The effective end of Manoa Kamikamica‘s campaign to replace Sitiveni Rabuka as Prime Minister – if not his political career – is the dominant political narrative now that Kamikamica has been charged by FICAC and will be subjected to a lengthy criminal trial extending into election year.
Will Kamikamica stand aside as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade while that trial proceeds? Will the Prime Minister remove him from the cabinet and send him to the backbench?
Both things would happen as a matter of course in any other democracy. And there’s already a precedent in Fiji, with the removal of Kalaveti Ravu as the Coalition’s Fisheries Minister when he was charged by FICAC.
If the man who is one of Manoa Kamikamica’s principal accusers was dumped by the Prime Minister, the same should clearly happen to Kamikamica himself. But with a Chief Justice who remains in place despite being accused by a Supreme Court Commission of Inquiry of perverting the course of justice, we shall see.
The nation is watching Sitiveni Rabuka closely. We all know consistency isn’t his strongest virtue. But this will undoubtedly be one of the most important tests of his prime ministership. Fail it and he will have lost what little moral authority he still has after the Lynda Tabuya fiasco and his gold Rolex. Yet nothing is normal about the conduct of this government and its flagrant disregard for the principles of proper governance.
The same goes for its outrageous plan to amend the electoral laws before the 2026 election (or will it be 2027?) without an electoral mandate from the Fijian people to do so. Let’s be very clear. No-one voted at the 2022 election to change the electoral laws. In fact, most people voted for Frank Bainimarama and Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum.
Yet having scraped into government with just one vote on the floor of the parliament, the Coalition is going ahead and changing the basis on which governments are elected with no discussion whatsoever with the people who put them there in the first place. Having got hold of a super-majority in the parliament with the collapse of FijiFirst and bought off many of its members with ministerial positions, they are using these numbers to push through an agenda that has not gone to the people first.
They won’t even tell us what changes are envisaged, just as they refuse to tell us precisely what changes they intend to make to the Constitution now that the Supreme Court has set a new threshold for change of a two-thirds vote in the parliament, down from three quarters, plus a simple majority of voters in a referendum.
The Acting Attorney General, Siromi Turaga, says any change to the electoral laws contained in the bills – which are “ready for cabinet” and will presumably be introduced in the parliament as soon as the government can get its act together – will be “within the Constitution”. They better be, given that the supreme law as it stands has been declared by the Supreme Court as valid until it is changed by two-thirds of the parliament and 51 per cent of voters.
But what changes does the government want? What changes could possibly be made to those comprehensive sections of the constitution covering the election of our parliament that would be “within the constitution”? Laws are laws and those provisions in the supreme law – now newly endorsed – are the laws on which elections are to be held. And will remain so until the 2013 Constitution is altered by the proper process. So the government has some explaining to do.
It also beggars belief that Siromi Turaga – the government’s chief legal advisor – is so gormless that he doesn’t seem to know even the nation’s most basic laws. Many of those attending the PAP’s Annual General Meeting at the weekend were aghast when he referred to the Supreme Court having decided that the Constitution could be changed with a 75 per cent majority vote in the parliament. No, Dumbo. It’s only seven weeks since the Supreme Court downgraded that threshold from three quarters to two thirds. Where were you when it happened?
It took Keni Dakuidreketi – one of the Party’s founding members – to speak up and correct the Acting AG in front of the entire assembly amid, understandably, “confusion” among members about the true position. Seriously. If the government’s chief legal advisor can produce a clanger like that, no wonder the Coalition is in such a parlous state generally, with the clock ticking towards Judgment Day at the hands of a nation that long ago ran out of patience with this mob.
This is what has to happen and happen quickly:
- The government must spell out precisely what changes it intends to make to the electoral laws “within the constitution” and why these can’t wait until after the 2026 election, when the electorate gets a chance to sign off on them and there is a mandate for change.
- Siromi Turaga must be removed as Acting Attorney General simply because he is not up to the job. His recent tussle with the Fiji Times exposed him as a liar, he is not over the detail of such an important role and has no respect for democratic principles.
- The Prime Minister’s excuse that he hasn’t got anyone else available in the ranks of the government isn’t good enough. The Constitution, as it stands, allows him to bring in a lawyer from outside – as he did with the hapless Graham Leong – and he must do so.
The credibility of the entire government and especially its administration of the criminal justice system is at stake. And unless Sitiveni Rabuka restores that credibility in double quick time, a day of reckoning awaits. Because even the government’s supporters have had enough.
And lest anyone doubt the parlous state of the government’s political fortunes, don’t take Grubsheet’s word for it. It got an absolute drubbing from one of its (former) principal supporters, Nirmal Singh Cheema, on Facebook at the weekend.
Nirmal was so much a part of getting the Coalition together back in 2022 that he was hosting gatherings of its leadership at his own home in Suva.
Yet the whole lot of them are now firmly in the dog house. As in “our country has gone to a state of no return” and “these guys are worse than Frank and Aiyaz”.
Ouch.
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For those of you who are interested, you can view what the Constitution says about the electoral laws by clicking the following link.
It starts at Section 52.
https://www.laws.gov.fj/ResourceFile/Get/?fileName=2013 Constitution of Fiji (English).pdf
FINALLY, A PERSONAL NOTE TO MY READERS:
Wishing you and yours every best wish for the Festival of Lights.
