With just a few weeks remaining for public consultations on the constitution review and questions being raised on whether Fiji is rushing through the process, the Constitution Review Commission is maintaining that they are going around the country to ensure the people's voices are heard and they believe they have sufficient time to write their report and prepare a draft bill by August 31st this year.
Constitution Review Commission Chairman, Sevuloni Valenitabua has made it clear on fiivillage Straight Talk With Vijay Narayan that they have been given 6 months to complete the review, present the report and the draft bill by the end of August to the President.
When asked on whether all of this can be done in 6 months, Valenitabua says this is a matter of amendments, and May and June is part of the public consultations where they are travelling throughout the country, and they will then sit down and write the report and the draft bill in July and August.
He says the major themes emerging are common name, separation of powers where the Attorney General has a lot of powers in the 2013 Constitution, secular state where there are views for and against, issues about citizenship, accountability and transparency issues and Bill of Rights issues.
Valenitabua says they have to make a decision on the common name issue as submissions have been made.
Commission member, Doctor Nilesh Goundar says when they do their report, they will not just look at the number of submissions made but how this will help the nation, and how this will assist in national unity and social cohesion.
They say the commission members have not made up their minds yet and they are listening to the people making the submissions.
Valenitabua says the death penalty has been suggested but they have said that there is a Bill of Rights and everyone has a right to life.
He says it will be too early to comment on the submission made that parents should be given the liberty to discipline their children.
Valenitabua says they do not have any idea on what happens after they present their report and draft bill as that will be up to the President and Cabinet on when this goes to Parliament.
Doctor Goundar says the people of Fiji will be able to access all the submissions when their website is up and running.
He says they will have a summary of submissions and when the report comes out, all the submissions will be accessible.
However Dialogue Fiji Executive Director, Nilesh Lal maintains the constitutional review process lacks transparency, there is no livestreaming of proceedings and no publication or public access to submissions, no central website or platform for tracking submissions, concerns that the process is not genuinely inclusive as consultation venues mostly concentrated in predominantly iTaukei areas, no clear Terms of Reference or enabling legislation identified, and a five-month timeframe (with only 2 months public consultation) is unrealistic for comprehensive reform.
Lal says a rushed and opaque process cannot cure concerns about democratic legitimacy, and transparency and public accountability are essential to credible constitution-making.
He says the Ghai Commission process is presented as the benchmark to be followed due to extensive consultations and transparent publication of over 7,000 submissions.
Lal says the Reeves Commission took 2 years and the Ghai Commission took 1 year.
