Like many Fijians, Grubsheet has been in a mild state of shock at the sight of Frank Bainimarama trying to use what looked like a tea towel to cover up his handcuffs as he and Sitiveni Qiliho left the High Court yesterday for the journey to prison. It wasn’t as if we didn’t expect the pair to be jailed. Grubsheet had been predicting it in these columns for some time. Yet it was still a jolt to see the ousted Prime Minister and former RFMF Commander being led away is such humiliating circumstances.
We need to remember that Frank Bainimarama has been the most popular leader in recent Fijian history, much more so than Sitiveni Rabuka. Bainimarama won the 2014 election by a landslide, won by a lesser margin in 2018 and still led the party with the greatest number of votes in the 2022 election. Whereas Sitiveni Rabuka just managed to scrape into power by cobbling together a coalition that prevailed over FijiFirst by one vote on the floor of the parliament . So to be sent to prison is a crushing personal and political setback for Bainimarama and many of his supporters will feel very unsettled about the circumstances.
I say “setback” because as his lawyer, Devanesh Sharma, said after the Acting Chief Justice, Salesi Temo, sent Bainimarama to Naboro for a year, it isn’t over yet. In the short term, the options may be limited. Sharma’s foreshadowed application for bail pending a hearing date in the Court of Appeal is unlikely to be granted and as things stand, the ousted Prime Minister will stay behind bars until an appeal is heard or his sentence runs out. But in the longer term, the prospects for Frank Bainimarama are more encouraging.
Under the law – as Devanesh Sharma pointed out – Bainimarama can apply for early release when he serves two-thirds of his year-long sentence. So he may be free in as early as eight months. It may take longer than that to get an appeal court date if the wheels of justice turn as slowly as they sometimes do. But when Bainimarama’s case eventually comes before the Court of Appeal, there’s a good chance – according to senior legal sources – that his conviction will be overturned.
Why? Because of the overt bias shown by Salesi Temo during these proceedings and especially the manner in which he prejudged the ODPP’s appeal against the lenient sentences passed on Frank Bainimarama and Sitiveni Qiliho by magistrate Seini Puamau. That bias shocked many members of the legal profession. And the evidence is all in the documents Grubsheet has already published on the case so you can read them for yourself.
Here’s the thing, Fiji. Assuming leave to appeal is granted, Salesi Temo will not be hearing the case in the Court of Appeal. It will go a panel of other judges who may take a different view of the evidence altogether. And according to the same legal sources, the Acting Chief Justice’s bias was so egregious that may be an issue in itself.
Grubsheet has been courting his wrath by expressing the view that because of his conduct, Salesi Temo is unfit to preside over the judiciary. There are some excellent judges in Fiji and the community can certainly continue to have faith in the judicial system as a whole. But the man chosen by the Coalition to lead it is demonstrably an outlaw who is bringing the system into disrepute.
It isn’t just Justice Temo’s overt bias in this case and his intemperate outbursts from the bench, including his astonishing attack on Seini Puamau threatening to sool the police onto her for not following his orders. That in itself is prohibited under the Constitution – the supreme law. But it is also unacceptable for the Acting Chief Justice to have violated the Constitution in the way that he has with the appointments of John Rabuku as Acting DPP and of Alipate Qetaki as a judge.
Justice Temo has also violated the Constitution by not announcing a date for a judicial tribunal hearing into the allegation of misbehaviour against the suspended DPP, Christopher Pryde. It is now 13 months since Christopher Pryde was stood down on full pay and apart from the injustice of the delay, Fijian taxpayers have since been paying for two DPPs – the substantive position and the acting one.
Devanesh Sharma is right. It is not yet over for Frank Bainimarama. Indeed, it is entirely possible that the verdict and sentence against him will be overturned by the Court of Appeal. So it is far too early to write him off politically, as some media outlets have done, by saying he cannot stand for election until 2032. He remains the head of FijiFirst – as Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum made clear yesterday – and while he does, he is still a significant political player.
For all Bainimarama’s critics who are gleeful about his humiliation, there are also a great number – Grubsheet included – who will be sad to see him in his present predicament. I still regard him as a great man – albeit a flawed one – for his courage in levelling the playing field in Fiji and imposing a common and equal citizenry and common identity in which everyone belongs. Or should I say, belonged.
