Acting Attorney-General Siromi Turaga stood before Parliament this week and assured the nation that the constitutional review process will be “lawful, transparent and meaningful”. He spoke of public participation, of respecting the Supreme Court, of democracy functioning as it should. With respect, Acting AG, that is not enough. The Bose Levu Vakaturaga has spoken with one voice. And our message is simple, unified, and absolute: The 2013 Constitution must go. Let us be clear about what the Bose Levu Vakaturaga actually said. When our Chairman, Ratu Viliame Seruvakula, stated that “the bottom line is the BLV wants this Constitution out. Done. We’ve had enough of it,” he was not speaking in metaphors. When he told the nation that with “every corner we turn to try and improve people’s lives, there is this Constitution in the way,” he was diagnosing a sickness that runs through the soil of our vanua. And when he suggested that a document which came in “through the back door” should leave the same way, he was reminding Fiji that legitimacy cannot be imposed.
The Government’s ‘review’ misses the point
THE Acting AG tells us that a Constitution is not an ordinary statute. He is correct. It is the supreme law, the architecture of the State. He tells us that Fiji has had four successive constitutions, each reflecting “the aspirations, tensions and compromises of its time.” But here is the question the government refuses to answer: Whose aspirations did the 2013 Constitution reflect? Which tensions did it resolve, and which did it simply crush? The 2013 Constitution was not a compromise. It was a dictation. It was imposed after the abrogation of all prior legal order, written in secret, and decreed without the consent of Fijians. Of the vanua. It deliberately dismantled the traditional pillars of iTaukei authority, the very institutions that for centuries maintained social cohesion, moral order, and collective responsibility. The BLV has been clear: We are not simply seeking amendments. We are not asking for permission to tweak a few sections. We are demanding replacement.
Why a simple ‘yes or no’ referendum is the only honest path
This brings me to the question of a referendum. The government has prepared a draft National Referendum Bill. They are establishing a Constitution Review Commission. They speak of public forums and consultations. But if the referendum question is about amendments — about how to change a document whose very existence we reject — then it is a managed conversation, designed to produce a predetermined outcome. The only question worthy of the Fijian people, and the only question that honours the BLV’s unanimous position, is this: “Do you agree that the 2013 Constitution of the Republic of Fiji should continue as the Supreme Law of the Land?” Io (YES) Sega (NO) Nothing else. No complex menu of options. No parliamentary drafting games. Just the raw, honest will of the people. If the government is truly committed to “meaningful public participation” as the Acting AG claims, they will not fear this question. They will embrace it.
The BLV’s position is rooted in the suffering of our people
Let those who accuse the chiefs of political interference listen to what our communities are saying. The drug crisis consuming our youth. The epidemic of domestic violence hidden behind closed doors. The corruption that flourishes with impunity. The non-communicable diseases claiming our parents and grandparents before their time. These are not unrelated social problems. They are the harvest of a poisoned seed. When you systematically dismantle the vanua — when you remove the chiefs from their role as moral authorities, when you shatter the chains of local accountability, when you replace collective responsibility with radical, unrooted individualism — you create a vacuum. And into that vacuum pours every social ill imaginable. The 2013 Constitution did not just change how we vote. It sought to change who we are as iTaukei. It engineered the collapse of our social immune system.
A re-established BLV for a new era
Critics will point to the BLV’s past. They will speak of coups and controversies. They will say the chiefs have no moral authority. We acknowledge the past. The BLV that went to drink homebrew under the mango tree and remained there carries its own burdens. But the BLV that sits today is different. It is a revamped assembly for a new era. Its membership includes professionals, leaders, and custodians of tradition who were not actors in the crises of the 1980s. Its mandate is not to replicate partisan politics, but to provide the moral and cultural bedrock upon which this nation can finally stand stable. As Ratu Tevita Mara reminded us, the BLV must first secure its own restoration through a robust legal framework and constitutional legitimacy. It must be entrenched in the Constitution, not merely existing through a regulation that a simple parliamentary majority can erase. But to achieve that entrenchment, we must first have a Constitution worth entrenching it in.
The path forward
The Acting AG says the government will be “responsible and honest” and will follow the law and the Supreme Court. He spoke of constitutionalism as a “work in progress”. We agree. But progress requires acknowledging when the foundation is rotten. The 1970 Constitution was born of consultation and delivered with dignity. The 2013 Constitution was born of a coup and imposed without consent. One traces its lineage to the instrument of independence brought by the then Prince Charles himself. The other traces its lineage to the barrel of a gun. The BLV is not asking for amendments. We are not asking for permission to exist within a framework designed to erase us. We are asking for the right to build anew — on the solid foundation of the vanua, with the wisdom of our chiefs, and with the consent of all Fijians. Give us the straight question. Let the people decide. Io se. Anything less is political theatre dressed in parliamentary language. And frankly, Fijians have had enough of the theatre. It is time for a straight answer. Give us the straight question.
- RO NAULU MATAITINI is a close observer of our political theatrics, and a member of the Bose Levu Vakaturaga and these are his personal views.
