ABC News
"...the new draft document will carry
the stamp of the military government, and will then be passed by a
committee chosen by the Prime Minister."
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| Fiji military Dictatorship under Bainimarama |
Fiji's interim government says its determined to meet its election deadline of September 2014. The country's Information Ministry says preparations are underway in earnest to assemble materials needed throughout Fiji to conduct the scheduled polls.
The interim government is inviting companies
within Fiji and abroad to register their interest in supplying such
items as ballot boxes, polling kits, ink, voting booths and voting
screens.
They are being asked to submit expressions of interest
tot he Acting Permanent Secretary Responsible for Election, Ms Mere
Vuniwaqa by February 28th.
The Fijian Attorney General and
Minister responsible for Election, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said interested
companies would be required to meet several accepted international
standards. "We invite all interested companies to register as soon
as possible and contribute to this landmark event in Fiji's history -
the introduction of the first genuine parliamentary democracy based on
the principle on the principle of one person, one vote, one value," he
said. Fiji has been facing mounting pressure to hold democratic
elections since it scrapped its constitution in 2009.
Union campaign Union
groups are calling for international condemnation of Fiji's Interim
prime minister for effectively tearing up the draft constitution.
The
draft, which took into account seven thousand submissions, was drawn up
by a committee headed by Professor Yash Ghai ahead of planned
democratic elections. Commodore Frank Bainimarama has announced
he's scrapping the draft and his legal officers will write a new
constitution to be presented to a constituent assembly appointed by him.
The
general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation,
Sharon Burrow, has told Radio Australia she's just returned from Fiji
where many people are frustrated over what's happened.
"The anger
was palpable about a dictator who has basically taken over a country
with no legitimacy and it demonstrates that Bainimarama is not willing
to hand over power," she said. "He himself says he will now write the constitution. "It's time that the international community raised it voice again and said 'enough, we have had enough and we have been duped',"
New
Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully says the Fiji Government's
trashing of its new draft constitution is a major step backwards and a
disappointing development.
On Thursday the government labelled the
draft constitution, drawn up by a committee headed by Professor Yash
Ghai, as an appeasement to racist divisions in Fiji. Military
ruler Commodore Frank Bainimarama said the draft would be scrapped and
his legal officers would write a new constitution to be presented to a
constituent assembly he would appoint next month. And next week he would issue a new decree on who could register political parties.
Mr McCully says the trashing of the draft will bring into question whether promised elections next year would be free and fair. He says it was always going to be a problem to get the military out of politics and back into their barracks.
Hoodwinked
Some political watchers in Fiji believe the government has deceived the international community.
Professor
Brij Lal told Pacific Beat Australia and New Zealand have been taken
for a ride by the regime and should reconsider their involvement in the
county's constitutional process.
"This is a wake-up call for Australia and New Zealand" he said. "Their
proposed re-engagement with Fiji, they supported the whole review and
draft constitution process to the tune of hundreds of thousands of
dollars, they welcomed the draft constitution and now this has
happened."
Professor Lal says the new draft document will carry
the stamp of the military government, and will then be passed by a
committee chosen by the Prime Minister.
"The constituent assembly
will be hand-picked by the Prime Minister, Frank Bainimarama. There is
no independence, there is no transparency and basically the military
will have its way." he said.
"The [original] draft constitution
was widely welcomed by the people of Fiji, by all the major political
parties and now the military and the regime simply wants to have a
document that is its handiwork and enshrines its interests and concerns
and aspirations."
Misplaced criticism
Fiji's government is
standing by its decision, citing shortcomings Professor Yash Ghai's
draft and saying much of the criticism is unwarranted. On
Thursday, President Ratu Epeli Nailatikau criticised the Ghai draft for
being "very bureaucratic" and said the institutions it would create
would require a "very bureaucratic structure."
"It [the draft] has
unfortunately, perhaps, succumbed to the whims of the few who have had
an interest in perpetuating divisions within our society," Mr Nailatikau
said. However, Mr Nailatikau highlighted several positives of the
Ghai draft, including provisions on social and economic rights, good
governance and accountability and independence of the judiciary. The government now says it will move forward with another draft. Permanent
Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Pio
Tidoduadua, told Radio Australia they have until February to put
together the constituent assembly and the country will have a new
constitution by the end of April.
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Workers' party to take on Fiji PM Frank Bainimarama
"Fijians' aspirations had been dealt a cruel blow by the decision to redraft the constitution."
BY:ROWAN CALLICK, ASIA-PACIFIC EDITOR
A
NEW movement of trade unionists and civil society groups has been
formed in Fiji, throwing down a gauntlet to military ruler Frank
Bainimarama, who will set rules tomorrow for parties in next year's
election.
The movement, finalised at the weekend at a meeting in Nadi, will
provide a further challenge to the government, which has ruled since a
December 2006 coup.
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| Dictator Bainimarama |
Commodore Bainimarama, the (illegal) Prime Minister, said the decree "will set
new and internationally accepted standards of political party
governance". The government has been widely condemned in the past week for
abandoning the process it established for drawing up a new constitution
ready for the election -- pledged by Commodore Bainimarama to be held by
September next year.
The draft drawn up by a commission chaired by constitutional expert
Yash Ghai, after 7000 submissions from Fiji individuals and institutions
and meetings around the country, has been put to one side.
The army, in its 100-page submission to the commission, further
insisted all the decrees it had imposed since seizing power -- 84 so far
-- be retained rather than abolished or amended as proposed in the
commission's draft. Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said of the constitution that
"overall, in respect of the process, which the President (Epeli
Nailatikau) has laid out, we just have to adhere to that". He said
Commodore Bainimarama would announce the membership of the Constituent
Assembly on his return from New York, where he is assuming on behalf of
Fiji the chairmanship of the G77 group of developing countries at the
UN.
But Akuila Yabaki, the clergyman who is chief executive of the
Citizens Constitutional Forum, said at the weekend Fijians' aspirations
had been dealt a cruel blow by the decision to redraft the constitution.
Sharan Burrow, who was ACTU president for a decade before becoming
general-secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation in
2010, left Fiji at the weekend after meeting unionists there. She told The Australian that Commodore Bainimarama's failure to
adhere to the process towards a new constitution he had himself drawn up
"is a clear indication that he is not serious about transition to
democratic rights and freedom".
She said unions in Fiji no longer had the right to collective
bargaining, striking or even meeting. "That's why the unions decided to
launch a new political party and movement, which is inclusive of workers
and their families, which is multi-racial, and which broadly represents
civil society," Ms Burrow said. "That's a very courageous decision -- that you simply have to stand
up to a dictator. The people in the packed hall I addressed in Nadi at
the weekend were determined not to be cowed in seeking to take back
their country."
Sydney-born Catholic priest Kevin Barr, founder of the People's
Community Network, who resigned last August as chairman of Fiji's Wages
Council, and Poseci Bune, a former head of the public service and
ambassador to the UN and a former Labour politician, both pledged their
support for the new movement, said Ms Burrow.
The International Labour Organisation in November named Fiji one of
"the most serious and urgent cases regarding freedom of association".
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