You really have to wonder about Major General Ro Jone Kalouniwai and his notion of leadership. He is charged under the 2013 Constitution – which the RFMF helped formulate – to ensure the “security, defence and well-being of Fiji and all Fijians”. That means using his position to ensure that every Fijian – irrespective of ethnicity and religion – is secure and enjoys equality of opportunity, as the Constitution stipulates.
What is Ro Kalouniwai doing to uphold that responsibility? Well may we ask when we have seen a full-blown assault on the Constitution by the Coalition government, including the unlawful appointments of the Acting DPP, John Rabuku, and Justice Alipate Qetaki and the continuing delay, after an astonishing 13 months, to convene a judicial tribunal to hear the charge of misbehaviour against the suspended DPP, Christopher Pryde.
In the week in which his predecessor as Commander, Frank Bainimarama, and the ousted prime minister’s co-accused, the suspended Police Commissioner, Sitiveni Qiliho, have lodged an application for the High Court proceedings against them to be stayed until the constitutional position of John Rabuku is clarified, where is Ro Kalouniwai? Head bowed in prayer at an RFMF service which isn’t about temporal reality but seeking the Almighty’s blessing for his program of reconciliation within the RFMF for past divisions and with the wider community for its perceived failings in the past.
FACT: It is the RFMF which deserves a great deal of credit for the provisions in the Constitution that guarantee a common and equal citizenry, a common identity and a secular state. For every Fijian who objects to the military’s role in national life, there are just as many, if not more, who are grateful for the security the RFMF has provided, especially for Fiji’s minorities.
FACT: The 2013 Constitution, for better or worse, specifically charges the RFMF with the responsibility to secure the “security, defence and well-being of all Fijians”. That is the law and regrettably under the current Commander, that responsibility is being abrogated.
The Coalition’s term in office began with warnings from Ro Kalouniwai that he expected the Constitution to be obeyed. But he has remained silent in recent months as the supreme law has been openly violated, and especially with the outrageous appointment of John Rabuku, who the Constitution specifically prohibits from holding the office of Acting DPP because he has been found guilty of professional misconduct.
Ro Kalouniwai is about to face an important test. Frank Bainimarama and Sitiveni Qiliho want the ODPP’s appeal against their sentencing by Resident Magistrate Seini Puamau to be stayed until the Supreme Court gives the cabinet an opinion on whether Rabuku’s appointment is legal. We already know the answer to that. It is not.
The Acting Chief Justice, Salesi Temo – who wrongly advised the President to made the illegal appointments of John Rabuku and Alipate Qetaki in the first place – has demonstrated outrageous bias in the preliminary hearing of the ODPP’s appeal against Puamau’s sentencing of Bainimarama and Qiliho. On any reading of the proceedings, he has prejudged the case. And in yet another breach of the Constitution, Salesi Temo has threatened to sool the police onto Magistrate Puamau on a charge of contempt when the constitution specifically protects her from such an action.
It is also astonishingly perverse that it is Salesi Temo – wearing his hat as President of the Supreme Court – who will rule on the cabinet’s request for the Supreme Court to give it an opinion on whether the appointments he made are legal under the Constitution. Yes, the same person who made the unlawful appointments gets to say whether they are lawful. What do we think is going to happen, Fiji?
As things stand, on May 2, Salesi Temo will give a decision on the application by Frank Bainimarama and Sitiveni Qiliho for him to recuse himself from hearing the ODPP appeal on the grounds that he is biased and has a conflict of interest in having appointed John Rabuku in the first place. If he refuses to do so – which is what most legal observers expect – Justice Temo will pass sentence on them and in all likelihood, they will go to jail. Any recourse to the Court of Appeal can only happen AFTER they are behind bars.
According to military sources, Ro Kalouniwai specifically told senior officers that the RFMF would not tolerate Frank Bainimarama going to jail. What is he going to do if that happens? In precisely ten days, we will find out. But whatever happens, it is time for the RFMF Commander to stop conversing with the Almighty in heaven and start getting to grip with the responsibility he has on earth has to uphold the supreme law. Because the Acting Chief Justice and his patron, the Attorney General, Siromi Turaga, are way out of line.
