GONE turaga bale na Tui Nayau Ratu Tevita Mara has criticised the recent State of the Fijian Economy Dialogue in Suva labelling it as a “talkfest” rather than a platform that generated real solutions.
Ratu Tevita said the forum was a steady undermining of the Coalition Government dressed up as a civic dialogue.
“Let me say it plainly, a nation is not led by political posturing, nor by those who gather mainly to criticise the Government,” he said.
“It is led by those who bring real solutions to the table and put their shoulders to the work.
“By that measure, the dialogue failed.”
Ratu Tevita questioned whether the two-day talks discussed workable solutions to the problems that affect ordinary Fijians.
“There was no credible plan to repair our economy and restore the livelihoods of our people.
“There was no serious reckoning with the drug crisis now spreading through our communities — a scourge that, left unchecked, threatens to turn Fiji into a semi-narco state and consume a whole generation of our young.
“There was no answer to the alarming rise in HIV infections among our people. There was no plan for our failing hospitals, our broken roads, our crumbling infrastructure. And there was too little honest regard for the Constitution Review now under way — the most important work of all, by which we may finally set right the foundations of our nation.”
The Tui Nayau also criticised the organisers for allowing former finance minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum to speak during the forum.
“To hand such a man a platform to lecture the nation on its economy is not merely poor judgement; it is an affront to every Fijian who is paying the price of his record.”
