Sitiveni Rabuka and his governing People’s Alliance are like slippery eels trying to escape the grasp of the PAP’s submission to the Supreme Court Constitutional Review that calls for the 2026 election to be delayed, the Prime Minister and President to remain in power for three more years and for those who took part in the 2006 coup to lose their immunity.
Clearly they thought that the PAP’s formal submission to the review signed by its lawyer, Simione Valenitabua, would go under the radar and that the gormless mainstream media wouldn’t notice it.
They leave it to Page 151 before outlining their sensational wish list. But it is all there in black and white in Grubsheet’s article during the week that has triggered false denials and an attack on me by Niko Nawaikula – the ultra-nationalist lawyer, former MP and jailed expense fiddler.
They are all clearly in a panic about the potential consequences of frightening the horses – a frustrated public eager to have the opportunity to pass judgment on the Coalition next year and those current and former members of the RFMF who would lose their constitutional immunity and face prosecution.
Just so there’s no confusion, here’s a recap of precisely what the PAP is asking for before we hear from the eels trying to escape the bleeding obvious.
The submission couldn’t be clearer but the PAP is treating it like the hot potato that it is – denying that it wants the election delayed or in the case of the Prime Minister, trying to defuse its impact.
Here’s what the eels are saying. And once again, they think the Fijian people are stupid when it’s only their supporters and the nation’s “journalists” who can’t see something staring them right in the face.
Of course, it isn’t the People’s Alliance that is prodding the hornet’s nest by suggesting that those military types should lose their immunity but little ‘ol me.
Niko Nawaikula might be a lawyer but he can’t get my name right or grasp that any incitement for another coup isn’t coming from me but the majority governing party.
Oh, well. By all means shoot the messenger. It’s the government’s standard response.
“INCITEFUL URGING TO SAVE THEIR 2013 CONSTITUTION TROJAN HORSE.
Suva 6.8.25
I am seriously concerned by this article by Graham Davies author of Feejee Grubsheet titled, ” No Election Next Year ….”My interpretation of his motive is that , like he did many times before being banned out of Fiji, he is once again inciting the military to rise up and remove government to save the Trojan Horse that was cleverly present to Fiji and known as the 2013 Constitution.
This time Davies is using the threat of Prosecution impliedly begging the army to step in and save the 2013 Constitution. Referring to PAPs submission to the Supreme Court, Davies said :
” We now have confirmation of what the Rabuka government is trying to engineer with the current constitutional review – an end to the common and equal citizenry, the common identity and the entrenchment of iTaukei supremacy with a return to the racially-weighted 1997 Constitution.”
Maybe not to other ethnicities, but to iTaukei the 2013 Constitution is a Trojan Horse because those very things that Davis sang praising as its hallmark, namely ” common and equal citizenry & the common identity” are the basis for mainstreaming Itaukei by removal of their group rights and cultural identity.
This is the reason why Davis and his heroes, authors and progenitors of the 2013 Constitution, have purposely omitted from it all measures of protection of itaukei group rights and cultural identity that were the cornerstone of all previous Constitutions including 1970 & 1997.
These include constitutional recognition of the (1) GCC,(2)Customary Laws,(3) Group Rights, Affirmative Actions and (4) the crucial limitation that no government must amend VKB, Native Land & Native Affairs laws without first consulting & obtaining prior consent.
It’s a reason why some of us are organizing the peaceful march on 21.8.25. To show the world what the 2013 Constitution really is , a Trojan Horse gifted to iTaukei and expose its racism. But very sadly many including even some in government are blinded and can’t see it.
Needless to say that the highest authority in the world, namely the Human Rights Council through one of its Committees, Comittee For The Elimination Of All Forms Of Racial Discrimination ( CERD ) has implied that because Fiji has ratified ILOC169 , recognising custom,customary institutions and prior & informed consent as indigenous group rights,the 2013 Constitution omitting those aspects of group rights & cultural identity is racist.
And yet the false narrative successful pushed by Davis and his cohorts to convince the military to back them eradicate itaukei cultural identity has been that these very things they are ommitting from the 2013 Constitution are examples of etho nationalism and racist. As CERD has implied, it was a serious racism to commit them. Racism is defined as to prefer or deny a person or people on the basis of race or ethnicity.
The 2013 Constitution omitting what ILOC169 has confirmed as rights & previously validated under the 1997 and 1970 Constitution has been nothing but raw racism against itaukei.
Immunity is a serious matter. At the same time we cannot deny that high treason is a crime, we cannot deny that some who have committed the same offence and served life sentence have been treated unfairly by immunity granted to only some but not all.
