Stop blaming the chiefs! "Justice will be delivered in God’s time and that time is fast approaching. Bainimarama will thus have to face the rule of law and as they say, the chickens will then truly come home to roost."

By RAJENDRA CHAUDHRY

Deuteronomy 1:15 reads: "So I took the chief of your tribes, wise men, and known, and made them heads over you, captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, and captains over fifties, and captains over tens, and officers among your tribes."

It is an established and uncontested fact that the GCC plays a role that is indispensible in the social, political and economic fabric of Fiji. It is also very important to lay the distinction between Fijian chiefs and the chiefly system. There is also the clear synergy between the chiefly system and the churches.

In recent times we have read Bainimarama criticisng chiefs and church leaders. One may ask why. The answer lies in the threat, politically, to Bainimarama, by these institutions, primarily the GCC. It is the chiefly system or the GCC that is under attack by Bainimarama and his indigenous Fijian thugs in the military and elsewhere. It is the chiefly system that has united and ensured that Fijian rights to land, custom, culture and church has been protected. Whilst some chiefs have supported the extra constitutional acts of 1987, 2000 and 2006, the chiefly system did not. In 1987 and 2000, the GCC had to play a conciliatory role in getting the country back to normalcy and democratic rule. Indeed, Rabuka went to the GCC to try and get the country back to constitutional rule. Speight and Bainimarama also did likewise in 2000.

Hence, it is unfair to tar the GCC with the same brush as some chiefs who had supported and benefitted from the extra constitutional acts of the periods earlier mentioned. In 2006 and thereafter, the GCC remained stoically opposed to the usurpation of democratic rule by Bainimarama but in its wisdom chose to oppose by reason and constitution rather than urging violence and instability. This is what separates the GCC and its leaders from the thug known as Bainimarama.

One must not forget that the chiefly system was put in place by the British post 1870, as a way of uniting and ensuring that the Fijian people, at all times retained their social and cultural position in a colonized Fiji.

The 1970, 1990 and 1997 constitutions all recognised the important role that the GCC played in Fiji’s governance by virtue of being the trustees of the indigenous peoples in matters of education, village economy, native land, qoliqoli and culture. Whilst urbanization has seen village numbers fall, the fact remains that provincial loyalties and affinity for the chiefly system remains very strong. This is something that Bainimarama knows will severely dent his political ego.

Native land is something that the GCC has rightly stood firm on in the face of Khaiyum to take away the right of the Fijian people to decide how their land is to be used. The sham constitution does not provide any constitutional guarantee to safeguarding native land. All Fijians, rightly, treasure their land and for good reason as many wars and battles were spent protecting it. It reminds me of the words of an Indian American chief who said: "The ground on which we stand is sacred ground. It is the blood of our ancestors."

Politically speaking, SODELPA is supported and endorsed by the majority of the major chiefly households and is the overwhelming favourite to attract indigenous Fijian votes. Given that the proposed electoral system is a single constituency, there is a distinct reality that an SODELPA coalition will win the elections with an overwhelming margin.

This would leave Bainimarama, in the unlikely event that he wins at all, on the political fringe rather than mainstream decision making politics. It is then that the true financial statements of the illegal regime will surface . His retirement from the military in February 2014 will mean that he will have no one from whom he can call any favours. His innumerable decrees won’t save him and reminds me of the adage: as you sow so you reap or more colloquially: a spider caught in its own web.

The constitution can and will be changed to ensure that no section is offensive viz international conventions and one of which is crimes against humanity as committed against Bainimarama. Let me at this juncture quote Isaiah 51:4-5: "Listen to me, my people; hear me, my nation: The law will go out from me; my justice will become a light to the nations. My righteousness draws near speedily, my salvation is on the way, and my arm will bring justice to the nations. The islands will look to me and wait in hope for my arm.”

Justice will be delivered in God’s time and that time is fast approaching. Bainimarama will thus have to face the rule of law and as they say, the chickens will then truly come home to roost.

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INSULTING FIJIAN RELIGION: Remember Meli Bainimarama Jnr's famous Facebook posting of a gun resting on a Fijian version Good News Bible

The chiefly institutions will rise again!

Chiefly power frightens Bainimarama

It is the chiefly system that has united and ensured that Fijian rights to land, custom, culture and church has been protected.