Fiji for the past 19 years was announced as a provisional candidate by NFP leader Biman Prasad on August 12. He was a candidate of the now de-registered, People’s Democratic Party in the 2014 General Election.

Mr Taniguchi is the president and chair of the South Pacific Stock Exchange (SPX) listed, Freebird Institute. Freebird Institute, based in Nadi, teaches Japanese students English.

It was established in 2004 and 2017 it was listed on SPX. Mr Taniguchi detailed his vision for Fiji titled: Destruction, Re-Design, Re-Build. Below are excerpts of Mr Taniguchi’s statement.

Civil Service

“I am planning to expel 20 per cent of total civil servants. Our government is quite chubby, compared with that of most other countries.

Then we can recruit new civil servants who are interested in such positions and those who have the capability to do the job,” Mr Taniguchi said.

“We also need to implement periodical exams for civil servants, for example, at ten-year intervals from the age of 25, 35, 45 and 55 years old, to ensure fair employment policies.”

Despite the Government providing free education, bus fare and free lunch to those genuinely in need, Mr Taniguchi believes Fiji does not have free education in Fiji.

“We have many children who want to go to school, but due to financial reasons, he/she cannot.”

Our poverty level is almost one third of the total population. We have many people who drop out of school, despite wanting to continue with his/ her education in school.

“There are many people who want to pursue higher education but cannot afford to pay tuition and other expenses to stay in a city which has universities.”

“I want to give them this opportunity. How about we give them free transportation to school and provide lunch in these schools and even the less fortunate children can come to school.”

“Yes, we will need to bear the burden of these expenses, but if we can ask these schools to have own farms, it won’t cost a lot. If we can ask students to plant by themselves.

“We even provide many opportunities to people who live next to these schools. To provide meals to the students, the rule is very simple- the school provides what the students plant.”

Regarding University education, they need accommodation.

“The dormitory should be provided by each university, and mandatory three meals should be provided. For University students as well, The school provides what the students plant.”

Fiji is tropical country so there shouldn’t be food problems.

“I know then our educational costs will increase significantly. I want to start a New Scholarship Program.”

He further stated that newly graduated Fijians “lack being punctual and essential communication skills”.

Land Issues

Mr Taniguchi said Fiji has ‘very strange land legislations’.

“World standard is free hold land and crown hold land. Something very difficult and far away from world standard is Native Land. I do understand your lands are something you inherited from your ancestors, and you don’t want to give them to anyone else. But it is time to change your mind set,” he said.

“I want all iTaukei people to accept my new land legislation. It is something like this: you can keep our current land legislation, or you can choose a new one.”

You need to have an election to choose which legislation you are going to use. Surely, once you have chosen the new one, you are not allowed to go back again.

“The new plan is that your Mataqali can be subdivided as what you want to subdivide. Only a few conditions, you have to follow.”

To switch to new land legislation, more than 50 per cent of the population in your village must sign.

“How to subdivide the Mataqali land and give a/some piece to all villagers. More than 60 per cent of the population in your village must sign. Who you sell or lease out to, how much you sell or lease out for, the new owner has the right.

“Right for existing Mataqali land you are leasing. All villagers must follow the MOU until the lease expires. I believe it makes you very wealthy too but you really have to save the money.”

“New government might have to provide Money management education before you really decide to sell or lease your piece.”

I am privately suggesting you to invest in shares on The South Pacific Stock Exchange Market.

Then you can be an owner in a highly listed company and you can receive dividends every year.”

Sell Land

He said it was “unfair for landowners to receive huge amounts of money for their land making them rich without doing any work”.

“One more thing that must be destroyed is huge land where our government or companies are leasing. But in Fiji, we are leasing it, and we are paying several million dollars to owners every year,” he said.

“Something very sad with this system, the owner always receives huge amounts of money, and gets super rich without any work. I really want you to realize such unfairness.

Even our Government spends 5 times bigger cost in a year, therefore, it must be sold to the government.

“The government can provide a piece of land which has the same size and is similar to what they want to buy, then they can swap them.”

I really want owners of such lands to understand this and want to ask them to compromise. It is good for Fiji, as a whole.

“It will cost us for a short while, but it will help us in the long run. More than 5 Acres of land, I don’t encourage the government to lease, the government needs to buy if the land size is more than 5 Acres in total.”

Drop Fijian Dollar, Use American Dollar.

“We have been using Fiji Dollars since 1969. I really want to emphasize that Fiji used to use Fiji Dollars between 1867 and 1873, for only seven years. After that, we switched our public currency to UK Pounds, Fiji Pounds, then again, we switched it to Fiji dollars from 1969,” Mr Taniguchi said.

“I really wonder why we did that. If we continued to use UK Pounds, we could have saved a lot in the past 53 years.”

Do you know when we buy imported items like a second-hand car from Japan or building materials from China or even potatoes and onions from New Zealand, we always lose 3 per cent.

He claimed this was: “Because we need to exchange our Fiji Dollars to US Dollars as it is widely used, even in Asian countries. How about we appoint US dollars as our public currency instead of Fiji dollars?”

Not only income from tourists, it also has a lot of merits.

“If you change our currency to US dollars, we won’t lose. If we change Fiji dollars to US dollars, US dollars to Fiji Dollars, we can save 6 per cent. It can help us a lot. And our only disadvantage will be missing our 7 dollar note.”

Mr Taniguchi said Fiji needed to sell Fiji Airways to Air New Zealand, or Qantas Airlines.

“Then it can have a world network, then we could have more tourists from somewhere very far away where Fiji Airways has not reached.”

When we start to use US dollars here in Fiji, definitely, we can have more and more investors.

“I want the Government to divide 55 Members of Parliament to 35 central MPs and 20 local MPs. With Fiji’s wage standard, I believe 10,000 Fiji dollars for MP, and 30,000 Fiji Dollars to Minister is more than enough.”

Feedback: wati.talebula@fijisun.com.fj