The Commander of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces, Major General Ro Jone Kalouniwai says the RFMF notes with serious concern that the proposed Chapter 14 of the Constitution Amendment Bill 2026 names members of the RFMF among the beneficiaries of a new, absolute and unchallengeable immunity until the first sitting of the new parliament.
This extension of immunity to the new parliament after the general elections in the Bill is a serious matter, and the RFMF has conveyed its concerns to Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka and Minister for Defence, Pio Tikoduadua.
The Commander says the President, Ministers, the RFMF, Police, Corrections, the judiciary and public servants would be covered for some twelve further years under this immunity clause that will end with the first sitting of the new parliament; and it closes every route to challenge.
The Commander says the risk is heightened by present conditions.
He says drug exhibits have been lost from the custody of the courts and police, officers charged with combating narcotics are under investigation for collusion with traffickers, HIV has been declared a national crisis, driven in large part by injecting drug use, public confidence in institutions has declined, and some voices now describe the RFMF as the only institution able to restore order.
Commander Kalouniwai says the RFMF does not welcome such calls and asks that they cease.
He stresses that the RFMF will not rely on the immunity protection Chapter 14 would offer.
The RFMF says consistent with its responsibilities, it will conduct an integrity review of the Force and prosecute any member found to be involved in narcotics or corruption; offer secure custody and witnessed destruction of drug exhibits, should the judiciary or the Fiji Police Force request it; strengthen maritime surveillance and interdiction against drug trafficking, in support of the Police and the Fiji Revenue and Customs Service; and maintain its submission to the Constitution Review Commission: an end to blanket immunity, with any protection earned through full public disclosure.
Major General Kalouniwai says the RFMF respectfully encourages the Parliamentary Committee reviewing the Bill to consider a conditional, disclosure-based approach to immunity, consistent with the third option set out by the Constitution Review Commission.
The Head of the RFMF says the RFMF did not seek this protection and does not accept it.
He stresses that it is contrary to the position the RFMF placed before the Constitution Review Commission.
The Army Commander says in the RFMF's assessment, it also strengthens the conditions that have drawn the military into intervention in the past.
The RFMF is deeply troubled that Chapter 14 adds to the pressure now bearing on the Force, at a time when the nation’s confidence in its institutions is already strained.
Major General Kalouniwai says the RFMF’s loyalty to the Constitution and to civilian authority is steadfast and unchanged.
He says it issues this statement so that its position is not mistaken for support of Chapter 14, and so that the dangers it sees are understood before the Bill proceeds.
The Commander says on 2nd July 2026, the RFMF made a formal submission to the Constitution Review Commission.
He says the RFMF acknowledged the institution's own part in Fiji's political instability since 1987 and it asked that the blanket immunity be ended, and that any protection be conditional on full public disclosure through a strengthened truth and reconciliation process.
The Commander says the RFMF did so knowing that its own members could face legal consequences, because no institution or individual should stand above the law, regardless of rank.
He says Chapter 14, as tabled on 30th September 2026, takes the opposite course in four respects : it keeps blanket immunity; it continues in full the immunity for the events of 1987, 2000 and 2006, despite the Commission's recommendation that it be repealed; it makes immunity absolute and unconditional; it covers criminal, civil and other proceedings, with no condition of disclosure or reconciliation; it extends the time window. Immunity for State office holders after December 2006 previously ended in October 2014. Chapter 14 extends it to the first sitting of the next Parliament.
The Army Commander says Chapter 14 cannot be amended or repealed, and no court would have jurisdiction to hear a challenge to it.
The RFMF says the Government has cited the Supreme Court's advisory opinion of 29th August 2025.
The RFMF says it respectfully notes that the opinion preserved the existing immunity provisions, it did not, on its face, require a new grant extending to the next election.
Major General Kalouniwai says since 1987, Fiji has passed through a recurring cycle.
He says civilian governance fails, public trust collapses, the military is presented as the guardian of last resort and intervenes, a new constitutional order follows, and immunity is granted to those who acted.
He says that immunity teaches every institution that power, once taken, need not be answered for, and the decline begins again.
Major General Kalouniwai says research on Fiji's post-1987 governance, including the doctoral study The Architecture of Rebellion, describes this pattern as the intervention trap.
He says immunity has always been the final stage of that cycle and Chapter 14 would write it in advance by granting the military, and every arm of the State, absolute protection up to the next Parliament, it would remove one of the strongest barriers against intervention at the very moment that barrier should be raised.
He says an immunity that would also extend over the period in which these failures have occurred cannot strengthen public trust and it risks deepening the impunity the nation is trying to escape.
The RFMF calls on the leaders of Government and Opposition, the Bose Levu Vakaturaga, the churches and civil society to reject any call for military action, and to resolve the present crisis through the institutions of the Constitution.
Major General Kalouniwai says Fiji's future will not be secured by another intervention or another immunity - it will be secured when the nation, together, refuses both.
