We are precisely four weeks out from the High Court hearing on the application by some of those adversely named in the Supreme Court Commission of Inquiry into the Malimali affair for a judicial review to overturn its findings. And shocking evidence is emerging that the corrupt Chief Justice, Salesi Temo, has engineered a series of moves to turn the tables on the investigating Judge, Justice David Ashton-Lewis, who accused Temo of perjury and perverting and obstructing the course of justice.
In the absence of any formal announcement, Grubsheet has brought the various strands together. And what emerges is clear evidence that the “crocodiles in the pond” who the Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, asked Justice Ashton-Lewis to identity have become the hunters and the Judge their prey.
Worse, it is all being enabled by the Prime Minister, who has resolutely refused to suspend the Chief Justice despite the CoI findings of possible criminal conduct against him. And fulfill Rabuka’s constitutional duty to advise the President to convene a Tribunal of three judges to fully investigate the allegations against Salesi Temo, who is currently Acting President in the absence overseas of his relative, Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu.
This is despite the recent Supreme Court ruling that the 2013 Constitution continues to be the supreme law of Fiji until such time as it is changed by a two-thirds vote in the parliament and 51 per cent of the electorate at a referendum. Simply put, by resisting suspending Temo, the Prime Minister is defying the provisions of the supreme law.
In addition, Sitiveni Rabuka is doing something just as extraordinary. With four weeks to go before the judicial review application hearing before Justice Dane Tuiqereqere, the Prime Minister is continuing to refuse requests for top level legal representation for Justice Ashton Lewis to defend the CoI’s position. Grubsheet understands that he has simply ignored correspondence asking him to authorise the engagement of a Kings Counsel or Senior Counsel from overseas.
This is extraordinary for a number of reasons:
1/ At least two of the applicants for judicial review – Wylie Clarke of the Fiji Law Society and the ousted attorney general, Graham Leung, have told Justice Tuiqereqere that they are engaging Kings Counsel or Senior Counsel to represent them. This means that they will have the best legal brains money can buy and Justice Ashton-Lewis won’t. So far he is being represented locally by Hemendra Nagin of Shirani and Co but it is also unclear whether the state will fund a lawyer for the CoI at all.
2/ The Prime Minister is leaving his hand-picked CoI Judge – the man he commissioned to “identity the crocodiles” – completely defenceless and with very little time for Justice Ashton-Lewis to be armed with proper legal counsel to argue his case. This inevitably means that the chances of the applicants being successful in their request for the CoI’s findings to be overturned are dramatically increased.
3/ The wonder of it all is that if that happens, it isn’t only Justice Ashton-Lewis’s reputation that will be trashed and the millions spent on the CoI wasted. The ultimate blame for what would be an unprecedented legal and political catastrophe would rest at the feet of the Prime Minister himself.
It was Sitiveni Rabuka who decided to set up the CoI in the first place. It was Sitiveni Rabuka who handpicked Justice Ashton-Lewis to do the job of identifying the “crocodiles”. And if the “crocodiles” win, it is Sitiveni Rabuka who will suffer a crushing embarrassment and the knives will be out for him across the political spectrum in the months leading up to his day of judgment at the hands of the people – Election Day 2026 ( or the first month of 2027).
Pulling together the various strands, this is what is currently taking place behind the scenes, with scant attention from the mainstream media.
1/ Justice Ashton Lewis was referred to the police by Salesi Temo acting as Chief Justice and Head of the Judicial Services Commission. The allegation against the Judge is fraud – that he misrepresented his qualifications when he applied to be a Supreme Court Judge. This has been reinforced by other police complaints made against the Judge by Charlie Charters, a prominent critic of the CoI and defender of his friend of 30 years, Wylie Clarke. And incredibly and to his shame, another police complaint lodged by Victor Lal, the Oxford-based “Editor in Chief” of Fijileaks.
2/ The result of the subsequent police investigation into the allegations made by the JSC, Charlie Charters and Victor Lal has now been sent to the ODPP and is in the hands of the Acting DPP, Nancy Tikoisuva, her deputy, John Rabuku, and the rest of the ODPP clique who ultimately owe their jobs to Salesi Temo and are friends of Barbara Malimali, so much so that they were cast in the CoI Report as conflicted.
3/ What will Nancy Tikoisuva decide? What do you think, Fiji? Will she decide that there is sufficient evidence to charge Justice Ashton-Lewis with alleged fraud and bring him to trial? We shall see. But this is a woman who has already fabricated evidence of expenses fraud against the substantive DPP, Christopher Pryde, referring Pryde to FICAC within three days of him being exonerated of misbehaviour by the Tuilevuka Judicial Tribunal and reinstated by the President after he was removed by Salesi Temo and Siromi Turaga.
4/ The minute a decision is made to charge Justice Ashton-Lewis , he will be detained if in the country, put before the courts, presumably granted bail but he won’t be allowed to leave Fiji until he comes to trial – a process that may take many months, even years.
Where that would leave the current proceedings remains to be seen. But certainly in the court of public opinion, it would be an unprecedented scandal that would also play out in election year, with an enraged public also taking it out on the Prime Minister.
