“Whose job to protect the rule of law? Where is the punishment for the crime?” (Ed. in FT 20/5/2023)

It is astonishing to me that no one at the Economic Summit asked the above question:  whose job is it to protect the “rule of law”? Indeed, no one, not even the President of the Fiji Law Society has publicly asked: what IS the “rule of law” in Fiji today, despite its centrality to any number of issues plaguing Fiji today at every turn.  

     Despite its importance in preserving the rule of law, no one is asking why has there been no “punishment” for those who committed the heinous crime of treason in 2006? 

     Indeed, no one is asking how “immunity” (i.e. no punishment) can be promised in law for those who trashed the rule of law, as the 2013 Constitution allegedly guarantees.

     My personal perspective on these questions can be clearly seen from four decades of  community education articles in my Volume 3 Our Struggles for Democracy in Fiji: Rule of Law and Media Freedom, available for sale at the USP Book Centre.

     These articles range from my opposition to the 1987 Rabuka coup and other coups, and my writings trying to get to the bottom of the 2000 coup and mutiny, the 2006 coup and all the subsequent machinations of the Bainimarama/Khaiyum governments.

     These articles also help explain why we have failed to protect the Rule of Law in Fiji since the 1987 coup and why our failures continue.

My Volume 3 Contents

The Contents are shown at the bottom of this article with one common theme emerging in many sections- what would be a good electoral system for multi-ethnic Fiji, a question still valid today in 2023. The Contents pages also show the incredible censorship that was taking place between 2009 and 2014  with “(Cens)” in the titles of the articles censored from mainstream Fiji media. 

     Section B may generally be seen as writings calling for the fair treatment of Indo-Fijians in the electoral system and the allocation of public resources by government. Reading 10 pointed out the fatal weaknesses of the Alternative Vote system recommended by Reeves Commission and adopted in the 1997 Constitution unanimously passed by both Houses of Parliament, of which I was also a member (my writings in Section C). But Reading 11 also gave my recommendations for a better electoral system for Fiji.

     In Section C which covers some of my initiatives during my time in Parliament (1996 to 1999) Reading 17 gives an advertisement which I personally took out in the Fiji Times of 24 April 1999, extolling the virtues of the Rabuka (SVT) and Reddy (NFP) partnership. The messages in this advertisement applied equally twenty three years later to the partnership of Rabuka (Peoples Alliance Party) and Professor Prasad (National Federation Party) (see article in forthcoming Volume 4).

     Section D covers all the events following the 2000 coup and especially my arguments for the Interim Qarase Government not to throw out the 1997 Constitution just because the electoral system had weaknesses. Many of these arguments were continued into Section E covering the Qarase years between 2001 and 2006.

     But in Section F covering the immediate aftermath of the 2006 coup, I felt obliged to revisit the hidden events of the 2000 coup and mutiny which I felt were the real origins of the Bainimarama Coup in 2006 (Reading 41). That Reading and Reading 42 (Call for Commission of Truth, Justice and Reconciliation) are still two of the most important in the book and both MUST be again revisited of there is to be any resolution of the rule of law in 2023.

     Section G (The People’s Charter) and Section H (the Draft Yash Ghai Commission Report) must be thoroughly understood as the evolutionary and far more reasonable collective alternatives which the Bainimarama Government also initiated. The articles also explain the Machiavellian reasons why they were rejected by Bainimarama and Khaiyum?. 

     But why did all the people who helped in the formulation of the People’s Charter quietly accepts its shelving, with no overt protest?  Why did all the thousands of people who assisted in the formulation of the Yash Ghai Draft Constitution fail to protest when Bainimarama and Khaiyum callously rejected the Draft?  Why did the people of Fiji not protest when the 2013 Constitution was imposed unilaterally on Fiji (Reading 65)?

     Section I covers my numerous writings under the heading “Media censorship under a biased media” recording many of my censored writings pointing out the nefarious censoring roles of MIDA and its Chairman Ashwin Raj, USP, PIDF, Fiji Sun and its owner CJ Patel who benefited financially from special favours by the Bainimarama Khaiyum Government. I will come back to the related issues in the next article.

     The longevity of the Bainimarama/Khaiyum Government’s reign cannot be understood without understanding the psychology of civil society coup supporters (Section J) and especially my article based on psychologist Zimbardo “Why Good People Support Evil” (Reading 99).

