The suspended DPP Christopher Pryde’s decision to appeal to the New Zealand government to assist him after his salary was illegally cut off is producing fresh information that throws new light on what appears to be an astonishing conspiracy at the highest level in Fiji to deprive him of his right to justice.
A New Zealand source tells Grubsheet that the new Attorney General, Graham Leung, was party to the decision by the Judicial Services Commission and its Chair, the Acting Chief Justice, Salesi Temo, to sever Christopher Pryde’s salary in breach of the Constitution. According to this source, Leung was consulted about Salesi Temo’s advice to the President, Ratu Wiliame Katonivere, and was clearly in a position to intervene to uphold the rule of law but chose not to.
It also emerges from the same source that the Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, gave Leung’s predecessor, the ousted AG, Siromi Turaga, permission to suspend Christopher Pryde as DPP 15 months ago after he had been seen talking to Turaga’s predecessor, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, at a Japanese Embassy function in February 2023.
The fresh information suggests two things – that the Prime Minister’s insistence that he has not directly been party to Pryde’s removal is a concoction. And that Graham Leung’s insistence that Pryde’s suspension and the unlawful withdrawal of his salary is purely a matter for the JSC is also a concoction. He has been directly involved in cutting the suspended DPP off from his ability to defend himself.
Grubsheet further understands that the unlawful suspension of Christopher Pryde’s salary means that he is informing the three judges who have been designated to hold a tribunal hearing into the allegations of misbehaviour against him that he can no longer proceed because of his inability to pay for legal counsel to defend himself.
This is likely to increase the pressure on the New Zealand Foreign Minister, Winston Peters, to intercede more forcefully on Christopher Pryde’s behalf. Because Pryde has been demonstrably disadvantaged by the unlawful conduct of the Fijian government in depriving him of the means to defend himself.
In the case of Graham Leung, the revelation that he has been involved in the unlawful act of suspending the DPP’s salary has severely tainted his reputation as a “cleanskin” who stands for the absolute principle of upholding the rule of law. It was one of the attributes Leung’s long-time colleagues cited in a Grubsheet article when he was appointed last month that distinguished him from his predecessor, Siromi Turaga. Yet it seems that despite his public comments about the paramount importance of upholding the rule of law, Graham Leung is a legal purist only when it suits him.
It is a week today (Friday) since the Prime Minister said it had been wrong for the JSC to have suspended Christopher Pryde’s salary yet it still hasn’t been reinstated. As the days pass, it is clear that whatever representations the New Zealand Government might have made privately to Fiji to restore Pryde’s legal rights have yet to be acted upon.
The NZ government is presumably continuing to monitor the situation. But if the JSC continues to defy the wishes of the Prime Minister seven days after he said he would make representations to do so, it merely confirms what we already know – that Justice Temo is a law unto himself. Unless of course, Sitiveni Rabuka has given the JSC a nod and a wink that whatever he has said publicly is for public consumption and it can do as it pleases. Because we now know that Rabuka has been less than truthful about his own role in Pryde’s suspension. And that Graham Leung as also been sadly disingenuous.
It is yet another blow to any confidence the Fijian people might have had about the Coalition upholding the rule of law and also has serious implications for one of the nation’s most important diplomatic relationships. And in the meantime, the suspended DPP continues to be deprived of his legal rights in direct violation of the Constitution.
The latest public position outlined in yesterday’s Fiji Times:
Fijilive picks up a story the rest of the Fijian media has assiduously ignored – the underhand conduct of the ousted AG, Siromi Turaga, and the Resident Magistrate, Seini Puamau.
And finally, the document that has yet to appear anywhere in the Fijian mainstream media – Christopher Pryde’s explosive letter to Winston Peters asking him to intervene as a last resort because he has nowhere else to turn. It is incredible that the Fiji Sun has chosen not to report this story at all, which makes a mockery of the new era of “media freedom” in Fiji.
The Sun has even refused to publish letters about Christopher Pryde submitted by readers, including one by Rajend Naidu, the prolific writer to both newspapers.
It is a diabolical travesty. But here’s the Pryde letter that Grubsheet alone has published.
Slacker says
I knew that the new AG was a bad guy. Now time for Sitiveni to remove him because he isn’t a native Fijian. I’m not saying that I want native Fijians to replace everyone in Fiji. But I’m saying that just like how people have been removed from their positions because they aren’t native Fijians, that’s the same way the new AG can be removed by Sitiveni in favor of a native Fijian.
