Felix Chaudhary 
Opposition parliamentarian and former FijiFirst Party member Jone Usamate [left] and former Attorney General and FFP general secretary Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum
Opposition parliamentarian and former FijiFirst Party member Jone Usamate has hit out at former Attorney General and FFP general secretary Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum.
He criticized the former AG in a statement issued this afternoon titled ‘Exposing Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum’s Hypocrisy: A Legacy of Self-Interest.’
Usamate’s statement comes in response to a post by Sayed-Khaiyum on his Facebook page, where he called on all MPs who voted against “the morally and ethically unacceptable pay rise and increase in benefits for themselves, or abstained from the vote, should not benefit from the pay rise that all the others voted for.”
Sayed-Khaiyum further states that if the MPs were genuine in their opposition or abstention, then they should have by now (or can still – not too late), donate the money to a worthy charitable organization.
He further suggests that these MPs can set up a trust to pool their funds together and give it to a charitable organisation to help ordinary Fijians.
In response, Usamate says Sayed-Khaiyum’s attempts to claim the moral high ground are utterly disingenuous, revealing his blatant hypocrisy and self-interest.
Usamate claims that during his tenure as FijiFirst General Secretary, Sayed-Khaiyum staunchly opposed the $15,000 constituency allowance for MPs – a stance FijiFirst proudly championed in Parliament.
Usamate says despite opposing the $15,000 constituency allowance for MPs in Parliament, he later accepted it on behalf of FijiFirst and used $5,000 per member to address party debts caused by his poor financial management.
He adds that if Sayed-Khaiyum was genuinely committed to his principles, he could have donated the money instead of using it to offset the liabilities solely created by him.
