Head of the Catholic Church in Fiji, Archbishop Peter Loy Chong says blanket immunity provisions in the Constitution risk undermining accountability and genuine reconciliation by failing to make those responsible for past injustices answer for their actions.
Speaking at the Diwali Talanoa at the Grand Pacific Hotel on Friday, Archbishop Loy Chong said reconciliation could not be achieved without truth-telling, particularly from victims of past injustices.
He said the reconciliation process should not begin with political and military leaders but with those who had suffered.
“The reconciliation process must involve truth-telling. A confession of the wrong that is done. And this truth-telling must begin with the victims, not from the military, not from the Prime Minister, from the real victims of past injustices,” he said.
Archbishop Loy Chong questioned the effectiveness of blanket amnesty provisions, saying they did not hold wrongdoers responsible for their actions.
“So blanket amnesty, as reflected in our Constitution, does not make wrongdoers responsible for the wrong they did. And it breeds a culture of vengeance.”
He said reconciliation was a spiritual process and should go beyond legislation, political strategies, and traditional ceremonies.
Quoting former South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, he said victims needed to identify the wrongdoing and those responsible before genuine forgiveness could take place.
“We want to forgive, but we don’t know who to forgive. You can’t forgive if you don’t know the wrong person, the wrongdoing.”
Archbishop Loy Chong said Fiji could not build social cohesion without public acknowledgement of past wrongdoing and truth-telling from victims.
“We can’t work towards reconciliation, social cohesion, if there is no truth-telling and the truth saying that comes from the victims.”
