Iyer should concentrate on his party as they are yet to achieve what FijiFirst has achieved – Maharaj

FijiFirst Whip Alvick Maharaj says National Federation Party General Secretary Kamal Iyer should concentrate on his party as they are yet to achieve what the FijiFirst has achieved in politics and is requesting Iyer to show some humanity and let former General Secretary Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum recover from his sickness after Iyer responded to Sayed-Khaiyum’s comments in relation to the coalition government and constitutionalism in his resignation letter

Maharaj says it's better that Iyer devotes his time and effort to running affairs of NFP and leaving FijiFirst affairs to the party.

He says Iyer must remember, though not in government, FijiFirst is still the single largest party in parliament.

Maharaj says NFP should focus on reaching the number of seats in parliament that is currently being held by FijiFirst, rather than opening his mouth about the party.

Iyer has said that while it is important for Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum to undergo medical treatment for his illness and recover fully, the former Attorney General and Economy Minister’s resignation as General Secretary of the FijiFirst Party under the pretext of health reasons is highly questionable and suspicious.

While responding to Sayed-Khaiyum’s attack on the coalition government in his resignation letter, Iyer had said Sayed-Khaiyum’s health certainly didn’t have a deleterious impact on his ability to launch a senseless attack on the coalition government.

He says only cowards, spineless and gutless people who profess to be leaders abandon a political battleship and desert their colleagues.

Iyer says Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum is one such leader who has betrayed not only his colleagues but the voters who placed their trust in him in the last general elections.

He says it could be that Sayed-Khaiyum was in a state of delirium and hallucinating about his own actions, particularly presiding over economic mismanagement, the state of decay of public health and medical service delivery, pilferage, wastage, mismanagement, unprecedented national debt of over $10 billion, to name a few.

Iyer adds that the last person to talk about constitutionalism is Sayed-Khaiyum.

He says as the unelected AG, he presided over the abrogation of the 1997 Constitution in April 2009.

The NFP General Secretary says Sayed-Khaiyum presided over the burning of the Yashi Ghai led Constitution Commission’s Draft Constitution in December 2012 and unilateral imposition of the 2013 Constitution in blatant disregard of the processes outlined in Decrees 57 and 58.

Iyer says it is abundantly clear that Sayed-Khaiyum, who served as both un-elected and elected AG for 16 years, as well as the Minister for Economy for 8 years, is unable to digest the fact that both he and the FijiFirst are no longer in power.

He says in the lead-up to the last elections, his leader Voreqe Bainimarama said he should rule for eternity but it is becoming increasingly clear that the people of Fiji have buried the two men rule in Fiji’s political grave.

Iyer says this is a person, who says he is sick and in need of medical treatment, who has been away from Fiji for two months, with the Magistrates Court where he is supposed to be tried for an alleged offence, extending his absence until 15th January, 2024.

The NFP General Secretary says in fact, Sayed-Khaiyum, for all intents and purposes, betrayed his voters a few weeks after elections by ruling himself out as a Member of Parliament by breaching the Political Parties (Registration, Conduct, Funding & Disclosures) Act, when he accepted the appointment as the nominee of the then Opposition Leader (Bainimarama) to the Constitutional Offices Commission, despite holding public office as the General Secretary and Registered Officer of the FijiFirst.

Iyer says as somebody who served as Attorney General and presided over the formulation and promulgation of the Political Parties Act as a Decree in January 2013, it is hard to believe that Sayed-Khaiyum didn’t understand the law.

He says therefore, right at the outset, Sayed-Khaiyum had made up his mind of running away from the political arena, and his latest diatribe proves the fall from power has constipated him.

Iyer says the chapter of the last 16 years of history is now a thing of the past, and so is Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum.