Department of “Home Land Security”

This little snippet should speak volumes.

Got no money in the coffers to pay your on duty troops? Just hire some former soldiers to guard the ports.

Whats wrong with some police guarding the docks? I guess the RFMF got a bit jittery when Hughes was doing his job in 2006. The police were doing their job then. Bainimarama and co decided to remove them and realised the police needed to do that job to keep it secure. So he decided to chuck some of his troops on the line. Since when does a military do this sort of business? But we all know that the RFMF has turned into a jack-of-all trades. Soldiers, politicans, government officials, policemen, chiropractors, shop assistants and male prostitutes. I can recall (if my memory is not sketchy) that the RFMF pulled those soldiers off ports duty because it cost too much.

If there ever was a sign that this interim farce is running out money, then removing state authorities and reducing cabinet is a bloody good one.

Oh yeah, these guys are former army reservists who formed their own private security company. With all the latest hi-tech gears, these guys supposed to be tip top. There was a competitive tender. It was supposed to be legit. But methinks there is a rat in the offering. Now there have been a whole lot of current and RFMF personnel who have been receiving benefits as a result of the coup. Is this another glaring example?

First of all, why is a private company responsible for security at a port? Money for a start. But ignoring that, Fiji is one of the few (if any) places in the world where a private company is responsible for port security. To compare to Fiji’s neighbours, their port safety is guarded the police and border police (i.e. Customs authorities). So if something goes wrong there is proper accountability. If something fucks up at a Fijian port, how is it accounted for? Non-performance of contract? Will they dismiss the company and find another one? Since this is a contract with a private company, only a civil dispute can be bought. Unless these guys do something criminal which they are then liable under the criminal system.

Secondly, are these individuals really trained in looking after the Fijian ports? Army training is not the answer for everything as the RFMF always argues.  Army training is not a university degree (although some armies like the New Zealand and Australian Army offer university degrees for its officers in some schemes). Army training is not the same as police training. There are subtle and glaring differences with each. Police are trained to sleuth, notice the unusual and have proper investigative techniques regarding anomalies. These guys are what? We really don’t know.

As a final point, we have to bring in the issue of transparency and accountability. The RFMF parrot has been active with this from Day 1. If they really cared about it, then reveal to us, who were the other companies who bid on the contract? What are the terms of the contract? Yeah right, like anyone will get that information. All we will hear from Khaiyum is some complicated speech about the subject getting absolutely nowhere. And he’ll mention somewhere at the end, “its none of your business”.