OPPOSITION MP Ketan Lal has urged the Government to dissolve the Fiji Law Reform Commission review team.
Mr Lal told Parliament yesterday that the team ought to be made up of individuals with no prior political affiliations.
Mr Lal made the comments in response to Justice Minister Siromi Turaga’s ministerial statement on the Ministry of Justice Services and the Election Legislation Review Process.
He said the review team should be composed of individuals from civil societies, legal and academic representatives, women’s groups, youth reps and other independent stakeholders.
“That is how we build trust,” he said. “And assure the public that the process is not politically motivated or skewed towards predetermined outcomes.
“According to various media reports of the Suva and Tailevu consultations, the turnout at the public consultation had been remarkably low.”
Mr Lal said the reasons for the low turnout were not too difficult to understand.
“The public sees what we see, a process that lacks impartiality, lacks credibility and feels more like a political exercise than a genuine effort to listen to the people.
“The same concerns that we, as the Opposition MPs, have been raising, are the same concerns echoed by ordinary Fijians around Fiji.
“The question now is, what is the Minister for Justice doing about these concerns?”
Mr Lal said these concerns have been raised repeatedly in statements and through the media, “but we are yet to see a single concrete step from the minister addressing the fundamental issues plaguing this review.
“Instead, we receive periodic updates by ministerial statements carefully scripted and detached from the reality of the public and the voices calling for real change.”
Mr said ministerial statements should not be the only platform where line ministers acknowledge the people’s concerns.
“He (Siromi Turaga) must respond in real time, in a real forum and through real reforms.
“Leadership is not about waiting for the right time to speak. It is about having the courage to act when it matters the most.
“I urge the minister and the Government to dissolve this compromised review team, reconstitute it with individuals of unquestionable independence, professionalism and credibility.”
He told Parliament the chair of the review team who was supposed to be impartial and neutral, had made political and inappropriate remarks, remarks that drew widespread condemnation.
