Thursday, August 22, 2013

Who is Bainimarama and Khaiyum Fooling with their Secretly Developed Constitution?

by Sai Lealea


Having to end today with the news of the Fiji military regime finally unveiling its final version of its Constitution for Fiji can only be described as a real painful experience, yet totally unexpected.


The grin of a corrupt legal wizard thinking he has all escape routes plugged!
Painful when the occasion is being overseen by Khaiyum who, like a half castrated tom cat, put on his cheeky grin while holding on to his copy of the document, reflecting his satisfaction in thinking, he has yet again tricked the people of Fiji with his amateurish legal wizardry. Unexpected though, in that we all know the real motives behind the design and content of the document. Such a key document, when treated and developed in such cavalier and amateurish manner by its sponsors, deserve only to be rejected outright and thrown into a waist bin as fuel to fire nationwide derision, ridicule and contempt.

It is no wonder, political parties and organisations with much more brains and experience of constitution-making boycotted the unveiling for good reasons.


2013 Bainimarama Constitution-English.

The document has no mandate from the people other than the regime itself. As such, its contents are designed among other things, to:
1. protect the regime and its members from facing trial for their treasonous crime.
2. prolong the rule of the current illegal regime.
3. elevate and empower the military with ongoing power to interfere in politics.
4. entrench the immunity provision on the regime and its members.
5. consolidate real power in a few key positions controlled by the PM and AG - we know who are the people earmarking themselves for these!

For people judging this document, assess it from the perspectives of those who:
1. threw out the Ghai draft since it was a widely consulted-on document.
2. need the military on their side to ensure their hold on power.
3. have most to lose if the Ghai version is adopted and not the version unveiled today.
4. stand to gain from an open ended immunity coverage, even those illegal acts yet to be committed.

Any assessment along the above line will reveal that the current document is no more than a ticket for the current regime to rule in perpetuity and without any check against their policies and programmes. It is precisely for those reasons that it must be rejected outright by the people of Fiji.

The people and nation of Fiji deserve better than the feeble and treasonous attempt by an illegal regime to profit from their takeover of a democratically elected government that had the mandate of the people of Fiji. To now attempt to entrench their rule by a document that has no mandate from the people, concentrates power in the hands of a few, authorises future coups via a pliant military, is treating the people as dumb with no legal authority or moral soul. 



All the people of Fiji and those who love Fiji should do the right thing and throw the unveiled constitution of the current illegal regime into the bin and light it in a bonfire to truly reflect what we all think of it.

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