Fiji report rejects republic option

Press, 22 August 1987, Page 8

Fiji report rejects republic option

By

JAMES SHRIMPTON

of AAP (through NZPA) in Suva

». A one-house Parliament with up to 41 ethnic Fijians among its *7l members was recommended yesterday in the long-awaited report ' of the Fiji constitutional review committee.

■> The committee's major- ‘ ity report advocated i. "positive discrimination” ’ by Parliament in making i laws to address the i' special needs of Fijians. ’ It also rejected calls for >. Fiji, a sovereign member 1 of the Commonwealth ' since it became independ- « ent in 1970, to be declared ' a republic to achieve indi-

genous Fijian control of ' the nation. t Political observers said « the committee’s views j followed the general trend - of recent proposals by the Great Council J, of Chiefs, supported by i- the radical Taukei movej ment, to suppress what it

saw as a threat from the ' country’s majority Indian i population. j The 90-page report was J released yesterday by the

» Governor-General, Ratu : Sir Penaia Ganilau as the ; latest step in his “path back to democracy” after the military coup in May. It included a "minority . report” from the four committee members nominated by the Indianmajority Coalition Gov-

ernment deposed in the coup, who proposed retention of the 1970 Constitution. The committee’s chairman, Sir John Falvey, a former Attorney-General, said each of its 56 recommendations was agreed to by a majority of members. He did not vote himself.

The committee comprised four nominees each by the GovernorGeneral, the Great Council of Chiefs and the leaders of the Alliance Party and the Coalition. The committee’s report and an appendix of points it considered outside its

terms of reference will now proceed to a “Council of National Reconciliation,” which will draft decisions based upon it

and prepare the way for a return to Parliamentary government. The Governor-General has headed an interim Government since shortly after the coup. The new council will include his 18 advisory councillors — including the coup leader, Colonel Sitiveni Rabuka

— and all 52 members of the last Parliament The constitutional review committee’s recommendations included: • Abolition of the Senate; • A unicameral Parliament with up to 41 Fijian members including 28 elected from provincial constituencies, eight

elected by the Great Council of Chiefs, one nominated by the Polynesian dependency of Rotuma and four nominated by the Prime Minister. Indians would have 22 members and other races eight; • Voting would be on

communal electoral rolls only, instead of the present intricate cross-voting scheme which gives every elector four votes;

• The offices of Prime Minister and the Ministers of foreign affairs, finance and home affairs should be restricted to Fijians; • Consideration should be given to renaming the House of Representatives the “House of Assembly”; • The Speaker and Deputy Speaker should be

elected by members from outside the House, and should have no original or casting votes; • The Prime Minister’s four nominees, who would be experts in their particular fields rather than politicians, would have no voting rights. They would have no ethnic qualifications;

• The Governor-Gen-eral to be nominated by the Great Council of Chiefs for a five-year fixed term; • The voting age of 21 to be retained, and a 12month residential qualification introduced for Fiji citizens;

• Relaxation of “too rigid” means of amending the Constitution (which now requires a two-thirds or three-quarters majority

of the House), with instead a simple majority of all the House plus the approval of six members of the Great Council of Chiefs’. However, a twothirds majority would be needed to change parts of the Constitution dealing with individual rights, and the judiciary.