As Grubsheet recovers from surgery on Monday, I am beginning to grasp the magnitude of the events taking place in the wake of the ruling by the High Court judge, Justice Dane Tuiqereqere, that the former FICAC Commissioner, Barbara Malimali, was unlawfully dismissed and that her reinstatement is being considered by the Judicial Services Commission headed by the rogue Chief Justice, Salesi Temo.
One judge who was appointed in 2023 as part of Temo’s concerted effort to elevate more iTaukei to the High Court bench has delivered a judgment which has triggered a constitutional and political crisis and poses a grave threat to the nation’s well-being.
Grubsheet will be returning to my usual writing duties in due course. But to follow is a brief summation of where I think we stand in Fiji right now – an extraordinary set of circumstances that appears to be culminating in what many people have long feared – a corrupt person in the form of Barbara Malimali being restored to head the nation’s anti-corruption effort when she should never have been appointed in the first place.
1/ Only in Fiji would an inexperienced judge with just three years on the High Court and whose legal career to that point was primarily fighting accident compensation cases in New Zealand have sole power to upend the decision of a democratically-elected Prime Minister.
2/ Only in Fiji would Justice Tuiqereqere’s interpretation of the law be accepted when contrary advice was provided to the Prime Minister by New Zealand’s foremost authority on constitutional law, Professor Philip Joseph KC, that he had every right to dismiss Barbara Malimali.
3/ Only in Fiji would that advice be ignored by the Acting Attorney General, Siromi Turaga, and the Solicitor General, Ropate Green Lomavatu, who declined to even present the court with Professor Joseph’s opinion and argue its merits. These two individuals – who received adverse mentions in the CoI Report – have betrayed the Prime Minister and failed in their duty to the Fijian people to properly uphold the law.
4/ Only in Fiji would a corrupt Chief Justice – who stands accused of perjury and obstructing and perverting the course of justice – be allowed to remain in office, personally hand-pick Dane Tuiqereqere to hear the Malimali case, and use Tuiqereqere’s flawed judgment to assert power over the Prime Minister and the President.
Again, this is a judge who was an accident compensation lawyer until Salesi Temo elevated him to the High Court claiming to know more than a distinguished professor of law and Kings Counsel who is the author of the definitive book on constitutional law in New Zealand.
5/ Only in Fiji would the leadership of the country tolerate being countermanded by an accident compensation specialist, as opposed to a genuine constitutional expert, and not employ a Kings Counsel of their own to defend their position.
It genuinely beggars belief that it was Siromi Turaga and Ropate Green who were given carriage of this case when they have received adverse mentions in the CoI Report and quite naturally want it trashed, along with the Chief Justice himself. And for there not to be serious questions raised about what is clearly a travesty of justice.
6/ Only in Fiji would Barbara Malimali’s lawyer, Tanya Waqanika, repeatedly exclaim “God is good!” after Justice Tuiqereqere delivered his verdict – the local equivalent of “Allah Akbar” (God is great). God has nothing to do with this grubby little pantomime by a cast of corrupt and/or self serving actors who are undermining the rule of law in Fiji and are working collectively against the national interest.
7/ Only in Fiji would the spokesperson for the Prime Minister and government be someone in the form of Lynda Tabuya who was found guilty by her own party of an “illicit drug and sex scandal” but was restored to high office and has never been prosecuted for her drug use. Tabuya also made a pornographic video when she was head of the Coalition’s Anti-Pornography Task Force and has been mentioned adversely in the CoI Report for an alleged “sham divorce” to avoid declaring her true income to the Elections Office.
Only in Fiji, too, would someone be able to flee the United States leaving behind debts of more than $F100-million and still be given high office. And for her friend, Barbara Malimali, to decide, before her dismissal, not to prosecute Tabuya for her “sham divorce” when they are close friends and, with their gaggle of co-conspirators, also want the CoI Report quashed.
8/ Only in Fiji would the Commander of the RFMF, Major General Ro Jone Kalouniwai, say the law has been upheld with the Tuiqereqere verdict when there is stark evidence to the contrary. The law may or may not be upheld depending on whether the Prime Minister decides it is better for him to be humiliated in the eyes of the nation or fight on with an appeal against Tuiqereqere’s verdict.
A question for Commander Kalouniwai: do you think it is in the national interest and the well-being of all Fijians that Barbara Malimali is reinstated to head the national corruption watchdog? Read again what a Supreme Court Judge in the form of David Ashton-Lewis, not someone who is his junior in the form of Dane Tuiqereqere, has said about Barbara Malimali in the extracts from the CoI Report we republish below. And tell us whether you think the integrity of the criminal justice system in Fiji can be upheld with such a record. The government of Tuvalu won’t even give her a practicing certificate.
9/ Only in Fiji would the mainstream media report some of what is going on and then move on. This saga goes to the heart of the integrity and credibility of the state. It ought to be dominating the headlines and public debate. Yet elements of the mainstream media – and especially those who have received taxpayer funding – have willfully chosen not to report the criticism of what is occurring by the formal opposition and political players outside the parliament.
10/ Only in Fiji would a weak Prime Minister kowtow to his chief, the President Ratu Naiqama Lalabalvu, and allow an accused paedophile and convicted treasonist who is an old friend of Salesi Temo and related to him by marriage, to effectively seize powers that are Sitiveni Rabuka’s under the Constitution. The country is not being led by the democratically-elected Prime Minister. It is being led by his chief who should never have been appointed Head of State in the first place, just as Salesi Temo should never have been appointed Chief Justice in the first place.
