2014 Bainimarama’s assault on Indigenous Rights in violation of UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples: It was Barbara Jordan, a leader of the American Civil Rights movement and the first African American elected to the Texas Senate after Reconstruction and the first southern black female elected to the United States House of Representatives, who famously said: “Lets all understand that these guiding principles cannot be discarded for short-term political gains. They represent what this country is all about. They are indigenous to the American idea. And these are principles which are not negotiable.” Voreqe Bainimarama, who usurped the peoples mandate as deposited with the elected Parliament in 2006, has been responsible for a number of encroachments into rights of the indigenous peoples. It started in 2007 when he insulted the chiefs by saying they could go and drink homebrew under the mango tree. Such an insult was inflammatory and demeaning to the Fijian chiefly system, which under the aegis of the Great Council of Chiefs, has been the bulwark of Fijian society since March 1879. The attack on the chiefs was followed by an unprecedented and unjustified attack on the Church. Bainimarama, fearing the influence of the Church harassed and had charged, senior Methodist ministers. Rewa high chief Ro Teimumu Kepa was also charged for allegedly violating the Public Emergency Decree in 2010. She pleaded not guilty and the charge was subsequently withdrawn. She is, of course, now the leader of the largest and most influential political party in Fiji. The abolition of the GCC and the provincial councils in 2012 was a harbinger of things to come as they related to the rights of the Fijian people. Bainimarama, together with Saiyad Khaiyum, Nazhat Shameem and Sharvada Sharma, has been responsible for a raft of decrees which violate the UN Declaration on the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). Article 4 of the UNDRIP reads: “Indigenous peoples, in exercising their right to self-determination, have the right to autonomy or self-government in matters relating to their internal and local affairs, as well as ways and means for financing their autonomous functions.” Article 5 reads: “Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain and strengthen their distinct political, legal, economic, social and cultural institutions, while retaining their rights to participate fully, if they so choose, in the political, economic, social and cultural life of the State.” Bainimarama’s attack on the Fijian peoples has seen the Fijian people now being unable to exercise their right to self determination. The GCC and provincial councils have been disbanded. These were institutions which were participatory and transparent in their decision making processes. As a result we are seeing fragmentation of Fijian society, usurpation of precious land and minerals by foreigners and an influx of unqualified and undesirable foreigners, who buy Fijian passports after bribing officials. Further, in the absence of Parliament, the voices, rights and aspirations of the Fijian peoples have seriously curtailed. Time to do something about it. We need our Parliament and our 1997 Constitution back.
Posted on: Sat, 29 Mar 2014 02:47:07 +0000
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