This is in no way incitement for a coup – as Grubsheet’s critics will undoubtedly wail – but for Ro Kalouniwai to perform his constitutional duty. It goes far beyond insisting that the supreme law be obeyed until it is altered legally but to stand up for the rights of Fiji’s minorities against a concerted push by the Coalition to assert indigenous supremacy, which, by any measure, is a clear threat to the well-being of all Fijians.
NFP voter says
Well the clowns have been let lose and the circus is full on. Fijians are watching fellow Fijians destroy Fiji and they are helpless.
Those 80000 that have left are possibly lucky having not to witness the destruction of equality in Fiji. The rich have the politicians in their pockets, and the government has the judiciary as its slave donkey.
I encourage people to leave Fiji if they can because by the time this government is gone there will be no future left for many children.
Fijians of Indian origin certainly must look for any means to escape this destruction that lies ahead. I hear my fellow friends say that this is the time to do business and make money in Fiji and some may be actually making it big time. But it’s just those some, they have political connections, they will be ok. Most people will not.
For I Taukeis. Invest in the education of your children. No Indian wants to steal your land. Trust me when I say this, no child of a farmer who was evicted from his farm will ever go back to farming again. I speak from experience. Even if the land was given for free.
Education is the only escape from this mindset that another race is against you and the politicians feed on that. I hope enough teachers remain in Fiji to educate the next generation though.
I just don’t know what to do. We are so powerless. Seeing the skill loss, it scares me.
Some people will be ok. Most people wont be.
V4Vendetta says
This guy has totally lost the plot. He lacks leadership and ability to make some decisive decisions when it matters most. He should have been analyzing the situation on hand with his legal team and assess the chaos being created by the clowns in Coalition. Nope. Like most of the “God’s chosen people”, Jone is also turning to ” God” for some divine intervention. Because he has no clue whatsoever about what he needs to do. The guy is a pussy. These “God’s chosen people” are perhaps more suited to the role of a Pastor or lay preacher than anything else.
PS says
Pastor/Minister in a church? It will be the blind leading the blind.
What you looking at? says
There are so many church services everywhere around Fiji. They can find an excuse to hold a church service for no reason. But what everyone seems to be unaware of is that none of the church services has helped in anything. None of the prayers and fasting has helped the rugby players or any other aspect of life in Fiji. Fiji remains a proud Third World nation led by a crackpot even after all the chrch services. How much longer are people going to pretend that a vulagi God will help them? Our ‘churen’ are being taught this rubbish. The lowest class of pretend Israelites are running the show and then the people wonder why they are where they are. Fijians are idiots, no question. The mentality of the Fijian people makes Fiji a proud Third World nation.
But then why do they complain so much. Aren’t they aware that they are idiots and nothing will change for as long as they remain idiots.
Swamp Harrier says
Pray (and fast) then sit on our backsides and wait for God to wave his magic wand.
We need to listen to Bob Marley:
“Most people think great God will come from the sky
Take away everything, and make everybody feel high
But if you know what life is worth
You would look for yours on earth
And now you see the light
You stand up for your right, yeah
Get up, stand up
Stand up for your right”
Etu Brute? says
Stranger things have happened, life is indeed stranger than fiction, and you can’t make this shit up!
The big chief hierachy will trump all for those who benefit directly from it.
Us itaukei aspire to multiculuralism but we are still bound inside a value and belief system which is feudal,oppressive,and disempowering.
It wasnt designed for John Q.
Sadly the people of itaukei that aren’t informed or curious about the world buy into this paradigm still.
Its a FEAR-based response to the world.
As are most nutty things we do as a species.
The Lotu also doesn’t help. In fact as a boy growing up in the Methodist Church I heard some pretty racist shit spewed from the pulpit.
The Vanua,the Lotu and the Government were envisioned by Ratu Sukuna to empower the itaukei.
It did.
It does.
But real power and authority here is held still by the BIG CHIEFS’ inside the Vanua.