What must happen now is very clear. The Prime Minister must advise the President – as he should have long ago – to suspend the Chief Justice and set up a tribunal of three High Court judges – to try Salesi Temo for misbehaviour. Rabuka must insist and refuse to take “no” for an answer just because Ratu Naiqama is Temo’s friend and relative.
The case against Temo is clear-cut – his repeated breaches of the Constitution and his negligence in not doing due diligence on Barbara Malimali before the JSC appointed her to FICAC. Temo claims he didn’t know that she had been denied a practicing certificate in Tuvalu and is still trying to reinstate Malimali to FICAC when he knows she lied in repeated declarations that she had never been refused a practicing certificate anywhere. So we have an outlaw as a Chief Justice and an outlaw in the form of Barbara Malimali. Does that promote the well-being of the Fijian people, Commander?
There is now an additional reason to suspend Salesi Temo as CJ – the unconscionable delay in him delivering a verdict in the cases of Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum and Mohammed Saneem. Their trial ended in November. Had the government fulfilled its pre-election promise to restore the system of assessors participating in criminal trials in Fiji, Temo would have been forced to act earlier. As it is, he set a date of February 2nd to deliver a verdict three months after the trial ended. But now that has stretched to a five month delay because Temo says he “hasn’t had time to write the judgment” and it will now be delivered at the end of March.
If he hasn’t had time, why did Temo insist on taking the case for himself? Answer: Because he clearly intends to nail the former AG and Elections Supervisor. A Supreme Court Judge who shall remain nameless has told Grubsheet that he closely followed the proceedings and has formed the view that there is not enough evidence to convict.
Yet Temo has a history of personal vendettas. He described Christopher Pryde as a “thief” in the substantive DPP’s own trial for alleged misbehaviour before the tribunal of three High Court Judges headed by Justice Anare Tuilevuka only for Pryde to be exonerated and reinstated. Yet within three days, Temo orchestrated more trumped up charges against Christopher Pryde through his other handmaiden, the Acting DPP Nancy Tikoisuva, from the same file in the possession of Tribunal when they made their determination. (That saga is still being played out).
Will Salesi Temo convict Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum and Mohammed Saneem when a Supreme Court judge has told Grubsheet the evidence doesn’t warrant it? We shall see. But justice has already been denied to the pair simply because of that old dictum – justice delayed is justice denied.
The man is a pig simply for the cruelty that he has inflicted on the Sayed-Khaiyum and Saneem families. Imagine. Young children waiting in dread on February 2nd to see if their fathers are going to jail only to be told that the day of judgment is being postponed for another two months. If that isn’t unconscionable misbehaviour, what is?
Salesi Temo cannot be allowed to re-appoint Barbara Malimali to FICAC. If she is reinstated, it will be yet another nail in the coffin of the criminal justice system, with all that will mean for public confidence in the rule of law in Fiji. Don’t take my word for it. Just read what the CoI Report says about her and ask yourself whether she is a suitable person to head the corruption watchdog in Fiji.
And Salesi Temo cannot remain as Chief Justice for a moment longer. He must be suspended and put on trial as soon a possible because he is a clear and present danger to the national interest and the interests of every Fijian.
More when I am well enough.
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Extracts from the COI Report – first the summary and then the findings and recommendations against Barbara Malimali.
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Now the findings against Barbara Malimali:
The most concerning incident was the RFMF Commander delivering a speech to the media indirectly supporting corruption.
The country is truly going to the dogs, no watchdogs, no morals, no integrity.
‘Liumuri’ always comes to mind, you cannot mix culture & politics in a democracy. I-taukei are masters of it, luimuri that is.
Where one Liumuri’s another then seeks forgiveness in the traditional way and its all ok.
That’s Rabuka’s ‘modus operandi’ in fact he forced a massive luimuri on the nation in 1987 and it has never recovered. Those running the current show, and many others are direct descendants, who have inherited the coup culture and think they has every right to use & abuse the system as they wish, simply because they can seek forgiveness for their knowingly wrongdoing and it is all ok !!
Rabuka should never have been allowed back into the political arena, disaster !
Isa Viti – no way back ??
1. Whilst Malimali was “parachuted” to FICAC to save Baimaan and the lot, the manner in which she was dismissed and Lavi being subsequently appointed was wrong. (Note : Biman’s U-Turn on his election promises has made him Baimaan as that is the correct word to use.)
2. Though, it may be a hard pill to swallow, Malimali should be reinstated. COI recommendations seeking her removal should then be professionally and appropriately pursued.
3. I for one will not want Malimali to go back to FICAC again with an agenda to reverse cases against Baimaan and the lot as facts of such cases are clear.
4. COI Report recommendations are credible in its entirety and yes, this is a matter of national security to address these.
The expert opinion of a constitutional legal expert and NZ’s foremost authority on the subject – as opposed to an accident compensation lawyer in the form of Dane Tuiqereqere – is that the Prime Minister DID have the authority to remove Barbara Malimali.
It should at least be appealed before a corrupt person in the form of Malimali regains control of the corruption watchdog. That pill is far too bitter to swallow and cannot be allowed to happen.