CONSTITUTION DAY condemned. FLP: 'Public holiday for a flawed [2013] Constitution.' Fijileaks: Chaudhry was under no obligation to rush and become Interim Finance Minister. Is he covered under the IMMUNITY?

6/9/2017

“The imposed 2013 constitution is fundamentally flawed in many respects and was specifically crafted to continue the authoritarian order that was established in 2009, and to retain power for those in authority..It concentrates all power in the hands of the Executive (the Prime Minister and the Attorney General) thereby violating the doctrine of separation of powers and legitimizing authoritarian rule. Furthermore, it grants perpetual immunity to perpetrators of treason and other serious crimes to persons responsible for the unlawful usurpation of a democratically elected government. The parliamentary democracy established under such a constitution is a farce. One of the prime objectives of a Labour government will be to carry out a review of the 2013 constitution to address its undemocratic provisions." Mahendra Chaudhry

Public holiday for a flawed constitution?

Labour Leader Mahendra Chaudhry has questioned the need for a public holiday to ‘celebrate’ a constitution that was imposed on the people of Fiji against their will and without any input from them.

“The imposed 2013 constitution is fundamentally flawed in many respects and was specifically crafted to continue the authoritarian order that was established in 2009, and to retain power for those in authority,” Mr Chaudhry said.

One of the 100 plus recommendations that came up through the working committee of the United Nations Human Rights Council during its 2014 Periodic Review, was the call for the establishment of a constitutional commission “to conduct a comprehensive review of the constitution thereby ensuring that it is reflective of the will and aspirations of the people of Fiji”.

The constitution restricts the fundamental rights and freedoms of our people, depriving them of their right to freedom of expression, association and assembly.

It restricts the civil and political rights of our citizens, compromises the authority and independence of the judiciary, and imposes an undemocratic electoral system on the people.

It concentrates all power in the hands of the Executive (the Prime Minister and the Attorney General) thereby violating the doctrine of separation of powers and legitimizing authoritarian rule.

“Furthermore, it grants perpetual immunity to perpetrators of treason and other serious crimes to persons responsible for the unlawful usurpation of a democratically elected government,” said Mr Chaudhry.

“The parliamentary democracy established under such a constitution is a farce. One of the prime objectives of a Labour government will be to carry out a review of the 2013 constitution to address its undemocratic provisions,” Mr Chaudhry said.

"This [2006] Coup is different because the Qarase Government was so awful...Fiji could not have survived another five years."
Mahendra Chaudhry to US ambassador Larry Dinger

http://www.fijileaks.com/home/bainimaramas-willing-brigade-post-2006-coup-interim-finance-minister-chaudhry-talked-john-samy-into-formulating-peoples-charter

4 Comments

Naqari

6/9/2017 02:31:45 pm

Concentrate on the legality of the Constitution and not whether MPC is covered by immunity or not. The temerity of the autocrat and megalomaniac to shove down a Constitution down our throats is unprecedented in our history. We cannot accept this. Otherwise we should rightly be named cowards, accepting out of sheer fear. Are we lamu sonas.? No, we are not. NO Parliament has ever approved this Constitution. It was approved through the illegal President who like his Master FB, was no school and read out or signed anything put out in front of them by the Tiger of the regime, the bully ASK. That illegal President was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He still lives off the taxpayer. He has never done a day's work in his life. Our Constitution Day is a lie and a day of mourning and shame. Our Constitution Day is like the Australia Day celebrated on the 26th of January each year, ostensibly as the day Capt Cook discovered Australia, when Australia was in fact discovered and populated for millions of years already by the aboriginal people. This was actually the day when the aboriginal Australians were massacred and conquered by the white man Cook. That is what is celebrated today by the Australians, the massacre and occupation just like Fijians are made to celebrate the Constituoon Day, a day when our people were raped and conquered by the ASK-FB regime and our indigenious people became second class citizens in their own country, a country founded by their own ancestors. All this was done in the guise of bestowing equal citizenry for the first time to all the ethnic groups in Fiji. Those who celebrate the Constitution Day are celebrating the Day when we were made to cede our sovereignty to the Supremists ASK and FB. Let us get our spines back and let us Proclaim that enough is enough. Let this Day be a Day when we started our revolution to give Fiji back to its rightful owners, our iTaukei people and to those who the iTaukei provided shelter and hospitality to, the colonial enslaved Indo-Fijians and their decedants and all the other vulagis. Let us give power back to the People. Down with the Constitution Day. Rise!

Refugee

6/9/2017 08:58:53 pm

One of the advanced symptoms of dementia, amongst our elderly, is forgetfulness of the important and the significant. But in the case of Chaudhary the forgetfulness here is more deliberate, conniving and selective. It is important for us to remind HIM that the ‘authoritarian order´, he speaks of, was established in 2006 and NOT in 2009. And that HE was part of that cabal of that same ‘authoritarian order’.

But on the subject of his discourse, (and HIM being a trade unionist and a currency convict and all) the 2013 Constitution of Khaiyum (NOT Fiji) if declared a ‘public holiday’ should be a welcome gesture, for the workers of Fiji, to enjoy a day of merriment, quality family time and a day to reflect on our freedoms lost.

And the day should more appropriately be called the “Khaiyum Day” – if not “the FRAUD Constitution Day”!!!

Rajend Naidu

6/9/2017 09:22:47 pm

Editor,
Promoting Sustainable Democracy In Fiji.
It's good to have a British Lord ( Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, UK's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Commonwealth Office ) make time to come and visit Fiji and say " Fiji needs sustainable democracy"(Fiji Times 6/09/17 ).
When democracy in Fiji was raped for the first time in 1987 and the negotiated 1970 Independence constitution was trashed and the democratic rights and freedoms of the citizens were taken away by a ruthless racist fascist regime the ousted democratically elected PM of Fiji, Dr Timoci Bavadra's went to London to see the Queen and to appeal for help in the restoration of democracy in Fiji.
He was virtually given the cold shoulder by the Queen and all her men.
This noble leader was a great believer in sustainable democracy.
He died a broken man because of the bastardry of the British State, our former colonial ruler.
It's good the British Lord has come - belatedly - to talk to us about the need for sustainable democracy in Fiji.
Sincerely,
Rajend Naidu

Ratu

7/9/2017 07:03:14 am

Naqari, u are an idiot. Cook was not the first whiteman to set foot on Australia, a Portuguese and a Dutchman landed on the West Coast, one of them I'm not sure which had his ship wrecked on a reef. Cook landed on the east coast and discovered Australia insofar as the west was concerned. It's like u go exploring in the back streets of London and come across a nice coffee shop. Of course it already existed but u discovered it for yourself and for the purpose of your friends who you relate the story of yr adventure to. That's what the word discover means in its proper context. Anyway the aborigines may have lived in Australia for thousands of years before the arrival of the whiteman, but they never owned it, just as Fijians occupied it but did not own it. This is what Cakobau meant when he said "the land and the people are mine but I don't own them."
Ownership comes with power. And as Mao tse Tung said power comes from the barrel of a gun. Bainimarama, Khaiyum and the rest of Fiji know that. Without the Fiji military Frank and Khaiyum will be nothing. That's what is meant by sustainable democracy that the visiting British Peer, Lord whstshisname commented on after a visit to Bainimarama this week. Remove the military and Khaiyum's Constitution will be tossed out the window. So like u I am reticent about what we are celebrating with today's public holiday, but not for the same reason as you. You say "rise," why don't u rise yourself rather than sit back and get others to face the wrath of the law

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