MILITARY appointed director of Immigration Viliame Naupoto said soldiers should be accommodated in the nation-building process instead of being "unleashed like watchdogs" when there was a need for security if the coup culture was to be reversed.
Reacting to appointments of military officers into key government positions, Mr Naupoto said they were trained in some of the best institutions in the world even though previous governments treated them like watchdogs and tied them up whenever their services were not required.
"Military officers should be accommodated into nation building like me right now. I feel the military has been used too much like a tied watchdog with a tag return to barracks after the job' and 2000 was an example" he said
"That is what the Constitution says and was a bad use of military officers.
"Military officers have proven they can come in and be assimilated into society and do well and you just have to look back at senior military officers who have held posts to prove that."
He said militarisation of key government positions depended on the terminology and what critics meant.
"Military people are useful and it is my answer to killing the coup culture. If you keep using the military as a watchdog the chain might break and bite people."
