Why the Snake must resign!

Todays Fiji Sun Editorial:

When interim Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama was forming his government in the days immediately following the December 5, 2006 coup, he asked each minister to declare his or her financial status and commercial interests.

It was a sensible precaution designed to avoid any future conflict of interest.

It is not known whether or not interim Finance Minister Mahendra Chaudhry declared at that time that he held substantial bank accounts in Australia.If he did, it ought to have given Cdre Bainimarama pause.If he did not, the PM must surely sack him without delay.

But by far the preferable solution to all of this is for Mr Chaudhry to resign.The facts are incontrovertible. He failed for three successive years to lodge income tax returns as required by law. That alone should disqualify him from holding the position he now occupies.

However, in addition to that, Mr Chaudhry failed to disclose the existence of and interest earned on overseas bank accounts which at one time held $2 million.In the full knowledge of his own tax status he was fond of stating that all who owe income tax or any other tax must pay up promptly without exception.

This absolutely disqualifies him from being Minister of Finance – or minister of anything else for that matter.He must resign.If he declines to do so, the Prime Minister has no choice but to dismiss him.

The offer of an inquiry by the Fiji Islands Revenue and Customs Authority fools nobody. That authority reports to Mr Chaudhry as Finance Minister and, for that reason, any inquiry by that body no matter how thorough can never be seen as independent.

Indeed, any inquiry should focus on FIRCA itself rather than the minister.Among other objectives such an inquiry should seek to establish why some taxpayers receive more sympathetic treatment than others – and for how long this practice has been in place.

And if his Cabinet colleagues refuse to stand up now and be counted, they merely compound and complement the offence, in the process tarnishing their own reputations and making a mockery of the Government’s stated commitment to transparency and accountability.

For the sake of the nation, Mr Chaudhry must resign today.   

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And by the way     

The interim regime wants to make the Great Council of Chiefs apolitical.The intention is to have members leave their political ideologies and leanings outside the council meeting and come in to discuss national affairs with open minds.

Their common objective is to seek solutions to problems which in their wisdom believe are in the best interest of the nation.But that cannot happen if the interim regime insists having the minister in charge of Fijian affairs chair the council.

Although it maintains, as the interim regime explains, the council’s link with the government of the day, it has to remember that the minister is a member of a political party which has formed the government and thus is bound by his party’s principles and ideologies.It is ridiculous therefore to expect the minister as chair of the council to be apolitical in his approach and influence during the meetings.

It is better to revert to the previous arrangement in which the council itself elects a chairman from among them. At least it would be perceived as less “political”.