The suspended DPP tells the Sunday Times that he is grateful to the Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, for his public statement that his salary should be restored but is awaiting a response from the Judicial Services Commission, which unlawfully recommended to the President that Christopher Pryde‘s income be suspended in the first place.
Let’s hope that response comes a lot quicker than the JSC’s 12-day delay in removing the Acting DPP, John Rabuku, after three Supreme Court judges opined that he had been unlawfully appointed last October because he had been found guilty and punished for professional misconduct.
Kiwi Christopher Pryde’s appeal to the New Zealand Government to assist him after the head of the JSC, the Acting Chief Justice, Salesi Temo, unilaterally cut off his income appears to have paid off. It took just 24 hours for the Prime Minister to respond that it was wrong. And while the PM doesn’t have the power to tell Salesi Temo what to do, it is Justice Temo who doesn’t have a leg to stand on because what he did was unlawful.
Grubsheet understands that while there has yet to be a formal response from the New Zealand Foreign Minister, Winston Peters , to the DPP’s plea for assistance, officials in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Wellington are saying privately that the NZ government will support Christopher Pryde and do what it can to help him obtain justice.
Questions are now being asked in the Fijian media about who was responsible for unlawfully cutting off Christopher Pryde’s salary in the first place (see below ). Answer. It was Justice Temo who formally advised the President, Ratu Wiliame Katonivere, to do so and the President had no choice but to take that advice. All of which reinforces Grubsheet’s repeated calls for the Acting CJ to be removed because he is a loose cannon on the ship of state guilty of repeated constitutional violations. And now he has compromised the Head of State.
What happens next? Well, hopefully common sense and the rule of law will prevail and see Christopher Pryde’s salary restored so that he can continue to pay his lawyers to represent him. It is 15 months since Pryde was suspended and the failure to set a hearing date for the tribunal that will rule on the allegations against him has now become a running sore in the corridors of power in Wellington as well as in Suva.
The government faces a big dilemma. In his letter to Winston Peters, Christopher Pryde alleges that he was double crossed by the then attorney general, Siromi Turaga, who told him that if he wrote a letter apologising for being seen with his predecessor, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, at a Japanese Embassy function, that would be the end of the matter. Instead Siromi Turaga used the apology as ammunition to persuade the Acting CJ as head of the JSC to recommend to the President that Pryde be suspended. Evidence of the former AG lying and a classic case of entrapment.
Has Siromi Turaga sworn an affidavit in the case against Christopher Pryde? Because in the normal course of events, anyone who submits an affidavit in any case can expect to be cross-examined by counsel for the accused. This is not a normal court hearing but a judicial tribunal – the first to be convened under the 2013 Constitution. So we don’t yet know how the tribunal hearing – assuming it ever happens – would be conducted. But is Siromi Turaga at risk of being cross-examined about the precise circumstances of Pryde’s suspension?
Can this be the reason that a date for the tribunal hearing still hasn’t been set 15 months on – the potential for political embarrassment when the full circumstances of the DPP’s suspension unfold before three judges in open court? It’s a fair assumption under the circumstances. But how much longer can the Constitution be defied? And how much longer can Christopher Pryde continue to be denied natural justice before this becomes a serious issue in the relationship between Fiji and New Zealand?
The combination of Siromi Turaga and Salesi Temo have produced one hell of a mess. Turaga has since been removed as AG. But how much longer can Justice Temo survive as Acting CJ when he is a serial violator of the Constitution and has proved to be so chronically injudicious? As Fred Wesley would say, interesting days lie ahead.
POSTSCRIPT: The Fijian media habitually reports that the Constitutional Offices Commission (COC) has jurisdiction over the ODPP. It doesn’t. The DPP comes under the Judicial Services Commission (JSC).
UPDATE MONDAY AM:
In the meantime, still nothing in the Fiji Sun about a story that is clearly of national importance – the Prime Minister siding with the suspended DPP against the Acting Chief Justice and the rest of the JSC on the issue of his salary being cut off.
The Sun doesn’t think that warrants coverage, which not for the first time, puts the team at Gorrie Street under Rosie Doviveirata on the wrong side of ethical journalism. So much for the new era of “media freedom” under the Coalition. The Sun’s selective coverage is just as bad now as it was when Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum controlled the paper.
And a bad newspaper, Rosie, is one that conspires against its readers by ignoring the facts.
Still got a grudge against Christopher Pryde for constantly having to correct your paper’s shoddy reporting? (As the last government’s comms advisor, I know the history of this feud inside out)
It is no excuse for you to take it out on your own readers by depriving them of an important story. Shame on you.
The Prime Minister should do thd honour and remove him as member of parliament.He is liability to coalition government. The saga for member of parliament on salary continues and ill conceived appointment for acting dpp/ Illegal chief justice who continues to breach constitutional law, SG who ill advised the Attorney general on daily basis. Since his appointment he has constitutional breached all his professional ethos. Such a parrot man of Indiscipline. Give both justice and attorney to Graham and select someone capable.
Let’s face it Graham, what is being actively pursued in Fiji is the “itauki-ism “of all the key position. This ensures that any wrongs done by senior people in government can be “forgiven” by the person they appointed.
The CJ advises the President and in this instance misled the President. This is probably the highest breach of circumstances the country has seen in a long time.
What will the PM, AG, and the President do?
How do Fijians believe in anything to be fair and just anymore is beyond anyone.
Stand down CJ. This clown show is becoming unbearable and a laughing matter everywhere. And it will get worse as Wellington intervenes.
I keep reading the same rhetoric by Rabuka in desperate attempts to play off the shambles that are his decisions. There’s always a weak apology for mistakes & not being perfect. But I’ve lost count of how many impulsive decisions that have been made to support the ethnic-racial power base, to later see the panic when someone points out that decision is illegal. There’s only so many times you can apologise for mistakes without learning from them, continue to make the same “mistakes” and expect to get away with still playing them off as “mistakes.” To anyone with any independent critical thinking this can no longer appear as foolishness, but sinister manipulation.
What I’m confused about is, does no one consult Rabuka for any decisions?
Rabuka never reprimands those who do wrong, in this case Pryde’s matter has been reported to NZ Government which turns out as a major embarrassment for Rabuka’s Government. No, something tells me Rabuka is part of this game play and he has taken the credit again
Rabuka only consult himself. It’s his senile behaviour.
And even if he gets consulted, he will say he hasn’t been.
Either way, he acts senile.
Most incompetent PM in Fiji’s history.
You are welcome Fiji.
This is your change that you wanted.