Constitution Lacks Credibility

Fiji's constitution has lost some of its credibility over the past 10 years according to the National Council for Building a Better Fiji consultation document which is now being distributed to the members of the public.

The consultation document for the preparation of the State of the Nation and Economy Report said the constitution's credibility has been affected due to its race-based architecture and electoral system.

It said for a number of reasons, the country has failed to maintain representative democracy and Fiji's current electoral system is a contributing factor. The document said attempts to solve the perceived differences between the communities, through the electoral system, resulted in a change to Fiji's voting system.

However with the retention of separate communal constituencies and voter rolls under a single member electoral system, the three general elections conducted under the Alternative Vote System adopted under the 1997 constitution only heightened the communal differences.

The consultation document further states that the ongoing political impasse over the entrenched provisions of the constitution relating to the leasing of agricultural native land, which the normal political processes have proved incapable of solving, is now a major national issue. As a consequence, the NCBBF said many leases were not renewed and many tenants were forced to leave their homes and move into squatter settlements.

Meanwhile the National Council for Building A Better Fiji is expected to start visiting villages and settlements nationwide from this week to meet people and explain to them about the Consultation document they have launched.

Council members have agreed that the council wants individuals to come forward and inform them how they want a government to lead Fiji.

Head of the Public Relations Media team Filimoni Kau explained the process of the working group as they have less than four months to compile the People's Charter.

He hopes people in the provinces will willingly come and consult with them as some are against the idea of the People's Charter Process.

There are about 38 members in the NCBBF and about 200 people in the various working groups who will be distributing about 200,000

Consultation documents to the general public.