Graham Davis says
Crikey. Which tree did you come down from?
Charlie Charters says
Graham and I don’t agree on much but when Rabuka went down the indigenous route with Turaga it produced a completely avoidable disaster.
Just a small example being the fact that Fiji remains suspended from World Rugby’s decision-making Council more than 15 months after Turaga wrote a nonsense opinion that encouraged the Govt to stage a coup within the FRU, stop holding elections AGMs etc which prompted WR to suspend the FRU.
Rugby fan says
That hasn’t been reported in Fiji
Rakavi No Trust says
Vinaka Charlie, and of course Rugby Fan, our mainstream media will not rock the bilibili. GS will.
Read on as reported by the media in the country we will be playing tonight. Details are known but limited to Siromi, Simione, Rovereto, Peter, Jese plus our ex-Fiji rep PM.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/520964/fiji-rugby-takes-steps-to-get-everything-in-order-for-world-rugby-council-seat#:~:text=Fiji%20had%20been%20suspended%20form,restore%20stability%22%20at%20Rugby%20House.
Rakavi No Trust says
Vinaka Charlie, and of course Rugby Fan, our mainstream media will not rock the bilibili. GS will.
Read on as reported by the media in the country we will be playing tonight. Details are known but limited to Siromi, Simione, Rovereto, Peter, Jese plus our ex-Fiji rep PM. Others maybe.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/520964/fiji-rugby-takes-steps-to-get-everything-in-order-for-world-rugby-council-seat#:~:text=Fiji%20had%20been%20suspended%20form,restore%20stability%22%20at%20Rugby%20House.
A Chand says
Does Rabuka’s double face come as a surprise?
He had already lied to the Fijian people about him being a ‘changed’ man, which turned out to be a facade as his ethno-nationalistic agenda has been rearing its ugly head in the last 18 months of the Coalition rule. His so called ‘apology’ was a farce.
His flip flopping on foreign and domestic policies be it in respect of Fukushima, China, Indo-Pacific or Tabuya, Radrodro etc has made him untrustworthy and unreliable.
You have aptly surmised his ‘nod and a wink’ attitude that whatever he says is for public consumption and others can do whatever and however they like. His flock is certainly following on his footsteps.
And Fijians are being taken for a ride.
Charlie Charters says
Is there a particular reason that we don’t get to know the identity of your ‘New Zealand source’ in what is otherwise a single-source story? Rather like homeopathy and astrology you offer the sugar rush for those keen to give a fresh lash to Rabuka’s govt without the boring need to provide verifiable proof or at least test who this witness to unfolding events is?
Is your NZ source described as such because they are a NZer and/or based in NZ or because they have pulled down what was allegedly discussed from Five Eyes surveillance, or some other Maori over-the-water means of intuiting private conversations?
Might your source even be none other than Pryde himself?
Ironically of course given what Pryde now alleges about the actions of the JSC, his own appointment in 2007 as solicitor-general was subject to an affidavit by Daniel Fatiaki in which the chief justice swore on oath that Pryde had been appointed without the necessary meeting of the JSC. Fatiaki, as CJ, was chair of the JSC.
Fatiaki’s affidavit [reproduced on Fijileaks] questions whether SG Nand had actually resigned and whether Pryde had the ‘requisite constitutional qualification namely that he holds or has held high judicial office in the Fiji Islands or in any other country prescribed by Parliament or has seven years or more of practice as a barrister or solicitor in the Fiji Islands or any other country prescribed by Parliament.’
To the best of my knowledge, the thrust of these Fatiaki allegations about Pryde being manoeuvred around the JSC and into high judicial office by Goon One and Goon Two have never been rebutted.
Graham Davis says
Charlie, you have run an almost continual vendetta against Christopher Pryde since he tried to nail your late mother-in-law for allegedly lending her car to individuals intent on burning down Suva. That is your right but let’s not pretend that your criticism is that of a neutral observer, let alone the journalist you once were.
You know very well the ethical protocols of providing informants with anonymity. So that when I say that it is a “New Zealand source”, it is a New Zealander who has asked not to be named for the purposes of this story. But I am satisfied that the information this person has given me is true and I have reported it. In other words it is FACT.