     Then Section K explains how the 2014 and 2018 Elections were effectively rigged through the skewed electoral system in the 2013 Constitution designed by Khaiyum, the biased Supervisor of Elections, the toothless and collaborating Electoral Commissions, and the denial of NGO rights to supervise the elections.  The censorship tendrils even reached a few key USP academics analysing the 2014 Elections (Reading 121). These readings are still important for the necessary revision of Fiji’s electoral sytem, before the next elections in 2026.

     Section L then exposes numerous aspects of the facade of democracy maintained by Bainimarama and Khaiyum between 2014 and 2022, including use of the Speaker to muzzle free speech in Parliament, the now forgotten Fiji flag fiasco (one on the nose for Bainimarama and Khaiyum in this period), banning the indigenous Fijian language from parliament, cancelling Ratu Sukuna day, banning Brij and Padma from Fiji,  and the huge elephant in the room questions posed by the removal from office of late Laisenia Qarase by an RFMF comprised of largely indigenous Fijian soldiers.

     There is also the expose of the Bainimarama Government trying to criminalize prominent lawyer Richard Naidu over a trivial social media post (Reading 147) and an expose of all the major business houses who massively funded FFP between 2014 and 2018 by giving $10,000 donations in the names of their wives, daughters, mothers and other relatives in order to circumvent the $10,000 limit and stretching the limits of law.

Two more cases of abuse of office?

May I draw the attention to a case (Reading 71 “USP Professor sent packing”) which the Director of Public Prosecutions may wish to investigate as a prosecutable “abuse of office” by the then Prime Minister of Fiji and the then Attorney General.

     This Reading, backed fully by an irrefutable audio recording, documents how the Professor recalled under duress by USP Management from Kagoshima University where he was in the middle of his sabbatical. He was informed that PM Bainimarama as Minister of Finance was withholding $30 million owed to USP because he and the Attorney General were unhappy with his criticisms of the Bainimarama Government’s plans to reduce FNPF pensions. The Professor was forced to resign under a Confidential Deed of Settlement.

     Was it a criminal offence of “abuse of office” for Bainimarama and Khaiyum to use their illegally obtained control of taxpayer’s funds, to effectively deprive this Fiji citizen of his means of living, all because he insisted on his basic human right to subject the government to full lawful scrutiny?

     Of course, a few years later, USP VC Pal Ahluwalia was subject to worse treatment (Reading 145), which is surely also another prosecutable case of abuse of office?

What is the rule of law today?

The writings in Volume 3 and Reading 141 make it quite clear that PM Qarase was unlawfully (treasonously) deposed by Bainimarama and the RFMF, as established by the 2009 Court of Appeal and that the 1997 Constitution was still in place.

     Reading 137 makes clear that in a 2001 case Koroi v Commissioner of Inland Revenue Justice Anthony Gates had correctly pronounced “It is not possible for any man to tear up the Constitution. He has no authority to do so. The Constitution remains in place until amended by Parliament, a body of elected members who collectively represent all of the voters and inhabitants of Fiji. Usurpers may … rule for many years apparently outside of, or without the Constitution. Eventually the original order has to be revisited, and the Constitution resurfaces”.

     Justice Gate’s 2001 judgement negating Qarase’s attempt to abrogate the 1997 Constitution following the 2000 coup applies equally to the Bainimarama Government’s attempt to replace the 1997 Constitution with the 2013 Constitution. Surely the 1997 Constitution is still in place?

     Why therefore is the new Coalition Government attempting to remove or modify piecemeal some of the many nasty elements in the 2013 Constitution introduced by the Bainimarama Government to suit its Machiavellian purposes such as the MIDA Act.

     Is the Coalition Government itself being Machiavellian in trying to see if they can use some of the enemy’s weapons rather than rejecting it outright as would be common sense?

     I accept that going back to the 1997 Constitution may seem difficult given that the current Parliament has been elected under the electoral rules imposed by the 2013 Constitution.

     But I suspect that a high level judicial review by an international panel of constitutional experts might easily recommend that for all practical purposes, the current Parliament continue for the full term, but mount the 2026 Elections under a revised and improved electoral system, to elect a new Parliament (Lower House and Upper House) which would then operate under the 1997 Constitution.

     The 2013 Constitution would then be suitably confined to the dustbins of history, like its authors.

Crime and punishment

All smart lawyers know that the concept of “punishment” for those who break the rule of law, is crucial: as a deterrence of the offender and others, for retribution and reform of the criminal, all ultimately with the objective of protecting society.  So why has there been no “punishment” for those who clearly committed treason in 2006?

