Do not use swear words in the social media and get away from personal attacks as you are now an official of a political party.
That is the message from the General Secretary of the Social Democratic and Liberal Party Pio Tabaiwalu to SODELPA’s Youth Council Interim President Pita Waqavonovono.
Tabaiwalu confirmed that he had to speak to Waqavonovono after he used swear words and improper language on his twitter account while speaking about the proposed Fiji First.
“Yes I have spoken to Pita about the comments. He relayed to me that he apologized for the language that he had used. The twitter account is the personal account of Pita. It’s not an official SODELPA twitter account but in the same instance we are telling him that since now he is occupying a high position in the party that he has to be more careful in the language that he uses especially in the social media. To us the words that he used, some of our supporters will not take too kindly to the swear words that were there.”
Tabaiwalu then said Waqavonovono may have done this because he was taken in by the military in December 2006.
However, he stressed to Fijivillage that SODELPA does not condone the improper language used by Waqavonovono.
“I think this is a personal issue from him and I think he reacted that way. That’s about his personal experiences. It’s not that we are condoning what he said. I think we are just sympathetic that he went through that kind of treatment. We said that the position that he holds as a party official he can no longer make these statements publicly. We categorically told him that he can no longer use those kinds of language in the public arena.”
When questioned by Fijivillage, Tabaiwalu admitted that as they approach the general elections, they have to focus on issues that affect the people in the country, and not make personal attacks based on personal emotions.
“We are trying to tell our people that we are above personal vilification. We try to keep within the issues. Yes I think that it is certainly proper that we do that. We are concentrating on the issues. They are young people coming into politics. They have to learn the ropes very quickly. They should learn to keep above the personal attacks at this stage.”
Fijivillage spoke to Pita Waqavonovono twice yesterday.
We tried to get an interview on this issue.
He opted not to make any comments to us.
Story by: Vijay Narayan
Stop the personal attacks and improper language - Tabaiwalu
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