Opposition MP Premila Kumar has questioned why Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka is asking Fijians to remain calm over the constitutional review process when the public has yet to see the Constitution Review Commission’s report and proposed Draft Constitution.
Kumar said the Constitution belonged to the people and argued that the Commission’s documents should be released immediately and in their original form.
“The Government cannot ask Fijians to trust a constitutional process while keeping the actual documents away from them,” Kumar said.
She also raised concerns over reports that independent media organisations were not invited to witness the formal handover of the Commission’s report at State House, with coverage instead undertaken by the Ministry of Information.
Kumar said this was particularly concerning given the Coalition Government’s commitments to media freedom, transparency and open government.
“This was not an ordinary Government report. This concerns the Constitution — the supreme law of our country and the rights and freedoms of every Fijian,” she said.
Kumar also questioned Rabuka’s call for calm and his assurances to minority communities, including Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs, that their religious freedoms and place in Fiji would continue to be respected.
“So why is the Prime Minister already asking people to remain calm? A call for calm implies that something in the report is expected to cause alarm,” she said.
“The Government should not tell people how to feel about a document they have not seen, nor can they be expected to blindly accept assurances about a document they have not read.”
Kumar said the unresolved question of Fiji’s common national identity also required careful consideration as part of any constitutional reform.
She said any constitutional settlement should respect indigenous identity and traditions while protecting the rights, religious freedoms and equal belonging of all citizens.
Kumar welcomed the President’s assurance that receiving the Commission’s report did not mean its recommendations had been accepted and that the proposals would still have to undergo the appropriate constitutional, parliamentary and democratic processes.
However, she said those processes could not be meaningful without public access to the documents.
“The Government should therefore publish the Constitution Review Commission’s full Report and Draft Constitution immediately in its original form as submitted by the Commission, before any changes are made by Government,” Kumar said.
She said taxpayers had funded the constitutional review and should be able to see what the independent Commission had proposed and distinguish it from any subsequent changes made by Government.
“This process must be bigger than politics. It must be transparent, lawful, genuinely democratic and worthy of the trust of all Fijians,” Kumar said.
