BTL: 4th March, 2019

SODELPA fuels Thurston misfire

Crosbie Walsh has some interesting thoughts on the so-called Thurston Gardens saga.

The distinguished Emeritus Professor of the University of the South Pacific and informed blogger suggests various  advocates and certain media pause. They should obtain the relevant facts before blowing off steam.

It now seems, if a recent report is correct,  that the proposed site for the construction of the Indian High Commission on the Thurston Gardens car park is a proposal no more, he says. Why? Because it never was. The site is outside the Gardens and was never, according to records, the site of an ancestral burial ground.

So why all this pallaver?  he asks. It must have been about something.

The villagers thought they had genuine concerns but they did not check with the Ministry of Lands or see the survey plans. All quite understandable.

But, he says in his latest blog post, not so from their highly educated SODELPA advisors, one a lawyer, the other a high chief and former academic. They should have known —and perhaps did know— better.  No matter.

The action has now probably served their purpose by promoting suspicion of Government.

Professor Walsh writes: “The  SODELPA-fanned fire has been kept smouldering.”

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