Fiji faces long road to peace at the top
- Date
- January 5, 2013
Brij Lal
Fiji’s national flag is lowered at Queen Elizabeth Barracks in Suva in 2006. Photo: AFPJust before Christmas, the Fiji Constitution Commission, chaired by Kenyan constitutional lawyer Professor Yash Ghai, submitted a copy of the draft constitution to Fijian President Ratu Epeli Nailatikau. The draft constitution is inevitably a compromise document, balancing a range of views and interests and concerns, but its overall direction is clear. It seeks to restore Fiji to full parliamentary democracy. It recommends the retention of the Westminster system, with a 71-seat parliament.
Like the 1997 constitution, which was abrogated by the Fiji military in April 2009, it recommends a strong bill of rights, an independent judiciary, freedom of the media, efficient and effective public service: things which would be unexceptionable in any democratic state.
But it also recommends a break from past practices. For example, it recommends the abolition of all racial representation in parliament and election from non-racial constituencies. A proposition which seemed beyond contemplation just a decade or so ago can now be entertained because of the profound demographic transformation which has taken place in Fiji. Indigenous Fijians, or iTaukei as they are now called, make up about 60 per cent of the total population and Indo-Fijians about a third, putting an end to racial fears and phobias which hobbled Fiji politics for a century or more. All citizens are now simply called Fijian, rather than classified according to their ethnic identity.
A closed List Proportional system of voting is recommended to replace the existing Alternative Vote system. Elections will take place from four national electoral divisions, not through constituencies. The draft constitution recommends a third of the candidates for parliament should be women. The term of the parliament would be reduced from five years to four, and the term of the prime minister limited to two (that is, eight years).
A hand-picked and regime-friendly Constituent Assembly will soon approve the final constitution. To take Fiji to elections promised for next year, the draft constitution recommends a caretaker administration be installed six months before the election date, to be run by politically neutral experienced administrators. The military demurs.
All the major political parties have supported the draft constitution, putting aside for the time being their quite profound political differences. Returning Fiji to parliamentary democracy is their first priority. If fully implemented, the recommendations of the draft constitution will have the potential to revolutionise Fijian politics and cut it permanently adrift from its hobbled past and disastrous preoccupation with race politics.
In Fiji, unsurprisingly, what is good for the goose is not necessarily good for the gander. The military has taken strong exception to some recommendations of the report and has sought to discredit it. The spat between the military and the commission began soon after the report was submitted to the President.
Keeping his promise to the people who had appeared before the commission, and working within the framework of the decree which governed the commission’s modus operandi, including the requirement for it to make the process of consultation as transparent and participatory as possible, Ghai ordered the printing of some 600 copies for distribution to key stakeholders. Then the drama started.
Twelve policemen, apparently on the orders of the Commissioner of Police, Brigadier General Ioane Naivalarua, and with the knowledge of the Attorney-General, surrounded the Government Printery and confiscated the printed copies of the draft document. An irate senior police officer verbally abused Ghai and ordered the unceremonious burning of three printer’s copies of the documents in his presence. A clearly distraught Ghai wondered what this vengeful act of vandalism might portend for the fate of his work. The Fijian military argued that the professor was acting illegally in authorising the printing of the draft constitution as his tenure as commission chairman ended when the report was submitted to the President.
In a short note circulated on the internet on January 1, Ghai rejected the claim and held his ground. The military wants Ghai charged for breaking (some unspecified) Fijian law. The campaign to malign Ghai and his work is in full gear.
The question to ask is why is the Fijian military so obsessed with keeping the draft constitution secret from the Fiji public? Was it so naive to think copies of the document would not find their way into cyberspace sooner rather than later? What did they expect from an eminent constitutional lawyer? And why discredit a commission the Fijian regime itself had set up? Whereto from here?
The regime’s anger and disappointment over the contents of the draft constitution are not hard to surmise. The draft is, after all, a democratic document, while the Fijian regime is anything but. The military could not have been happy with the recommendation that it return to the barracks and operate again under normal civilian oversight. The recommendation that the tenure of the commander be for one term only would not have found favour with the military hierarchy.
