As the President, Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu, considers the recommendation by the Judicial Services Commission headed by the corrupt Chief Justice, Salesi Temo, to remove Lavi Rokoika as FICAC Acting Commission, he needs to tread carefully. Very carefully indeed.
And especially on whether to accept any recommendation that Rokoika be replaced by her predecessor, Barbara Malimali, who Justice Dane Tuiqereqere has ruled was unlawfully removed by the Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, and with whom the Chief Justice has been in talks to reinstate her.
The President and the Prime Minister would do well to read the latest article by Victor Lal at Fijileaks, which sets out in devastating detail the precise reasons why Barbara Malimali was unfit to have been appointed FICAC Commissioner in the first place and must not be reappointed.
On clear evidence in document form, Barbara Malimali is exposed as a liar, a racist, corrupt herself and whose application to head Fiji’s corruption watchdog should never have been considered in the first place.
Instead, the Chief Justice continues to defend his scandalous decision to railroad her appointment through and stands by his risible claim that Malimali was the best of the candidates available when on any reasoned analysis, she was woefully unsuitable for the job
Indeed, as the President again considers Justice Temo’s recommendation on who is best to lead one of the most critical of the nation’s institutions of state, it is high time for him to face an uncomfortable truth. That his own decision to appoint his old friend and relative to the position of Chief Justice has been an unmitigated disaster.
Every hiccup, every controversy, every scandal that has plagued the criminal justice system – of which the debacle at FICAC is merely one – flows from the bumbling incompetence, lack of judgment, belligerence and malevolence of Salesi Temo. Never mind Lavi Rokoika. It is Temo who must go to right the ship of state or it will continue to steadily sink, along with the nation’s fortunes.
The President – acting on the advice of the Prime Minister as head of the Constitutional Offices Commission – must finally do what he has long been urged to do – suspend Salesi Temo for his multiple instances of misbehaviour and put him before a tribunal of three High Court judges to try him. And then appoint an acting chief justice, preferably from outside Fiji, to begin the Herculean task of cleaning up the almighty mess that Temo has created.
But first, the President must resist any attempt by the Chief Justice to reinstate the corrupt Barbara Malimali to be corruption watchdog. The reasons he must do so are all there in Victor Lal’s landmark article, which Grubsheet is republishing in full below with Victor’s permission and is required reading not only for the President and Prime Minister but every Fijian.
It is Salesi Temo who is the root cause of the inferno now raging in the criminal justice system. The President and Prime Minister can either extinguish it or eventually be consumed by it. But they must know that any decision to reinstate Barbara Malimali to FICAC will trigger the mother of all sh*t storms and plunge the nation into a fresh crisis. Because even the proverbial Blind Freddy can see that she was unfit to head FICAC when Temo appointed her and still is.
———————————
First, the context of Victor Lal’s article – yesterday’s visit to State House by Salesi Temo to recommend Lavi Rokika’s removal to the President.
Now Victor Lal’s MUST READ, especially for the President and Prime Minister, if Salesi Temo bows to Barbara Malimali’s demands to be reinstated and that is his recommendation.
GD
It baffles me that there are many competent people in Fiji who could become FICAC commissioner yet they are not even considered.
The best way forward is to readvertise the post and bring an independent panel from overseas to interview a suitable FICAC commissioner.
This will restore confidence and once for all, the FICAC issues regarding leadership will be resolved.
Great idea and fully concur with that idea, but unfortunately that would lead to a fully qualified and suitably trained person with all the skills and abilities to carry out the work in a dignified and fair way and be someone with morals and strength of character, so obviously they wouldn’t be acceptable to the rabble that’s running this country, so why waste more Money?
Temo needs a YES person that he can control.
Really? Advertise and get an independent panel to interview and appoint? You mean appointment based on merit? Competence? Qualified people? Educated? Those who know how to communicate and articulate a proper sentence? Being transparent and accountable in all dealings? Declare and avoid any conflict of interests?
Isn’t this called “best practices” in HR – a widely and internationally accepted standard practice? But isn’t this a foreign concept for these coalition primates? Wouldn’t it conflict with the sinister agenda of the govt?
Then what happens to the ass lickers who have the balls of the Coalition monkeys deep inside their mouths – the ones who are colluding with the govt and personally benefiting from looting the nation’s of its finances? How will they survive?
Good luck with that.
What is happening to the President’s eyes.
Maybe Ms M has been poking her ample assets in them so that he can see, or not see, what he’s getting!
There’s a vision you can’t unsee!!
GD, you seem to be raising the alarm because the toast is slightly too toasty or what. Not sure what Temo did to you but if objectivity were a witness, you’d be badgering it too!
How about you analyze the facts. Does the law disqualify someone who is a ‘racist’, ‘loud mouthed’ or under investigation to be the Commissioner. The answer is No.
