Former Attorney General Graham Leung has recommended that the Constitution should ensure future coup perpetrators are not granted immunity, saying Fiji must act decisively to break the cycle of coups and immunity that has left a mark on the country's constitutional history.
While making his submission to the Constitution Review Commission, Leung stressed that granting immunity sends a dangerous signal that the violent or unlawful seizure of power is ultimately tolerable, provided it succeeds.
INSERT: Leung on immunity 29th June
He says the rule of law demands that all persons, regardless of influence, rank or office, are subject to the rule of law.
He adds that if Fiji is to strengthen the integrity of its rule of law and secure long-term democratic stability, it is essential that immunity for future coup perpetrators ceases.
Leung has urged the Commission to consider protections to ensure no future legislative or constitutional enactments can grant immunity from prosecution to any coup perpetrator.
He also called for the explicit recognition of coups as criminal acts constituting treason and says anyone found guilty of treason should be banned for life from standing for political office, government boards, committees or instrumentalities.
Leung says he is not suggesting it is humanly possible to prosecute everyone involved in past coups because it would be an administrative, legal and constitutional nightmare.
He says what he had in mind was moving forward, with the Constitution explicitly stating that anyone involved in a future coup will not get immunity from prosecution.
He adds that this would send a warning to anybody who feels they can use the precedent of the past as a "get out of jail card" in the future.
The former Attorney General also says that he does not support calls for Fiji to be declared a Christian state and believes it should remain a secular state.
He says a secular state is neutral as far as religion is concerned and does not favour one religion over another.
He says those calling for Fiji to become a Christian state might not recognise the danger that a fundamentalist government could, at some future time, seek to force Christianity on all the people of this country.
Leung says that kind of religious chauvinism is unlikely to work in a country such as Fiji and is likely to become a point of division rather than unity.
He says the best way the country can become a Christian state is for those who profess to be Christians to be more Christ-like in their daily lives and in the way they treat their neighbours.
The former Attorney General has also called for changes to Fiji's electoral system, saying there are serious deficiencies in the current system and that the Constitution should consider returning to multiple constituencies.
He says the 55 Members of Parliament currently serve the whole of Fiji, but people do not have a local MP they can turn to.
He adds that the needs of people living in different parts of the country vary widely, and multiple constituencies would allow MPs to better represent their communities.
Leung also urged the Commission to review the five percent threshold for political parties and independent candidates to enter Parliament.
He says it is difficult for people to understand how one candidate can receive thousands of votes and fail to enter Parliament, while another candidate with only a few hundred votes can enter Parliament by "piggybacking" on the party leader's votes.
Leung says when there is cynicism about an electoral system, it erodes trust in that system, and the system has to be credible so people can relate to it.
He has also called for prisoners serving sentences of 12 months or longer to be allowed to vote.
He says every eligible person, regardless of race, gender, income or background, should have an equal right to participate in the electoral process.
Leung says the current Constitution removes the right to vote from people serving prison sentences of 12 months or longer.
He says those prisoners are already serving their punishment and should not be deprived of their democratic right to vote, and that this amounts to double punishment.
He has urged the Commission to review the provision so prisoners serving 12 months or longer are able to vote for the candidate of their choice in general elections.