If Graham Leung wants to dispute it, he can do so. If there is documentary evidence, that will presumably emerge under disclosure at a Tribunal hearing, if that is ever held. And then you can tell me whether I was right or wrong. But to suggest that I am making things up because I won’t name the person who gave me the information is preposterous.
I am intrigued that whether it is the criminal justice system or USP, I am continually being pounced on for trying to accurately reflect what is going on and give my own opinion on it. If you don’t like it, don’t read it. It is opinion journalism on one person’s blog, not tablets from the mount.
Did I jump up and down when Richard Naidu falsely reported last weekend that a file on Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum was on Christopher Pryde’s desk when Pryde’s letter to Winston Peters specifically says it had yet to reach him? Did I demand to know the source of his false report? No.I couldn’t be effing bothered.
So why are you bothering with this absurd attempt to again verbal Christopher Pryde and attack me for not naming a source when I can assure you I wouldn’t be reporting it if I didn’t believe it was true? Yep, as always, your vendetta against him and now against me for daring to support the object of your vendetta. And not only because what has happened to him is wrong but because our institutions of state should not be interfered with by politicians to install people of a particular ethnicity, which is what has happened under these jokers at the ODPP.
If you have nothing to contribute to the public understanding of this story beyond trying to smear him, and me, kindly return to your collected works of Shelley and bugger off.
Naidu and entangled conflicts says
Richard Naidu is irrelevant. I fail to understand how this man practices his conflict of interest. Is he a politician, an independent lawyer, or an economist or fiscal advisor to the Government now?
He seems to be commenting on the paramount unnecessary unless he is representing the Crown or the Government. In which case he will still need to be quiet till the evidence is presented in court.
How is this guy getting away with so many wrongs is worth watching carefully. He should refrain from commenting but he can because he is such a fool right now.
Sa Rauta says
Wow, how dumb can Rabuka and his bunch of idiots get? All that is needed is to simply follow the rule of the law as stipulated in the constitution. Can’t wait to vote an alternative government in.
Expatriates be warmed says
If you are an expatriate working for the government or government funded agency I would caution you to leave the country now.
This is how Rabuka’s government rolls.
He will do everything to remove any Pakeha or white person from any role.
The ethnic cleansing has started and make no mistake that this is not for Fijian Indians only.
This is the racist and lying Rabuka and his clowns. It’s a typical Rabuka behaviour.
Leave. Leave. Leave.
Fiji is not safe anymore
Pissed says
I have totally lost confidence in the comatose-prone, Fiji Law Society, Wyllie Clarke. His silence is deafening on this issue to do with Christopher Pryde, just as it has been for numerous other legally related matters.
What’s the point of having a watchdog for the law profession when the seperation of powers principle is being violated. What does it take to just write 2-3 lines of text? The Fiji Law Society is a powerful tool to check the creep of dictatorship and malignant abuse of power.
But this lot is as effective as an eunuch in a whore house.
Moti Lal says
Connection and Connection
Nothing has changed
16 years before too was Connection
ASK would fire shots with his barrel on others shoulder’s of whom it was concerned
I don’t find this as new story.
CP should voluntary resign and go to NZ,
just as Lee has done.
Graham Davis says
Lee Burney was not accused of misbehaviour. Are you seriously suggesting that Christopher Pryde should just walk away when he says he has done nothing wrong? Why should he? And why should independent officers of state on contracts be removed by here today, gone tomorrow politicians just because they don’t like the colour of their skin? It is an assault on our institutions as well as on the rights of Christopher Pryde and it is intolerable.
Jone says
When were their independent?
Land of lawlessness says
The Fiji Law Society is a dead as society.
They might as well go buy some suki and have a table under the trees at Sukuna Park.
There is no law in this country.
From the past AG, to current AG, PM, Minister for i-taukei affairs, minister for women, and all are lawless people.
Just gets worse each day. Now a Chinese joins the list. No surprises there too.
Oops. Adding Fiji Police to the list of honours. Must not forget them.
Jope says
Not suki, weed brother.
There are some high profile users.
Some are new and some are old time .
Look within people says
John Apted gets the first page on the FT to talk about social media bullying.
Never mind the lawless society within the elites as MPs and within his law society.
The hypocrisy is next level with these people.
Vikash N says
Make no mistake Viti. It took Fiji over 30 years before NZ aid started flowing back into the country after the 1987 coups. Not forgetting all the support and education opportunities that Fiji missed out on.
