AN extremely dismaying aspect of Fiji society today is the frequency of public requests, appeals, petitions, entreaties, and prayers, essentially “begging” the Bainimarama Government to respect the human rights of individuals.
But a “human right” is, by definition, a fundamental entitlement of each and every human being on this planet because they are human beings.
Human rights are not to be at the mercy of any government or person, and certainly not to be “begged for”, which is tantamount to strengthening and legitimising governments’ illegal “authority” to grant or refuse that request.
The Bainimarama Government, despite many public pleas, has refused to back down from their original decision to ban Dr Padma Narsey Lal and Professor Brij Lal from Fiji. They refuse to respond publicly, indicating their refusal to be publicly accountable for their decision to deny the basic human rights of Padma and Brij.
Fiji citizens should however be encouraged by organisations such as Amnesty International and the Fiji judiciary for championing human rights on another front — freedom from torture and violence.
It is clear that there is an urgent need for international organisations to take up the struggle for the basic human rights of Padma and Brij to enter Fiji, the country of their birth just as they have taken up the struggle to eliminate torture from Fiji.
UN declaration and
Amnesty International
All Fiji citizens and residents ought to carefully read the UN Declaration of Human Rights, which you can download here: http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/
The preamble notes: “Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.”
Amnesty International, a few days (FT December 5, 2016) ago released a report “Beating Justice: How Fiji’s Security Forces Get Away with Torture”, detailing severe beatings, rape and other sexual violence reportedly conducted by uniformed officers.
The Amnesty International website supports the UN Declaration of Human Rights as being:
* universal: they belong to all of us, everybody in the world, of whatever nationality;
* inalienable: they cannot be taken away from us; and
* indivisible and interdependent: governments should not be able to pick and choose which are respected and which are not.
But the Bainimarama Government has been doing precisely that, with individuals it does not like, with their own security forces being found guilty of trashing our human rights.
Worse still, government institutions that are charged with protecting our human rights (such as the Fiji Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Commission), often refuse to take proactive action to defend them while eager to prosecute those opposed to government views.
Brij and Padma
In 2009, Professor Brij Lal was deported from Fiji with the Bainimarama Government claiming, without any evidence whatsoever, that he was “prejudicial to the peace, defence, public security of the Government of Fiji”.
In 2010, his wife Dr Padma Lal, was stopped from entering Fiji with the Government refusing even to explain why they banned her, merely the spouse of Brij Lal.
Why are these two law-abiding persons denied their fundamental human right to enter Fiji, when all and sundry, even those with criminal convictions, are able to do so freely?
Many respectable Fiji citizens have publicly called on the Bainimarama Government to remove the bans on Brij and Padma, pointing out what distinguished citizens they have been in their respective fields and how enormously they have contributed to Fiji.
Read the interesting array of Letters to the Editor of The Fiji Times by Professor Biman Prasad (24/3/2015), Professor Vijay Naidu (26/3/2015), Dr Ropate Qalo (11/4/2016) Kiniviliame Keteca (20/10/2015 and 19/10/2016), Tara Chetty (22/10/2016), Dr Vanessa Griffen (23/10/2016), Satya Samy (18/11/2016) and the many brave opinion pieces of Seona Smiles (30/10/2016) and others.
They detail the grand contributions made by Professor Brij Lal and Dr Padma Lal to Fiji and the honours they have received in Fiji and abroad.
Some are polite requests praising Bainimarama’s potential magnanimity, some are poignant, some are demanding and one (by Keteca) even pointed out the hypocrisy of Prime Minister Bainimarama declaring to Sydney Indo-Fijians that “the fact that you were made to feel unwelcome in your country of birth is the most shameful episode in our nation’s history”.
But it is a basic human right of all law-abiding former Fiji citizens to enter and leave Fiji according to our laws, whether regardless of their brilliance, status, contribution to Fiji.
The human right to enter Fiji (Brij and Padma) or leave Fiji temporarily (FT publisher Hank Arts) should not have to be begged for.
Why are the relevant Fiji institutions not fighting for Padma and Brij?
Fiji HRADC
One would have thought the Fiji Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Commission would have proactively taken up the case of Brij and Padma.
The FHRADC is headed by responsible persons Justice Mohammed Ajmeer, and includes Faiz Khan (businessman), Selina Lee Wah (social leader), Peceli Rokotuivuna (radio announcer) and Sashi Kiran (head of EU-supported NGO, FRIENDS).
Its CEO is the redoubtable Ashwin Raj, who also is the head of MIDA, and appears to be extremely proactive pursuing Government concerns.
But their website (http://www.fhradc.org.fj/) has little of the informative content which one would normally expect such as annual reports outlining a description of the human rights they are supposed to protect, the cases they have addressed (successfully or unsuccessfully), the cases in front of them, the difficulties they are facing etc.
Not surprisingly, the latest Amnesty International Report on Fiji noted on another but related front, that while the FHRADC “could in theory take a strong role in the independent assessment of complaints against police, corrections and the military, it is still in the process of rebuilding, and is not yet functioning as a national human rights institution compliant with international laws and standards”.
The Amnesty International Report was also concerned (as is the Fiji public) at the militarisation of key state institutions such as Police and Corrections (Prisons) involved with the protection of human rights.
* The views expressed are the author’s and not of this newspaper.
