‘An act of rebellion’

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‘An act of rebellion’

The majority of Fijians will not download the careFIJI mobile phone application because they do not trust the Government, claims National Federation Party parliamentarian Lenora Qereqeretabua.

She claimed the Fijian people were tired of being belittled by the State. Ms Qereqeretabua said Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum had recently complained that only 50,000 people had downloaded the bluetooth contact tracing app so far.

“Let me tell him about the people who have not done it,” she said.

“Half of them do not trust this Government, the other half are just so sick and tired of being talked down to, bullied, patronised and ordered around by this Government that they just simply refuse.

“They do it as an act of rebellion because that is where the FijiFirst party leadership has taken us.

“It has taken us to the point where people do not trust the Government and will not work with it.”

Speaking in Parliament on Wednesday, Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said cynicism from the Opposition and naysayers was contrary to the thumbs up given to the app by Google and Apple store.

“For me, this is a direct affront to the people of Fiji,” the A-G had said.

“It is a direct affront to the tourism workers in Fiji. Here we are trying hard so they (travellers) will have confidence.

“They are saying, ‘OK, Fiji has got a contact tracing app, if I do go there, if there is a community outbreak, they can get in touch with me really quickly’.

“People watch your numbers. At the moment, our upload is only about 50,000 — it is very low. We need to increase it.

“If we go out into the market, if you want to fill up the hotels in Taveuni, if you want to fill up the hotels in Savusavu, people will say, ‘has Fiji got a contact tracing App or not?’”

At an event in Kalokolevu, Lami, on Monday, Mr Sayed-Khaiyum again called on Fijians to download the app because it was important.

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