By Dennis Rounds
During times of national crisis, people look to their government for political leadership, meaningful financial and welfare assistance, and general reassurance.
The COVID-19 pandemic might not be a war in the true sense of the word, but for Fijians this year, it has become a national crisis.
There are daily spikes in the number of people contracting the virus and the number of related deaths continue to record a steady rise.
In April last year (2020), when Fiji appeared to have “contained” the spread of COVID-19, there were 17 positive cases with no deaths.
This led to Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama making a bold, some might say boastful, statement: “Fiji is now well on our way to eliminating COVID-19 entirely, and we’re one of the few nations on Earth who can make that claim. Our progress has come not from fortune, but through foresight; every step taken was swift, every decision made was decisive, and every success we’ve recorded has been well-earned.
“It would be easy to say this war has been completely won and roll-back every health protection directive in one fell-swoop. But we can never settle for “easy” with a virus this devastating and unpredictable. We have no choice but to continue treating this invisible enemy with deadly seriousness,” he went on to say.
Just a year after that statement, towards the end of April 2021, Fiji had recorded 77 COVID-positive cases in total, with 65 recoveries and 2 deaths since the first case was reported in March 2020.
By the end of May 2021, however, the figures began a disturbing upwards trend with Fiji recording 438 positive cases in total. There had been 167 recoveries and 4 deaths.
That month, when many Fijians were sound asleep Prime Minister Bainimarama made a late- night statement announcing an easing of COVID-related restrictions as a means of reviving the local economy.
Containment zones came into play and businesses were allowed to open with strict health protocols.
Then the disturbing “wildfire-like” spread of the more deadly Delta variant hit Fiji’s main island, Viti Levu.
By 12 July 2021, there were 9310 active COVID cases in isolation and 56 deaths in the months from the beginning of April 2021.
Like most Fijians, I find myself wondering in the Western heat, whether the government is still treating the pandemic with “deadly seriousness”.
For once, I miss the occasional “lightning bolts” of “political enlightenment” that normally emanate from the corridors of power in our bustling capital, Suva.
Apart from the growing reports of how the Attorney-General and Finance Minister, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum has been holding “virtual meetings” with stakeholders in an effort to revive a floundering economy, there’s been little else from the government on forward planning to contain the COVID pandemic.
Even Opposition parliamentarian Dr Biman Prasad’s call for the Prime Minister to “come clean” and change the government’s COVID strategy seems to have fallen on deaf ears.
At a time when the nation is looking to solid leadership, “virtual meetings” on less pressing issues appear to have become the “new norm”.
We hear reports of how foreign donations of Astra Zeneca vaccines are being welcomed via “virtual meetings” by the Prime Minister.
There have been reports of prisoners being sent from Suva to cut cane in the western cane fields as a means of kick-starting the new crushing season. The move follows complaints from cane farmers about unsustainable harvesting costs resulting from payment shortfalls for their cane deliveries to sugar mills.
There has also been confirmation from the Ministry of Health that some of those cane cutters have brought the virus back to a still-recovering western division.
One small town, Tavua, which has been for more than a year COVID- free, reported a COVID-positive case involving a prison officer sent from Suva as part of the cane-cutting force.
As I watched the receding tides expose Lautoka’s “dead” foreshore, I couldn’t help but wonder whether COVID-19 had exposed a “decisive” political indifference to our national crisis.
Dennis Rounds is a former owner of Islands Business and a veteran journalist
