Mathew Batsiua’s disgraceful behaviour must stop
Justice Minister David Adeang has
slammed comments by Opposition MP Mathew Batsiua to New Zealand
media last week, which Mr Adeang believes were deliberately
intended to block over one million dollars in funding from New
Zealand.
The Minister said that Mr Batsiua
has regularly tried to use overseas media to damage Nauru's
reputation and serve his own - and the Opposition's - political
purposes.
"As Minister Scotty and I were in
meetings with New Zealand's foreign minister negotiating the best
outcome for Nauru, this disgraceful MP was telling New Zealand
radio that our country was in chaos, which was a blatant lie.
"He timed those comments so that
New Zealand would stop their funding of our legal system, which
would have affected every Nauruan."
The justice minister said Mr
Batsiua directly referred to New Zealand aid and claimed that
people there were "aggrieved' - a clear attempt to influence New
Zealand to stop their funding.
Earlier this month President Baron
Waqa called on opposition MPs to stop taking domestic issues to the
foreign media.
"No member of parliament should be
trashing our country in the foreign press just to score a political
advantage," the President said.
Mr Adeang said Mr Batsiua's
comments went even further by attempting to influence other
countries to stop supporting Nauru.
"Every person in Nauru knows how
important cooperation from our neighbours is to our nation, which
makes this attempt to hurt everyday Nauruans by depriving them of
assistance funding, even more scandalous.
"Mr Batsiua must stop denigrating
our country overseas and he must apologise to Nauruans.
"While the Government is reforming
Nauru, making the necessary changes and cleaning up the cronyism
and corruption of the past, the Opposition will stop at nothing to
derail those efforts," Mr Adeang said.