THE Fiji Council of Churches believes the legitimacy of the 2013 Constitution is questionable because of what it says were gaps in public consultation, authorship and parliamentary endorsement.
FCC president and Archbishop Peter Loy Chong said this after the council met for two days to formulate its submission to the Constitution Review Commission.
Archbishop Loy Chong said church leaders had discussed the legality of the Constitution and were advised that a document regarded as the supreme law of a nation needed to meet important standards.
He said this included meaningful public participation in the formulation of the document, clarity on who contributed to and wrote it, and proper legal endorsement through Parliament.
“What we receive is that consultation was very, very low on this and we don’t even know who wrote and who put together this document,” he said.
He said the council was also advised that for a constitution to be recognised as the supreme law of a country, proper parliamentary procedures had to be followed.
“When you check all these very important requirements, the Constitution lacks in consultation, we don’t know who wrote the document, and then it does not have that legal endorsement by Parliament.”
He said these raised questions about whether the Constitution had met the requirements needed to hold supreme legal status.
Archbishop Loy Chong also questioned how parts of the Constitution could be treated as non-negotiable or difficult to change when the council believed the document itself lacked proper consultation and endorsement.
He said this was a major concern for the council as it prepared its submission to the CRC.
In the next week the council will send its draft submissions to faith based leaders across the country for their input before its submitted.
