Dear Editor – The above news article made me want to puke.
Why? Because it makes me sick feeling the rottenness of our leaders in their way of thinking.
Right, so you made a payment. You found out later it’s not legal according to the financial orders or whatever legal apparatus there is.
You cook up an excuse, a smoke screen to veil the public’s view on this dirty deal hoping when the dust settles we could just get along well with it and be one big happy family again.
What a shallow excuse to justify an action that no person in his/her right mind would accept.
In my simple Baelelea dialect, when I feel sympathetic, I would say by pulling the vowels i and e as “i…………….e”.
And that is exactly how I feel for the other poor local businesses who are struggling with no support at all from the government.
And yet, this is how we support a local business in Solomon Islands, in the range of millions.
How long have we been doing this? Some well to do businesses have closed down already due to lack of funds and support from the past and current government.
Okay, so we say, let’s help other businesses and make this part of this government’s policy.
Wrong move again as we will be jumping out of the frying pan into the fire when you would not stop an endless request for support from bona fide and unscrupulous businesses springing up to have a bite at the crumbs from your table.
You would be opening a flood gate that is going to take this government and nation down the drain.
I support giving awards to businesses which perform and help our country move forward.
I support awards to individuals and companies with new entrepreneurship. But I don’t with one iota support this deal involving ASL (Sun Express).
Let’s not set bad precedents in this and future governments.
The opposition, FSII, TSI and countless others have been calling on the government to be transparent in this and other issues. However, all the government came up with is this lousy excuse.
I would reiterate a previous call I’ve made some time ago for the civil society and other stakeholders including the citizens of this country to have the government accountable for its actions and on the recent issues including this one by demanding a Commission of Inquiry into these actions.
Let’s by all means exhaust whatever legal means that are available to us and do something about these issues.
It’s sad when we are silent and eventually watch our rights as citizens being taken away from us on a daily basis.
We have the right to know why these things are happening and what we should do about them.
Finally, power that involves money and greed are very bad ingredients for leaders who claim to be Christians and yet turn our motto into something of a mockery.
I’d say let the Almighty be the judge in these issues, for he knows even our secret thoughts and actions.
Our leaders need to confess to this nation about these issues for as to not to do so is a grave mistake you would be guilty of till your dying days.
Jackson Ray
Fulton College
Nadi, Fiji Islands