     On the contrary the 2013 Constitution gives wide-ranging immunity to Bainimarama and all coup collaborators stretching back not just to the 2006 coup but also to the 2000 coup and mutiny. 

     Of course, there was no punishment meted out for treason committed by Rabuka in 1987. But the fundamental difference in law is that Rabuka was guaranteed immunity in the 1997 Constitution approved by both Houses of a legitimate elected parliament in 1997 (of which I was also a member then, mea culpa).

     In contrast, the 2013 Constitution was unilaterally imposed on Fiji by the military unelected Bainimarama Government, without any parliamentary approval or Referendum, “signed into law” by one individual, arguably also an illegally appointed President.

     The fundamental legal flaw in this 2013 Constitution is that it brazenly stipulates that any changes whatsoever, however small, must require three quarters of an elected parliament and three quarters of a Referendum, when neither condition was required for its imposition in the first place. What a legal “Animal Farm” has Fiji been reduced to.

     What a joke when Khaiyum reminds the Coalition Government to “abide by the 2013 Constitution”.

The people are responsible

While it is easy for writers to hold political, social or corporate leaders for what goes wrong in society, I suggest that the people of Fiji look in the mirror ask themselves:  what did you do to protect democracy and the rule of law when things were going wrong?

     The honest answer will be: we did nothing; we carried on with our every day lives; we keep our heads down so we did not get any blows. We are all responsible for the Fiji we inherit today.  The few who did (like some brave journalists and an academic or two), and often paid the painful price.

     More pointedly, what has the Fiji Law Society really done for sixteen years while the rule of law has been trashed in Fiji?  What is the FLS doing today to bring the legal conundrums to the attention of the Coalition Government which is now in a position to do something about it?

[I thank Fiji Times and its owners Motibhai Patel for most of the articles in my Vol 3. and Volumes 1 and 2, all for the education of the public, especially during the censorship years.]

Contents  of Volume 3:

Our Struggles for Democracy, Rule of Law and Media Freedom

A            A BRIEF POLITICAL HISTORY OF FIJI                                    1

B            FOLLOWING THE 1987 RABUKA COUP                                  3

1.             Sydney Town Hall Protest against 1987 Coup (1987)                      4

2.             The arrest of 18 Coup Protesters (1988)                                            5

3.             Fiji’s phenomenal population changes (1994)                                   6

4.             Electoral implications  of population changes (1994)                      7

5.             The electoral inequities in the 1994 Elections (1994)                       9

6.             The political facade of multiracialism (1994)                                     14

7.             Fair ethnic sharing of public resources (1994)                                  17

8.             The constituency versus the nation (1995)                                        19

9.             Voting Gains from Multiracialism  (1995)                                         25

10.           Sound Reeves Report, but weak electoral system (1996)                 27

11.           Proportionality, List System and Multi-party Cabinet (1996)          30

C             THE HON. DR WADAN NARSEY MP (1997 to 1999)              34

12.           Hon Dr Narsey Contributions in Parliament (1997-99)                   35

13.           Recommendations for the 1998 Devaluation (1998)                        37

14.           Letter to President: expiring ALTA Leases (1998)                           39

15.           Wage Guideline Unreasonable (1998)                                                40

16.           SVT-NFP Pre-Elections Strategy (1998)                                           41

17.           SVT, Rabuka and NFP (1999)                                                            43

18.           Clause 2 stalls Senate decision (1999)                                                 48

19.           The Korolevu Declaration (1999)                                                       50

D           THE 2000 COUP                                                                                 54

20.           Constitutional unfairness and 2000 coup (2000)                               55

21.           Peacemakers are not always blessed (2000)                                       57

22.           The 2000 coup: method, not just the cause (2000)                           58

23.           Avoiding an electoral mess (2001)                                                      60

24.           A Proportional List System (2001)                                                     63

25.           Must have a referendum for the silent majority (2001)                    67

26.           No need to throw out the 1997 Constitution (2001)                        69

27.           Small is not beautiful in the AV System (2001)                                 72

28.           Constitutional traps awaiting (2001)                                                   74

29.           Bigger is more bountiful in AV (2001)                                               77

30.           Bite the bullet, FLP (2001)                                                                  80

31.           No winners and losers in Multi-Party Cabinet (2001)                      83

E          THE QARASE YEARS (2001-2006)                                                   86

32.           Down an SDL cul de sac (2001)                                                         87

33.           Rebuilding a fractured nation and economy (2001)                          90

34.           Political sins visited on judiciary (2002)                                             97

35.           Fiji’s population not a time bomb (2002)                                          100

36.           The arithmetic and spirit of fair power sharing (2004)                     100

37.           SDL needs to rethink Amnesty Bill (2005)                                        103

38.           “Timeout” on the Amnesty Bill (2005)                                              106

