Review Report Backs Chiefs

Probing the crucial Constitutional Review Committee Report.

THE 16 MEMBER Constitutional Review Committee appointed by Fiji’s Governor General Ratu Sir Penaia Ganilau has come out with two reports. A Majority Report echoing the submissions of the Great Council of Chiefs and a Minority Report which recom-

mends the wishes of the Labour/National Feder ation Party Coalition.

The Governor Gen eral appointed the Com mittee as a first step to reconciliation and a means of ret urn i ng to Fij i a democratically elected government after the May 14 military coup. Its function was to propose amendments to the Fiji Constitution “which will strengthen the political representation of indige nous Fijians, and in doing so bear in mind the best interests of the other peoples in Fiji”.

The Committee was headed by Sir John Falvey, a former Attorney General in the Alliance Government and one of the ar chitects of the 1970 Constitution.

The Majority Report, which has the support of all nominees of the Great Council of Chiefs, the four nominees of the Alliance Leader as well as two of the four nominees of the Governor General, calls for the retention of Queen Elizabeth as Fi ji’s Head of State. It says the Senate should be abolished and the present two chamber Parliament be merged into one chamber legislature with 71 seats. Of these, 40 members should be Fijians; 22 should be Indians; eight general electors and one a representative of the island of Rotuma.

The Majority Report calls for an increase of 18 Fijian members from the present 22 to 40. These 18 should comprise eight members who are elected by the Great Council of Chiefs; four to be the Prime Minister’s appointees and the remaining six elected from the 14 provinces.

On the controversial question of Mus lim representation the Committee makes no recommendation. It says its views on the issue were so divergent that no agree ment was reached on the allocation of sep arate Muslim seats from among the 22 allocated to Indians.

Concerning the appointment of the Governor General, the Majority Report

recommends that he be nominated by the Great Council of Chiefs and in his absence the Council should nominate who is to de putise for him. The Speaker of the House should act as Governor General if no nominations are made by the Great Coun cil of Chiefs.

The Governor General’s appointment should be for a fixed five-year term. In rec ommending the abolition of the Senate the Majority Report says the Senate’s func tion of protecting Fijian rights and inter ests should be transferred to the House of Representatives. It argues that because of the increased Fijian representation in the House a simple majority vote will be suf ficient to ensure Fijian rights are guaranteed.

The Majority Report also recom mends that the Prime Minister be the Fi jian member in the House who, in the Governor General’s deliberate judge ment, is best able to command a majority in the House.

Four ministerial portfolios Home Affairs, Fijian Affairs, Foreign Affairs and Finance should be disqualified from registering as voters in Fiji.

On the voting system, the Report rec ommends the abolition of the national roll and national seats. All seats in the House of Representatives should be contested on the communal basis with members being elected only by voters of their own com munal group.

As for protecting Fijian interests by leg islation, the Report says the Constitution should make clear that the following are is sues of major concern to the indigenous population and that such legislative action

as may be necessary to alleviate those con cerns should be entered upon at once; • Recognition and application of custom ary law; • Rights of ownership and use in respect of riverbeds and the foreshore (includ ing swamps, reefs and sandbanks); • Proprietary rights in relation to min erals and underground waters; • Protection of the cultural heritage.

The Majority Report recommends, too, that the Constitution should state that Parliament is authorised to make laws which discriminate in favour of Fijians and Rotumans by addressing the special needs of those communities. It should state that the Government and Parliament have a responsibility to safeguard and advance the welfare of the two indigenous com munities, and in particular their social, educational and economic well being.

The minority Report submitted by the four members of the coalition team on the Committee and two nominees of the Gov ernor-General strongly recommends the retention of the present constitution. The report team says their own separate re port, the Minority Report, was necessary because, in its view, the recommenda tions of the “majority” of members of the Review Committee did not reflect the views of the majority of submissions re ceived by the committee nor the views for the majority of the people of Fiji.

The Minority Report says the “major ity”, of 10 members, who had signed the Majority Report comprised the represen tatives of the Alliance Party, the Great Council of Chiefs and two of the four nom inees of the Governor General. None was an ethnic Indian and, except for two, all were Fijians. Of the two non-Fijians, one was a Rotuman and the other a Vasu-I- Taukei.

The signatories for the Minority Re port said the Majority Report seeks sub stantial and far reaching changes to the Constitution which, if implemented, will reduce Fiji-Indian citizens to the status of “third class” citizens and effectively put them on the Opposition benches in the Fiji parliament for all time.

The “minority” group, in its report, said it was satisfied that indigenous Fijians were adequately represented and pro tected under the present constitution.

The Minority Group went on to rec ommend that the present Constitution be retained in its entirety. □

Falvey (right) hands his report to the Governor General.