The Fiji Democracy and Freedom Movement would like to denounce the announcement a week ago by Fiji’s interim Prime Minister, Commodore Bainimarama, of a Road Map for the Restoration of Fiji’s Democracy.
It is a lot of fancy words about nothing and another poorly attempted strategy for Commodore Bainimarama to legitimise his illegal term as Prime Minister for another five years.
Commodore Bainimarama must first of all cease his many attempts at insulting our collective intelligence with his claim of a so called President’s Mandate. The President is now an illegal occupier of that High Office after his treasonous purported abrogation of the 1997 Constitution of the Republic of the Fiji Islands on the 10th of April 2009.
Commodore Bainimarama should also cease from claiming a Presidential Mandate when the whole world knows that he is the puppeteer pulling the strings of a proverbial puppet, the figurehead President, Ratu Josefa Iloilo.
Having stated that, the Movement will keep reminding Commodore Bainimarama, and the World as our witness, that any suggestion of reforms and change must come from the people and the 1997 Constitution of Fiji is still pulsating in the veins of the people of Fiji and can never be abrogated.
The people of Fiji must give the mandate, and the world does not recognise some false claim of a Presidential Mandate. Changes can only be made by those that represent the people in a legally constituted parliament under Chapter 15 of the 1997 Constitution of Fiji.
Commodore Bainimarama, in his speech said that in his road map for change, he will seek to re-engage with his neighbours and development partners. The Movement wishes to remind Fiji’s regional neighbours and development partners that it was not them that disengaged from dealing with Fiji.
It was Commodore Bainimarama that so rudely disengaged from Fiji’s regional neighbours by snubbing them twice. First, at the Pacific islands Forum Leaders meeting in Niue and secondly at the Special Leaders Retreat on Fiji in Port Moresby early this year.
It was also Commodore Bainimarama that lied after he promised to have a general election for Fiji in March 2009. He made this commitment at the 2007 Pacific Islands Forum Leaders meeting in Tonga.
The Movement would like to remind regional leaders and development partners planing to re-engage with Commodore Bainimarama that while they are legal and elected, he is not. While their first priority is the people they represent, Bainimarama’s first priority is his personal survival and the delaying of his inevitable arrest and imprisonment.
Any leader that engages and dialogues with Bainimarama is doing business with a common criminal who has raped the democracy of his country and pillage the national assets of its people.
Bainimarama’s leadership scorecard since grabbing power via the barrel of a gun is pathetic. In his two and a half years of leadership, Bainimarama has presided over the decimation of the sugar industry, the destruction of the tourism industry, the devaluation of the Fijian Dollar, the wholesale sacking of thousands of public servants, the destruction of the future of an entire generation of Fiji’s youths and most recently the destruction of Fiji’s Dairy Industry.
Commodore Bainimarama in his address puts forward the false claim that a new legal order exists. A new legal order can only exist if the people have accepted it.
The World must be reminded that the Military overthrew a popularly elected coalition Government that was voted in just six months before being overthrown in December 2006. The two political parties that made up the ruling coalition attracted 84% of the votes cast in the May 2006 General Election.
There has been no popular opposition to the Bainimarama Regime since the purported abrogation of the Constitution because of the draconian Public Emergency Regulation Decree introduced after the abrogation declaration on the 10th of April 2009.
This decree was suppose to be in force for only thirty days but has now been extended till the end of the year. The draconian terms of the Decree included the censoring of any news items that may portray the government in a negative way and the suppression of freedom of speech.
With the threat of an indefinite closure of any news outlet that attempts to defy the Decree, newspapers are not publishing any letters to the editor or statements that opposes the Regime.
Since the 10th of April 2009, the people of Fiji have been drawn under a dark blanket of news blackouts while bombarded with government propaganda modelled on some Stalinist totalitarian regime.
The framework for the return to constitutional democracy announced a week ago by Commodore Bainimarama lacks any clearly defined milestones and timeframes for his three year grandiose socio-economic dreams.
The Bainimarama Regime’s total mismanagement of the economy and erosion of the social structure of Fiji’s Society so far has created a lot of doubt about their ability to deliver on their latest attempt to provide a clear roadmap to democracy.
Delaying the start of their illegal constitutional reform till 2012 is just another poor attempt to conveniently come up with some sort of excuse that they will need more time in the constitutional consultation process and therefore extend their illegal governing mandate past 2014 when their self imposed five year mandate is about to expire.
Therefore, the Fiji Democracy and Freedom Movement calls on Fiji’s Regional Neighbours and Development Partners not to be fooled by Commodore Bainimarama’s latest attempt to pull the wool over their eyes. They should learn from his many false promises and lies of the past.
Pacific regional leaders need to up the level of pressure and sanctions and demand an immediate return to constitutional democracy under the terms handed down by the Fiji Court of Appeal in the Case of Qarase and Others v Bainimarama and Others on the 9th of April 2009.
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