39.           The Alternative Vote System (2006)                                                   109

40.           The people have spoken (2006)                                                          112

F    THE 2006 BAINIMARAMA COUP                                                         115

41.           The hidden events of the 2000 coup and mutiny                             115

42.           Call for Commission of Truth, Justice and Reconciliation (2006)  119

43.           RFMF: Become  a Conscientious Objector  For   Fiji  (2006)        120

44.           Yet again, method, not just the cause (2007)                                     121

45.           Excluding SDL: recipe for instability (2007)                                     124

46.           Narsey proposal to Bainimarama (2007)                                            127

47.           Proposal to Bainimarama by Narsey, Madraiwiwi

                and Draunidalo (2008)                                                                         128

48.           Narsey, Prasad Proposal to Bainimarama (2009)                              129

G        THE PEOPLE’S CHARTER:                                                               131

49.           Sailing Fiji into unchartered waters (2007)                                         133

50.           Not Charter or electoral reform, but the law (2008)                        135

51.           Three judges open a Pandora’s Box (2008)                                       138

52.           The Charter Referendum Charade (2008)                                         141

53.           US, NZ electoral disproportionality: No coups (2008)                    145

54.           Queensland electoral disproportionality: no coups (2012) (Cens)  147

55.           Electoral systems and racial justice (2009) (Cens)                             149

56.           Again, Fiji’s population revolution (2010) (Cens.)                            152

H          THE YASH GHAI COMMISSION                                                   154

57.           Challenges for the Ghai Commission (2012) (Cens)                        156

58.           The dilemmas for Ghai (2012) (Cens)                                                158

59.           More Head-aches for Yash Ghai (2012) (Cens)                                165

60.           Narsey Electoral Proposal to Yash Ghai (2012)                               170

61.           Summary of Submission to Yash Ghai Commission (2012)           175

62.           The pragmatic and purist in Ghai (2012) (Cens)                               182

63.           The positives in trashing the Ghai Draft (2013) (Cens)                   186

64.           Why the Ghai Draft was trashed (2013) (Cens)                                190

65.           The Imposition of the 2013 BKC Part 1 (2013) (Cens)                   191

I       MEDIA CENSORSHIP UNDER A BIASED MIDA                         195

66.           Floods and coups: selective blindness (2009)                                    196

67.           A shameful police state (2009) (Cens.)                                               198

68.           Media Censorship undermining Charter (2010) (Cens)                   199

69.           Deeper darkness during Diwali (2010) (Cens)                                  204

70.           Questions for Tebbutt Poll (2011) (Cens)                                         209

71.           USP Professor sent packing (in 2012)                                                217

72.           Establishing WordPress blog NarseyOnFiji (2012)                          220

73.           Maligning the old politicians (2013) (Cens)                                       220

74.           Media moguls and media independence (2013) (Cens)                    224

75.           USP Censorship and good journalists (2013)                                    233

76.           Ricardo Morris on USP Censorship of Narsey (2013)                     234

77.           Transparency International Censors Narsey (Jan 2013)                   235

78.           Fiji media improving, slightly  (2014)                                                 237

79.           MIDA Chairman questioned and replies (2014)                               238

80.           USP’s  self-censorship continues (2014) (Cens)                                240

81.           The PIDF censorship of journalists (2014)                                       243

82.           USP journalism educators under fire                                                  245

83.           Questions to MIDA (2014) (Cens)                                                     248

84.           Media not publishing Letters  (2014) (Cens)                                     249

85.           MIDA Chairman demands transparency  (2014)                              250

86.           MIDA, Akauola and Bhatnagar (2014) (Cens)                                  250

87.           Khaiyum’s manual for Journalists (2014) (Cens)                              251

88.           The power of professors and journalists (2014)                               255

89.           Complaints to MIDA (an oxymoron?) (2014) (Cens)                      259

90.           Fiji Times not on level media playing field (2015)                            263

91.           What if Fiji Sun were the victim? (2015)                                            267

92.           National silence on Government media bias (2016)                         271

93.           Letters to the Editor: People’s Parliament (2015)                             274

