Cogito, ergo sum. I think, therefore I am. (René Descartes, mathematician and philosopher,1599-1650)

Thursday 28 June 2012

Ideas on Constitutional and Electoral Reforms II: NLTB & Land Reforms

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Part II of Satendra Prasad's ideas.  Readers should not assume that the  publication of his ideas means that I necessarily agree with them. All thoughtful ideas and comments are welcome on this blog (as they are with the Constitution Commission) but I would prefer readers to comment on the special blog Fiji Political and Constitutional Forum www.fijipcforum.blogspot.com
Note: The Native Land Trust Board is now called the Itaukei Land Trust Board


LAND REFORMS17. All current NLTB board to be sacked and replaced with competent professionals. Also review all middle and upper managers and regional managers and sack all incompetent, inefficient and or political/national activists and replace with competent professionals.
18. NLTB needs to be completely restructured, reorganized and streamlined like the rest of Govt. appointed Boards.
19. NLTB must be corporatised and such all owners made shareholders and should operate a business.
20. NLTB to open its Employment doors to all qualified Fiji people and not restricted to indigenous ONLY as it is currently. I don’t mind if they include in per-requisite as "Must be fluent in Fijian language" or "Must be able to speak Fijian and Hindi", etc. As there are many non-Fijians including Rotumans and Indians that speak, read and write Fijian and are better qualified BUT cannot work in NLTB because of their birth race being non-Fijian. Not sure BUT this must also be in breach of Constitution that advocates no discrimination on the basis of race, colour or creed, etc.21. To avoid inefficiencies bred by monopolies, NLTB should be decentralized in 4 corporations (Eastern-Fiji, Western-Fiji, Central-Fiji and Northern-Fiji) or alternatively based on Fijian Provinces so they can compete for the business and remain efficient
22. NLTB CEOs, Managers and Board must be restricted from Politics or influence of Politicians, Chiefs or nationalists
23. Good Business governance Policies must be put in place to make NLTB transparent, accountable and responsible with 6 monthly audits.24. Govt's only responsibility should be to be a watch dog that the principles fair trade practices are not breached and that tenants are treated fairly.25. Long term leases (preferably greater then 99 years) with fair market rents and proportional profit sharing of profits in cases where leaseholds are sold/ transferred at huge profits. 10. Equitable and fair mechanism put in place so that the NLTB profits are fairly shared by grassroots indigenous and not just some elites and or chiefs.
26. An independent Body of competent professional (consisting of stakeholders, Land owners, and govt. appointed members) created as a watchdog to over see activities of NLTB and its board.

1 comment:

Cin Cin said...

.......25. Long term leases (preferably greater then 99 years) with fair market rents and proportional profit sharing of profits in cases where leaseholds are sold/ transferred at huge profits....'

Prasad finally gets to the nub of his posting - well good luck with the length of leases, but he has at least acknowledged the elephant in the room - Fijian land and of course the issue of what protection it will be afforded under any new constitution.

Personally I don't really care if the Methodist Church is relegated to the backwaters, I can live with Khaiyum and Frank looting the treasury because eventually the looming economic meltdown will expose them, and I don't really mind if the army decides it might do its first useful thing in 30 years and all bugger off to Afghanistan to fight terrorists and not come back - that I could live with. But I suspect many Fijians will draw the line when it comes to the land - I certainly would.