FIJI: Leave The Acp Mission Alone!! - Kubuabola

17/10/00 No. 1177

LEAVE THE ACP MISSION ALONE!!
- KUBUABOLA TELLS ANTHONY.

The Minister for Information, Ratu Inoke Kubuabola today warned Felix Anthony to leave Sir John Kaputin and the ACP Ministerial Mission alone.

The Information Minister’s comments came in the wake of a Fiji Sun newspaper report today on Mr Anthony’s allegations about Sir John Kaputin the PNG Foreign Minister- whom Anthony labelled as ‘biased towards Fiji."

Ratu Inoke said Mr Anthony’s comments is a calculated move to pre-empt the discussions on the tabling of the report of the ACP Ministerial Group before the meeting of the ACP/EU scheduled for October 19.

"Felix Anthony is frantically trying to disrupt any possible acceptance of Sir John Kaputin’s report that he is using a smear campaign to hit at a respected politician of our neighbour, Papua New Guinea."

"Anthony is insulting PNG by insulting their Foreign Minister and also insulting the ACP group of which its mission is headed by Sir John."

"Felix Anthony is not a member of the ACP/EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly and so he cannot speak on their behalf when he says that "we are disappointed that Sir John did not report to the assembly."

‘He got his side-kick Dewan Shankar to misinform the people of Fiji through the Fiji Sun newspaper that he (Anthony) would be addressing the assembly."

"He did not even have speaking rights at the assembly and was simply one of the NGOs that were in the audience."

"His colleague Joeli Kalou only managed to get in and address the assembly after a motion through the EU by British Labour colleague, Glennys Kinnock.

"Otherwise he too would have not got to address the assembly as the ACP Group of States refused to extend to him the invitation that he wanted."

Ratu Inoke added that Anthony’s concerns about the possibility of the Kaputin report "defending Fiji" is revealing to all Fijians that Anthony and his kind have no sense of patriotism at all about the country and they have set a course to ruin Fiji economically at whatever cost.

"Every Fijian or Fiji Islander would be defending Fiji and instead Anthony is doing the opposite and does not like it if someone "defends Fiji."

"So what is trying to prove in these overseas jaunts of his?"

"A report made by the ACP mission is seen as the first independent report on Fiji and as Sir John has mentioned that they will report on the facts on the ground."

"We hope that it will reflect very strongly on the reality of the situation in Fiji and not the perception of people who do not understand nor do they wish to comprehend the context under which we live in," the Information Minister said.

"Sir John Kaputin represents the whole country of PNG and the report represents the voice of the ACP member countries who have mandated him to speak on their behalf."

"Who is Anthony speaking on behalf of and what mandate has he got?"

‘He cannot speak for the common worker because they would obviously resent someone who is hell-bent on putting them out of their present jobs."

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