The Republic of Fiji Military Forces has declared that it does not want the proposed constitutional immunity under section 206 of the Constitution Amendment Bill 2026 and is calling on Parliament to remove Chapter 14 and replace it with a Truth, Accountability and Reconciliation Commission.
Making the RFMF's submission to the Joint Parliamentary Special Committee, RFMF Commander Major General Ro Jone Kalouniwai says he came not simply as a Commander answering the call of a Committee, but as a soldier of Fiji who believes that the institution he leads owes the people of this nation a debt, and that the time has come to begin repaying it.
Major General Kalouniwai says the RFMF takes no position on the referendum, and none on any political party.
He says those decisions belong to the Government, the Parliament and the people of Fiji.
He says that when he thinks about this Bill, he does not first think of sections and subsections, but of people;about mothers in villages struggling with rising food prices, farmers, fishermen, young people in informal settlements, children, people living with disabilities and elderly widows who simply want to be treated with dignity.
He also says he thinks about families who lost their sons, husbands and fathers during the dark chapters of Fiji's history and have waited many years for the truth.
He adds that these are the people for whom a Constitution matters most.
The Commander says the powerful will always find protection and the well-connected will always find a way, but the common people of Fiji, and above all the vulnerable, have only one shield: the law.
He says when the law is equal, they are safe, and when the law bends for the few, they are the first to fall.
He says the RFMF is laying down its immunity.
Major General Kalouniwai says that on 16th October 2026, on behalf of the RFMF, he signed a Declaration on Constitutional Immunity, which is enclosed with their submission.
He says the RFMF does not seek the immunity in section 206 of the Bill and does not wish to receive it.
He says they are asking Parliament to remove Chapter 14.
The Commander says they accept, without condition, the civilian authority set out in section 151 and will cooperate with any lawful process of accountability.
He says that in its Advisory Opinion of August 2025, the Supreme Court accepted that immunity weakens the rule of law and may encourage future coups.
He says the Court left immunity in place partly because it was believed to be the price of the military's return to civilian rule.
He says the party for whose benefit that bargain was made now declines it, and that on the Court's own reasoning, what remains is the case against immunity.
Major General Kalouniwai says a soldier who knows he will answer to the law can never be made into a weapon against his own people, while a soldier promised immunity in advance can.
He says when they lay down their immunity, they are not only cleansing their own conscience, but giving every mother, every young protester, every villager and every vulnerable citizen of Fiji a promise that the strength of the nation will never again be turned against them without consequence.
He says removing immunity convicts no one; it restores the ordinary law, with all its protections.
He says this is how the RFMF seeks to help realign the nation's moral compass, not by speeches alone, but by giving up the very thing that has protected them.
Major General Kalouniwai says for the first time, the people of Fiji may be asked to approve their own supreme law.
He says we have the chance to strengthen our democracy, restore trust in our institutions, and show our children that Fiji can change its highest law through the ballot box and not the barrel of a gun.
He says the choices before the Committee are critical, and some of them cannot be undone.
He warns that once this Bill passes its third reading, section 207 would make its immunity permanent and place it beyond the reach of the courts, for generations not yet born.
He says if we fail to choose rightly now, our grandchildren will inherit the same counter-covenant we inherited, and the cycle will turn again.
He says the RFMF does not come before the Committee with clean hands.
The Commander acknowledges that in 1987, 2000 and 2006, the constitutional order of the nation was overturned and the RFMF was at the centre of those events.
He says lives were lost, families were broken, and in some homes the wound has never healed.
He says each time, the wrongs were followed by immunity written into the Constitution.
Major General Kalouniwai says what was presented as a temporary bargain for peace became a permanent feature of the State.
He says instead of having a system where the State protects its people through justice, immunity protected those who overturned the people's choice.
He says immunity has never protected the widow, the farmer or the child, but has protected only those who held power.
The Commander says since 2022, the RFMF has chosen a different road.
He says in December 2022, when the election outcome was contested and the nation waited anxiously, he told soldiers at Delainabua that the RFMF would honour the outcome and respect the choice of the people.
He says no law required it, but it was simply the right thing to do, and power in Fiji changed hands peacefully through the ballot and not the gun.
Major General Kalouniwai says in March 2024, during the RFMF Force Church Service, the Force acknowledged its past wrongs before God and the nation and began its Truth and Reconciliation Programme.
He says its first step was taken at Delainabua, where the RFMF sat with those who lived through the events of 2000 and their families.
He says they listened to stories that were hard to hear and harder still to tell, including what happened inside their own barracks and how the brotherhood was torn apart.
The Commander says they came away knowing that the wound still lives, the pain remains and the wrong remains.
He says the RFMF resolved to heal the wound, wipe away the tears, right the wrong and set the Force free to live with a clean conscience.
He says in August 2025, the RFMF presented its matanigasau to the Methodist Church in Fiji and was told, "You are forgiven and set free."
Major General Kalouniwai says in November 2025, the RFMF presented its matanigasau to the Great Council of Chiefs for its removal in 2006, and the chiefs received them as their sons.
He says forgiveness has been given to the RFMF and it is now its duty to prove worthy of it.
He says during the RFMF Colours parade on 9th October, he reminded soldiers that neither Parliament nor the RFMF owns what it holds.
He says Parliament holds the voice of the people, while the RFMF holds the strength of the people, and both must be treated as a trust.
He says Fiji's history has shown that a country where the gun overrules the ballot is not truly independent.
The Commander also says on 28th October, the Ba Provincial Council made an unprecedented decision by unanimously inviting the RFMF Commander, rather than a politician, to open its meeting.
He says he told the chiefs and people of Ba that he was not there to make promises or speak for any political party, but to tell the truth that people are suffering and have waited too long.
He says he reminded them that a council, like a house, is built to protect its people and is only as strong as the posts supporting it.
The RFMF is recommending that Chapter 14 be replaced with a Truth, Accountability and Reconciliation Commission, where protection is earned only through full disclosure, never granted in advance and never available for murder, torture, sexual violence or drug offences.
The Commander says this would ensure victims are heard and the truth is told.
Major General Kalouniwai also says the RFMF makes a pledge before the Committee and the nation that it will remain strictly neutral in the referendum and the general election.
He says no soldier will campaign in uniform, and the RFMF will support the electoral authorities only when asked and as the law permits.
He adds that they will respect the outcome of the referendum and the general election, whatever they may be.
The Commander says above all, they will stand with the common people of Fiji, and with the weakest among them.
He says in every cyclone, flood and crisis, they do not ask how a village voted; they ask only how they can help.
He says that is the RFMF they are rebuilding, and that is the RFMF the people deserve.
