SECRECY over Fiji’s Constitution Review Commission report is fuelling public anxiety and tensions, says Fiji Labour Party leader Mahendra Chaudhry as he calls for the immediate release of the full report and draft.
Mr Chaudhry said provisions from the draft circulating in the media raised serious questions about equal citizenship, including how the President would be chosen, the role of the Great Council of Chiefs and whether Fiji’s secular character would be weakened.
He rejected Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka’s call for the public to remain calm while Cabinet considers the recommendations.
“That is not an answer to the people’s anxiety,” he said.
He said the failure to publish the full report was creating unnecessary tension and apprehension, particularly in Fiji’s plural society.
“A constitution belongs to the people. It must be debated in the open, or it has no legitimacy.”
Mr Chaudhry also criticised the media exclusion at the commission’s presentation to the President, saying it undermined the Government’s promise of openness and media freedom.
He said the 2013 Constitution was not beyond criticism but provided a clear framework for equal citizenship and rights protecting all communities.
Mr Chaudhry warned that any proposed change that weakened those protections or placed the country’s highest office in the hands of a small appointed committee would face serious public scrutiny.
“A constitution written for the people cannot be delivered in secret.”
He called for the complete report and draft to be released so Fijians could examine and debate the proposed changes openly.
