In 2005 the Chief Rabbi of Israel Yona Metzger discussed Christian Jewish relations 40 years after Nostra Aetate. I wish to quote a parable he shared in that article.
"A well known Jewish Parable tells the story of a young man who was hiking on a journey. It was common at that time to follow signposts, which displayed the names of various destination and pointed in different directions. At one particular crossroad on his way, the young man found that a sign post had fallen down or had been knocked over and he did not know in which direction he should proceed. An old man passing by gave him some simple advice: "If you want to know in which direction to continue, stand the signpost up with the name of the place you have come from pointing in the direction from which you have come."
In Fiji these past three years our naked tyrant Frank Bainimarama has truly lost his way and taken everyone including his own supporters up the rose garden with promises of riches and overnight success, forgetting to heed the single most fundamental law of the universe, that which requires balance, harmony and in a position of ostensible power as he thinks he has, humility, philanthropy, charity, compassion and grace.
Success has many fathers and failure has many orphans.
Frank Bainimarama has proven himself successful in being a failure in making the Fijian populace orphans, not realizing that the sweat, blood and tears shed by the entire populace of all ethnic and religious groups over many generations and most importantly Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna's 'three legged stool' is the very foundation of our entire Fijian economy.
There is only one way forward for Frank Bainimarama and that is to go back to where he came from.
In the event that our economy officially collapses and in so far as this occurs within the next two years from the 10th of April 2009 to come within the prosecution time frame for treason under our Penal Code, Frank Bainimarama will invoke the very same piece of legislation that he opposed back in 2006, i.e. the Reconciliation and Unity legislation albeit with a different tittle and he will rely on the Prerogative of Mercy under the very same Constitution that he and the Tui Vuda our previous illegal Treasonous President purportedly abrogated.
If however our economy does not officially collapse within the next two years, with the sale of all public assets including its biggest holding on the South Pacific Stock Exchange, then Frank Bainimarama's 5 to 20 year time frame of Dictatorship (expressed in a radio interview in answer to the possibility of regional intervention) will continue notwithstanding imminent undertakings to our International and Regional neighbors to the contrary.
The damage done to the social fabric of our society, our institutions of religion and tradition, our diverse and unique custom and culture has been irreparable, but I believe that in times of great adversity and suffering as a direct result of the effect that the state of our economy has on the majority and our marginalized, there will be an unprecedented cosmic consciousness in Fiji, when we THINK AND ACT AS ONE.
We end where we began, with the inspirational words of Yona Metzeger, "Our sages teach us that 'The whole of the Torah (Judaism) is for the sake of the ways of peace'.
It demands that we who share such values must work together for the promotion and sanctity of human life and dignity."
