report

Political Currents

Fiji relief at commission report

By a Special Correspondent

The report of the Royal Commis sioner, Sir John White, into the conduct of Fiji’s 1982 general election (PIM Jan. pi 1) has been greeted with general relief . . . first, that it rocked no boats, and, second, that it signalled the end of a fairly sorry and pointless affair which might now be thrust under the nearest available carpet

and forgotten.

Indeed, according to some political pundits in Suva, the commission’s main effect has been to deter anyone from ever

again suggesting a Royal Com

mission; certainly not one with so difficult and diffuse a task as that placed before Sir John White.

Little or no public reaction attended publication of the report and there was no political fuss worthy of note. Everyone, it seemed, was glad it was all over.

Only one man. Dr Lasaqa, the Cabinet Secretary, came in for serious criticism about what the Commissioner saw as unreliabili ty in his evidence, but he remains in office with no suggestion from any quarter that he should be removed.

Dr Lasaqa was very thorough

ly questioned during the inquiry

about a secret government file which went missing from his desk, and later turned up in the

hands of Opposition politician.

Sir Vijay Singh, who said he got it from Miss Rosemary Gillespie.

Miss Gillespie, a central figure in the inquiry, went to Fiji before the election to collect statistics for Mr Alan Carroll, an Aust ralian political and business con sultant. Mr Carroll’s organisa tion produced a series of papers which were given to the leader ship of the Alliance Party, al legedly as aids in planning their election strategy.

But copies of these papers were given to the National Feder ation Party, the present Opposi tion in Fiji’s Parliament, which promptly accused the Alliance and Ratu Mara of “dirty tricks.”

In the judgment of political analysts in Fiji the Federation Party over-played the Carroll Re port and, in the end, may have damaged itself at the polls, even to the extent that it contributed to its own defeat. But, throughout the hustings, and afterwards, they stuck so firmly to the “dirty tricks” charge that Ratu Mara vowed to hold a full-scale

inquiry.

Sir John White found the “dir ty tricks” accusations unproven and went on to firmly reject Federation Party accusations, made during the inquiry, that the Prime Minister had lied.

According to reports from Su va Dr Lasaqa has been inter viewed by the Public Service Commission, and dealt with by them. That part of the affair is also, therefore, closed, the re ports say.

A separate inquiry, by Chief Magistrate, Gordon Ward, into events leading up to the disap pearance of the secret govern ment “red file” from Dr Lasaqa’s desk, and its subsequent reap pearance in Sir Vijay’s hands, was held in camera and its find ings have not been made public.

Nor has there been any public demand for publication.

In fact, by some opinion, the only real thing left by the Royal Commission has been the bill which, according to reliable sources, exceeds $250,000 in di rect costs. On top of that must be counted the innumerable hours of work and worry by some of the most senior people in the land.

“Royal Commissions are not

only costly, they develop a

momentum of their own,” said one Fiji observer. “Just as Aust ralia has recently discovered, once a Royal Commission is is sued, nobody can tell where it will go and where it will end. * “We in Fiji are just glad that this one has finally ended and that all is now back to normal . . . whatever that might be.”