Author Archives: fijipensioners

Dr. Shaista Shameem comments on Fiji 2013 Draft Constitution

22 Friday Mar 2013

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Shaista Shameem

Constitutional lawyer Dr Shaista Shameem’s initial comments on the draft Fiji Constitution 2013 released to the public by the Prime Minister Commodore Baninimara on 21 March 2013.
The draft 2013 Fiji Constitution released yesterday (March 21) by the Prime Minister is, undoubtedly, marginally an improvement on the Yash Ghai draft constitution. The Yash Ghai constitution had proposed an election of the Head of State by an undemocratic body, the National People’s Assembly – a body which would have become more significant than even the elected parliament in Fiji.
 
However, to its credit, the government’s draft constitution 2013 retains the solid Bill of Rights chapter from the 1997 Constitution and adds other protections now reflected in international law such as children’s rights, rights of people with disabilities, and economic and social rights which are all justiciable (this means an application can be made directly to the High Court or to the Human Rights and Anti-discrimination Commission for redress in case of any breach).
 
I also approve of the election of the President by a Parliamentary College as being consistent with my views and submissions made to the Yash Ghai commission that the President of Fiji should  be elected.
 
But there are also some significant changes in this new draft, which, due to the demise of the plan to put before a Constituent Assembly as promised, will not now properly be aired in public discussion and debate which is itself part of the process of ‘we the people adopting this constitution as our own’.
 
The changes are as follows:
 
(i) The President’s power has been whittled down to next to nothing. The current President has effectively been given his letter of termination since section 84 of the draft states not only that a President will have, at the most, a 6-year term, but that any period of occupying that office prior to the commencement of the new Constitution will be taken into consideration in the next appointment.
 
(ii) The President has no power now over the military; the Prime Minister will be Commander-in-Chief of the RFMF. This is inconsistent with section 130 of the Constitution which gives the military the righ to look after all the people of Fiji. This has implications for security and safety of the people (for example) if an event like that of 2000, when the Prime Minister and his government were held hostage by Speight, take place again. The Commander of the RFMF in the government’s draft constitution has no power other than to appoint and remove persons from the RFMF, and for discipline. So what does section 130 (2) actually mean? That section is a dead letter.
 
(iii) The President cannot refuse his or her assent to any bill; if a bill is presented to the President by parliament, he or she must assent to it within 7 days. Otherwise the bill becomes law anyway.
 
(iv) The chapter on the Judiciary has a number of clauses that do not fit correctly in that chapter- for example the Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption appears in that chapter, through it is an investigative body and not a judicial one. Clearly the drafters do not understand the principle of separation of powers which is the heart of constitutional law.
 
(v) There are no independent commissions in the draft constitution. The Human Rights and Anti-discrimination Commission is one of the few commissions specifically mentioned but how the appointment of persons to the Human Rights Commission or other commissions will be made is a big gap in the draft constitution- where are the checks and balances in the appointment of persons to public office?
 
(vi) As for the chapter on Parliament; the question is, if there are no political parties registered so far, is parliament going to be just a group of independents? The Prime Minister should come clean on how many political parties were properly registered at the deadline.
 
The draft constitution of the government was clearly done in a rush.
 
 
Dr Shaista Shameem is a constitutional and human rights lawyer. She represented David Burness and others in the human rights case of Burness v the State and the Fiji National Provident Fund in 2011.

Just think about it

21 Thursday Mar 2013

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photo (5)

photo (1)We should be planting INDUSTRIAL HEMP in Fiji now.. Do you remember Hemp rope, well many more items can be made from this miracle plant and be exported.

The best, thinnest and strongest paper for Bibles used to be made from Hemp.

Learn more, much more by clicking on the following link and reading the contents:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemp

Lasting Legacy

21 Thursday Mar 2013

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FBStudents of Ba Methodist High School, villagers of Nailaga and nearby areas will now have access to the internet free of charge.

This comes after Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama opened the new telecentre at Ba Methodist High School today.

Comment:
This and other access centres where the government has made the internet accessible to students will prove to be Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama’s most enduring legacy. No other Prime Minister or politician in Fiji has had the foresight to do this.

Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama by his actions has made the libraries and research of the world available to all the students.

It is to be hoped that the gaming facilites will be blocked by the centres, not only for the students, but the people using them after school hours.

Can the numbers Balance?