Fijians always ask why their health care is so poor. It is because your successive governments were in survival mode every day. They were busy trying to find their feet and stand their trust up again in front of the world. Fiji lost its credibility overtime. All investor confidence plummeted.
New Zealand will come down hard and they will keep their own safe. This is not a small case but one of the large fish. And this will cause unsettling consequences for Fiji.
It will take one comment from Peter’s to get things muddy and he is known for doing exactly that.
Why isn’t RNZ and NZ media interviewing Peter’s yet? Wonder where Dreaver is at. There are some serious brewing going on between both countries. Australia on the other hand must look at the Puamau and curse Fiji on that wasted investment.
As expected, it is Rabuka. Let history repeat.
Rajiv Sharma says
I have no time or respect for Christopher Pryde as he did ASK dirty work and was not honorable in discharging his duties.
However this all stinks as he should get a quick tribunal to look into his dismissal and 15 months into his dismissal with no end in sight for a hearing date is simply wrong and the coalition Government needs to pull up its socks and give this guy the right to a hearing. I simply don’t understand why they are taking so long. They should stop playing around with this and get on with the job and give CP a fair trial.
Idiots everywhere says
An essential characteristic of any Third World country is that they make laws as they go. Everyone in a position of power in such countries is a law unto oneself and makes laws as they go to suit their twisted purpose. Of course Fiji is a very proud Third World country, with a very proud third-rate PM and ministers, who have appointed third-rate leckeys to do their dirty work.
What is more and ridiculous is that the third-rate people of Fiji want exactly that.
So why is all this coming as a surprise to anyone?
What I do not understand is that if this is what they want, why do they then all complain so much?
Rajiv Sharma says
Yes ASK did that and made laws to rule by law as opposed to following the law.
To my knowledge the current government to date has NOT made any laws to rule by law.
There is a difference between the past and current Government although the current government needs to quickly follow the law and not sit on the law and leave the accused hanging on a thread for 15 months
Selective thinking says
Rajiv, did you forget what Rabuka did? How old are you?
Nevermind, don’t answer as my intern is 19 and smarter.
Kaiviti says
Same Pryde didn’t sanction charges against Biman Prasad when there was sufficient and compelling evidences against him and rightfully charged by Police for incedenctly molesting and harrasing the Japanese lady including sending lewd and explicit text messages.. If only he had done his job properly we would not see this day. It has now come to haunt him..
Graham Davis says
I think that should be “allegedly” sending lewd and explicit text messages. Though perhaps not in the new Fiji, where opinion is as good as hard evidence. Sheesh.
Fiji Watcher says
Am I surprised by the action or lack of it by the following: Graham Leung, Salesi Temo and Sitiveni Rabuka NOT At ALL, it is typical of Fiji today and is a stark warning to those in Australia, New Zealand and other similar societies.
The warning is a simple one, the rule of law does not apply in Fiji unless you are iTaukei! Be from any other race, culture or country and the PM will issue press statements, the new AG will wax lyrically about it and the A/CJ will just ignore it.
Perhaps in the case of Christopher Pryde the NZ Government deducts a sum of money (say 1 million) they provide to Fiji (in areas like budget support) to pay for his salary and legal representation until his case is decided, for that is the only time they will take any notice of the complaints from the likes of Winston Peters.
As others have said don’t apply to work or perhaps even travel to FIJI whilst the current Government are in power.
Heathcliffe says
It’s funny how I always referred to Sitiveni Rabuka as siti the snake. He is the controller in chief too. Both the snake charmer as well as the snake. He won’t remove Temo because does as he is told. He won’t remove Leung either.
Poor old Timoci Bavadra passed away, diseased, denied and dejected. The vanquished Mahendra Chaudhry still gives a bittersweet grin whenever he speaks in public. What Fiji could have become had both these leaders had been allowed to complete their terms.
The snake still slithers, playing saviour, the new Jesus Christ amongst us. He is both Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi and able disciples in Salesi Temo are now here to spread his word. Poor old Chris Pryde and even Lee Burney must be feeling sad about Fiji right now.
I am too. I am an optimist and I hope I live long enough to see the likes of Sitiveni Rabuka finally receive that special wrath that only a place like hell can deliver. The disgusting Ratu Maras decline was handed to him by both Rabuka and loudmouth Speight.
