The Deputy Leader of the People's Alliance Manoa Kamikamica says the FijiFirst General Secretary Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum seems to not understand the distinction between assignment and ministerial portfolios, and they stand by what they said in their press conference on Sunday.
Responding to the statement made by Sayed-Khaiyum during their press conference yesterday, Kamikamica says this is what happens when a person is arm-chaired into power and does not have the professional background for the job and think they know everything and should be the Minister of everything.
He says Qarase, nor FLP Leader Mahendra Chaudhry or his leader, Sitiveni Rabuka were the Minister for Elections when they were Prime Ministers.
Kamikamica maintains that Sayed-Khaiyum owes the family of Mr Qarase an apology for dragging his name into this debate.
He adds any senior government officer will explain that ministerial assignment gives oversight to the assigned offices or agencies and this is different from a ministerial portfolio in which the minister assigned has overall responsibility over that ministry.
The Deputy Leader says in Qarase’s case, the Elections Office was part of his ministerial assignment and this was true for Chaudhry and Rabuka, but they were never given the ministerial portfolio of elections.
He says that only went to Sayed-Khaiyum.
He says the Attorney General also came from the private sector and it clearly shows even after 15 years in power, he has not learnt some fundamentals on how to have good government.
Kamikamica say he noted with some concern the tirade levelled at some members of the media by the Attorney General yesterday and he is calling on the FijiFirst General Secretary that it is not their job to tell the media what to report and not to report.
He says the People’s Alliance believes in media freedom.
Kamikamica reiterates their call to Sayed-Khaiyum to do the right thing and give up one or two of his ministerial portfolios, or better still resign.
He says if he does not resign, then he is urging the Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama to do the right thing and remove certain portfolios from the Attorney General.
In yesterday’s press conference the General Secretary for the FijiFirst Party, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, says according to the ministerial assignments gazetted on the 23rd of June, 2006, the departments under the Prime Minister's Office were the Office of the Supervisor of Elections, the Constituency Boundaries Commission and the Electoral Commission.
He says when Sitiveni Rabuka and Mahendra Chaudhry held the Prime Minister’s post, they also had ministerial assignments similar to Laisenia Qarase.
He also called on the Deputy Leader of The People's Alliance, Manoa Kamikamica, to apologise to them for having the audacity or the inaptitude to come up and say that they are lying.
Sayed-Khaiyum says, unfortunately, what is really disconcerting is certain media organisations continue to simply parrot anything that is being said by one or two political parties and run it as the gospel truth.
He adds this gazette notices are available in any law firm, government, and the National Archives.
The FijiFirst General Secretary also highlighted the ministerial assignments for 2001, 1999, 1997, 1994 and 1992.
Sayed-Khaiyum says in those days, the Supervisor of Elections Office accounts were done through the Prime Minister’s Office and not independent like we have today.
He adds that they have seen continuously CFL and Fiji Times running these stories, simply parroting without taking out time to investigate whether they are true or not.
Sayed-Khaiyum says they do not make statements willy-nilly but make statements based on facts.
We have sent questions to Sayed-Khaiyum on the statement made by the People’s Alliance today.
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