Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Fiji Nationalist Party seeks ban on book by former Speaker of the House

Posted at 21:48 on 08 August, 2006 UTC

Fiji’s Nationalist Party is demanding that the government ban the launch of a book by a former cabinet minister and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Sir Vijay R Singh.

The book, "Speaking Out" contains Sir Vijay’s thoughts on Fiji between 1995 and 2005.

Fiji TV says the Nationalist Party president, Saula Telawa, insists that excerpts from the book are insensitive to Christians and the principles they believe in.

The book makes reference to the pre-coup Nationalist protest marches of 2000 against Mahendra Chaudhry as prime minister, one of whose leaders was Mr Telawa.

It asks how the marchers reconciled their disapproval of an ethnic Indian prime minister on the weekday with their purported devotion to the Biblical precept of the brotherhood of man on Sunday.

Mr Telawa says Sir Vijay’s thoughts are insensitive to Christian beliefs and the indigenous people of Fiji who own over 90 per cent of the land in Fiji.

Mr Telawa is threatening that anyone who goes against their beliefs should be "sent to the sea" and says he will take his concerns to the prime minister and the Methodist Church.