20 Wednesday Mar 2013

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Fat Dave-Pflieger-s2Outgoing Managing Director and CEO of Air Pacific Dave Pflieger said he cannot reveal the loan repayment agreement and details on the interest rates in relation to the loan taken from European banks to pay for the purchase of the three new A330s.

When asked in a conference, Pflieger said while many are raising issues about the loans, he said it is an amazing business plan to purchase the brand new planes to invest in the country.

The catalogue price for the new planes is US$200 million each and as revealed in 2011, the Fiji National Provident Fund gave Air Pacific a loan of $200 million which was the initial funding for the purchase of the three wide body planes. 

85 percent of the loan to purchase the planes has come from offshore banks.

When asked on the repayment plan on the huge loan, Pflieger said Air Pacific which will soon be Fiji Airways is now doing well financially and he expects it to deliver profits to pay off the loans.

Air Pacific, in which the Fiji public have a 51% interest, and the Fiji Provident Fund Members have a huge investment has not produced an annual report with a full set of audited accounts for the public to view since Fast Talking High Flying Dave was appointed to run our Airline, so why would he divulge anything now.

Perhaps the Chairman of Air Pacific who is a qualified and reputable accountant, should be asked to explain. 

The question is, how bad is it really and how long can the government of the day keep the truth hidden ?

When Anthony Gates ?

18 Monday Mar 2013

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GatesThe Chief Justice Anthony Gates said he believes there will be a full set of rights in Fiji in time but he says people who are calling for judges and magistrates to resign should know that the courts need to remain open to hear cases. . 

Chief Justice Gates made the comments after recent criticisms from the International Bar Association.

While speaking in a mediation workshop, he stressed that it is important to carry out the important work of the judiciary and they should not have to walk away just because of criticisms from some organizations.

We ask when will that be Anthony Gates?, after all the current Fiji Pensioners are dead and buried; is that when their case will be heard in the Fiji courts ?

By “Full set of rights” do you mean Basic Civil Rights and the right to be heard by a fully independent and totally impartial judiciary?

It is easy for you to talk the talk now, but posterity and your peers will surely judge you for what you failed to do, which will be infamous , unlike your Chandrika Prasad ruling made in a fully independent impartial court.

The path to infamy is a very slippery slope indeed, and unfortunately it appears you could be heading that way. Only time will tell…

Fiji political parties appeal dismissal wrong: ICJ

15 Friday Mar 2013

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john dowd

A prominent Australian legal figure says the dismissal of an appeal against Fiji’s political parties decree was legally wrong.

The appeal by Fiji’s political parties against the decree was thrown out by Justice Anjala Wati on the basis such decrees cannot be challenged in the courts.

John Dowd QC, president of the Australian branch of the International Commission of Jurists, has told Radio Australia’sPacific Beat the courts in Fiji are independent and should not allow their role to be undermined by the coup-installed military government.

“The judge should have found that the decree was invalid and that she could therefore deal with the matter,” he said.

“Jurisdiction remains independent and any independent judge, in my view, could not have come to this decision.”

Fiji’s Administration of Justice Decree states, among other provisions, that no court has jurisdiction to hear any challenges or applications for judicial review of decrees made by the President.

Mr Dowd says Fiji’s “undemocratic regime” cannot displace Fiji’s constitution and has purported to exercise a power they don’t have.

“This law, even if you accept that the regime is entitled to pass laws, cannot remove the judiciary’s power to deal with matters independently,” he said.

Mr Dowd says Fiji’s claim other countries around the world behave in a similar manner is “absolute nonsense”.

“Normal countries don’t do this,” he said. “In countries right throughout the world we have the judiciary independent of the government.”

“Once the executive takes over the judicial role, there’s no administration of justice at all.”

Mr Dowd says Fiji’s judges need to look very closely at how independent they can be in their jobs as judges.

“If they’re not, then they have to look at whether they should be judges at all,” he said.

A simple fact is, that if the Court had approved this appeal, the way would then be open for the decree that deprived Fiji Pensioners of their civil rights and the right to obtain redress through the courts for the loss of their pensions, to be overturned.

The question must be asked, “Who is really guilty of scandalizing the judiciary” ? 

 

Could this be Us ?

15 Friday Mar 2013

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“A society that robs an individual of the product of his effort, or enslaves him, or attempts to limit the freedom of his mind, or compels him to act against his own rational judgment … is not, strictly speaking, a society, but a mob held together by institutionalized gang-rule.”

–author and philosopher Ayn Rand (1905-1982)