Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre Coordinator Shamima Ali says it is obvious that the Minister for Commerce and Trade Faiyaz Koya is unaware of the fact that there are Fijian families that have only one meal and in some cases parents go without food just so their children can eat.
Ali has made these comments after Koya had said in Parliament that no one in Fiji is suffering like the Opposition is making it out to be.
Koya had also said that even during the COVID-19 pandemic they have not run the economy down and have managed it really well.
In a statement, Ali says it is the height of ignorance and a slap in the face of every Fijian that is desperately struggling to put even one meal on the table for Koya to say that no one in Fiji is suffering like the Opposition is making it out to be.
She is urging Koya to get off his expensive motorcycle and air-conditioned Land cruiser and go into the informal, peri-urban and rural communities and see for himself the level and extent of poverty that many Fijians are in.
Ali says Koya can also go and ask the Executive Director of FRIEND Fiji and get information about how many Fijians they are supporting with basic food items and medicines.
She says instead of making fancy speeches in Parliament, Koya should go and see what many Fijians are resorting to and the poor choices of food they are forced to buy because they simply cannot afford the ingredients that constitute a decent meal.
Ali says it is all very well to speak about 9 years of unprecedented growth but that means absolutely nothing to parents who have to hide their fears, dignity and swallow their pride to beg just so their child can eat and parents who cannot even afford to take their sick child to hospital, and even if they do get there, the machines are not working or medicines are not in stock.
Ali adds Koya does not know this because when he falls sick, he and his colleagues can hop on a plane and get treatment at the best facilities the world has to offer.
She says the Opposition is talking about doom and gloom because ordinary Fijians cannot see the bloom and boom.
We have sent questions to the Minister for Commerce Faiyaz Koya and are awaiting his response.
National Federation Party Leader Professor Biman Prasad says that his estimate of wastage under this government from 2015 to 2020 is $500 million per year through mismanagement, pilferage and lack of value for money given to Fiji’s infrastructure while Minister for Commerce, Trade, Tourism and Transport, Faiyaz Koya says Prasad has been in Parliament for 8 years now but not once has he come up with an alternative budget.
While speaking on the motion that Parliament debates the Review of Fiji Development Bank 2019 Annual Report, Professor Prasad says the unfinished FNU Campus and the Lautoka swimming pool projects are examples of such wastefulness.
He says let’s have an independent inquiry into the expenditure from 2015 to 2020.
Prasad says the constant loud mouthing of hogwash from the government side is not going to take away the truth of the matter.
Prasad also alleged in parliament that instead of talking about economic issues, the government is threatening people.
He says the ADB’s recent report on Fiji Country Classification should be a sober reading for the government side, because what it shows that well before COVID we had forgotten about the real direction of the economy.
Professor Prasad says if the government focused on the agriculture sector, today after the onslaught of COVID in the country we would not be in these kind of rummage.
He adds there are some good initiatives that the government comes up with, however he says whether the implementation is properly scrutinized and dealt with is another issue.
However Koya says we have had people falling on the economy door wanting to lend money to us and that would not have happened if our economic policies were bad.
He says even during the COVID-19 pandemic they have not run the economy down and have managed it really well.
Koya says they have continued to pay civil servants in full and no one in Fiji is suffering like the Opposition is making it out to be.
The Minister says all Prasad talks about is doom and gloom.
He says what Prasad fails to understand is that we have had 9 years of unprecedented growth and because of that we have become one of the most respected countries in the Pacific.
The Minister says we have had budget support for the first time because of our sound economic policies.
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