BY MICHELLE BREAR
SUVA — Since the flawed August 2001 general election, which legitimised and formalised the 2000 military overthrow of the democratically elected Fiji Labour Party government, Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase has refused to honour his constitutional obligation to include FLP members in the cabinet.
Under Fiji's constitution, any party that receives more the 10% of the vote is entitled to proportional representation in cabinet. In the election, won by Qarase's Melanesian-chauvinist Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua (SDL) party, the FLP won 27 of the 77 available seats. These included all but one of the 19 seats constitutionally reserved for Indian Fijians, who make up 44% of the population. According to the constitution, the FLP is entitled to eight seats in cabinet.
The SDL won 31 seats, including the majority of the 23 reserved for Melanesian Fijians. Controversially, the SDL won the five open seats in the capital, Suva. It was widely expected that the FLP would win these seats. In these constituencies, many votes for the FLP were declared invalid, while many votes for the SDL had been filled in with red pens, which are supposed to be used only by election officials.
The SDL fell six seats short of the outright majority needed to form a government in its own right. It joined forces with another Melanesian-chauvinist party, the Conservative Alliance/Matanitu Vanua (CAMV), which won six seats, to form a coalition government. One of the CAMV seats was won by 2000 coup leader George Speight, who has since been expelled from parliament and is serving a life sentence for treason.
On September 12, Qarase blatantly ignored the constitution by naming a 20-member cabinet that excluded the FLP. The SDL-dominated cabinet also included two members of CAMV, one from the New Labour Unity Party and two independents. No cabinet member is of Indian ancestry.
Ever since, the FLP has been battling in the courts to be represented in the cabinet. Many believed the party had finally won that battle when the High Court ruled on April 24 that the SDL must appoint FLP members to the cabinet and pay the party's $38,000 court costs.
However, Qarase has continued to defy the court and the constitution. The government is now seeking a Supreme Court ruling on the issue. After weeks of excuses, even Qarase has admitted that he is breaching the constitution. However, he claims he is doing so in Fiji's "best interests".
SDL ministers have claimed that a deal was made between the SDL's and FLP's lawyers, in which FLP leader Mahendra Chaudhry supposedly agreed that he would not enforce a court ruling in favour of the FLP. They have failed to explain why Chaudhry would bother taking the case to court if such an agreement was in place, or what would compel him to make such an agreement in the first place. Chaudhry denies that such a deal was made.
Qarase was being more truthful when he stated that he believes the constitution is now redundant and that it is not simply a matter of complying with the law. The government operates "in a political context" which requires Qarase to use his own judgement.
Destroying the political rights of Indian-Fijian minority contained in the constitution has been one of Qarase's overarching goals since he was appointed "interim" prime minister by the Fiji military after martial law was declared soon after Speight's May 19, 2000, coup.
Qarase was negotiating with Speight on the composition of an "interim government" dominated by the Melanesian-Fijian elite, and busily drafting a new constitution that would discriminate against Indian Fijians, when the High Court ruled on November 15, 2000, that the 1997 constitution was still legally in effect and that Chaudhry was still Fiji's prime minister.
After unsuccessfully appealing the ruling, Qarase was forced to agree to call a general election conducted under the 1997 constitution.
From Green Left Weekly, May 22, 2002.
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