The Attorney-General would have been peeved by the commission’s finding that many of the decrees he authorised were defective, arbitrary and in breach of fundamental human rights. Ironically, it was the Attorney-General who was instrumental in Ghai’s appointment as law lecturer at the University of Hong Kong.
The course the Ghai commission recommends is at sharp variance with the narrative woven by the Fijian military -which is in effective control of the country. They see for themselves a supreme guardian role, over and above the normal institutions and processes of government in Fiji. They are there to stay, and they will not budge. There are many in Fiji who have ridden the gravy train for the past several years and they will not voluntarily step aside for institutions of parliamentary governance to take root once again. Power concedes nothing without a struggle, and there is very little sign of that in Fiji.
Not waiting for a new constitution to come into effect and for the parliament to convene next year, the military regime has embarked on a wide-ranging program of creating a new identity for Fiji. The Queen’s image has disappeared from the Fijian currency (although her framed photos hang in government offices), and plans are afoot to change the national flag. The national carrier, Air Pacific, is now Fiji Airways. These are not signs the regime in Fiji is in a hurry to go anywhere, any time soon.
The battle is truly joined. The Fijian military will have a constitution that enshrines their vision for Fiji, not any other. They want a continuing role for themselves in Fijian affairs, not retreating to the barracks. For those who yearn for a timely return to parliamentary democracy in that sadly troubled nation, the road ahead is hard.
Brij V. Lal is Professor of Pacific and Asian History at the Australian National University.
Fiji Today FijiTodays Open Forum Blog 
The good prof from canbera is correct. But he must first convince his senior party members like Praveen Bala and Chandu Umaria to resign from military appointments. meanwhile, Col Tikoitinga told Fiji Times last night that 2014 Sep Elections are now in doubt since the Consitution draft is not acceptable to RFMF. He told his favorate reporter that RFMF is looking at recommending 2014 Elections be cancelled and a new roadmap be announced to 2020 so that all pending strategic works will be completed and certain political leaders drop out of the scene by 2020.
Fiji former opposition leader explains refusal to stand for constituent assembly
Posted at 06:12 on 04 January, 2013 UTC
The president of Fiji’s United People’s Party, Mick Beddoes, says he has refused to tender his name for the body tasked with finalising a new constitution because he will not walk into a trap.
The Consitutent Assembly is expected next week to begin debating the draft constitution produced by Professor Yash Ghai’s Constitution Commission but the interim government has yet to announce who it will appoint to the body.
The Permanent Secretary for the Office of the Prime Minister says more than 300 applications have been received.
Mr Beddoes says while his and other political parties are prepared to work with the draft constitution he will not aqcuiesce to an authority he does not recognise.
“I find it ironic that I’m twice-elected legally and I represent people and in order to discuss the possibility of a new consititution I’ve got to apply to the actual individual who has usurped the government elected by the people in 2006 and who is responsible for the oppression and all the problems we have today.”
Mick Beddoes says there are very strong rumours that the interim government has a secondary constitution that will find its way into the discussion.
News Content © Radio New Zealand International
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No word on exact date of Constituent Assembly formation
17:04 Fri Jan 04, 2013
Taken from/By:
Report by: Mika Loga
There’s still no word on the names of people to be part of the Constituent Assembly – just days away from the Decreed deadline for the body to start deliberating on the draft Constitution.
Under the Fiji Constitutional Process Decree 58 of 2012, the Assembly is required to start debate on the draft by the second week of January 2013.
When contacted today – Permanent Secretary to the Prime Minister’s Office Pio Tikoduadua said his office is still collating the names of applicants keen to become members of the Constituent Assembly.
Tikoduadua says, the names will be made public once finalized and he’s urging the public not to worry about the ongoing public debate on the provisions of the draft Constitution.
Insert (tikoduadua) nextgen# 7446404/60
“Our efforts now are looking forward..Everyone..Someone and everyone have something to say about anything and everything”.
Tikoduadua says more than 100 people from different walks of life have applied.
Updated 4 January 2013, 17:03 AEST
The Asian Development Bank is sceptical about the Fiji Interim government’s expectations for economic growth this year.