Small wonder that there is now intense concern in those quarters aware of what is going on that Justice Ashton-Lewis has said he intends to be back in Fiji by December 12 to take part in Justice Tuiqereqere’s hearing of the application for judicial review.
Is he walking into a trap? Like Christopher Pryde, would be be detained on arrival and put before the courts? Are there now two judicial officers from outside – a Supreme Court Judge and the substantive DPP – who cannot return to Fiji for fear of being arrested and unable to leave the country until their cases are heard by a system that can no longer be trusted to be independent? To put it more crudely, is it open season on white people?
All these questions are now in even sharper focus because Grubsheet has been made aware of details of the case Chief Justice Temo is bringing before Justice Tuiqereqere a month from today on December 12.
1/ Grubsheet understands that Temo is alleging a conspiracy between Justice Ashton-Lewis and the Fiji Labour Party to bring him and the other applicants down. He reportedly makes that claim on the basis that Mahendra Chaudhry‘s son, the Auckland lawyer, Rajendra Chaudhry, represented the Sydney keyboard warrior, Alexandra Forwood, as principal complainant to the CoI.
2/ Grubsheet understands that Temo is also alleging that the ousted acting deputy commissioner of FICAC, Francis Puleiwai, lied to the CoI and it accepted her false evidence without taking sufficient account of the facts. Partly on this basis, the Chief Justice is said to be arguing that the CoI was unlawful and biased and its findings should be overturned.
3/ Grubsheet understands that Salesi Temo is also alleging that Justice Ashton-Lewis may have misrepresented himself when he applied to sit on the Supreme Court. He is said to be claiming that the Judge exaggerated the length of time he was a High Court judge in Fiji in the 1990s and the importance of his role in the judiciary in Papua New Guinea.
4/ And the Chief Justice is also said to have repeated the allegations made publicly by Charlie Charters and Victor Lal that Justice Ashton Lewis has falsely claimed to be a Senior Counsel when he isn’t and that he has claimed to have been honoured by Queen Elizabeth when he bought the honour.
All this, of course, is going to have to be tested in court. Under normal circumstances, the Chief Justice would be cross-examined on his affidavit. But who will be doing that cross-examination? Certainly not a Kings Counsel or Senior Counsel if the Prime Minister continues to drag his feet. Or provide any indication at all of who the government is going to engage to represent the CoI as its findings face an existential threat.
Yet even before he takes part in the court proceedings himself, the burning question is whether Justice Ashton-Lewis – who lives on Queensland’s Gold Coast – will even make it past the arrivals area at Nadi Airport without being detained.
It is an extraordinary situation that ought to be the subject of intense scrutiny by opposition MPs and the mainstream domestic media. Yet it is passing without comment except in these columns as the crocodiles bite back, intent on devouring the hunter.
The problem for the Prime Minister is that he is going to be eaten too unless he breaks out of his stupor and hires the best defence.
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Some recent stories in the mainstream media. They don’t tell the full story.
Justice Ashton-Lewis’s last known correspondence with the Prime Minister…
And for more background, simply type some of the key words – “Justice Ashton-Lewis”, “Commission of Inquiry” etc – into the Grubsheet search engine on the right.
UPDATE SATURDAY AM:
The breathtaking hypocrisy of the Chief Justice is laid bare as he lectures newly-minted lawyers about the importance of ethics when he stands accused of perjury and perverting the course of justice. And when the lawyer who now occupies the role of Acting Prime Minister, Filimoni Vosarogo, has three times been found guilty of professional misconduct by the Independent Legal Services Commission.
The nation’s leadership inhabits a parallel universe in which it shamelessly doesn’t practice what it preaches, flouts all accepted standards of proper conduct, is steadily corrupting the nation’s institutions and continues to be a shocking role model for future generations.
Salesi Temo has branded Francis Puleiwai a liar but the CoI allegation against him that he conveyed a message to her that no court in Fiji would hear any charges she laid is all on tape – hard evidence that makes him the liar, even without a formal trial. This is quite aside from his preposterous assertion of a conspiracy between Justice Ashton-Lewis and the Fiji Labour Party.
They say that when you get to a certain age, you have the face you deserve. Qori.
Plus two of the latest images of our CJ and Acting President opening a human rights conference on Denarau. Each of them is worth the proverbial thousand words.
Graham, the biggest croc c*nt in that pool is the PM.
I am starting to think that this COI was a ploy pre-planned by the PM that hasn’t gone according to his best laid plans.
In other countries, the citizens take to the streets in a sometimes bloody rebellion to display their frustrations at this level of governance rot, where independent bodies entrusted to safeguard democracy have been neutered.
What will it take?
I absolutely agree.
Rabuka hand chose Ashton-Lewis, incorrectly assuming that their personal connection would overshadow proper process, as this is all Rabuka knows.
It hadn’t occurred to him that Ashton-Lewis would have appropriate boundaries between his personal and professional life. Now he’s happy to watch him burn.
There is shit all over Fiji, not just CWM.
Thanks to the king shit, Rolex Rabuka.
Temo is the real PM of Fiji, not Rabuka.
