{"id":16198,"date":"2021-01-31T10:40:06","date_gmt":"2021-01-31T10:40:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=156675"},"modified":"2021-01-31T10:40:06","modified_gmt":"2021-01-31T10:40:06","slug":"curfew-safety-uproar-in-fiji-as-tc-ana-strikes-soko-apologises-for-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/01\/31\/curfew-safety-uproar-in-fiji-as-tc-ana-strikes-soko-apologises-for-decision\/","title":{"rendered":"Curfew safety uproar in Fiji as TC Ana strikes \u2013 Soko apologises for decision"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pf-content\">\n<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>\n<em>By Luke Rawalai in Suva<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Fiji&#8217;s national curfew enforced by the National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) on Friday evening has been dubbed as thoughtless and the &#8220;height of stupidity&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>National Federation Party president Pio Tikoduadua said it showed the government\u2019s &#8220;disconnect with reality&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen NDMO director announced the imposition of a curfew, she said it was with the concurrence of the Prime Minister,\u201d said Tikoduadua.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/international\/pacific-news\/435533\/one-drowning-and-five-missing-in-fiji-as-cyclone-ana-hits\"><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> One drowning and five missing in Fiji as Cyclone Ana hits<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/international\/pacific-news\/435525\/cyclone-ana-moves-over-fiji-capital\">Cyclone Ana moves over Fiji capital<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/2021\/01\/31\/tc-ana-hits-fiji-nacula-villagers-evacuated-to-community-hall\/\">TC Ana hits Fiji: Nacula villagers evacuated to community hall<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/?s=TC+Ana\">Other Cyclone Ana reports<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The NDMO said a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/international\/pacific-news\/435533\/one-drowning-and-five-missing-in-fiji-as-cyclone-ana-hits\">49-year-old man had drowned<\/a> and five people were missing, including a three-year-old boy from Lautoka.<\/p>\n<p>Tikoduadua said: \u201cFiji has never, in 50 years, imposed a curfew before a cyclone because we have always relied on the good sense of our people to look after themselves and each other in natural disasters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter the weekend curfew announcement, there was panic buying and selling of goods while hundreds of farmers and market vendors rushed to sell their goods at a loss because their weekend business was destroyed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs far as we know, the curfew was not lawful because no legal steps were taken under the NDMO Act to support it and certainly government did not say they had taken any.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Government &#8216;completely isolated&#8217;<br \/>\n<\/strong>Tikoduadua said the government failed to think strategically because it was completely isolated from the people.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe people of Fiji are finding it increasingly hard to believe that this disorganised bunch of people, who just make it up as they go along, is really their government,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They need to remember these events the next time they go to the polls.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>NDMO director Vasiti Soko apologised to the public over the change to nationwide curfew hours.<\/p>\n<p>The curfew hours <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fbcnews.com.fj\/news\/curfew-hours-revised\/\">have reverted to the daily 11pm to 4am window<\/a> after a shift in the projected path of TC Ana. On Friday, the hours had been changed by Soko in the Western Division to 12pm Saturday to 6am on Monday, February 1, 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Curfew hours for the Central, Eastern and Northern Divisions, were to have begun from 4pm Saturday until 4am on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Soko said every decision made by the office was in consultation with the Fiji Meteorological Service and other stakeholders committed to ensure the safety of all citizens.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Apologies for the &#8216;inconvenience&#8217;<\/strong><br \/>\n\u201cWe apologise for the inconvenience caused as the analysis we received yesterday [Friday] entitled that an announcement should be made and due to the revisions made today [yesterday] on the path of the cyclone, the Emergency Committee decided to revert the curfew hours,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>She said there was no way to predict the path and nature of a cyclone and NDMO would continue to make decisions based on the current situation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs of when the weather calls for a decision, then it will be made, but as it is, we will continue to update the public about all the restrictions and movements.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"fb-post\" data-href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/permalink.php?story_fbid=10160585729202785&amp;id=697817784\" data-width=\"500\" data-show-text=\"true\">\n<blockquote class=\"fb-xfbml-parse-ignore\" cite=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/permalink.php?story_fbid=10160585729202785&amp;id=697817784\">\n<p>Suva\u2019s iconic Ivi Tree is no more, as shared by @MakaretaKomai. For Suvans especially, the demise of the tree is a very&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Posted by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/people\/Shailendra-Singh\/697817784\">Shailendra Singh<\/a> on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/permalink.php?story_fbid=10160585729202785&amp;id=697817784\">Saturday, January 30, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<p><em>Luke Rawalai is a Fiji Times reporter.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/2021\/01\/31\/curfew-safety-uproar-in-fiji-as-tc-ana-strikes-soko-apologises-for-decision\/\">Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Luke Rawalai in Suva Fiji\u2019s national curfew enforced by the National Disaster Management Office (NDMO) on Friday evening has been dubbed as thoughtless and the \u201cheight of\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":400,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3375,1106,5,495,3376,3377,4,12,1743,3368,854,855],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16198"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/400"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16198"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16199,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16198\/revisions\/16199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}