CONCERNS over legislative delays, government spending, and long-standing public frustration with political immunity clauses were raised during the constitutional amendment consultation in Nadi on October 17.
Fiji Medical Association (FMA) representative Dr Ahmed Shakeel Shariff questioned proposals to increase the size of the Senate, warning that expanding the upper house would drain public resources and slow down essential legislative processes.
Drawing an example from the health sector, Dr Shariff noted that legislative delays severely hinder responses to pressing national crises.
“Just to reflect sir, the Fiji Medical Association and our team we had called out HIV being an issue. It took us two years to say it is an outbreak,” he said.
“So we need us to move faster with the evolving world and our needs and requirements. We cannot be sitting and asking for the processes and the process system to be longer and longer.”
Turning to the proposed immunity provisions, Dr Shariff expressed the widespread fatigue felt by ordinary citizens and business owners who bear the financial and social consequences of political instability.
“Many of the commoners sitting here will not have a role but they will be the ones that are affected the most.”
“Every single time something happens of such nature in the country, it is us, the people, that bring it back together till somebody else does something and gets pardoned for it.”
He urged lawmakers to carefully re-examine the scope of immunity clauses moving forward.