Rabuka is a Baku. Too old, weak and stupid to be PM. Only good for parading in sulu and suit and vacuous one liners that are as shallow as his personality, morals and intelligence.
The worst PM in the history of Fiji. Not fit even to lick Ratu Mara’s shoes.
The COI was directed by the baku PM on behalf of the Government and it is their responsibility to defend its findings because some of the recommendations therein have been implemented.
Certainly not the office of SG defending it, as they don’t know left from right.
As for Justice David, don’t make the mistake of coming to Fiji to defend the report…Majority in that report will decide your fate…so relax….this country is NOT going anywhere with this shitty Government….
Graham, this is the horseshoe theory in action. Those for and against the COI do not exist at opposite ends of a straight line but on a spectrum that is shaped like a horseshoe.
The common ground that is shared, why it’s a horseshoe, is the certain knowledge – whether you are pro or anti – that we’re where we are because of Rabuka.
Rabuka commissioned the COI, pulling the idea out of the clear blue political sky. Of the political party leaders in September 2024, I have only found calls in the media for an inquiry from MPC.
Rabuka then handpicked Ashton-Lewis and Mason. And what action has been taken based on the COI Report, the sacking of Leung and the suspension then revocation of Malimali’s position, were all actions that Rabuka took himself.
So, as you write, if the JR review applications are successful next month, if Malimali’s separate employment JR is successful, and if a full JR happens and expunges the COI Report, this will be ‘a crushing embarrassment’ for Rabuka.
On that, you are 100 percent right.
Charlie Charters, interesting that you don’t contest other aspects of this article, which I assume is concurrence.
I don’t do horseshoes. On a straight line, you and I are poles apart. I support the CoI and want its recommendations implemented. You have done everything you can to destroy it, despite it uncovering wrongdoing that is already leading to criminal charges being laid.
Let’s see where this all ends up. If you win, your kaivata might benefit by being off the hook but believe me, Fiji loses. Because the crocodiles will have won when the nation is already on a path to lawlessness and institutionalised corruption.
Since the eighth century, the horseshoe has been a symbol of luck. But the Fijian people have been singularly unlucky with the calibre of the people thrust onto them by the celebrated “power of one” in December 2022.
I will be fervently hoping for their sake that your side loses.
When the horseshoe is stored upside down, the luck symbolically runs out which sadly seems to reflect Fiji’s fate.
Horse manure theory
Unfortunately the extraordinary circumstances and situations created in Fiji by the PM and his leadership team have become so frequent it is now ordinary for the country.
After successive governance failures, the Prime Minister’s leadership is effectively bereft of public trust.
The Prime Minister’s reluctance to recognise the disruptions caused by his administration, combined with continued travel at public expense, reflects a widening gap between leadership priorities and national needs.
The next general election is the chance to correct course—choose wisely.
Simply put, there is ‘Zero, 0,’ accountability across government, the civil service, state enterprises and as concerning FNPF, the Westin renovation debacle is a shocking story, yet to unfold, worse than Natadola. Heads need to roll, but, nah, it’s all swept out to sea!
Where is Wadan Narsey when we need him to enlighten us on some of the detail? FNPF should never have invested in a construction company, how utterly ridiculous, so every new build or renovation will carried out with no tender process, no competition, exactly what has happened at the Westin, a cost plus job, with no accountability. WTF!
A $200 million blow out at the very least, members hard earned money lost and gone forever! FNPF Chairman & Co ??
Wadan Narsey is embedded deep inside Baiman’s arse. So deep that he can’t see the disasters committed by this government and PM Rambaku.
Wadan only has eyes for the mistakes committed by Bainimarama and Aiyaz, which pale in comparison to Rambaku and Baiman.
As we know Baiman threw his dog Wadan a bone and that was enough to take the bark out him and turn him into a whimpering puppy. All that we hear now is the occasional welp from the once roaring lion.
Waddy has always been a toothless tiger. Baiman’s and a hard-core NFP fan boy.
Same rhetoric BS paper economics theories from both with not a single signature national development project to show for their so-called economic acumen.
And whatever happened to waddling Waddy and Fartiaki led ‘electoral review consultations?’
Consultation fees pocketed, meals, and hotels enjoyed, and the ‘review report’ likely laying on the floor of CWM’s sluice room.
To be fair to them, they have presented their report but the government is sitting on it.
Why? It’s a fair bet that Rambo doesn’t want any change to the d’Hondt system of “big man” national voting. Or he will suddenly become a small man having to contest a single constituency and with no guarantee of being leader.
Wadan and Dan should have known this all along. But, of course, it’s the true believers who have been deceived the most.
David Ashton-Lewis joins the list of people thrown under the bus by Rabuka.
Stay away from Fiji, David. The knives are out for you from the crocodiles you identified.
Don’t come to Fiji, David, otherwise you will be locked up in filthy gaol.
There is no law in Fiji as everything is dictated by Temo. He is a racist bigot who has complete power.
He has appointed his own judges to hear the case against you. Do you think you will be given a fair trial? No way.
Follow Christopher Pryde. There is no such thing as fairness in Fiji.
In movie making they have lights, camera and action.
In the horror story that is bitchi they have liars, commisions and Ashton.