No talks on political crisis for 3 years

[posted 3 July 2009,1400]

Fiji’s political landscape will remain unchanged for the next three years at least - this was made clear in the Interim Prime Minister’s televised address to the nation yesterday.

Mr Bainimarama spoke of a ‘new constitution’ but work on this would only begin by September 2012. This means there is no immediate roadmap to commence political dialogue to facilitate restoration of parliamentary elections and constitutional democracy.

Labour Leader Mahendra Chaudhry said government had its priorities all wrong if it thought it could shelve a resolution to the country’s political crisis for three years while it focused on economic and infrastructure development.

“We should have learnt from our recent past just how important political stability is for economic well being. Unless we have a stable, inclusive and democratic political environment acceptable to the international community and our development partners, it will be very difficult to create the investor confidence necessary to stimulate private sector growth,” Mr Chaudhry said.

“Fiji’s current situation remains a deterrent to investment – we continue in a state of emergency with no constitutional guarantees, serious restrictions have been placed on the judiciary, while constraints on the media and freedom of expression and assembly continue indefinitely. The lack of accountability and transparency in government decisions and transactions is also very worrying,” he said.

Mr Chaudhry said Fiji would likely be plunged deeper into isolation now because the international community was not likely to buy a three year delay in beginning the process to return to constitutional democracy.

“Government wishes to re-engage with our development partners and the region but is offering nothing to bring them back to the table,” he said.

Apart from announcing the prolonged delay in initiating political dialogue, Mr Bainimarama’s address carried nothing new. Government intends to concentrate on infrastructure and the economy, but these are the normal functions of any government.

As per the announcement, consultations on the drafting on the new constitution will begin in September 2012 and government hopes to have it in place at least a year before the September 2014 elections.

Amendments to the Constitution would be based on recommendations under the Charter. Changes will facilitate the administration’s intention to “entrench common and equal citizenry”, remove ethnic based voting; reduce the voting age to 18 and make provisions for ‘systems that hold governments accountable with more checks and balances’.