The Leader of the National Federation Party Professor Biman Prasad says the Sugar Cane Growers Council is now the Government’s council as Government decides what happens in the council and not the farmers, however the Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama says the regime of the Council’s Board prior to September 2009 was highly politicised which resulted in the declining trend in sugar cane production.
While speaking on the Consolidated Report on the Review of Sugar Cane Growers Council 2007–2018 Annual Reports, Professor Prasad says now the council is completely undemocratic and unrepresentative and is selected for their loyalty to the Government and not to the growers.
He says it is important for growers to have the space to elect their own representatives because it provides unity amongst the growers to take their own issues and the Government will not lose anything by allowing them to have their own representatives.
Professor Prasad says generations of cane growers fought for a democratic voice in their own industry and that is the history that the FijiFirst government choose to bury.
The Prime Minister says prior to September 2009 the council consisted of 1 member elected from each of the 38 sectors, 1 member elected by the growers and 1 member nominated by the Minister from each of the 8 districts, and this regime of the councillors elected by the council until 2009 was a failure.
Bainimarama says it was highly politicised by people like Professor Biman Prasad, the National Farmers Union and the Fiji Cane Growers Association which were associated bodies of the National Federation Party and the Fiji Labour Party, to advance the political agenda.
Bainimarama says his government took appropriate actions to rectify issues to avoid the collapse of the industry which now supports more than 200,000 Fijians both directly and indirectly.
He says these critical issues left little or no choice but to relieve the councillors in September 2009.
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