Prof. Prasad tells Kumar to articulate her concerns with some facts

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Professor Biman Prasad says Opposition MP, Premila Kumar would do better in articulating her concerns with some facts after Kumar said in a statement that in almost two years, the current administration has little to show for its time in power.

Kumar says the public deserves better, and it is high time the government delivers on its promises and addresses the pressing challenges facing our nation.

She says Professor Prasad has stated that the public are intelligent enough to assess for themselves how a government is performing and further insinuated that a “fear factor” had been propagated before the election of 2022 to entice voters.

The former Education Minister says ironically, this was precisely the strategy deployed by the current government to lure voters away from the previous administration.

She says now in power, they attempt to portray an image of caring for the people, urging the public to assess their performance, yet, there is little to assess.

Kumar says the free education and scholarship systems, enhanced welfare assistance, pensions for elderly and disabled, bus fare subsidy, dignity package and rural pregnant mothers’ food voucher were all initiated and implemented by the previous government.

She says the current administration is merely reaping the benefits of someone else’s labour.

Kumar adds that regarding infrastructural development, the government has not made any significant advancements since coming into power. She says in contrast, the previous government achieved substantial developments, including 7,000 kilometres of roads, 1,200 bridges and jetties.

Kumar says the 2024/2025 Budget has significantly reduced the allocation to the Fiji Roads Authority, undermining future infrastructure projects.

She further says our health facilities remain in a deplorable state, schools are burdening parents with fundraising, the cost of living continues to skyrocket and lack of incentives for the private sector, and a lack of investor confidence is stifling the economy.

She adds poverty levels are increasing, unemployment is rising, the drug trade and abuse, all types of crimes, and ever-increasing skills crisis have reached epidemic levels, and the current government has made negligible progress in addressing these critical issues.

Kumar says indeed, the Coalition government’s promises were the propaganda to win the election and now evading this by saying that the public are intelligent enough to assess for themselves how a government is performing.

Professor Prasad says Premila Kumar as usual is fond of making generalizations.

He says Kumar talks about poverty and unemployment etc but without facts.

Professor Prasad says Kumar obviously ignores all the significant support they have provided to the people and improved much of the dilapidated infrastructure and services left by her government in the last 18 months.