Malimali being barred from another country does not disqualify her. She has no criminal record and she has not been convicted by the ILSC, not the Tuvalu ILSC or Kiribati ILSC, the Fiji ILSC.
Her conduct as Commissioner is not in question. The law simply says that if there is an issue, there is a way to go about it instead of revoking her appointment. But as it stands, she has to be the Commissioner.
The President has no powers but to follow the JSC advice. While some say he is being snookered, no, he is just required to do his job. And he should.
I see you choose to ignore Temo’s repeated breaches of the Constitution and the CoI finding against him accusing him of perjury and obstructing and perverting the course of justice.
So who is honestly being selected here? The man is lawless, a menace and an oaf. And he ought to have been suspended and put before a tribunal long ago.
I’ve read some weird / unusual / outrageous / racist / stupid comments here but this one is up there in the surviving brain donor department.
You truly are Vijay Narayan – a product of CFL. You definitely have that mentality.
Your comments and analysis demonstrate how intellectually devoid you are of objectivity and reasoning.
The fact that Malimali was disbarred from Tuvalu as being unfit, was under investigation, and material non-disclosure of this important information is sufficient grounds for exclusion. It demonstrates her character, her dishonesty, and level of integrity – something she never had and never will.
But what the heck…it doesn’t matter to Coalition buffoons. So why would you be open to logic, rationality and reasoning?
You guys dont get it, Malimali will not be reappointed. She will receive 3 Million Dollars Reward for closing FICAC files.
This way, people will be fooled and say “yay Malimali not reappointed”
Well we’d like to see how they would get away with that too.
Easy, this is Fiji, remember?
So, Vorasogo sleeps with her and was also here #1 referee. Guess he is keeping up the family tradition.
No wonder slr is so proud of him.
It is interesting the JSC, claiming to be an impartial and independent body, has hop, skipped and jumped its way into the pedophile president’s shack to advise him to suspend/remove the current FICAC commissioner after the recent judgment by Tuiqereqere.
The same JSC crept into bed with corrupt judicial and government officials and looked the other way when it came to reinstating Pryde and giving him back his salary.
It is also interesting the useless FLS president Clarke sent out bulletins using social media and other channels asking its members to show up in numbers to support Charlie Charters because Clarke deemed the legal actions against Clarke a “violation of law” yet the same useless bloke has done nothing
The same useless FLS president did nothing when cases were setup against the former SoE and the former AG; cases which both international legal professionals, including KCs/QCs have quietly stated are cases “which havent got a leg to stand on” and deemed politically motivated. Where is Clarke’s scream of horror and calls for the legal fraternity to support their own fellow lawyers? After all, whats good for the goose is good for the gander.
Clients of Clarke need to ask him about his neutrality and independence.
After all, corruptly siding with this government means getting access to infinite pleasures; perhaps the title Mr. Clarke is yearning to hear is “Chief Justice Clarke” and Temo’s dreams at night lead him to murmur “President Temo” which is obviously what the bloke is gunning for in the end.
Vijay Narayan has yet again proven that he is a corrupt so called journalist. This Baiman’s mouthpiece mounted a failed campaign for Lavi to be sacked but he failed. He mounted a campaign to free Charters but failed. He mounted a campaign to discredit the COI Report earlier but he failed. Today he was the only one in the news media who was harping on every hour about when Lavi will be removed – as if he has a personal interest. Well, Vijay’s only interest is to get Baiman back so that CFL’s current bankrupt balance sheet looks healthier with more taxpayer money from Biman.
Also, today his biased and unbalanced news on Pacific Polytech was clear. Rather than questioning/supporting that $7m cannot be paid to polytechnic since it wasn’t registered with Fiji Higher Education Commission, Vijay only focused his news to undermine Steven Chand the former.
FICAC should investigate on what basis grants were paid to CFL and whether proper process was followed.
Oh that will happen under a future government, of that you can be sure.
Just remove Saleshni Temo and all problems in judiciary and ODPP will be removed as well. The corrupt lawyers are clinging to Temo and once he goes, all gets clean up automatically. That also applies to secret deal maker obese Isireli Fa.
I support FICAC Commissioner Lavi for charging Charlie Charters. I also fully support and endorse all the members of public who support FICAC on this case. No need to swear to anyone including swearing on Facebook.
@kalaveti- Do you support and endorse her attempt to extradite Chris Pryde back to Fiji though?
To H.E. the President :
Sir, please prevent yourself from being entangled in the corrupt move to remove the FICAC Acting Commissioner. You must have learnt that the JSC meeting was not ordinary. It only met when Charlie Charters was detained for questioning.