Thats all over Fiji.
Irregardless of the government or who’s holding the biggest bag.
Their politics and machinations will always rear its ugly head in the ethnocentric demagogic (spell check) rhetoric they espouse.
In a way they have no recourse but to insist that we itaukei are threatened at every turn by vulagi intrests.
ITS JOB SECURITY.
And most itaukei would have an exisitential crisis if these vaunted institutions were challenged or questioned.
We have shame based words like Dokadoka or Viavialevu.
That speak against such actions.
This in itself would happen to any people any where.
Its just hard to understand how people can be so gullible to believe that as an itaukei our best intrests can only be determined by a group of people.
Who as you so rightly state. AN accident of birth elevated to a superior place through no merit of their own.
Until we itaukei challenge all of the dysfuntional ways these 3 guardrails have morphed into our present consciouness as a people.
And reimagine ourselves in a much more wholistic frame of refrence to fit this metaverse.
We will continue to be beggars and paupers.
This myopic worldview we hold gives us a sense of entitlement and priviledge not based in truth or reality.
And until we kill this narcissistic idea that this land is ours alone,to be ruled by us alone.
We will be easily exploitable by the privilege and malice of a few.
That’s why Frank was hated by them primarily. He threatened their status quo.
Thats what these trials are truly about.
Punishing him for disrespecting the chiefly order.
I’m not against the chiefly order
or the Lotu.
I believe in its inherent goodness and sanctity.
Structure is important.Our chiefs are just people after all.
So are the Talatalas.
But we have to do better and removing the speck in our own eyes before pointing out the plank in others.
CMDR RFMF has shown himself to be a man who likes to cross the stream where it is shallowest.
No judgement there.
We shouldnt expect a haië Mary pass either from senior disgruntled officers in the RFMF.
Councils of war never fight.
Not only loyal to Frank, but to the ideal which caused them to stand on a line and say enough was enough.
Most of the Senior NCO’s and enlisted men, and officers who buttressed the former PM’s suppourt inside the RFMF have retired.
Remember some of them tried to kill him.
Whether you believe its because he liu muri’d the CRW or the Qaranivalu wanted him dead.
The Great Providence had other plans.
Whatever his faults and they are many.
The 2013 constitution is worth defending because of the freedom and liberty it gurantees all of Fiji’s children.
Rascist itaukei will not understand this.Or maybe they do and their just evil wicked hateful people.
People are fickle and allegiances shift.One of the realest things early commentators spoke about the character of the itaukei they encountered was his treachery and deceptive nature.
To be a liar in ancient Fiji was a virtue.
In fact you cant get into Burotukula the heaven of that time.Without bullshitting the guards at the gate who guarded its entrance somewhere along the Nakauvadra range.
If he didnt intervene at the very first.I wouldnt look for rain clouds either from Mr Kalouniwai.
Yedo!
You see what just happened.
Or out of left field Mr Radrodoro will 86 the Coalition like Dambusters and CJ ,DPP will put that loaded gun their pointing to their own temples.
That is the lesser of two evils than a coup.
So sick of that word I first heard as 12 year old on May14th 1987.
Definitely intrique and machinations afoot.
Definitely be an eventual week.
Thank you Kemuni for keeping us informed.
And to all reader’s of this page.
I sincerely apologize if my comments offend you.
I only have 2 brain cells left and they both trying to hijack the plane daily.
I am itaukei.
Forgive me.
But I dont want to be a liar no more!
Peacekeeper says
Stop stoking coup-talk GD. We got into this mess democraticially, we must get out if it democratically at the next election. Encouraging military intervention just maintains the cycle of disrespect for democracy which SLR began, which Speight and Bainimarama maintained, and which – in a different way – the current government are perpetuating.
No doubt you’ll come back with a self-justifying comment about how the RFMF are mandated to defend the constitution etc. but please just STOP – nowhere else in the civilised world would the military be allowed to intervene in government misdeeds, still less encouraged.
Despite your claims to belonging through citizenship, you do not have skin in the game and if you are not here to face the consequences of yet another coup you should not be stoking it up with your opinion pieces couched as fair reporting.
