Barbara Malimali has succeeded in securing a judicial review of the President’s decision – acting on the advice of the Prime Minister – to dismiss her as FICAC Commissioner. And lawyers for both parties – Malimali and the State – are gearing up for the first stage of setting a timetable for the hearing next Monday.
Malix2 is being represented by her long-time lawyer, Tanya Waqanika, who is a fierce advocate for her client and friend. But it’s the quality of the legal team representing the State that is causing concern for those keen to see the dismissal stand of the woman facing 17 allegations of criminal conduct arising from the Supreme Court Commission of Inquiry into her appointment.
As Grubsheet reported last week, Fiji has reportedly turned down an offer by the Luxon government in New Zealand to send a King’s Counsel to argue the State’s case before Justice Dane Tuiqereqere in the High Court .
We haven’t been told why because the local mainstream media has chosen not to report the story. But getting a KC from NZ would obviously dramatically increase the prospect of the State prevailing as opposed to the lacklustre legal team it has so far assembled for this battle.
Now that the reputations of the President and Prime Minister are firmly on the line, perhaps there will be a change of heart. But there’s another possibility, of course.
Aside from Barbara Malimali, those who have also received adverse mentions in the COI Report include the Acting Attorney General, Siromi Turaga and the Solicitor General, Ropate Green Lomavatu. Are they deliberately engineering a situation in which Malimali wins her case? It sure looks that way when they send in a second division legal team like this. Because a win for Malimali would go a long way to discrediting the entire Commission of Inquiry process.
When Justice Tuiqereqere ruled yesterday that he was satisfied that Barbara Malimali ‘s case was arguable and warranted a full hearing, he said he was going away to read the COI Report. He will find the path to his own verdict all there in black and white, presuming he accepts the findings of the Supreme Court judge, Justice David Ashton-Lewis, that Barbara Malimali’s appointment was unlawful in the first place.
“Tanya Try-on” is arguing that the President and Prime Minister didn’t have the legal authority to sack Barbara Malimali and that decision had to come from the Judicial Services Commission.
She’s relying on Section 5 of the FICAC Act, which establishes the JSC as the appointing authority of FICAC Commissioners. As the argument goes, if it has the power to hire, it axiomatically has the power to fire.
But the Constitution is the supreme law and it doesn’t prescribe a specific mechanism for getting rid of a FICAC Commissioner for misbehaviour – as it does for other officers of state such as judges, magistrates and the DPP. And in not specifically delegating that authority to the JSC, Section 82 makes it clear that the President acts only on the advice of the Cabinet, which is headed by the Prime Minister.
“Prescribed by this Constitution for a particular purpose”. Unfortunately for Barbie and Tanya, it isn’t prescribed in the supreme law that the JSC gets to advise the President to fire the FICAC Commissioner. So they are going to have to argue a case that is inherently weak and on which the COI has already made a pronouncement.
Here’s what Justice Ashton-Lewis says in his Report:
This is going to have to be fought all over again at the coming Judicial Review hearing and you would think that the State would be keen to give it all it’s got. Why it is not taking up the New Zealand offer of a Kings Counsel to give it the best possible chance of winning is already a burning question. But if it loses the case because it put up a team of uninspiring locals from the AG’s Chambers, the recriminations will be long and loud.
Are elements of the government secretly rooting for Tanya to win and for the Prime Minister to be humiliated? We will soon see.
First today’s Fiji Times media coverage…
And what Justice Tuiqereqere will be poring over for the rest of the week – those extracts from the COI Report on the circumstances of Barbara Malmali’s appointment and his Supreme Court colleague’s finding that it was illegal in the first place.
If he upholds Justice Ashton Lewis’s findings, Tanya’s try-on will be just that. But this is a case for the State to lose if it doesn’t make its arguments stick. Which is why the decision to turn down a New Zealand KC will be seen as puzzling by some and downright sinister by a great many others.
And the overview of the entire Malimali saga from the Executive Summary of the Ashton-Lewis Report.
