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The Vice Chancellor and Dean of the University of Fiji School of Law, Professor Shaista Shameem, has expressed concern at the way in which the Commission of lnquiry into the appointment of Barbara Malimali to FICAC is being promoted by innuendo to justify the removal of the 2013 Constitution.

Commenting on the revelations in the ‘Fiji Sun’s Shine a Light’ coverage, (June 14-15), Professor Shameem, a constitutional lawyer, urged both the COI chief and his legal counsel assisting, Janet Mason, to stop ‘singing like a canary’ when their report is not yet fully available to public scrutiny.

“There is a judicial review application already before the court and we have heard that only a partial COI report with names redacted, which means crossed out in black ink, will be publicly available,” Professor Shameem said.

“Yet most people want those names to be released as their constitutional right to information.

“With the ‘Shine a Light’ revelations, it seems that the COI report will hardly mean anything but an opinion about some unnamed shadowy figures.

“With no evidence presented, it seems that the PM agrees with the COI that the Constitution is ambiguous on FICAC and states that this is part of the process of review c u r rently before the Supreme Court,” she said.

Separation of powers

Professor Shameem pointed out that it appeared that there was no separation of powers between the executive and the judiciary, as the Constitution requires.

“By now the whole of Fiji knows what Commissioner Ashton-Lewis thinks about how to get rid of the 2013 Constitution since a complaint letter about his prejudgement was leaked by the Judicial Services Commission or the Prime Minister’s Office, as only they received it, to the media,” she said.

“The COI Report, for all it’s evidential findings on the FICAC appointment by a combined skewed set of Commissions, including the Electoral, Constitutional and Judicial Commissions and, it would seem, the highest legal office in Fiji, supported by senior lawyers, cannot be used to try and remove the 2013 Constitution by sleight of hand or back door means.”

The Constitution protects vulnerable Fijians from discrimination, perverse administrative action and instability, Professor Shameem said.

“Every Constitution should be seen as a living document and can be reviewed after a period of time, usually 10 years, but to try and undermine the 2013 Constitution by improper means through a COI established for another purpose altogether, is questionable.

“This creates as much suspicion as an obiter observation on the validity of the 2013 Constitution by a Supreme Court Judge in Fiji last year in an unrelated matter with no evidence being led on the issue whatsoever. All this brings the entire legal system into disrepute as an assault on due process,” she said.

Counsel assisting the COI Janet Mason, and COI
chairperson Justice David Ashton-Lewis. Photos: Ronald Kumar

Disclosure of report

Professor Shameem said that she had noticed in his radio interview in Australia that Commissioner Ashton-Lewis wore his heart on his sleeve for the Prime Minister.

However, she said, those stars in his eyes and, clearly, in the eyes of his assistant, for the PM, as revealed in ‘Shine a Light’, should not detract the discerning public from seeking full disclosure of the unredacted copy of the COI report.

“It is irrelevant whether some public officers may or may not be criminally charged by different authorities, for example the police or whoever,” she said.

“The full COI Report should present an opportunity for everyone mentioned in it to clear the air to the public and, if not charged, state how the COI got it all hopelessly wrong.

“But for the COI to keep squealing with only innuendo and hints about what their report contains merely serves to make the perceptive general public think it’s all a big game to some people who live safely overseas but are causing instability and restlessness in Fiji.

“Frankly, we prevail on the PM to get a grip and not see the COI as a convenient vehicle for his constitutional reference when, instead, he should be contemplating the meaning of some apposite Biblical verses such as Matthew 14: 6-11, 26:14-16, and even Revelation 2:20′,” Professor Shameem advised.

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