So what was the JSC’s interest to meet? Was it to prevent FICAC from carrying out an active investigation?.
This demonstrates ulterior motives bordering on the JSC perverting the course of justice. In these circumstances, please do not act on any recommendations from the JSC. If you remove the Acting Commissioner under these circumstances, your good self will be embroiled in the perceived corruption.
You can always reject the recommendations coming to you. The law doesn’t say that you always will have to accept it. All recommendations coming to you should be thorough and unbiased.
An old unelected dinosaur who is rotting from the inside is sitting on decisions which will affect the whole nation. In fact this fossil was resoundingly rejected by his own people at the last election. What is more, he is a pedophile. And a reject is holding the country hostage.
Wonder why nobody from overseas is applying for these positions. The only way to ensure a truly independent FICAC commissioner is to get one who has no alignment to any political party or person, ie from offshore. Like from Norway.
What’s the point – Toddler Temo and co already have a candidate for the job, just as they do for every position. Criteria – they must be equally if not more corrupt, incompetent, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, they must be hard core nationalist iTaukei who can’t put together a proper sentence when speaking.
Pathetic. That is Mali Mali. Pathetic. That is Temo.
But what did the people of Fiji expect when they saw Sitiveni Rabuka
waltz into the PM’s office?
Fiji’s entire judicial system is rotten to the core because they have tried to circumvent the independent structure whilst simultaneously using the same apparatus to hound out Frank Bainimarama and Khaiyum.
How on Earth did JSC think someone who isn’t suitable to practice law in one jurisdiction could lead FICAC?
Read this article by Nilesh Lal. The President doesn’t have (and shouldn’t have) discretionary powers and is required to act according to the advice of a constitutional entity.
https://www.fijitimes.com.fj/opinion-democracy-by-design-why-fijis-president-cannot-act-independently/
Opinion by the Fiji Labour Party:
One smell the rat called Richard Naidoo’s paws all over it.
Fiji Law Society is a vile, racist organization that never supported Saneem when he was in custody.
An Opinion:
#Lawyers’clique manipulates the media?
The COI crisis centered around the Judicial Service Commission and the dismissal of Barbara Malimali as FICAC Commissioner, appears to have exposed a cabal of legal minds in the country working to exert undue influence on policies.
This group of so-called ‘prominent lawyers’ who have vested interests in the case, have become key players in the COI drama, sometimes openly, sometimes behind the scenes, to manipulate the course of events.
The group wields enormous influence by virtue of the position they hold, their political affiliations and ‘standing’ in society and a few are known to have influenced controversial national policies even before the Malimali scandal hit the fan.
They are using their clout to influence the media and public opinion, and the wide public perception is that they are working with similarly inclined minds in the judiciary to push their own agendas.
The Charlie Charters case is a clear indication of how they are operating to further their own interests. Under the circumstances, one can be forgiven for believing that their support of Charters is hardly driven by altruistic motives, or the desire to protect human rights.
Because there have been worse violations of human rights and the rule of law in the recent past when they remained remarkably silent.
This group is currently driven by one single motive: to remove Rokoika from FICAC and re-institute Malimali – no matter how unlawful her appointment was in the first place.
After all, the same group had put her there to promote their interests. Read the COI Report.
To do so, they are not averse to taking advantage of their influence in the media to push their agenda, no matter how loudly they may be advocating media freedom and independence publicly.
A glaring case in point is an article in the Fiji Times today boldly titled: Apply the rule of law first ( top of P5 25 Feb) where the FT reporter chases former AG Sayed-Khaiyum for a comment on whether the President has a right to ignore advice from the JSC.
All this in an attempt to put pressure on the President and influence his decision re the JSC recommendation to remove Rokoika.
But what is even more interesting is the series of questions posed ostensibly by “this newspaper” towards the end of the Report.
The people are not fooled. They know just where these questions are coming from:
• Is the President legally bound to accept and implement advice from the JSC without discretion?
• Whether a failure to “act on properly tendered advice” would amount to a breach of constitutional duty
• Whether “any residual or implied discretion exists to delay, question or decline such advice”
• And lastly: “how the phrase ‘ on the advice of ’ should be interpreted within Fiji’s constitutional framework; and whether it was the intention of the drafters for the President’s role in these circumstances to be purely formal and procedural”
If the newspaper truly drafted these questions, one has to be impressed with their legal expertise that has not been too visible thus far!
Indeed, it is safe to surmise that these probing questions have come from none other than a certain ‘prominent legal mind’ known to be actively aligned to a political party, and who has been exercising unfair influence on news coverage and reporting by The Fiji Times for some years now.
It brings us to the question: just how independent and free is our local media? Not just FT but a few other media outlets ought to be looking at themselves critically to see if they have not just become pawns in the games being played by some influential persons.