May it be a time of joy and unity for all Fijians.
GD
A very happy Diwali to all our friends in the sunny tropical paradise in Fiji.
From a freezing cold miserable evening in Helsinki!
Yes, Happy Diwali back. You don’t have a job for a failed African-American lawyer to clear the snow from your footpaths, do you? Do the Finns have an Igloo scheme or something like the Aussie PALM scheme for migrant workers? Anything to get him away from Fiji.
G D
No such luck for the corrupt Rabuka or his clowns to even travel as tourists in Scandinavia. They are not welcome here but would more than likely be deported ignominiously for their current and past misdeeds.
One down, three to go..(Dis)honorable Tabuya-Semaan must be wringing her hands in glee, plotting her comeback into the Deputy Party Leader’s position before GE2026.
Pillow talks, secret messages, and meetings continue behind the scenes.
Too bad, Tuisawau is way above your ilk to be compromised.
And you’ve set the low-bar precedent of a traditional apology. How dare you bring our traditional elders into your fake victim narrative!
Everyone in this disgusting Coalition government can keep their jobs no matter what they do.
Every saint has a past. Every sinner, a future. Oh really? Are we scraping the bottom of the barrel now?
2026 cannot come fast enough!
With the bare minimum youth support, and a mere 36% support in GE2022 during peak time, PA is going to the dogs. Serves you right, you bunch of immoral pigs.
Youths can see right through your BS. Too busy buying cheap vote support. A plate of curry and bbq here, a bag of groceries there for the small gals and boys.
A gold rolex watch, expensive scotch, brandy and cigars for the big gals and boys.
Volleyball, anyone 🤡🤣😂
Kua i ke. Keimami sa kida
👎🏻👎🏻
Siromi is an embarrassment to the legal profession. He can never ever be as good as ASK as the AG. He has failed miserably in the post of AG and is an incompetent fool.
He proves that having a degree does not necessarily mean having common sense. But I guess being a racist itaukei advancing the sinister agenda of Rabuka is all that is required to have a Ministerial post.
No-one can be as good as ASK – trouble is he rocked the boat too many times.
If his name was not Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum he would be prime minister now.
Everyone is to blame for the current state of the nation. No politician has any hill to stand on. Not the independent MPs, not the coalition, and not those outside of parliament.
As Nirmal mentioned in his post, Rabuka would not have even become PM in 1992 if Chaudhry and Labour hadn’t supported him in the first place, which Chaudhry probably did with spite because he wouldn’t be caught joining NFP in supporting Jo Kamikamica.
ummmmm
Fiji was progressing under FFP – the stifling was the reticence to change and the outright defiance of the bureaucracy.
Am sure GD will agree that FFP was miles ahead of these monkeys – trouble is the coconut republic was not ready for them.
I just want to know who is the cowardly lawyer feeding bullshit to Long Loaf Charlie? Reveal yourself, don’t use a globe trotter trotting on the backs of women who’ll never get a luxury vacation. A man who can’t figure out how to produce more white long loaf doesn’t seem to have the capacity to analyse the complex issues he posts about.
Long loaf Charlie Charters is now reputational toast after Mr Sweet was charged and the CoI has claimed its first scalp.
Even if Kamikamica is eventually acquitted, this prosecution is clearly in the public interest and FICAC must also be confident of the likelihood of securing a conviction to have brought it in the first place.
Charlie’s campaign against the CoI has been a disgrace. An extraordinary attack on the credibility of the Judge while avoiding the substance of his findings.
However eccentric it may seem to some, it is not unlawful for anyone to buy a baronetcy or a coat of arms approved by the Royal College of Arms. It IS unlawful to pervert the course of justice – the allegation against the Chief Justice and Charlie’s mate, Wylie Clarke.
Much more on this to come when the legal dust settles. But contrary to the claims of Charlie Charters and Victor Lal, Justice David Ashton-Lewis did not become a Supreme Court judge by falsely claiming anything.
He became a Supreme Court judge because of his record as a High Court judge in Fiji in the 1990s. And the CoI Report – a judicial tour de force – speaks for itself and must be implemented in the national interest.
Happy Diwali to you and your family, GD!
May this Dipawali Season bring you peace and prosperity, good health, good faith, and the Everliving Light of our Lord.
Vinaka vakalevu sara for your untiring commitment to Fiji and all Fijians. Without your decency and dedication, Fijian would all be in the dark.
Long may you remain wealthy and prosperous to keep the spot light trained on evil of men for the good of all!
You might better say “well” rather than wealthy. The “wealth” bit long ago escaped me. But we can still be rich in spirit no matter who we are.
Happy Diwali to you and thank you for your very kind sentiments. Much appreciated.
Health is Wealth??
Happy Diwali. Happy Enlightenment to all!!
Good health IS wealth. The American billionaire, Warren Buffet, says it is the most precious asset anyone can have. Because without it, money is worthless.
There have been many dumbs that have graced the Fijian Parliament…Siromi is the dumbest ever
If there was a Climate Change or International legal conference in Helsinki Finland, some members of the current govt would surely find reason to go there.
May we see the change in leadership in Fiji to a better one before we Sink , and before “Hell Freezes Over” in Fiji or Finland.
If the baboon ever shows up in Scandinavia then the people of Finland might say: we are Finish-ed