Shut down the party and go home if you cannot come up with proposals that will bring a better Fiji for all the citizens of the country.
That is Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama’s message to the SDL party after the party made its constitution submission last week.
Commodore Bainimarama said it is evident that SDL does not want to change.
He said the Labour Party and United People’s Party were having discussions with the SDL on the constitution submission and he questions whether this is all they have to offer to the people.
Transcribed audio:
“I know that most of us are very disappointed with their submission. We hoped that SDL would have changed their stance; their views about what we should be doing in Fiji with regards to our constitution, but obviously not. But in the past 2 or 3 months they’ve(SDL) have been talking with Labour, they’ve been talking with Mick Beddoes about their constitution committee submission and it’s very disappointing what they’ve come up with. I wouldn’t be surprised if Labour’s submission is along the same lines or Mick Beddoes’ is along the same lines. I have no doubt about that. They’ve probably now changed them because we have highlighted our reservations about the submissions that have been put forward by SDL.”
Commodore Bainimarama stressed that there needs to be equality for all citizens irrespective of their race, religion and gender.
He said the ideas on the new constitution also needed to be above politics.
Transcribed audio:
“The party has not learn. The SDL has not learnt from the events of 1987; the events of 2000, to change the way they think about what we should put into our constitution to make it, to bring about, at the end of the day, a vision that seeks the progressive prosperity through equality of opportunity and peace. That’s the vision we have and that’s what we should be targeting. All the political parties that go put their submission; people that go and put in their views. I’ve been harping all along that a constitution is well above politics. Politics should not be brought into the constitution or the political agenda of political parties. Because if we have the political agendas of political parties brought into the constitution, it would be a very short show. Nothing good is going to come of them”
The Prime Minister said the main agenda for the new constitution is to put Fiji first.
Transcribed audio:
“When you go in you think of Fiji as a nation. That’s what we should be targeting. Not personal agendas or political agendas that will take you to the next election. On that note if the SDL has nothing to offer to the people of Fiji I think they should bind up and go home. It’s not doing their followers a lot of good. Those of us who are in a position of power should let our people exactly what we need to do to bring about a better Fiji. It seems that the SDL has not learned that lesson.”
In the SDL submission to the Constitution Commission, the party wants Fiji to be declared a Christian State, Christianity to be the state religion and Fijian to be the national language of the state.
SDL said they also want the name “Fijian” to be reserved for the indigenous Fijians and all citizens to be called “Fiji Islanders”. SDL also proposes that there should be no provisions for dual citizenship.
Speaking to the Professor Yash Ghai led commission, the SDL officials said that the party wants the term “sexual orientation” to be removed from the Bill of Rights of the 1997 constitution.
In that section it states that a person must not be unfairly discriminated against, directly or indirectly, on the ground of his or her sexual orientation.
They propose that parliament and senate should be retained, some communal seats to be retained and the balance to be won under the one man one vote system.
On the appointment of the country’s President and Vice President, SDL has suggested that they should still be appointed by the Great Council of Chiefs. The party said the GCC should be established under the constitution and a GCC Act should clearly set out their roles and functions.
Commodore Bainimarama stresses that the Great Council of Chiefs will not be reinstated.
Transcribed audio:
“Those who are wanting the Great Council of Chiefs to come back are chiefs who are depending on that entity to help support them, to prop them up. The chiefs have a big responsibility, in that they go out to the vanua and they look after the people in the vanua. We’ve highlighted that it’s the most undemocratic entity in Fiji right now, then. And that was one of the reasons why we removed it in 2007. Because it has propped up a lot of people and brought about nothing but corruption.”
Story by: Vijay Narayan
