21 May 2009

Former Fiji regime consultant lambastes New Zealand over coup sanctions

3:37 pm on 21 May 2009

A former consultant to Fiji's interim government has called on New Zealand to soften its stance on Fiji and remove sanctions.

John Samy, who last year headed the support team for the National Council for Building a Better Fiji, was speaking at a seminar in Wellington that was considering what the role of the New Zealand government should be towards Fiji.

Mr Samy says New Zealand and Australia have been obsessed with holding elections as soon as possible and the sanctions they have imposed are only hurting the people of Fiji.

"New Zealand's attitude to date has been more prone to folly and wooden-headedness. If the purpose of those sanctions are to bring the economy of Fiji down and in governance terms to actually get them to do things that are not in the national interest because they don't have the capacity, the institutions are not working. How can we say that these are smart sanctions."

John Samy also helped to formulate the People's Charter in Fiji and says this would provide a good framework for progress.