What we also can not deny is that the Supreme Court as the Highest legal authority and highest seat and jurisdiction of equity will find for us, having herd all submission , PAPs being only one of many, a solution that is fair to all to take the nation forward.
That was the same thing the court of Appeal did by the orders it gave in 2009 in Qarase v Bainimarama. Only problem was some selfish person gave the wrong advise to Bainimarama. Let’s all hope this is not going to happen this time“.
Group rights? What about the rights of simple messengers not to be taken out and shot.
“Graham Davies” needs a day off and is taking one. My head hurts.
(It means that comments won’t be uploaded as quickly as usual. But please keep them coming)
I read the list of legal attendees for the upcoming constitution case.
There is no mention of the 2 prominent lawyers in the list, who’s names are mentioned daily in media.
Looks like they are useless, as none of their clients has won.
The guy is a bush lawyer. Not only cannot he spell your name properly, he does not seem to know the difference between “advise” and “advice”, neither does he know the difference between “herd” and “heard”. I am sure, like everyone else in Fiji, he does not know the difference between “his” and “he is”.
It makes me sick that when iTaukeis make up 80% of the population, own 93% of the land he keeps going on and on about indigenous rights and land rights and quotes UN and ILO conventions.
I would understand it if were the Aborigines of Australia, the Maori of NZ and the American Indians of North America taking this line. It is amazing to see a well known racist talking about racism against the iTaukei. The man is useless. Can he tell us what he did for the iTaukei in all the years he was in parliament and in the NLTB? It has been almost 40 years since.
Anyway, what happened to the march he was organising against the 2013 Constitution?
Please do not return to the past via a court ruling after the vote in Parliament didn’t work. Have the courage to go back to the people to seek a mandate for whatever it is and let them decide on the merits of the various arguments.
The communal role voting system at Independence was only meant to be a temporary measure to protect the interests of the Vanua in the face of larger immigrant communities.
That equation is now reversed and hopefully most people will see that one name for all Fijians, equal voting rights and a Bill of Rights were positive steps forward for Fiji.
The main problem with the 2013 constitution wasn’t these things, more the manner in which they were imposed. There are valid questions about the single constituency, the immunity provisions and special role for the military. But again, these questions and the proposed solutions are better put to the people via an election and mandate for change.
The special interests of the Vanua can be, and are, protected means other than the voting system. An annual stipend and provision for hearing this voice can be made, but the idea that a council of chiefs should sit above parliament would take Fiji back to the chaos of the 19th century.
As other readers of these columns have pointed out, changing the constitution isn’t going to solve the mounting challenges in health, education, housing and the economy. If you think they will, then this is what the people want to hear. They will listen and be persuaded by the merits of whatever is being proposed, one way or another. People will need to think about, on balance, what’s best for the their families, their jobs and the country. That’s democracy.
Judicial coup if this goes through…
Unelected people making a decision against the rights of people whose participation in the last two general elections has validated the 2013 Constitution whereas the 1990 Constitution was rough shod into existence and masquerade as the 1997 version which suits the agenda of the powerful and elites.
If this goes through it is basically a coup by the Judiciary led by a totally bias certainly not impartial Chief Justice based on recent decisions.
Niko Nawaikula is a supremacist, ultra right extremist who does not have any objectivity for someone who is supposed to be a qualified lawyer.
He labels the 2013 constitution racist and wants the 1997 Constitution. What planet is this person from.
His head must be so up his bottomside that he has lost all sense of cognitive skills.
On CERD and ILO Convention 169, he is akin to some of these Fijian bible bashers who will pick a single bible verse and tell everyone that it is the only valid universal law and nothing else matters.
It is sad that some of us itaukeis still blindly follow Niko and the likes.
How many times do we need to be reminded that equal citizenry and common name provisions in the 2013 Constitution has not taken away anything from us itaukeis. Our ethnicity is intact. Our land is still protected. All our rights are still the same. We haven’t been made inferior to anyone else.
My plee to us itaukeis is to educate ourselves. Think critically. Make judgements based on logic and facts.
Let us stop the herd mentality. Stop listening to these extremists. The politics of race and division has brought us nothing in the last 55 years. Even with the odds stacked for us, we still failed miserably. This has only given us the sense of entitlement that we have today.
We need to learn to work hard for our success and prosperity. Only then we will value things and appreciate what we have.
Failing that, the cycle of political unrest that started in 1987 will continue into perpetuity.
There is a democratic way of changing the constitution. Seek the mandate from voters at the next election.
Yeah that stoopid 1997 constitution was illegal, a big error. The silly, illiterate kaicolos never knew any ‘bill of rights’ until savior Bai introduced it for the first time. These junglees need to be drugged & kept in hibernation…