Fiji growth rate less than government forecast says ADB (Credit: ABC) The coup installed military regime expects Gross Domestic Product to expand by more than two per cent in 2013.
But the ADB’s Pacific Department principal economist, Emma Veve, says they are excepting much lower growth.
She says Fiji is attempting to restructure it’s sugar industry at the moment and that is taking time and money, and the country has been hit by two floods and a cyclone this year, which will depress economic growth.
Emma Veve says the bank’s view of Fiji’s economy is less positive than the interim government’s
NO Election .Keep dreaming .Frank is the puppet of Khaiyum,Bano and Nazhat.
They plan to rip tax payers dollars for 20 years.
Khaiyum told the Muslim brotherhood Fijian army Commander is under my Command.
What Prof.Brij V Lal has done in this piece is too summarize what many other regime critics have pointed out earlier. Much of what he says is already in the public domain. But this much must be granted the Prof : he has a much more flowery way of putting things.
Yes the road ahead for parliamentary democracy in that sadly troubled nation is indeed hard and it’s not made any easier by the international community falling in line with the Fijian military’s plans .
The acquiescence of the international partners is the one single biggest obstacle in that hard road.
It’s a case of good men standing by and not doing the right thing by the suppressed people of Fiji.
That’s the thing that makes the Fiji Military feel nobody can do fuckall to evict them from power!!
Constitution Commission accounts to go public soon
8:44 Today
Taken from/By:
Report by: Roland Koroi
The Constitution Commission’s accounts are being audited and will be made public soon.
Under the Decree that governs the Constitution Commission, the commission was required to produce monthly audited reports.but according to constitution commissioner Penny Moore, this was impractical.
Moore says auditing the accounts every month would have cost them a lot of money.
We’ve given monthly reports to our funders but we will be definitely giving our full audited accounts to anybody who wishes to have it. It’s certainly not something that’s hidden. But there was no way it was going to be ready at the same time as the constitution because we hadn’t finished all our expenditure.
In an earlier interview, Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum told FBC News, the public needed to know how their money was spent.
Moore responded by saying they didn’t use money belonging to the Fijian people.
All assistance, she claims, came from AusAid, NZAid, the EU, and the American Bar Association.
We never received anything from government. The only thing we got from government were two cars, two drivers and the building. That’s all the government gave the Constitution Review Commission.
FBC News has sought a response from the government but no official comment has been forthcoming.
@riaz
drau veicai bainimarama .
While there are strong provisions for parliamentary democracy, good governence etc in the draft Constitution and that the military is a servant of the government etc. are good things for a developing democracy.
The drafts recommendation that the GCC – Great Council of Corrupt thieve’s/chiefs and the appointment of a constitution assembly raises many eyebrows.
First the Council of corrupt chief’s were the one’s who had created the current situation in fiji by fully instigating and supporting the previous coups in Fiji.
Their many corrupt thug members were jailed by the courts after the 2000 coups however, they got their appointed racist sdl government to release these convicts at a dramatic speed. Restiblishment of this thug/corrupt boci of thief’s council will spell doom for fiji’s future.
Secondly, the establishment of a Constitution Assembly by certain groups and for the government to listen to these unelected people( some may be good) could mean that the government may have problems getting consensus etc in formulating their plans for fiji’s future etc.
The big question to fund these two so called institutions – where is the money?
Can the money be spent better in building infrastructure roads, hospitals, schools etc?
And there is no need to have a 71 seat parliament as many of the past parliamentarians have been a waste of space ?
I hope all these are seriously considered by the CA and unnecessary waste of taxpayers money be put to better use.
@ Timoci Qio
Yes there might be “no need to have a 71 seat parliament” as you state. But more Importantly there is NO NEED FOR THE FIJI MILITARY TO BE MEDDLING IN POLITICS.
This is the more serious problem for Fiji and its people.
can you get your head around that?
@ Timoci Qio
where are you? oh! it’s sigatabu. you must be busy having free chow somewhere!
Ok catch you later!
I need to to thank you for this great read!
! I absolutely enjoyed every bit of it. I have got you book-marked to check out new stuff you
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