94.           Open censorship of one, hidden censorship of many (2016)          276

J      CIVIL SOCIETY COUP SUPPORTERS                                                281

95.           Is ours a culture of silence? (1997)                                                     282

96.           Transparency International: corruption and us (2008)                     285

97.           The moral gutting of Fiji (2009) (Cens)                                             293

98.           Fiji’s cancerous conspiracies of silence (2011)(Cens)                       305

99.           Zimbardo: why good people support evil (2011)(Cens)                   313

100.         Hibernation of Fijian intellectuals (2014) (Cens)                              323

101.         GCC and Chiefs still Failing Fijians (2015)                                       326

102.         No voice for Padma (2015)                                                                 327

K          RIGGING THE 2014 ELECTIONS                                                 331

103.         Is Electoral Commission a Rubber Stamp? (2014) (Cens.)              332

104.         The 2013 BKC Electoral System (2014) (Cens)                                333

105.         Propaganda  of “1 person = 1 vote = 1 value” (2014) (Cens)        338

106.         Voters’ dilemma: Military or Rule of Law (2014) (cens.)                 342

107.         Part I   Bainimarama’s illegality and broken promises                      343

108.         Part II    Indo-Fijian betrayal of political integrity (2014)                350

109.         Part III   Why no Truth Commission? (2014)                                   354

110.         LTE: False ads claiming 1 person=1 vote=1 value (2014)              355

111.         Improve the ballot paper (2014)                                                         355

112.         Khaiyum as Minister for Elections (2014) (Cens)                             356

113.         Disqualifying Makareta Waqavonovono (2014) (Cens)                   357

114.         Rigging the referee of the Game (2014) (Cens)                                 358

115.         Banning NGOs from auditing polling stations? (2014) (Cens)       358

116.         The Results of the Fiji 2014 Elections (2014)                                   359

117.         Explaining the 2014 Elections Results (2014)                                   362

118.         No independent audit of polling results (2014) (Cens)                    365

119.         Fiji Electoral Commission Refuses to Audit (2014) (Cens)             366

120.         Far from “free and fair” (2014) (Cens)                                              369

121.         Erosion of Academic Integrity at JPS USP (2017)                           378

L      THE NEW FACADE OF DEMOCRACY                                            387

122.         Delaibatiki manipulating democracy (2014)                                      388

123.         Catastrophic risks to indigenous Fijian sovereignty (2014) (Cens) 391

124.         Banning the Fijian language from Parliament (2014)                       398

125.         The Speaker muzzling free speech in parliament (2014)                  401

126.         Unelected or elected “Bainimarama Government” (2014)              404

127.         Underfunding Opposition MPs (2015)                                              407

128.         Professors Misusing Magna Carta in Fiji (2015)                               410

129.         The Fiji Flag: let the people decide (2015)                                         415

130.         Flag changing process hijacked (2015)                                               417

131.         Tebbutt and Bainimarama Polls on flag (2015)                                 422

132.         Banning Brij and Padma from Fiji (2015) (Cens)                             425

133.         Public appeal to overturn ban on Brij and Padma (2016)                426

134.         Human Rights are Not For Begging (2016)                                      427

135.         The farce of parliamentary democracy (2016)(Cens)                        430

136.         Rewriting history (2016)                                                                       434

137.         Gates issues electoral challenge: but more needed (2016)               437

138.         Two sets of prosecuting rules for media? (2017) (Cens)                  441

139.         Will ABC’s Q&A ask these questions (2019) (Cens)                        447

140.         Why cancel Ratu Sukuna Day? (2019)                                                450

141.         Again, Fiji’s cancerous 2013 “Constitution” (2019)                         454

142.         Qarase’s elephant in the room (2020)                                                 458

143.         The cancerous burden on Fijian leaders (2020)                                463

144.         Fiji Times not on a level playing field (2020)                                    468

145.         Expulsion of USP VC: When the line is not drawn (2021)             472

146.         How many voters do you really need? (2022)                                   476

147.         Shameful silences at another unfolding tragedy in Fiji                     480

148.         The FFP Donors, Employers and Workers (2022)                          483

149.         A peek into the future at Volume 4 For a Decent Fiji                     488

Also by Wadan Narsey                                                                                         489

Index                                                                                                                      490