Islands Business - Politics/Fiji: FIJI’S MONTH OF SURPRISES

August saw Chaudhry’s exit, release of charter

Samisoni Pareti
Fiji’s military-led government will never fail to surprise its supporters and critics alike with the exit from its cabinet in August of one of its strongest proponents and equally controversial, Mahendra Chaudhry.

Bainimarama adamant... no election on March 2009.

What started off as a rumour that culminated in the detention of a pregnant newspaper journalist supposedly at the angry orders of none other than the interim prime minister and military commander Frank Bainimarama became true; Chaudhry was relinquishing his job as finance minister.

All the reporter did was to report what a politician had told her; that Chaudhry had been told in a letter by Bainimarama to resign before August 22.

Exactly a week after Fiji Times newspaper reporter Serafina Silatoga’s half-a-day detention at Labasa Police Station, Chaudhry came out of a Fiji Labour Party management board meeting at a hotel on the west coast of Fiji’s main island on August 17 to announce his resignation, and that of his two other Labour colleagues in Bainimarama’s cabinet.

Even then, Chaudhry insisted his exit was a Labour Party decision and not because of a directive from Bainimarama as rumours and Silatoga’s story had suggested.

“There was no directive or anything at all in that regard, if they have any evidence they must produce it,” the Fiji Times quoted him as saying.

“As far as we are concerned, this is a collective decision of the party.

“I had hinted to the Prime Minister that once the charter was ready, we would step down.”

Fresh from attending the opening of the Beijing Olympics, there was no immediate reaction from Bainimarama until a day later.

Bainimarama’s version: In addition to announcing his decision to boycott the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders’ summit, Bainimarama also disclosed his own version of the Chaudhry resignation saga.

“There has been much speculation about Mr Chaudhry’s resignation,” the army chief said at a press conference he called on August 18.

“I confirm there was a communication from me to him about him resigning. However, in the overall scheme of moving Fiji forward, this issue does not matter.”

For now, Chaudhry is concentrating on re-building his party to prepare for the general election, although no one really knows when that will actually take place.

Bainimarama had already made it clear it won’t be held on March 2009 as he had promised the Pacific Islands leaders in Tonga last year.

Because he wanted the current election laws to be changed first, Bainimarama said Fiji won’t be ready for an election until August or December next year.

“Under the new electoral system, according to the independent electoral commission, it will take at least another 12 to 15 months to prepare for an election,” Bainimarama said in his August 18 press conference.

“That is why I have said that the most practical date for the general election under the new system cannot possibly be March 2009.

“It all depends on the soonest we can reach a consensus on the implementation of the new electoral system at the president’s dialogue forum.”

The forum is actually in reference to a summit the Commonwealth envoy Sir Paul Reeves of New Zealand is convening.

Following a request from Fiji’s president Ratu Josefa Iloilo, Sir Paul met Bainimarama and representatives of other political parties in Fiji last July about the proposed forum.

He was supposed to prepare the forum’s terms of reference and then in consultation with the Fiji regime, set the dates.

He was looking at an August or September forum during his last visit.

Whilst the regime had wanted it to be confined to proposed election law changes, Sir Paul had said he agreed with the view that the focus of the dialogue forum be a lot broader.

Last month also saw the release of the regime’s peoples’ charter which is being touted as the military’s exit strategy and one when implemented will lead to an end of Fiji’s coup culture.

The charter is the work of a 45-member council comprising politicians, community leaders, civil society representatives and senior members of Bainimarama’s cabinet.

The party of ousted prime minister Laisenia Qarase refused to participate as well as other organisations like the Methodist Church.

Bainimarama and the head of the Roman Catholic Church in Fiji, Archbishop Petero Mataca, were joint chairs of the council and their 79-page draft charter grappled with some of the country’s thorny issues like a common name for all citizens, voting laws, landuse and poverty reduction.

The charter also attempted to look at the role of the Fiji military in relation to breaking the country’s cycle of coups and the result of that scrutiny was the charter’s proposed 13 principles for “ending the coup culture.”

Those principles included the belief to “remove the political, economic and social conditions for coups and strengthen the sanctions against coups, build genuine national reconciliation through dialogue, forgiveness and appropriate conflict resolution mechanisms for groups and individuals affected by coups,” and “redefine the role of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces to bring it closer to the people.”

Of some interest were the changes done to the charter at the council’s last meeting on July 31.

Before the meeting, the draft’s principles for ending the coup culture were 12.

The 13th principle was added on July 31, stating that “the courts to be empowered to penalise including orders of dissolution of political parties that engage in activities that breach important values of the constitution.”

Instead of suggesting a possible downsizing of the Fiji army as a solution to ending the country’s coup culture, the charter is clearly advocating the opposite.

The army it feels should take on a more developmental role, “ensuring that its professional, technical and social potential is fully realised.”

Its role should shift more to what the charter is terming as “human security.”

“The idea here is to shift from the old ‘hard security’ outlook to the new United Nations sponsored paradigm of ‘human security’—i.e. engaging with society and supporting it in various ways,” explains an appendix to the charter.

“Human security places people rather than property at the centre of national security and involves much greater regular interaction between national security forces and the people.

“The NCBBF (National Council for Building a Better Fiji) calls for a national dialogue on the RFMF’s (republic of Fiji Military Forces) role and also outlines a number of human security roles, such as training the youth of Fiji, which the military should undertake.

“It also calls for legitimate mechanisms to enable the military to dialogue with the government on good governance issues.

“There are also a number of consequential recommendations for increasing ethnic and gender representation in the military, for parliamentary oversight of the military, for improving the relationship between the public at large and the military.”

Of some controversy is the decision of the charter to adopt “Fijian” as the common name for all Fiji citizens.

If adopted, this suggestion is a change from the name “Fiji Islander” provided for in the island’s 1997 constitution, with each ethnic group identified by their own ethnicity.

For instance, a Fiji citizen with Indian ancestry is under the constitution called an “Indo Fijian.”

National identity: “If Fiji is to escape from the orbit of selfish communal politics, its people must have a sense of national identity,” says the appendix to the charter.

“At present, people have a strong sense of ethnic identity which has been reinforced by rhetoric and the ethnic institutions created during the course of Fiji’s history.

“Thus, Fiji’s people are more aware of their ethnic identity than they are of their national identity and this awareness is reflected in official documentation and most remarkably in two phenomena: the long standing discussion, yet unresolved, over a name for Fiji’s citizens; and the sub-categories of citizenship that must be stated in the national census and immigration entry and departure forms.”

Removing ethnic-based voting forms the basis of the changes the charter is proposing for Fiji’s current election laws.

Ethnic-based constituencies will be removed and all voters will be registered in one common roll.

It is also proposing that voting age be reduced from 21 to 18 years and that compulsory voting as enshrined in the 1997 constitution be abolished. Constitutional provisions for a multi-party government should also be removed, the charter is suggesting.

On the media, the council’s charter is proposing legislation to ensure “balanced and unbiased reporting”.

“The NCBBF considers that current self regulation by the media industry of professional standards of journalism is ineffective.

“The NCBBF endorses the view that legislation is needed to improve media accountability without interfering or impinging on its independence. Such a law should provide for a strengthened media council and an independent tribunal to deal with unresolved complaints efficiently and effectively.”

The secretariat overseeing the work of the charter has embarked on a promotional exercise around the country with a plan to have the final version of the document ready for presentation to Fiji’s president by October.