Tragically that is now being wound back by the Coalition but it doesn’t make Frank Bainimarama wrong. Because he had the foresight to realise that Fiji can only prosper as one nation and that is still the case. Except that in a corresponding tragedy, the assault on the Bainimarama legacy is now triggering a mass exodus from the country as tens of thousands of our best and brightest lose hope and are voting with their feet.
POSTSCRIPT: Why the tea towel? According to a family friend, Frank Bainimarama didn’t want his grandchildren to see him cuffed. I would have thought he was better off without it. But I guess at least he didn’t put it over his head.
NOTE: A Grubsheet reader informs us below that Bainimarama was sent to Korovou prison, not Naboro. We have corrected this article and await official confirmation .
More background reading…
The story on today’s front pages…
What Devanesh Sharma said afterwards, according to the Fiji Times.
After what has happened, Now ASK wants to make him Nelson Mandela of Fiji
Ashamed to be called an Indian. Frank provided us security
Baiman and his sapotas are responsible for Frank and Qilihio incarceration
Being Vindictive is a terrible trait….both past and current regimes are guilty as defined in the dictionary….time in prison is fully deserved for the incumbents. The question is how do we move forward??
Nepotism is much of the problem as is greed both financially and politically.
If the current prime Minister earns $2700 per day while away with all expenses paid shouldn’t he put that towards CWM because he doesn’t need the money…nor the previous leaches….stop taking away from the people and justifying it under parliamentary conditions and start repairing what is broken….give back to the people what they deserve!!!
This move should worry the former AG. If this is anything to go by, we can safely conclude the acting CJ and DPP have already made a decision with his case and will do the same to the former AG.
Be interesting to see what happens once Rabuka the main player returns to Fiji from UK.
Nothing will happen
Never good for a country to see their former PM go to jail. So the last three former PM’s ( Bainimarama, Qarase Chaudhry) have all been convicted with one escaping prison with a suspended sentence while the other two have been sent directly to prison. Off course Frank has the right of appeal and till such time the appeals process takes place he is a convict.
I agree his legacy will be one in providing Fijians with one identity and he deserves full credit for this but lets not forget this concept of one Fiji, one identity was always what The NFP founder AD Patel fought for and going back to the days of the Legislative council when three Indian members of the council walked out of the Legislature on this issue because their voices on this issue was being ignored.
The difference is that Frank was able to force this through an imposed constitution under the barrel of a gun.
Frank could have been Fiji’s most successful PM but as I have mentioned in my previous comments, he did not roll up his sleeve to get the job done instead the farmed out the day to day running of the Government to Aiyaz while he enjoyed and abused the perks of the office flying first class, wine, dine. He never came up with a grand vision for the what the country should achieve economically and wasted 16 years and has left the country in a huge economic mess with high debt, increased poverty, unsustainable economy and unsustainable Government finances, and a huge drug problem.
While we do feel sorry for him and especially his family who has to suffer by him being sent to prison, he bares full responsibility for this. He ruled ruthlessly by deporting Ahuwalia, stopped funding for USP and interfered into the investigation in misuse of USP funds during the tenure of Rajesh Chandra. Obstruction of justice is always a high crime in a democratic country.
He may have been the most popular vote getter and there is no questioning that but leaders also fall from grace when their shelf live hits an expiration date. Look at Mahendra Chaudhry, once the undisputed leader of the cane belts and fierce trade unionist is now a leader lost without much of a following; no one listens to him as he runs a one man party and struggles to make the 5% vote threshold.
In politics, leaders who knows when to retire will mostly hold up their legacy but those who try and cling onto power will not.
Fiji First needs to rebrand, regroup and hopefully someone in the party will have the guts to politely stand up to Frank and ASK and ask them to pass the baton and gracefully exit and leave FFP to the a new generation of leaders. Seems like Aiyaz still wants to hold the limelight with the presser yesterday when Inia Seruiratu should have been the one to hold that press conference.
One last thing in regards to comments made by Devanesh Sharma, I wonder what is far worse then going to prison.