To turn down their best chance by far, of winning this case, at NO COST for a top class legal team, must call into question the reason for their decision and put doubts in the minds of everyone who knows this is happening.
They seem to be clearly out to engineer a loss for themselves so that this will play into the hands of those that want Mali x 2 to win this case, for whatever perverted reason.
This is madness, and will have dire consequences in terms of help being offered by overseas entities when they lose the case, and will expose the corruption being played out in real time, for all to see.
Hopefully the Judge has invested in a good lock for his bedroom door.
Section 112 of the constitution does not apply as the ficac commissioner role is not a judicial officer position. The section 112 was in her contract outlining her removal- however her appointment was illegal. Section 44 the President is the appointing body and that recommending body is mala fide meaning they acted in bad faith. Section 16 of the constitution does not apply as there is limitation/caveat under any written law therefore COI act does not allow for the matter to be used in a civil or criminal proceedings. Section 81 gives the powers to the president to act, but section 82 must be used in conjunction and presidents acts on the advice of pm and/or cabinet. Therefore any right thinking legal mind will know that the challenge is bound to fail.
Unfortunately I think with 5 words you have highlighted the actual issue:…. right thinking legal mind.
Right thinking legal minds sound like an oxymoron, especially in Fiji, where right thinking of any kind is as rare as hen’s teeth.
The fix is in. The State has no desire nor gumption to defend this frivolous fabrication of a pie-in-sky lawsuit.
This ‘leave’ has been granted merely to let Barbie and her brilliant bull frog lawyer attempt an almighty shake down of the State treasury.
As Ms Forwood outlines, this ‘challenge’ is really without foundation.
But lawyers will lawyer and milk the judicial system to claim a monetary payout – the bigger the claim, the better the chance of success from a compliant and recalcitrant State defence.
I thought Fiji had the best legal minds with all the prominent lawyers and judges around. I am led to believe that everything iTaukei is the best in their own land. This is confirmed by the most honourable CJ, the Acting AG, the people in the ODPP and the Chief Registrar and SG. These are the most independent and brilliant legal minds in their own country.
Now you want a vulagi KC to bring in the mix. The vulagi judges and lawyers are the ones who have caused all these problems in the first place. Just ask any iTaukei on the street. I know, because I have. Just too much vulagi things and processes in Fiji including the religion which and money makes for all the shit happening in Fiji. The iTaukei simply are not conditioned to handle all the vulagi rubbish. Just ask them.
Geez…there is no need to bring race into this issue.
You attack the i’taukei on every front yet you ask for equal citizenship.
There will be no equal citizenship without respect.
“Go back to India”? Your name should really be “Hypocrite”.
Is there anything else in Fiji apart from racism and arrogance?
Well, the itaukei go (back) to India too.
For world class medical treatment that Baimaan thunks will soon happen in Fiji between 4 to 7 years.
@idiots, yes delusional racist stupid idiots as ye’self.
‘ Go Back To India’ – you are the one who needs to scoot back to your traditional village land, to serve your masters and the vulagi created Chiefs, plant Cassava & Dalo & stay happy .
You are lucky & should count your Blessings to have had the education and literacy courtesy of blessings of Indian forefathers who once turned Fiji into this civilised land- to be able to at least read and write in these columns. In hindsight, should have left you stranded in your various villages just like your Vulagi Colonial Masters did before independence, they were definitely correct in this regard.
So Go back to Your Teitei , and please- stay there !
Huh?!?! Whacchu talking about Willis??
Who has attacked the itaukei here and equal citizenry. I think you’re on the wrong page here . Try Fiji Transparency for that kind of hogwash. Only the intelligentsia are here, kila?!?!
I am not a journalist as you all can see and I am not always able to put in writing what I am thinking. So let me try again.
Fiji is a Third World, third-rate nation, obviously full of a third rate population – I mean, why else is the country where it is? People of Fiji are very proud to be in that situation. They love being third-rate. It is the kaila mentality. It comes naturally. You just need to look at the public toilets and the rubbish everywhere.