Yes the coalition is a disaster but the RFMF should not be part of the conversation, and Kalouniwai is right in more or less staying out of it. Please do the same.
Graham Davis says
It’s called freedom of expression, which the Coalition came to power with one vote on the floor of the house pledging to restore. I intend to avail myself of my constitutional right as a citizen to tell it as I see it. So, sorry. No banana. The time for allowing events to take their course has passed. The contempt for the rule of law by the present government cannot be tolerated. Given the mass exodus from the country, we are in a state of full-blown crisis. And those who the law empowers must do their jobs, including the RFMF Commander.
Zero. F***S Given says
Damn f***ing oath.
To do nothing is still to do something.
I agree.The coup culture should end.
But!
Kalouniwai shouldnt play both sides against the middle.
Like he’s been doing.
Ordinerary people dont really give a shit about all this stuff we’re talking about.
Too poor to flee,and too worried about the high cost of food.
No one wants to organise a protest march or hold a rally to protest.
It’s like we’re in a slow motion car crash scene and everyone knows it’s happening,dont like that its happening,but are powerless to stop it from happening.
Leave Fiji for sure if you can.
Wake up Commander says
It is certainly all going bonkers at all levels.
Investors holding back.
80,000 skilled migrants left.
The backlash to the economy will be big.
Commander still hoping for a reconciliation to reset things.
When do these leaders start acting and abiding by the Constitution.
I am glad that Bai and Qiliho did what they did last week. It will hopefully save a few more Fijians from harm’s way because of incompetent and illegal judiciary practitioners at the helm of the service. Taxpayers still paying for Pryde.
This is the Commander’s biggest test so far. Let’s see how he fares on this.
Su says
I think Christianity has effect on Fijian people
Imagine if there wasn’t any
What would have happened Fiji today ???
Or would the Fijian people be singing bhajans in a mandali
Religion and culture is holding thousands of Fijians and not to do something bad or we would have seen coup happen every year
Fiji just needs some right people to lead them,who can see with both eyes
What you looking at? says
It was Passover in the Judaism calender today. Only reason I know is because I saw it on TV. I have no idea what it is about. The Jewish people celebrated today.
I heard nothing about this from the pretend Israelites living in Fiji.
Perhaps they are confused in determining whether they are Israelites or Christians.
In any case, from where I sit, surely things would be a lot confusing when you have faith in a vulagi God and a vulagi religion and a massive change in beliefs from your traditional beliefs. More so, you and your teaches do not know what the hell all these conflicting beliefs mean. I was always under the impression Israelis did not like Christians. But In Fiji they all are very confused. It is clear as mud to me.
Indeed, in the “Pilgrimage of Hypocrisy” last October which many pretend Israelites from Fiji freeloaded on after scamming Fiji Airways with the help of Blinky Bill, I read reports that those who went to the Feast of the Tabanacles in TelAviv were spat on by the Jewish people (not necessasarily the hypocrites from Fiji). But these Jewish people must be misguided, because we all know that the Israelites of Fiji know and undertsand these thing better, more than those who have been practicing it for more than 2,000 years. Whilst the Israelites of Fiji such as Blinky Bill and Ro Temumu have much more understanding after practicing their fake religion only for 150 years or so. I mean it is a big turnaround from people eating each other to now being faithful to a vulagi God, with so much passion and being Israelites living in Fiji . The wole thing is bloody ridiculous, but who else will point this out?
But one thing I know, I will never unerstand because I am not iTaukei. They know best. They are God’s chosen people.
Heathcliffe says
Agree with your comments totally. About time the RFMF commander did his job and uphold the constitution. Frank in jail will lead to a civil war in Fiji.
Sad Observer Scared for Fiji says
Prayer is free in a beggar nation. The other options cost money and require integrity & hard work, which challenges the sense of entitlement.
Broofstoyefski says
I’m beginning to understand why the iTaukei didn’t want the British to leave in 1970 being well off as a colony (or so some might think), its no wonder petty egos has been rife ever since the precolonial era in Fiji.