A Statement by Mr. Savenaca Narube, Leader of Unity Fiji and Former Governor of the Reserve Bank of Fiji
“In war, and we are in the middle of one right now, our front lines must be battle ready and united. We must confront the enemy with the right weapons, all the strength that we can muster and the best combat strategy.”
The Leader of Unity Fiji and former Governor of the Reserve Bank of Fiji was responding to the spike in the new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday 4th April.
Mr. Narube added, “The new cases clearly showed that we are not fighting with an effective plan and our battle strategy is not clearly understood by the foot soldiers. The new cases revealed huge gaps in our defence which allowed the carriers of the virus to move freely in our midst for more than one week.”
The former Governor appealed to the Government to take immediate steps to close these gaps by assessing:
- If the persons were given clear instructions at the port of entry to isolate themselves;
- Why the persons did not comply with the isolation requirements and what went wrong with the monitoring mechanism? and
- Why the travel history of the persons was not identified as a possible threat at the port of entry?
“Improving our readiness is a far better use of our flimsy resources than investigating the leak of information,” Mr. Narube said. “Transparency will save lives.”
“We are months into this war, but we are still not clear of the strategy that Government is using to fight this battle. In all countries that have succeeded in fighting the virus like South Korea and Singapore, widespread testing is their major weapon. They have adopted this strategy for two main reasons—first, to more accurately determine the full extent of the infection and treat those affected very quickly; and second, to immediately identify those not infected and allow them to return to work as soon as practicable thus minimizing the impact of COVID-19 on the economies and their livelihoods. And these countries are winning the war.”
“However, in Fiji we seem to have adopted a strategy of voluntary isolation, shutdowns and selective testing. Voluntary isolation, as the recent cases have shown, is not effective. There are people that do not show symptoms but are carrying the virus. Shutdowns will be more effective if its combined with widespread testing.”
“Why do we wait for people to get sick before we test them?” Mr. Narube asked. “Is it because the test kits are expensive? But we can find the money if we allocate our budget wisely and eliminate wastages. I would have expected a razor gang at the Ministry of the Economy to be already slashing wasteful and ineffective government expenses.”
The Leader of Unity Fiji stressed that, “We must plan for the worst. Being optimistic will cost our families dearly. We must take strong actions now. Trying to catch up later will be a big mistake as we have seen in some countries around the world. Let us find more money for the Ministry of Health and start testing now.”
The Leader of Unity Fiji concluded, “I repeat my call to Government that me must fight this war with a united front. Government should immediately mobilize communities, political parties, civil societies, churches, religious bodies and regional institutions to widen and strengthen our containment and preventive strategies.”
Mr. Narube concluded, “Such a collective arrangement can promote national unity and tolerance in these most difficult times. A unifying tone by the political Leaders would go a long way in galvanizing nationwide support. We are stronger when we are united.”