Anyway, the legal minds in the country are the best of a Third World, third-rate nation. The CJ, the lawyers and everyone else in the legal profession are the cream of the legal profession and have the highest standards in this Third World, third-rate nation. No one else can match the standards of people in their own country, if you know what I mean. These people have been put there by a vulagi God. I am not saying that- you just need to ask them.
So, to get a vulagi KC (kaisi to many) will upset the local high standards. What is more, the KC would not understand local culture. The standards displayed by the vulagi KC is totally not relevant to Fiji.
One thing is unquestionable, the iTaukei are the best. In the end, God decides everything, not a KC.
Did I put that more clearly? No? I do not think so either.
The legal fraternity in Fiji need lessons in conflict of interest.
lol.
Only that?
lol.
Planned job. They have every intention of losing. To save Rabuka and his cronies. Only an apology and $2 million will keep Barbara quiet. Rabuka is looking absolutely sick and lost nowadays because he knows once Barbara squeals, it’s curtains for them. Well at least Barbara will be able to buy Mac lipsticks.
All set up – end of the line for the infamous COI report. Malimali will win. The state will ensure that and especially the clowns there (Christopher Pryde would never let this happen under his watch).
The report will be totally discredited. Good on Grub to print the judge’s photo as these people also need to be in the public eye. Everybody needs to be accountable.
A right not so royal gallery of rogues in this legal stoush with a clear outcome for believers in justice? Or is it going to be a Kangaroo Court with ethnic Itaukei sentiments on who wins and why.
The once-sacred pillars of justice in Fiji are now crumbling under the weight of political manipulation and executive inaction.
The judiciary is prioritizing the Malimali case—an appointment scandal directly linked to Chief Justice Temo—while the President and Prime Minister continue to drag their feet on implementing the Commission of Inquiry’s recommendations, particularly the urgent need to hold Temo accountable.
Instead of addressing the wrongful appointment of Malimali, the court has now fast-tracked a judicial review into her alleged wrongful dismissal—turning a clear case of unlawful installation into one of supposed victimhood.
Shockingly, this review now positions Malimali against both Prime Minister Rabuka and President Naiqama, further entrenching the narrative that the legal system is being weaponized for political convenience.
The Judicial Services Commission (JSC), chaired by Temo himself and riddled with allegations, remains silent. Temo continues unchecked, protected by a President who refuses to act.
This silence isn’t coincidental—it appears to be part of a broader, deliberate strategy. By greenlighting this judicial review, the process conveniently delays any action against Temo, allowing him time to preside over critical constitutional and politically sensitive cases, including those involving Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, Frank Bainimarama, and others.
What we are witnessing is not justice—it is a meticulously orchestrated scheme to ensure the judiciary delivers outcomes tailored for the Coalition government’s survival. The rule of law has been subverted. The justice system no longer serves the people; it serves the powerful and corrupt.
This is not governance. This is a betrayal of democracy. And it is nothing short of pathetic.
Yes, and they are so stupid that this case and rumoured cases like it are going to suck up all the oxygen leading up to the election next year, with the wrongdoing of those named in the COI Report constantly being regurgitated. Unbelievably inept.
Not inept but dangerously deeply Machiavellian in its manifest deployment of the judiciary to aid and abet Rambuke and Co. Nothing scattered about this no matter how deviant it is from the usual standards of acceptable justice.
However this plays out, Siti will do whatever it takes to save Chief Justice Salesi from the recommendations of the COI .
He needs him to put Frank Bainimarama and Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum away and amend the constitution.
He needs the corrupt judiciary to determine certain recommendations of the COI invalid thus saving the CJ. An NZ Legal team will only thwart his plan.
Can I just lighten the conversation and say that Justice Dane Tuiqereqere is a sight for sore eyes.
Mrs. Tuiqereqere, take a bow. Your man’s hot.
p.s. just keep an eye on all the Kutus in Court and Parliament.
Settle down. From the announcement of his appointment to the High Court: “He hails from the village of Naisisili on Nacula Island in Yasawa, is married with four children, and is a proud grandfather of two”.
Not that this will deter the kutus. 😉