Spot on, Rajiv. It’s rare to see a balanced opinion on here these days. We are all dismayed by this new batch of crooks but that does not mean we should flock back in support of the last batch. VB had no problem riding roughshod over human rights for his own and his family’s gain.
@ Rajiv. The one identity concept was never realised as you stated because it was demanded of/claimed by a ‘vulagi’, for it was never his/ers to offer. Bainimarama succeeded because he had the ‘means’, the ‘owners’, the majority, oppose it still.
Sorry but Bainimarama stole power like a criminal and he and his goons ruled as a criminals. Anybody and everybody who forgets that needs their brains examined. The drugs scourge of Fiji happened on Frank’s watch and we all know where the fingers points on that one. Graham winds himself up into paroxysms of outrage over post-Frank Fiji but when was the last time you read of an opposition party complaining that their meetings were being surveilled by Special Branch, or a journalist being arrested for an article that they planned to write or the police being summoned by a Govt supporter to break up a AGM because a Govt ally was about to lose an election he expected to win.
Charlie, you can pen volume upon volume of vitriolic attack on FRANK BAINIMARAMA but it still won’t make RABUKA look like an angel.
Drugs is a billion dollar industry, far bigger than Fiji”s GDP. So obviously it will find it’s way to our streets quicker than our government finding the budget to combat it. The drug problem is worse now than ever.
It’s funny that you chose to turn a blind eye to the coalition’s unconstitutional demeanour thus far.
Two wrongs don’t make a right.
You obviously have me confused with someone else. I’m an equal opportunity critic of Baininarama and Rabuka.
Both commited treason and because of that neither should have a role to play in the future of our country.
It’s only thanks to Graham’s beloved 2013 constitution, and the amnesties it contained, that we are condemned to have to chose between these two.
So it’s my constitution now. You’ve been drinking too much Old Peculier.
Right now, we have rapists, home breakers, drug dealers and treasonous politicians running the country and the age old game of divide and rule continues.
Known criminals get too roam around free. Be sure, you will find yourself in jail even if you are innocent in Fiji.
And those that are writing comments about how God answered their prayers, he certainly has. Wait till you are all scrapping of whatever is left at the end of the barrel when this government is done filling their coffers with treasures. Your children will bear the consequences. Let’s see who has the last laugh.
Some people don’t deserve oxygen.
The real victory is yet to come!
Bai is a lion. He has shown mannerism and respect for the Constitution. He left quietly. He is not roaring yet but he will.
Many have been in a state of disbelief. Overseas, even non-Fijians have been left in utter shock. It is only now that people have started fully understanding how undermined the judiciary system is and how dangerous it is. That made heads shake.
I wish his family well. The childish game by this Coalition will only make FFP come out stronger and Fijians know this already. This is just the beginning of another era for what looks like a major triump for exposing how poor the current leadership is and the biases at play.
Shocking and sad.
While what you say, may be good for the passing of time, remember that Frank was very reluctant, and even petulant when a new government won power, refusing to leave his mansion. Mary, so petty as to uproot flowers on her way out. Neither displayed graciousness, acceptance nor respect for the constitutional process that had fattened their coffers for so many years. Who wants a sore loser or a bad sport to be a leader? Frank may have set out on the right path, with the right convictions for his beloved Fiji, but he lost his way in the trappings and power and stacked the deck in his favour as time went on. Becoming a dictator. His chickens have home home to roost.
Rabuka is divisive. He can’t walk his talk. As things have become tougher, he foolishly thinks pictures of himself in his garden, telling fellow Fijians to plant yams, holds any sort of credibility when he is jetsetting all over the world. Mixed messages much? Now his invincible ego is expanding to gym training and competing in masters games. Just do your job, buddy. Keep your private life private, noone needs to see a 75yo break a hip. I feel almost embarrassed for him. His ego has expanded faster than Frank’s did.
For Fiji, both have run their race, both have lost, they need to move on. This revolving door of the same leaders does not work. As a nation we are stuck in Ground Hog’s Day. We are self sabotaging.
Fiji needs an unknown to lead. A clean slate, a fresh start without bias or ties to race or culture or religion. Someone outside of the current or past political gene pool. Fiji can progress under the right leadership and as a country it deserves to. The billion dollar question is who can that person be?
People are overwhelmed and tired. The country is not making any progress under the Coalition. Their Minister’s are running fraudulent moves against the Constitution every where. Nothing seems to tick, except the number of cases in FICAC. Is this the measure of a growing country that calls itself a Christian state?
It just a shit show and everyone smart wants to get out. They have had enough. This is just another beginning of a slippery slope for Fiji. Back to 1987.
Is the judiciary fair and impartial?
Is the judiciary acting legally themselves?
Is the judicial team legally appointed?
In here lies the answers to where Fiji stands.
We know what the answers are.
The question is what are we doing about it and why is media quiet on this.
It is over. This is the first of many cases. In the end, he will be out of pocket and out of time. He should have dumped his AG a long time ago. Now paying for listening to that bushl awyer to hold the Police at bay to protect his friends in USP. Those protected are still enjoying their freedom including his AG. He has himself to blame.
Fijians are tired of corrupt leaders. Even if they did something good, it doesn’t change the fact if they broke the law. We need leaders who do the right thing all the time.
Maybe a shock to you but your views are out-of sync with political reality as most who have been feeding you info are FFP supporters. They are clutching at straws.
Bai will front court again soon for his next charge along with Dr Neil Sharma. The CIP team who defrauded the nation for the benefit of FFP supporters will soon follow along with Khai.
More to follow. The long arm of the law is at work. Have a great day Grubsheet.
Agree entirely. What a complete mess. And one should be very careful about poking the bear whilst he’s down. Yes flawed. But still, this isn’t over. Far from.
I was sick in the stomach seeing the handcuffs and towel. I know he’s sent many off to prison but this sight was so confronting. Qiliho looked arrogant. Frank looked confused.
Then again, I keep reminding myself where we are from and ask how did an ex inmate end up Commissioner of prisons.
Keeping it all in the family……
Appreciate your comments GD. I learn more and more without tapping into family who have their own set opinions.
Hi Graham he was sent to Korovou prison and not Naboro. Some say he will now be transferred to the prison in Nakasi whereby they house more older prison inmates there. So looks like there wont be any meeting up with George Speight.
One more thing, to have a tea towel cover the handcuffs was a stupid idea as it drew more attention.
Frank was not a saint as many comments portray him to be, he was ruthless and ruined many lives during his tenure. Ask those who opposed him how their lives were made miserable under the rule of Frank and Aiyaz.
Thanks for this info. Much appreciated.
A man that did do great things for Fiji. It’s sad that towards the end of his reign, FF lost their way. This losing their way landed us with this very disturbed coalition. It’s sad that most attempts at accountability are like this in Fiji – more dodgy than the original alleged offence. And it’s sad that attempts to rebuild Fiji after this government will be occurring amongst geopolitical instability and financial ruin. It’ll be a long rebuild.
He listened to one man all the time
Now he ended up in prison
He had no idea of what was happening at USP
Now Aiyas hasn’t given up
He still wants to use and make him Nelson Mandela of Fiji
Bainimarama and his family should decide, where from here
Keep listening to one man or spend his retirement with family and his grandchildren
Alternately he should become a crown witness and spill the beans on how he was used and get a pardon
The jail term for Mr Bainimarama has left us more divided as a nation and has left many of us with this key question: would you rather live in a divided Fiji under Rabuka? Or a integrated Fiji under Bainimarama?
We patiently await the Court of Appeal process.
Hey Farmer Joe
Would you rather live under fear of prosecution under two men rule or would you live in a free society where you can critic the Government and its leaders and still sleep at night without the fear of a knock on your door st 3 am and hauled to Totogo Police Station or dragged and deported.
An integrated society is good as long as it’s fair and not one that is driven by fear and pretentious freedom.
No you can live in a “free country” where you cannot sleep at night because of the threat of home invasion and criminals freely roaming the streets. Enjoy!
Hi Rajiv, seems like you are not in Fiji and haven’t experienced anything in Fiji against you or your family. You are only telling what you think is right. Yes, Bai had a good tenure as PM, did a coup and brought Fiji forward from the two bloody coups.
Yes, he has demised a lot of lives along his tenure as PM. But Rabuka? Do you support a snake? Rabuka has multiple blood on his hands. Roaming free now as a PM, he should have been jailed for terrorism and mutiny.
Now, Biman Prasad another corrupt Finance officer, racist and corrupt judicial system. The country is on its knees already. Under Bainimarama’s leadership. drains were being dug every year to prevent silt building up. Farmers were doing well. Have you seen how the prices of vegetables is going up and going down in similar fashion as to fuel prices?
Biman talked about reducing price of meat. The price of meat, especially chicken has sky rocketed in Fiji. People need homes and food to survive. Most families fall under poverty line. Income is scarce now, land is being taken away. Crown land is being transfered to Native land now.
IndoFijians and miniority races are already suffering. Murders, rape, DV on the rise. More and more I-Taukei children are school dropouts. About 31,000 school dropouts out of 90,000. 1/3 of education sector is in demise.
This is not Bai’s fault or FFP. The current situation is. People have no confidence in this coalition Government. They don’t have a gameplan. As more IndoFijians leave Fiji. More and more people will suffer.
Australia has 300 Pacific Labour Engagement Visa ready for Fiji. On 3rd June most skilled pupil will apply and will leave the country for PR and work.
You talk about debt, if Covid 19 hadn’t occurred, the debt would have been 2-billion at best. Prior to Covid, debt level was $5.7 million and covid doubles Fiji’s borrowing. You think Biman the Baimaan would have done wonders without loans during Covid? People would hv died in masses without vaccination.
Get a grip of reality. GD knows this, we know this. The future in Fiji is bleak. How many Itaukei pay Taxes? Most tax is paid by Indo and Chinese people. Thousands of acres of land sitting idle without farming being done. If you don’t have facts, keep shut!
There are many today (and yesterday) excitedly basking in the glory of their “enemy” being jailed. No matter how much pretending they put up on social media, this was about revenge and that has been taken in their mind.
You will get the picture from sampling the posts from the Minister of Bonking & Weed or that convicted lawyer hiding in Auckland running away from his own spot at Naboro.
I would presume the law is not about revenge. The hastiness with which Siromi and the compromised judge have moved, together with their publicly shared sentiments about the case and convicted means only one thing. This is no longer about the alleged crime that was committed but all about processes that were followed by powerful people making decisions on the case. The lawyers of the convicted will have a field day in the court of appeal presenting their piles of evidence on these processes to turn around the conviction. You can see that lawyer is licking his lips on the chance of being heard in the court again with a different set of judges.
Simple minds contaminated with the emotions of taking revenge can celebrate today and cry later.
Graham Davis, you are partially responsible for the jailing of Bainimarama, Fijians were to choose via vote the lessor of two evils, you promoted the more evil one aka Baimaan and the snake. And now this, you are a senile old man.
I am far from senile when I can belt out cogent analysis read by many thousands every day, often in the middle of the night so that my readers have something to ponder when they wake. On the basis of the false promises from Rabuka and Prasad that they would be different, I advocated a change of government. In any democracy, governments must change on a regular basis to keep the bastards honest. I had no way of knowing that these bastards would be worse than the last and for that I am sorry. But as we keep being told, it is a free country and if you don’t like what I write, bugger off.
Exactly GD. By the way agree on your post about the towels over handcuffs. None of them can be trusted As for SayEd-Khaiyum I think all of us have had enough of his rudeness and arrogance.
Your forum provides us with great insight and wisdom.
If people don’t like what you have to say feel free to move on
Whatever we all say about this whole episode, the shroud of uncertainity hangs over the heads of the 2 convicts. That initself will impose an immense phycological trauma being behind the prison walls under those conditions; all their liberty being taken away. It does not matter even if they are free at last after the appeal process. The damage would have been done by then. Revenge or purely criminal acts, only the characters involved know it. We all have the choice to either “Fall from Grace” or “Fall Gracefully”.
Its a sad thing to see the former PM in cuffs. For once I felt bad. He is and will always be the best PM Fiji had.
I did not vote for him, but his policies allowed me to get educated through the scholarships provided. It did the same for many friends and family i know. He was a visionary for sure and never away from the people who were in need in times of disaster. He was with the common men and women in the hardest times.
If not for his leadership, i dont know how fiji would have fared in and past covid. Dont know if fiji airways would have survived. Collecting the profits, bimans teeth could have fallen off, but if he were minister during covid fiji airways would have been dead.
The sadness among people is truly understandable if you look at the current lot in government. Our PM is currently in UK apologizing to the worst family ever. A family responsible for the slavery, suffering, rape, murder, looting and many more atrocities of millions if not a billion people. Greasing the balls of a king while common Fijians dont even have water.
The idiots are out now and seems like the one who really cared is gone. I rue the day i voted for Biman snd this coalition.
Never again…
“What goes around, comes around”. Does this apply only to the old mob or does this apply to the current mob as well?
Even the Judge is not immune.
Great write-up GD.
It’s a matter of irony while this is happening in Fiji, the Snake who gave a 1 fingure salute to Her Majesty in October 1987 and declared Fiji a republic to save himself from the gallows is at Buckingham Palace, meeting the King.
If FB did stop the investigations at USP, then the new government could have restarted it. End of story. Why prosecute FB if he thought police resources were better used elsewhere !!
The Indo-Fijian population of Fiji are grog-doped first class idiots. There is no question in my mind about that. So the next time you walk past an Indo-Fijian, in the market, in the cinema, the the supermarket, at work or anywhere for that matter, just remember, he/she may be a first class idiot. Indeed, many in this forum have admitted to that. But there are thousands out there. How can they not vote for equal citizenry and how can they vote for a crackpot and those who go to bed with a crackpot. They must be full of tatti. I mean what else can they be full of?
I see you’re still peddling the nonsense that Bainimarama’s treason in 2006 and the pain that followed was all about creating a ‘common and equal citizenry and common identity’.
It’s as ridiculous a figleaf to his real intentions as the tea cloth hiding the fact Bainimarama ruled as a criminal and because he took power like a criminal.
Charlie, it’s in the 2013 Constitution. Are you really that stupid not to be able to read it?
It seems your self-worth is wrapped up in convincing yourself the 2013 constitution is a real document, what is expressed in it has legal meaning and genuine weight, and that you weren’t bluffed into giving your good name to support a series of interlinked criminal enterprises masquerading as a government. But this constitution is a complete fiction and always has been. It was forced on Fiji by classic regime standover tactics. But forget about the no consultation etc. If the constitution is a real thing, where’s the Accountability and Transparency Commission we were promised [Part B 121]? Are you so vaingloriously attached to all you invested in Frank that you can’t admit the whole thing turned out to be an empty charade?
I suppose that in the week our less than illustrious Prime Minister got an audience with King Charles, we were bound to hear from the right royal Charlie just up the road. Whether you like it or not, the 2013 Constitution is the LAW, the only LAW until it is changed by lawful means and that is an immutable fact. For an “empty charade”, turn to the nearest mirror. Qori.
Can you, or anyone else bleating on and on about 2013 constitution ‘being forced on Fiji’ tell us which of Fiji’s other constitutions were put to a referendum? Banana.
PS- The lady who ate all the pies hasn’t sung yet.
Ordinary Joe
New constitutions under the Commonwealth model are rarely introduced by referendum. So your point lacks any relevance.
A small bit of desk research would show how extensively Prof Yash Ghai tried to include all the country’s stakeholder groups in preparing his 2012 constitution proposals. In the absence of a parliamentary body, Ghai’s recommendations were then supposed to be debated and processed via a Constituent Assembly into the final constitution.
Of course, as we now know, Ghai’s good work was summarily dismissed by Bainimarama and his goons in an epic but rather pathetic child-like tantrum.
Ghai’s patient and deliberative process was also followed for the 1997 constitution which not only was produced after extensive input from across the country fed into a three-person commission but came into force after debate, amendment and ratification as it passed through Fiji two’s parliamentary chambers.
The genesis of the 1970 constitution was the 1965 constitution conference in London and the eagerly contested debates inside and outside parliament between all communities that ran between then and 1969 and which took in those viewpoints.
By any definition – and certainly by comparison with the 1970 and 1997 constitutions and the way Ghai went about his work in 2012 – Frank’s 2013 constitution was forced on the country which is why so many of the provisions ring so hollow or false.
The bits that were a bit boring to kleptomaniacal Frank – like the binding commitment to create an Accountability and Transparency Commission – ASK and his handmaidens just didn’t bother to enact.
The whole process of how we got 2013 was grimly familiar to those students of 16 years of rule by Goon One and Goon Two: Goon One introducing something that he almost certainly had not read, did not understand, and could care less about, that was put in front of him to rubberstamp by Goon Two.
Same with the 2013 constitution, as with Land Sales Act 2014, Income Tax Amendment No. 2 Bill 2021, Medicinal Products Amendment No. 2 Bill 2021, Television Cross Carriage of Designated Event Act 2014 etc etc.
Just narrow, self-dealing, power-grabbing and ultimately all about keeping the criminal syndicates going.
So all the parties contested the 2022 elections under a constitution which you say is a complete fiction ? Did anyone wanting to contest the elections, boycott it, saying they did not accept the 2013 constitution ?
Belated thanks for putting me straight re: referendum. Always happy to learn new things. Salute.
Heartbreaking to see photographs of Gul, Bainimarama and Qiliho’s lawyer crying after the sentence. Those of us who know her know how dedicated she is and how she has stood by their side from the beginning. Even on nights when they were kept in custody in Totogo, she was looking after them and providing necessities and explaining the process to them. She is a wonderful human being and a brilliant lawyer. She and Devanesh have done everything that they could do as lawyers – and more – while constantly swimming against the tide. To this day the Court hasn’t delivered its reasons or written decision for their recusal application. Those of us who are in the system were terrified of the speed at which this case was appealed and verdicts were issued. We knew what was coming – lawyers have no choice but to have faith in the people who are listening to our arguments. These are the very people who have failed Gul and Devanesh as lawyers, and Bainimarama and Qiliho as litigants, in a system that we expect to be fair. Truly a sad time to be in this country.
So what is the Fiji Law Society doing given the madness of the justice system in Fiji? I am taking that the answer is nothing. No one is speaking up. The whole country has gone quiet for many many months.
I was talking to a law student in Fiji today. She said that she is shocked by the processes and is now questioning whether she still wants become a lawyer in Fiji. As a non-itaukei she is worried about what the future holds in a very compromised environment.
These Lawyers were hand picked by previous government and paid with Tax payers money without Tenders being called to provide legal services
These lawyers were also retained by the current Attorney-General because they’re good at what they do. They ran many cases under the new Govt and are still representing Govt agencies and statutory bodies. You seem to know a lot about handpicked lawyers – are Haniff Tuitoga handpicked? Did you see a tender come out before Feizal Haniff walked into Court to represent the AG in Richard Naidu’s case? Did you see a tender come out before Feizal Haniff (again) walked into Supreme Court to act for Govt in the Constitutional interpretation? Gul and Devanesh have acted for many Govts and many politicians – including Rabuka. If you don’t know the facts, don’t speak.
Anonymous
When Lucky Dube performed in Fiji
He sang Doctors smoke it and even my Lawyers too
Need to have some ethics
You can’t be representing both ,the thief and the victim
I totally agree with you.
Time will tell.
It’s a shame that we will be celebrating the farcical Girmit Day over the three day weekend. It provides an occasion for Sashi Kiran to come out of hibernation. An ignorant fool oblivious to the daily injustices against Indo – Fijians. Look at the statistics (would be a surprise if there are any) of how many elderly Indo Fijian men and women have been victims of violent home invasions since the coalition came into power. The ethno nationalist are again blocking roads, etc demanding compensation.
Despite his flaws, Bai provided equal footing to everyone irrespective of their race or religion. There are so many kids of poor Indian families who wouldn’t have been provided scholarships otherwise. And I wouldn’t be surprised if we go back to the race based education policies of yester years.
There is nothing that the coalition has achieved that’s even worth mentioning. There are still riding and relying on the tourism industry. There is no effort to develop other industries especially agriculture. The future looks bleak and if we have another event like the pandemic or all out World War 3…kaboom!!!
Well said.
For Frank it may be obvious from hereon. As in super rugby parlance for recalcitrant ones-initially sent with a yellow card, a bunker review will most definitely upgrade to colour red. For no doubt, dominoes are already aligned. And it would be a miracle if can avoid all. He may permanently watch things from the outer.