Addressing Brain Drain

Commodore Bainimarama’s speech to the UN General Assembly last month:

Fiji has suffered more than 20 years of mismanagement, corruption, and nepotism. Our infrastructure, our judicial system, and our systems of accountability have all remained underdeveloped and unproductive. Many of our finest brains have left the country to migrate, because they could see no future in a country governed by ethno-nationalism, corruption and greed. In order to ensure that democracy has a real chance of survival in Fiji’s future, serious, and principled reforms must be implemented to build roads, institutions and values.

Here’s the sad thing Commodore. I am probably one of the brightest Indo-Fijians around, not to mention one of the most educated ones. And I neither chose to leave Fiji nor stay in the United States. However, how are you going to encourage people to come back and the bright minds from escaping with your dictatorial regime in place? We want to work in a democracy, not under some power-hungry demagogue.