FORMER Opposition Leader Mick Beddoes has labelled Republic of Fiji Military Forces Commander Major General Ro Jone Kalouniwai “the man of the hour” following his call to remove the immunity clause from Fiji’s Constitution.
Mr Beddoes joined several prominent political figures in praising the RFMF commander’s submission to the Constitutional Review Commission in Suva earlier this week.
“The last time I heard ‘Cometh the hour, cometh the Man’ was when my dear friend, brother and political partner the late Graham Rouse uttered it in some press statement,” Mr Beddoes said.
“Back in the day Graham, the late Bruce Rounds and I would meet almost daily to go over media comments from our opponents, then decide which ones should be responded to, and which ones we should ignore.”
He said “the hour” had now come, and “the man” was Maj Gen Kalouniwai, who noted that Fiji’s governance had at times relied more on dominance than public consent.
“Vina Du Riki Commander. Thank you for your courage in calling it as it is, and what we as a people need to do in order to help reset our forward course so we can all share and prosper in a land of freedom, peace and prosperity for every citizen from every ethnic community who make up our family of Fiji.”
In his submission, Maj Gen Kalouniwai said lasting reconciliation required a shift away from protecting those responsible for past political upheaval towards a system based on accountability and public trust.
“National healing is impossible without a fundamental shift in the moral axis, away from protecting the architects of past rebellion and toward a covenant of trust in which the State and the military are once again accountable to the citizenry they serve,” he said.
