News of CEO for Ministry of Home Affairs being suspended from duties, only adds to the track record of interference by the SDL Government. The debate for the 2007 Budget has yet to be seen and indications from the FLP on their opposition to the budget marks further problems for SDL. The budget vote is usually a prime test of loyalties of all parties in Government. Fiji Chamber of Commerce head reveals that SDL Government is not genuinely listening to critics of their fiscal policies.
Fiji Daily Post's Editorial of November 10th resumes the tact of mis-information often applied liberally recently by Australian and New Zealand media outlets.
This is the excerpt:
Time for the Qarase Doctrine
10-Nov-2006
By now everyone will be wondering whether Frank Bainimarama is fully aware of the likely consequences of his action. By snubbing the request by the Great Council of Chiefs to attend yesterday’s meeting so they can find and progress some solutions to his complaint against government, the military commander is wearing thin the goodwill of those he needs to win over to his point of view – not just the chiefs and the multiparty government, but the people of Fiji and the international community looking on in disbelief.
The more the military leadership insists on driving its own agenda into the path of the Qarase government the more it ‘doth protest too much’. It implies too much of its own desperation – desperation which suggests it has something to hide. The latest demand that the rule of law be suspended in regard to its own activities in dealing with the CRW uprising in 2001 contradicts its own demands that the Qarase government deal justly with the perpetrators of 2000. On one hand the military is insisting that justice be applied to the coup culprits it says are still free, yet on the other the military is avoiding facing justice in relation to its own dealings.
The law of the land cannot be tailor-made to suit one institution and not the other. All must fall under the same code of conduct and application of justice to violations. A true democracy cannot have one set of moral imperatives for its military and another set for everyone else. Moreover, to hold the government to ransom until it conforms to the military view of justice is simply wrong and an audacious bluff by our military commander. There is no warrant for any democratically elected government that derives its legitimacy from the will of the people to submit or surrender to the will of an unelected military leadership.
Frank Bainimarama is out of control and must be called to account for it. He and his military are potentially, collectively guilty of treason (against the state) and mutiny (against their commander-in-chief). And now, they have sullied the respect due to their traditional chiefs - implying by this action that there is no moral authority in Fiji to which they owe allegiance other than themselves and their own misguided commander and his colonels.
Standing on edge of the nuclear era, American president, Harry Truman, in 1947 proclaimed what has become known as the ‘Truman Doctrine’. He said, ‘it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures’. The time has come to declare unequivocally a Qarase Doctrine similar to that of Truman’s: ‘it must be the policy of Fiji’s government and chiefs to support the freedom of their people who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures’.
Unlike the Truman doctrine which had an external force, a foreign policy application, the Qarase Doctrine would apply firstly and primarily to our own citizens. Frank Bainimarama has handed the Qarase government, our chiefs, and presidents, a rationale par excellence for demilitarisation. This will be the first and necessary, though not sufficient, step under the Qarase Doctrine for ridding this great region, once and forever, of the endemic ‘coup-culture’ that breeds like dengue in the infested minds of ambitious and renegade military leaders and which threatens the welfare of the nation.
The tendency for the S.D.L Government to frequently consult the Great Council of Chiefs(GCC), a non-elected body of Nobles exceedingly reveals the conundrum faced by Fiji's Government and Aristocracy, in the age of Constitutional Rights.
This same Supreme Court has been consulted by the Fiji P.M in determining the limits of Army Commander. Perhaps the honored judiciary should also factor into account the limits of the Great Council of Chiefs as well.
The Government derives their mandate from the people from all backgrounds, using the General Elections as the king maker. On other hand, the GCC is a patriachical and cultural based entity, with blood lines being the only criterium.
The issue now becomes, who is the final datum of authority in Government? The quasi-feudal marriage of cultural lexicons with democratical institutions in Fiji is analogous to having a 'state within a state'.
The use of the Great Council of Chiefs(GCC) meetings, often raises to the surface the prudent question, of whether the elected in Government are legally able to form an interest sepearate from the electors?
Or should the elected be able to consult an entity alien to the electors and the entire process of elections?
Although, the Great Council of Chiefs supporters are fond of marketing the hype that, the institution of GCC is the highest pinnacle of Fiji leadership. Unfortunately the GCC has neither the mandate nor the authority to supercede unalienable rights outlined in the 1997 Fiji constitution.
This is the height of the legal absurdity of the composition and roles of this organization using the flawed nexus of Vanua.
A Vanua that does not pay taxes, should be subservient to the central Government of Fiji and the principles of democracy.
A Vanua that does not follow democracy, has not and will not have the ability to empower or serve the welfare of its own populace and should not be exalted, elevated or respected for that simple reason.
The Vanua and GCC have demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt that their very premise and existence continues to erode the foundations of democracy: fair play, law and order and honor and integrity.
Great Council of Chiefs really does make a mockery of the tools of democracy in Fiji. It also confirms a logical fallacy that, an institution which excludes the common person from their membership, are often dependant on the common person for guidance, know how and their wealth of experience in Governmental matters in Fiji.
The same members of this GCC are unable to manfacture their own homes, cars and clothes. Yet the GCC members have this ingrained attitude that, they are absolute and above the supreme law of Fiji. GCC often lacks the modesty to acknowledge their limited abilities. This lack of honesty is reflected in the GCC inability to permit knowledgeable citizens of Fiji to lead, irrespective of color, creed and caste.
What is so inherently flawed about these layers of institutions in Fiji that exalt, elevate and worship a group of people who have flowing within their veins; blood and DNA of self-centered superiority ?
Does this DNA give superhman powers, the ability to stop poverty, stop wars and other mindless acts of destruction occuring on this planet?
This archaic process of honoring such a minority group over others in Fiji cannot be jusified with the Holy Book either. The words of "Render unto Caesar, the things which is Caesar's" is the acknowledgement.
Club Em Designs
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