Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Mandate of Corruption.

Article by blog: Maxine covers the news of the 400 cases of corruption reported by the interim Government's new Anti-Corruption unit, superimposed with the remark by Fiji Womens Crisis Centre spokesperson Virisila Buadromo, reported by an article from Radio NZ International.

“The mechanisms created to set it up were illegal and the people don’t fully understand that and it seem like should the current regime be taken to court and then it found to be illegal or the coup that they put in place is illegal then all the institutions and decisions that they made then become null and void.”

This comment is best read along with a remark made by former British P.M , Winston Churchill in the House of Commons on November 11th 1947: "Many forms of governments have been tried or will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government, except all those other forms that havee been tried from time to time".

Buadromo implies erroneously that, moral virtues should not replace democratic vices. By extension of that logic, corruption should be cordoned in Fiji and should not be singled out or stopped. Since corruption was virtually ignored by the supposedly, democratically elected SDL Government, headed by Laisenia Qarase; the Interim Government should use that same precedence of ignoring white-collar criminals.

Unfortunately, it seems these 400 cases of corruption were not investigated, prior to the 2006 coup and Fiji Women's Crisis Centre's (FWCC)overwhelming silence on the issues of corruption reported by Fiji media, did not help at all in preventing, arresting or investigating this growing cancer.

By implication, FWCC was complicit in the culture of silence, which actively ignored corruption in Fiji. This diabolic silence, effectively led to misappropriations from the state coffers; which FWCC did not object to, at any time. Those squandered state funds, could have otherwise been utilized for empowerment programs, specifically for rural dwelling women; if their rural crisis had ever appeared on the radar screens in FWCC.

The only thing that was "voided" beyond reasonable doubt, was the ability of FWCC to report on the issue of corruption. 400 cases marks the high water level of FWCC's ignorance and questions the oversight ability of institutions, to halt festering corruption in Fiji.
Although, the question of legitimacy was raised by Buadromo regarding the question of legitimacy; the issue of institutionalized corruption and turning a blind eye to the cancer supersedes that petty concern.

Democratic legitimacy has been a myopic concern of FWCC and this concern is diluted by a quote from a U.S President, John Adams, who wrote on April 15, 1814, in a letter to John Taylor: "Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide".

Buadromo's pre-text of legitimacy should be more applicable to the undemocratic use of native institutions like Great Council of Chiefs; which actively manufactures consent from the indigenous populace, using a cultural mandate in a democratic arena.
Suffice to say, Buadromo's knowledge of legality is extremely limited; since she is neither a lawyer by profession, nor is FWCC or Buadromo legally contesting the legitimacy of the Interim Government or their decisions, in any Fiji court. Absence of such court rulings on legitimacy; underlines the speculative nature of FWCC's position and their spokesperson.

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