Government’s failure to deliver on their promises will lead to personal attacks and vilification of those who criticise, says Fiji Labour Party leader Mahendra Chaudhry.
During an interview with The Fiji Times online news portal The Lens@177, Mr Chaudhry voiced his concern on the unnecessary overseas trip by government ministers.
He criticised the Coalition Government’s ministerial travels, arguing they were neglecting their duties.
“I think it’s a complaint that many have been voicing. It’s not just me, but people have been speaking out that the ministers are travelling too much while they need to be here looking after the people,” he said.
“They made a lot of promises during election time and now when they’re looking for these ministers, they find out that their reps and them are overseas.”
Mr Chaudhry said the incident where Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka and the three deputy prime ministers were all out of the country on separate commitments “should have never happened’.
“When I spoke out that the government machinery seems to be breaking down, I don’t know if they knew who was going to be in and who’s going to be out of the country.
“We found out that all four of them will be out so they had to find somebody to act as Prime Minister and it’s sad that when cornered they resort to personal attacks, that shouldn’t happen.
“This is also common failing with Finance Minister (Professor Biman Prasad) he tends to indulge in personal appeals and vilification of those who criticise.”
He claims since taking office, Prof Prasad has not consulted or met with Mr Chaudhry to have discussions on the affairs of the country.
“I was expecting that he would consult more, but unfortunately he didn’t. Once they got elected and took office I don’t think we met.”
Questions sent to Prof Prasad remained unanswered when this edition went to press.