I hope it’s sooner rather than later for our slim shady of Suva. Siti deserves no less.
JHR says
Rabuka said he had changed since the first coup and he was being truthful but not in the way we thought, he has changed for the worse. The civil service had no ethnic cleansing after the first coup , it’s far more racist and corrupt this time round.
Fjord Sailor says
Dear lovely people,
The AG was not hired to bring order to the Rabuka led government; rather he was hired to bring some (false sense of) credibility to the ever bumbling government and its ministers.
Why is there so much surprise that Leung was going to be indepdendent of the government and whip the ministers into line? He’s paid by the government (a very lucrative sum) to legalise the illegalities.
The sole purpose of Leungs appointment is to lead the review of the constitution when the government proposes the amendments soon. Given they now even have the support of former FFP ministers, this will be a walk in the park. In fact, some murmurs are saying a new consitution may be proposed altogether and that the groundwork is already being laid by Leung quietly in the background.
Ian Simpson says
The military was a counter balance to outright ethno-nationalism.
Officers that had been trained at overseas colleges, and exposed to foreign militaries during peace keeping duties.
Similarly there were officers in the Police Force who had overseas exposure.
Over time those officers are gone.
I suspect that there is a dearth of such officers in the Military and Police that have had the experiences of the old hands.
The Coalition has had a green light from the Military leadership that they are free to do whatever they wish, that they will have no interference from that quarter.
Now that there is no opposition at all, there is absolutely no counterbalance to the ethno nationalist agenda. They have been stumbling around like a bull in a China shop, and so they have brought in sharper operatives to ensure success. The Coalitions actions are not a repudiation of their agenda, just hires to finesse their agenda and actions.
For the country, there is no counter balance in the community. With the present representative system there can not be an opposition at the next elections, full stop. There is no AK around to hate, to coalesce an opposition. Our business, commercial leaders are happy with their representatives, and so have no need to fund an opposition to their party. What do they care about ethno nationalism. End of story!
Not until Rabuka passes from national leadership and the country bleeds itself into total economic collapse, which is guaranteed at this stage, will, maybe, a younger generation of iTaukei leadership emerge. Is there any chance that the young Turks of PAP might keep us from the brink, it will require courage, if they are even interested at all in a just and happy Fiji for all.
In my opinion, I do not see any hope with our present Representative System.
It does not support or allow in any way good honest individuals in our communities to take part in the political process, it does the exact opposite.
So Fiji, death by a thousand cuts. Everyday we dig the hole deeper, and its going to take a mighty effort for those who come after, say 12-20 years from now, before Fiji is rid of all the old failed generation, unless of course, the Young Turks of today become the batten holders of a twisted past that they can not let go of and more of the same till death do us part.
We are reaping the deep resentment and bitterness of AK’s policies from the iTaukei, classic blow back. Our Constitution is the target.
Do we have to throw out the baby with the bathwater?
The Military caused this situation, it is beholden on them to correct their disaster.
They got rid of the Constitutional Assembly that was there to deal with long term anomalies and short comings of the Constitution as it was never supposed to be set in stone.
Can we ask that the all leaders of our country to bl**dy well sit down like adults and work a way to bring it back?
I suppose everybody is totally terrified that the ethno nationalist will take control of the process and debauch it so that we might end up with a horrifying document ?
What a mess, for the ethno nationalist, it is victory though, like the Nazi Party in 1932.
These people never give up and will take everybody down with them, like in Germany WW2, and today in Ukraine. Just remember iTaukei of Fiji, these people will take you down with them.
There is one scenario that I do not like, but might be a silver lining to the vast majority of the people. That Fiji becomes close to our neighbours to the point it may even use their currency.
The Globalist would love this and Australia is complying as it must, so I see a situation where Fiji will have a relationship that mimics the New Zealand – Australia one.
Is this something that we walk into with open eyes with a treaty of some sort or do we just stumble into it as part of a failed State solution?
They say 80, 000 have gone? When does this stop? 100,000, 200,000, when all of the Vulagi’s and half of urban iTaukei population gone?
Which way Fiji? Knock, knock Fiji, anybody home!
Justice says
Graham Leung is as sly as Rabuka. They are birds of like feathers
Vili Wadali says
Leung is a vulagi kai Jaina who will do rhe bidding of Rabuka the i’taukei PM.