says Fiji’s White Report

AT LAST, THE LAST WORD ON A 1982 ELECTION ‘Dirty tricks’ charge unproven, says Fiji’s White Report

The Royal Commissioner who inquired into events surrounding Fiji’s turbulent 1982 general election has found that it was “not established that repugnant strategies (from the report pre pared for the ruling Alliance Par ty by Australian business consul tant Alan Carroll) were adopted or implemented” by the party.

The report by the commission er, retired New Zealand judge Sir John White, was tabled in parlia ment in Suva on November 22.

Sir John was appointed after the elections to decide on three broad allegations.

The first centred on the Carroll Report, and whether the Alliance Party had implemented it in its election campaigning.

The second was whether the Alliance Party had used (Aust ralian Government-funded) Fiji Government media consultant Clive Speed in its campaign, and whether the Opposition National Federation Party (NFP) had col laborated with overseas media particularly the Australian Broadcasting Commission’s TV team from the program Four Cor ners, and the Australian weekly newspaper The National Times to discredit the Alliance.

The third concerned Alliance allegations that the NFP received financial aid from the Soviet Un ion during the election.

On the first issue, Sir John said it was a reasonable inference that the Alliance had implement ed recommendations in the re port. “On the other hand,” he went on, “I found that it had not been established that any repug nant recommendation had been implemented, as alleged”. (The “repugnant” recommendations allegedly contained in the report were: that the government should “pile up charges” against West ern United Front leader Ratu Osea Gavidi so he could not contest the election; that the Fi jian Nationalist Party leader Sakeasi Butadroka should be bribed to keep him out of the election; and that efforts should be made to divide the Indian

community along religious lines, to the electoral advantage of the Alliance Party.) Sir John said that in consider ing the charge that Mr Speed had acted for the Alliance, he had found that “of his own volition, or at the behest of Mr Carroll, Mr Speed had assisted members of

the Carroll team in a minor role”.

Ruling that the NFP had not collaborated with the Four Cor ners TV program team, and The National Times newspaper, he found that neither the Times nor the TV program “was deliberate ly directed towards injuring the Alliance, but that each was di rected against the consultants”.

On the matter of the NFP’s alleged deal with the Russians, Sir John ruled that there was no evidence that NFP member and

former Opposition leader Siddiq

Koya had ever signed any docu ments purporting to be agree ments with the Russians. There was no evidence that the photo copied “Koya Letter” was a copy of any document that Mr Koya had in fact signed.

Of Rosemary Gillespie, a for mer researcher with the Carroll team who “blew the whistle” on the team by revealing the con tents of the report. Sir John said she had “acted out of a sense of

duty, as she understood it, and, if I may say so, with courage”.

On other matters, Sir John ruled that while the Alliance had denied commissioning the Car roll Report, he found that it had done so.

Lawyers for both the Alliance Party and the NFP hailed Sir John’s report as a vindication of their side.

A dissenting voice was that of Ms Gillespie, who was in Fiji on a private visit when the report was released. She said the fact that both political parties were claiming victories from the re port proved that Sir John had tried to please everyone.

“Sir John, in his report, seems to be more concerned with the personal reputation of the witnes ses rather than finding the facts,” she said.

“I think the report is quite unsatisfactory, and people will be questioning his findings for a long time”.

Prime Minister and Alliance leader Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara (second from left) outside the hearing with his legal advisers. They are (from left) Sir John Falvey Q.C., who was formerly Attorney-General, Raman Lai Kapadia and G.P. Lala Fiji Times picture.

Sir John White