We are here to serve – Speaker of Parliament
‘We are not here for one party, we are here for the country, we are here for all and we have to uphold the true principles of democracy. We are here to serve.’
These were the comments by the Speaker of the Fijian Parliament, Hon. Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu while opening the two-days Staff Planning workshop for the Parliament secretariat.
As this was his first planning workshop, the Hon. Speaker did not mince his words while addressing the senior staff on the importance of their roles.
“We are the third arm of democracy in our country and we have to live up to the expectation of the nation. What was done in the past will be different now as we journey together.”
“We must always challenge ourselves to better serve our calling,” the Speaker said.
It was also an opportune time for the Speaker to emphasise the importance of confidentiality of information in the organisation.
“Know your work, understand your work as it is important, not only to your team but to Parliament as a whole. Protect the information that you come across. There should not be any leakage and we need to protect our work environment.”
“The media are just eager to learn anything, any crumbs that falls off the table they will pick it up and sensationalise them.”
“I want to implore on each one of you that the task ahead is not easy, the journey is not easy but it only can be made easy if we work together,” Hon. Ratu Lalabalavu added.
The Hon. Speaker also asked some critical questions – what impact have we made in the country; for the people; in the Parliament institution; and in our team? “Are we satisfied with the impact we have made? Could we have done better?”
He said these are the challenges for this workshop and for the executive management and it is envisaged that the two-days planning workshop would focus on the finalisation of the Operational Plan and the Strategic Plan so that at the end of the workshop, staff are re-energised and invigorated to make more meaningful impact over the next four (4) years.
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