Things are not going Salesi Temo‘s way, with the President – his old friend and relative by marriage – refusing to bow to the Chief Justice’s demand that he remove the Acting FICAC Commissioner, Lavi Rokoika.
Amid the clamour for action from the likes of Richard Naidu, Graham Leung, Tanya Waqanika and now the Fiji Law Society and its President, Wylie Clarke, the rest of us can only guess what is actually going on behind the scenes.
There’s an old saying, however, that every picture is worth a thousand words. And these five pictures below tell us that all is not well at the Judicial Services Commission. The Chief Justice cannot remove the President. But the President sure as hell can remove the CJ, acting on the advice of the Prime Minister.
Is this impasse about to be broken in the only way that will give the President and the Prime Minister a face-saving way out? If they are unwilling to remove Lavi Rokoika, perhaps they are now willing to remove Salesi Temo, as the Ashton-Lewis Commission of Inquiry recommended?
We shall see. But the magnitude of this developing crisis is written all over the faces of every single member of the JSC. (All images from CFL-Fiji Village).
No resolution. Friday’s Fiji Times front page. Plus the usual mayhem of drugs and guns.
The nation is in all sorts of trouble.
Well that would be a step in the right direction.
GD, in your blind hatred of Malimali and Temo, are you imploring the president to go rogue and defy the constitution?
He has already done that when he was speaker that led to the demise of FijiFirst, and this empowered racist Rambo to the extent that he has now brought fiji to this piteous state?
You want the lawless president to again attempt to pervert the rule of law?
Regardless of your hatred for Temo and Malimali, the constitution is clear that the president needs to act on the advice of the JSC. If the president doesn’t do that, the constitution is clear that he should be suspended immediately by parliament.
The constitution is far from clear. Indeed it has taken an expert in personal accident compensation, Justice Dane Tuiqereqere, to make a pronouncement on the legality of Barbara Malmali’s sacking that is vastly at odds with that of two NZ Kings Counsel, one NZ’s foremost constitutional expert.
This could have all been appealed on their advice but the Prime Minister finally chose not to, reportedly in return for an undertaking from Temo that he would convict Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum and a threat that he would acquit him if the PM proceeded to an appeal.
That’s how grubby all this is. So kindly spare me your sanctimonious disinformation. It’s not the lawless President most of us are worried about. It is the lawless Chief Justice. Because his corruption and that of the likes of Barbara Malimali is what has corrupted the criminal justice system. And there are no two ways about it.
On what grounds would an appeal be filed? It’s not as simple as ‘I don’t like the decision, so I’ll appeal’.
In any case, in Frank Bainimarama’s words, a ‘cleanup’ campaign is urgently needed.
The grounds for an appeal would have been that Justice Tuiqereqere got it wrong. That was what the PM was going to do. He had hired Andrew Butler KC to begin work on the case that Butler, like Philip Joseph KC before him, had advised that he would win. A day later, the PM changed his mind and decided not to appeal.
What happened in the meantime to prompt him to change his mind? This is what I wrote at the time and I stand by this story:
https://www.grubsheet.com.au/bombshell-did-the-chief-justice-threaten-not-to-convict-aiyaz-sayed-khaiyum-if-the-prime-minister-appealed-the-tuiqereqere-judgment-in-the-malimali-affair/
The President can always act on the COI recommendations to suspend CJ. This is the rule of law. The COI has legal basis.
Looks like the H.E President will suspend CJ and setup a three member tribunal to investigate him as per COI recommendations relating to the CJ perverting the course of justice by threatening FICAC/Puleiwai through CR that “no court will register FICAC charges…” as per audio recording evidence.
By ignoring the JSC’s advice to remove FICAC’s Lavi, H.E the President has sent a strong message to the CJ. Given sudden JSC meetings today followed by Richard Naidu and Graham Leung’s misguided and unwanted public legal advice, H.E the President must have now understood the broader conspiracy at play, which is to prevent further FICAC charges on corrupt elites and to reverse the charges against Baiman and Kamikamica.
The President acts on advice but on “correct advice”. Hence H.E President can always verify the advice given to him – and can choose not to act on flawed advice.
Like I said, there is no honour amongst thieves. And I did say not long to wait before the sh*t hits the fan. I did not realise it would be this quick!!!
He should not have been appointed in the first place.
This whole mess is the result of decisions and actions of both the President and the PM, including the appointment of Temo.
The actions and decisions to date have demonstrated just how far Fiji has fallen under the these three.
What happens next is anyone’s guess!
One thing at least is certain. Sitiveni Rabuka will survive. The Snake always slithers away from the firing line.
Check section 82 of the constitution… it is abundantly clear. What matters is the black letter of the constitution, rather than partisan advice of a lawyer, regardless of who that might be.
Someone with a basic English language comprehension ability can discern what the constitution is saying very clearly.
You have become a naive supporter of the corrupt and rogue Natewa clan just because you are so opposed to Temo and Malimali.
