# CORRUPTION AT THE HEART OF THE STATE. PART TWO (UPDATED FRI PM)

Barbara Malimali – the FICAC Commissioner – and her friend John Rabuku – the Deputy DPP – have again shown the nation the middle finger and violated all accepted practice by appearing in public at the ODPP’s annual conference when Rabuku is supposed to be investigating Malimali for alleged abuse of office.

It beggars belief that the substantive but suspended DPP, Christopher Pryde, has waited the best part of two years for a judicial tribunal to hear an allegation against him of misbehaviour for being seen in conversation with Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum when he wasn’t investigating him at all. And yet John Rabuku and Barbara Malimali think it is appropriate for the two of them to be seen consorting in public not once but twice and after the first instance triggered a furore. If that’s not a big “eff you” to the rest of us, what is?

The latest outrage arises from Barbara Malimali “accepting an invitation” from the ODPP to attend its annual conference. Here she is in the official photo of the event, with the FICAC Commissioner and John Rabuku bookending the rest of the official party, including the miscreant-in-chief of the criminal justice system – the rogue Acting Chief Justice and head of the Judicial Services Commission, Salesi Temo (third from left) – and the drink-driving Chief Registrar and JSC Secretary, Tomasi Bainivalu (fourth from right.)

What is the ODPP and more specifically John Rabuku doing inviting Barbara Malimali to its annual gabfest when Rabuku is supposed to be investigating Malimali for abuse of office when she was chair of the Electoral Commission? And what are either of them doing thinking they can possibly get away with such an egregious breach of accepted norms in any other jurisdiction?

Why aren’t the Acting DPP, Nancy Tikoisuva (second from left), the Acting Chief Justice, the Attorney General, Graham Leung, and anyone with half a brain and sense of decorum telling these two jokers that their public fraternising is bringing the criminal justice system into disrepute? Or are we all missing something – that the whole damn lot of them have absolutely no idea how to behave appropriately? Or worse, are in a conspiracy to show us all the middle finger?

It is outrageous that the Home Affairs Minister, Pio Tikoduadua – who isn’t a lawyer – appears to understand instinctively that he needs to stand aside while an official inquiry is conducted into the sensational revelations that someone has evidently been selling Grace Road passports. Yet Barbara Malimali believes she can remain as FICAC Commissioner while she is the subject of two investigations – one supposedly being conducted by John Rabuku and the second pending – the judicial inquiry into the circumstances of her appointment by Justice David Ashton-Lewis. And no-one – absolutely no-one – is calling her out.

We now know there is hard evidence of corruption of the most basic kind in the Coalition government when passports and proof of citizenship are being given to outsiders who are not entitled to them. But there is something even more pernicious occurring that is highly alarming for anyone who cares about our democracy – the institutionalised corruption that is occurring in the criminal justice system and the nation’s offices of state. And with the full endorsement and patronage of the nation’s leadership.

The Opposition leader, Inia Seruiratu, called for Barbara Malimali and John Rabuku to be suspended when they were photographed with the Minister for Justice, Siromi Turaga, at a function at the GPH last month. He did so on the basis that if Christopher Pryde could be suspended as DPP for being seen with Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, the same should apply to Malimali – the investigated – and John Rabuku – the investigator.

What happened? Nothing. No response from Salesi Temo, no response from Graham Leung and no response from the silent hand in all of this – the Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka. On the contrary, Barbara Malimali and John Rabuku have doubled down – Rabuku inviting the FICAC Commissioner to attend the ODPP conference with him. It is an astonishing defiance of normal convention and an astonishing double standard given that Christopher Pryde is still waiting for justice to be dispensed when, unlike John Rabuku, he wasn’t investigating anyone. A police file on Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum had yet to reach his desk.

We can have no confidence at all in John Rabuku’s “investigation” into the allegation of abuse of office against Barbara Malimali. How can we when they are fraternising so openly and dismissively? It’s as if the whole thing is a joke. Yes, a joke on the proper conduct of the criminal justice system and a joke on the Fijian people.

But can we have confidence in the forthcoming judicial investigation into the circumstances of Barbara Malimali’s appointment as FICAC Commissioner and the departure of Francis Puleiwai just as the Deputy Prime Minister, Biman Prasad, was about to be charged with abuse of office? It has now been three weeks since the investigation by the Australian Supreme Court judge, Justice David Ashton-Lewis, was announced and no further details have emerged.

Except one. Grubsheet has been told that David Ashton-Lewis has been a member of the same Christian prayer group as the Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka. Yes, the two of them evidently know each other and worship together. If this is true, then what does it tell us, Fiji? That there are already serious questions about the independence of the forthcoming inquiry. One judge who evidently knows the Prime Minister picked by the Prime Minister to conduct a inquiry on which the integrity of his entire government depends.

All we can do is pray that God guides all these individuals to do what is just and right. Because right now, it seems very much as if God is all we have on our side. Because the criminal justice system in Fiji from the top down is in a devil of a mess.

John Rabuku and Barbara Malimali on either side of the photo just weeks after the two of them were photographed with the Justice Minister, Siromi Turaga, at the GPH Hotel. The investigator fraternising with the investigated. And an extraordinary double standard given what has happened to the substantive DPP, Christopher Pryde.

It prompted the opposition to call for the duo’s suspension.

What has happened to the Commission of Inquiry? The announcement just over three weeks ago.

Now fresh questions about the integrity of Janet Mason, the counsel assisting Justice Ashton-Lewis. It seems that she and John Rabuku will get along just fine, having both fallen foul of legal disciplinary tribunals.

Is there no-one they could find with clean records and unimpeachable reputations? My thanks to the Grubsheet reader who alerted me to this story in today’s Wellington-based media outlet, The Post.

My apologies for the small typeface on the screen shot. Here’s the text of the article:

A senior lawyer who was ordered to take an introductory course in civil litigation says she expected she could negotiate the type of course, and when she would complete it.
Janet Mason is now scheduled to do the two-day course in about two weeks but a Wellington standards committee for lawyers had ordered her to do it more than a year ago.
She gave evidence at a Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal hearing in Wellington on Monday, where she denied thinking that the introductory course was beneath her. The tribunal reserved its decision on her case.
She was aggrieved with the earlier disciplinary decision, and the basis for it, and wanted to challenge it but eventually did not.
She had been practising law for 25 years and had not had such a finding before, she said. She wanted to offer alternatives to doing the course that was only available three times a year.
Mason told the tribunal she was very busy with work, but at no time thought she was not going to do what the standards committee ordered.
She thought her circumstances warranted some flexibility, and that an advanced civil litigation skills course would be considered. In the meantime she did a two-hour online course, and expected feedback on what more was needed.
She also paid a $3500 fine and a $2000 costs order.
Mason said the decisions against her concerned seeking to withdraw from a case because there was no funding, and how she had asked in an email to a court registrar whether a memorandum of counsel or a formal application was needed for a step in a civil proceeding.
For the standards committee which had disciplined Mason, Tim Bain said it appeared Mason was determined not to do the introductory course. Failure to comply with the order amounted to misconduct, he said.
Mason’s lawyer, Alistair Darroch, said it seemed when the committee ordered her to do the course within six months it didn’t realise how few courses were available.
Mason was in that position for the first time and thought she could offer a substitute to the order that was made.
Mason has been involved in several high profile cases, including of the child “Moana” whose foster parents, who were Pākehā, eventually gave up trying to keep her in their care, in the face of continuing legal action. Mason acted for Moana’s birth mother in the case.

UPDATE FRI PM: