In an extraordinary interview with Vijay Narayan on CFL-Fiji Village, the Supreme Court judge, Justice David Ashton-Lewis, defends his Commission of Inquiry into the Malimali affair and challenges the ruling by the lower court judge, Justice Dane Tuiqereqere, finding him biased and declaring the CoI null and void.
Ashton-Lewis – who reveals that he is battling cancer – says Tuiqereqere – a novice judge with a background in personal accident compensation – “wasn’t appointed to the High Court because he is a dill”. Yet in 40 minutes of questioning, he undermines the Tuiqereqere finding – “I don’t agree with him” – and also says he doesn’t agree with the exoneration of the Deputy Prime Minister, Manoa Kamikamica, putting Kamikamica’s reputation back in the firing line.
Click on the link below for something we normally never see – a Supreme Court judge defending himself in public and giving us a unique insight into his appointment, along with a critique of how he says the CoI has been unjustly undermined that is genuinely eye-opening.
An interview that will infuriate the CoI’s critics because it also undermines their reputations whatever “victory” they might have regarded themselves as having had in the courts.
Why? Because who are we to believe? A High Court Judge with the barest of judicial experience (appointed less than three years ago) or a Judge of the Supreme Court – Fiji’s highest.
As the Prime Minister contemplates the scope of his appeal to the Court of Appeal against the Tuiqereqere judgment, an interview that is a Grubsheet “must see”.
You be in the judge of this, Fiji. How persuasive did you find Justice Ashton-Lewis? And what confidence do you have that justice has been served?
Ashton, a Judge, shouldn’t be schooled in the legal principle of precedence. There are clear case authorities present in this regard. What might have been a great exercise in his view has been deemed null and void. There is no way any superior court will overturn this decision. Because COI has been procedurally flawed, there is no remedy available to bring it into effect.
That is one view. But we are poised to find out what other foreign judges sitting on the Court of Appeal have to say. That will be a panel of judges with vast experience, not one inexperienced judge on the High Court. So I wouldn’t bet your house on the bold pronouncement you have made.
@What a waste – please go and read about how the hierarchy of the court system works. The “precedence” (sic) of a superior court always carries more legal force than a lower one.
This won’t be overturned by an appeal. The Judge did not make any errors in law in his Judgement.
Rubbish. Even I can see them. Tuiqereqere doesn’t understand how commissions of inquiry work.
Are you a lawyer too like Vijay?
Listen to Justice Ashton again, schooling Vijay Narayan who doesn’t understand what Ashton is talking about
Read the High Court Judgement where Ashton gets schooled.
Yes, Dane. Nice try but no banana.
I like your work here but in this instance you are incorrect. May I suggest taking a step back and looking this again but objectively?
I am.
One of the biggest issues I’ve had with this entire saga is that the leaked video footage from the COI proceedings speaks for itself. You literally hear the lines of questioning as well as the answers directly from the mouths of those implicated. Yet the media, FLS etc all jumped on the same bandwagon to quickly discredit the COI, Ashton-Lewis, and the findings of the inquiry. From the outset it became clear that the Fijian judiciary was compromised.
Vijay is so clearly biased and is not even attempting to hide it. You expect better from someone with his experience. I am sorry to say but Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum was absolutely right about the media in Fiji. Their incompetence is scary. Justice Ashton-Lewis picked this up too when he said Vijay seems to uncritically believe one side of the argument – and he then goes on a crusade trying to defend these views using CFL’s airwaves now handsomely funded through a Government grant.
Does Fiji really deserve a free media when its journalists are so clearly incompetent, bias and politically-aligned given the sway the media has on public opinion? Singapore decided they did not and today they are thriving. It’s time for Fiji to honestly confront this question within our unique development context. The repeal of MIDA has exposed how bereft Fiji’s media is of basic professional standards and ethics.
Indeed, a refreshing conversation and so eloquently explained by the Judge.
I like his wisdom, towards the end, on the need for an independent media and free press in a democratic society. Something which Vijay Narayan and others in Fijian media could benefit from.
Just as an example in relation to Virgin flights having to refill halfway due to ‘contaminated jet fuel in Fiji: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-21/fiji-fuel-contamination-impacts-qantas-virgin-flights/107061960
The response from Fijian authorities was “Nadi International Airport remains fully operational, with an additional 1.3 million litres of Jet A-1 aviation fuel released into available stock to provide some relief as current fuel supply restrictions continue. Not a word about contamination https://www.fijivillage.com/news/1-3m-litres-of-jet-fuel-released-as-nadi-airport-continues-operating-under-supply-restrictions-210dfe/
Of course, no attempt by the Fijian media to examine the issue and report fairly and transparently.
Nothing anyone says or does matters, especially if they are vulagis. Fiji is for the iTaukei and that is what matters. Standards or ethics come way down the line, if at all. All and every rule will be changed depending on the circumstances and the requirement at the time. We have seen that time and again over the last 4 years.
The iTaukei have taken the country back from the previous vulagi government and they will never let it go again. That is the thinking in the vast nmajority of the local population. Their mentality is that they will just go back to the land and sea and live off those. The iTaukei will never starve. But what will they do when a vulagi disease like HIV and a scourge live drugs takes over.
I am reading reports that up to 25% of the itaukei population may be infected by HIV and they do not know. They have more important things like changing the Constitution. As for the GCC, well they will just continue to pray and fast, the racist bunch of useless imbeciles.
This COI has been a joke. CoI’s are important and should carefully select their subject to ensure it’s in the public interest. The appointment of the commissioner of ficac didn’t need a coi / if the issues that allegedly made the commissioner unfit like getting banned in Tuvalu for tanking a case by cavorting with a judge who should have known better – then that’s a simple employment matter. The government could have and should have corrected the appointment or not depending on how serious that was.
But there are serious issues in the public interest that demand a COI – for example the tax holiday to foreign owned companies. That one affects everyone and the public should understand how these things happen.
Thank you GD for posting the interview. It’s a shame someone like Judge Ashton Lewis is not CJ during this time. You only have to read current CJs inarticulate rambling at admissions to notice the current standard. Ashton Lewis did his job of investigating and made recommendations regarding the crocodiles. It appears Rabuka freaked out and did not,or could not, authorise further investigation by police or DPP-knowing that he has adversaries everywhere. Meanwhile the crocodiles are freed by a judge who has written his reasoning in 154 pages. What benefit will the people of Fiji get from further Appeals. In the end this is an indulgence and power struggle among selfish politicians. A distraction from proper administration and waste of resources.
It is obvious that Vijay Narayan was exerting his right to be an idiot in a now free Fiji with media freedom. It is not just third rate journalists but every Fijian now has a licence to be stupid. And proudly so. Many are in this forum.
Just like the President, the Pm, his ministers – all exercise their god-given right to be silly. Very proud tradition and culture., unique only to Fiji. I just wish Vijay Narayan learnt how to speak properly first instead of pretending to speak like an iTaukei.
Never have listened to the smegma – does he eloquent “th” as “dre” too?
His Honour (David Ashton-Lewis) is arguably among the few judges in Fiji whose jurisprudential standing is informed by distinguished service on the Supreme Court in the early 1990s. His judgment in the constitutional proceedings concerning Butadroka was erudite, analytically rigorous and exceptionally well reasoned. Its reasoning was subsequently considered on appeal, with the higher courts ultimately maintaining the legal position established by his original enunciation.
For any student of judicial reasoning and legal writing, the judgment is remarkable for the breadth and coherence of its analysis. His Honour traced the development of fundamental legal doctrines through centuries old jurisprudence, including principles dating back to the Magna Carta of 1215, demonstrating an unusual ability to connect historical legal customs with contemporary constitutional principle.It has even been reported that members of the United States Supreme Court then nine made personal reference to the clarity and quality of the judgment.
Against that jurisprudential background, and given His Honour’s demonstrated capacity to analyse complex constitutional and legal questions with considerable intellectual rigour, I find it difficult to reconcile the suggestion that his findings concerning the Commission of Inquiry are legally wanting merely because they have been questioned by a comparatively inexperienced judge.