And you, my friend, are gormless. When two NZ constitutional experts and KCs say one thing and a new judge with a background in accident compensation says another, only someone with a very narrow view of the world would back the accident compensation specialist without question.
This should have been tested with the proper application of the rule of law – an appeal hearing in a higher court. It would have clearly been in the public interest in that it would have clarified, once and for all, the anomaly that Philip Joseph KC says exists between the Constitution and the FICAC Act. In any event, he advised that under the Interpretation Act, the PM did have the legal authority to remove Malimali.
https://www.grubsheet.com.au/revealed-the-kcs-legal-advice-that-contradicts-the-chief-justice-and-paves-the-way-for-the-suspension-of-barbara-malimali/
Instead Rabuka and the President appear to have done a deal with Temo that if they backed off, he would jail Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum.
That is the allegation – https://www.grubsheet.com.au/bombshell-did-the-chief-justice-threaten-not-to-convict-aiyaz-sayed-khaiyum-if-the-prime-minister-appealed-the-tuiqereqere-judgment-in-the-malimali-affair/ – and we will see the result of that deal soon enough. (end of March).
There is no obligation for the President to act within a specific time frame, but act he must wherever that may be.
It took the JSC almost 12 months from Barbara’s dismissal in June 2025 to bring this to a resolution and it is apparent there is no urgency considering the time that has lapsed.
Perhaps the President may wish a period of r and r with the vanua back in the village for a few months and act when he is ready.
Accordingly Lavi stays till then.
GD are you 100% sure that Aiyaz will be convicted? Watch it as you might be charged for contempt of court.
We will find out in four weeks or so. Temo will either jail or acquit ASK. And if he acquits him, he’ll have broken the undertaking he has allegedly made to the Prime Minister and President that in exchange for them dropping the appeal against Tuiqereqere’s ruling, he would put Khaiyum behind bars.
Yep, they have all – according to certain well-placed insiders – made a Faustian pact. And in the way of these things, truth will eventually out.
Racist and corrupt Salesi Temo.
It’s Friday today. Can a Kings Counsel or Calendarist give me their opinion or expert guidance on what day it is tomorrow. Money no object. Three very expensive opinions please to make the already known answer credible… majority verdict is to be accepted.
It’s funny how the likes of Barbara Malimali and Tanya Waqanika say that the iTaukei don’t need legal outsiders and especially Kings Counsel and the first thing that Acting DPP Nancy Tikoisuva does is go and hire a KC from outside in the form of Ian Lloyd to prop up her decision not to prosecute a single one of the police files arising from the CoI.
Ergo they will spend public money on the top legal brains when it suits them but not when their own positions are threatened. But what else is new? The hypocrisy and corruption under the so-called New Order is breathtaking.
All the elite ethno-nationalists in high place’s seem to be gradually tumbling from their perches. It’s just a matter of time.
The happenings in the JSC, the FNU among other instiutions, are ample proof that favoured appointments made by “virtue” of race rather than on merit will eventually fall from grace.
Their minds are confused with confusion for which there seems to be no solution.
Does anyone remember when the Judiciary and the other organs of government were all multi-ethnic under the able leadership of late Ratu Mara during his tenure as Prime Minister since independence? The country had an orderly form of governance back then and was much admired internationally.
The snake’s egotistic mindset “kitou sa qaqa” attitude as he pronounced on the balcony of the Suva Civic Centre in 1987 to his gullible admirers at the time, might as well now be turned into a “kitou sa sega ni kila” in 2026.
Meantime the country remains in the doldrums.
GD, we from form, hypocrisy is not in the native lexicon. However, they’ve developed liumuri to a fine art.
Also well known, the natives don’t do nor get irony, an art form long lost on them.
The circus tent is not coming down anytime soon.
Only a short 150 years ago they were eating each other and having tribal wars.
Now not only are they experts on a vulagi religion, but they are experts on vulagi laws.
In fact they are the best in the world on both counts. The turnaround is simply mind blowing in the anals of evolution.
What is more, now they realise they are actually Israelites who have been living in the Pacific. They say their history is very close to the Israelites. The Atu guy on local TV is shouting this all the time in addition to stopping cyclones through prayer.Wonder why he cannot fix the drug and HIV problem through his prayers – that is a lot harder I guess.
Careful – “annals” misspelled with one n changes the meaning of your comment completely. Although in the context, not entirely out of place in the current discussion.
Freudian slip maybe of where all this is eventually heading?
The quid pro quo between Charlie Charters and Wylie is marvellous. Charlie goes to extreme lengths to defend Wylie for being at FICAC for Malimali. So many social media posts by Charlie and then Wylie returns the favour by using the Fiji Law Society as his personal army to show support for Charlie.
It begs the question- is FLS for Fiji or buddies of Wylie?
Because so many Fijians need their help but FLS is nowhere to be found for ordinary Fijians. The common folks suffer while the elite have other elites backing them.