Fiji celebrated Constitution Day today virtually due to the ongoing civid-19 pandemic crisis, but many see the day as a hollow event not worth celebrating.

The national holiday marks the eighth year that the adoption of the controversial and contested 2013 Constitution by the Bainimarama government has been observed.

Among the critics this year is opposition National Federation Party (NFP) leader Professor Biman Prasad who says the document is “widely rejected” around the world while being “frequently ridiculed” at home in Fiji.

“Every year the FijiFirst Party desperately attempts to talk up the Constitution,” he declared in a statement today mocking the document.

“It even tries to suggest that it is one of the world’s best. Yet no serious constitutional lawyer believes so. Around the world it is widely rejected. In Fiji, it is frequently ridiculed.”

Prasad said the Constitution was nothing more than “a piece of paper if it is not honoured in spirit”.

“In Fiji, the Constitution does not belong to the people. The people live in fear of its institutions.”

Dr Prasad spelt out the reasons he believed caused this “national fear”:

• “Most people live in fear of the government. Many fear police assaults, which are now routine.
• “Other people fear being identified with the opposition, because they will be denied government benefits.
• “People who do not want to be vaccinated are denied welfare. Those who dissent with the government line on vaccinations are arrested.
• “Laws such as Bill 17 [introducing governance changes for indigenous land] are rammed through the Parliament without consultation. Even MPs who criticise these laws are detained and questioned by police.
• “Under our Constitution people have a right to health. Yet this government’s shocking handling of the covid-19 second wave has led to hundreds of deaths, both from the disease and from denied care. We have had some of the highest covid infection rates in the world.
• “Trade unions are refused the right to march to demand workers’ rights. And the government has not increased the already pitiful minimum wage for nearly five years. Even people with full-time work live in poverty.
• “Our Human Rights Commission is supposed to enforce and protect our constitutional rights. Yet it is widely ridiculed as a pro-government mouthpiece and a national joke.”

Dr Prasad lamented that this was the Constitution as Fiji lived it today – “the so-called ‘reality of the matter’.”

He pledged a National Federation Party government would abolish “Constitution Day” if elected in Fiji’s general election next year.

“We will instead create a Founders’ Day – a day to commemorate the great leaders of Fiji’s past, a reminder to all of us about those who led us in the lead-up to independence and helped to create our country.

“A NFP government will also reinstate Ratu Sukuna Day as a public holiday.

“We have been blessed with sound, wise leadership in the past. One day, good leadership will return to our country.”

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

As Fiji struggles with an unprecedented health and economic crisis, the country’s already limited democratic space is being choked off.

Opposition MPs routinely face arrest for criticising legislation before Parliament, and the international response has been found lacking.

In the past two weeks numerous opposition politicians — MPs, former prime ministers, party leaders and even party volunteers — have been taken in for police questioning in relation to their criticism of a government land bill.

Land ownership is a highly sensitive issue in Fiji. As new legislation relating to land and introduced in the middle of the country’s alarming covid-19 crisis, the iTaukei Land Trust Bill No. 17 was destined to trigger debate.

But criticism of the contentious legislation has prompted the repeated detention of opposition figures, with police saying they were being questioned under the Public Order Act.

The National Federation Party leader, professor Biman Prasad, was taken in four times.

“All this talk about Fiji being a genuine democracy as espoused sometimes by [Prime Minister Voreqe] Bainimarama and others in the government is all hogwash,” the MP said.

“We are not in a country where we have the freedom to talk about legislation which has been tabled in Parliament. I mean, that’s the role of the opposition.”

Public order
While Dr Prasad said he was treated courteously by police, it is unclear who has been laying the complaints which spark the arrests, or who is ordering them.

Dr Prasad said the head of the police, or the government, should come clean about it.

However, Fiji police are contending with what the Acting Commissioner of Police, Rusiate Tudravu, describes as attempts to incite instability and rally support against the government.

He issued warnings to the public, particularly after a series of recent fires, including at a shopping arcade in Ba, and a mosque compound in Tavenui.

“We want to assure all Fijians that any attempts to destabilise and cause instability will be investigated and dealt with,” Tudravu said on a police Facebook post.

The head of the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre, Shamima Ali, said while there was tension in the community over the worsening pandemic, job losses and economic hardship, it was unclear whether the fires could be linked to anti-government sentiment.

But according to her, community fear and uncertainty have deepened regarding what people are or aren’t allowed to say.

“The police, whenever people start talking, start questioning the government, in recent years, they come in and start talking about the Public Order Act.

“But the laws are such that people are scared to talk,” Ali said, adding that the media in Fiji remained largely muzzled.

No room for criticism
Fiji’s government has not taken up RNZ Pacific’s requests for comment on the issues raised here.

A government on the back foot, it continues to defend its no-lockdown policy as covid-19 spreads like wildfire on Fiji’s main island, Viti Levu.

For the past two weeks around 1000 new cases of the virus were reported each day, along with a steady rise in deaths.

There has been no shortage of epidemiologists quietly urging the Fiji First government to employ some form of lockdown in order to curb the spread of the virus, perhaps buy it some time to complete vaccination without too many people becoming gravely ill. But Bainimarama and his deputy remain unmoved.

After delivering a new budget aimed at helping Fijians recover from the pandemic’s economic fallout, the Attorney-General and Minister for Economy, Aiyaz Saiyed-Khaiyum bristled at opposition suggestions that throwing all of Fiji”s eggs in the vaccination basket was unwise.

“What is the alternative? There is none, and of course they [the opposition] won’t offer any,” he said.

“If we just rely on lockdowns, unfortunately we’ll forever be closed to the outside world. That is why the opposition wants a lockdown, because they don’t want this crisis to end, so they can blame the socio-economic woes on the government, and make this an election issue.”

The government has made steady progress with the vaccine rollout, with 85 percent of Fiji’s eligible population having received at least a first dose, and almost 30 percent having had two doses.

The rollout is being conducted using doses purchased for Fiji by Australia and New Zealand, whom Saiyed-Khaiyum claims are supporting his country with vaccines because it is “the only solution”.

Ali said people who criticised government handling of the covid-19 crisis were lambasted by the administration.

More worrying, she said, some critics of the goverment land legislation were held in police detention over for almost 48 hours without charge.

“Democratic and human rights spaces are really diminishing in this country over the years, and it’s at its worst right now, with the taking in of all these people — two former prime ministers, leaders of this country — with no reason or rhyme. No charges have been laid, just intimidation and so on.”

‘Docile’ regional response
Most regional governments, including Australia, have been silent on the arrests. New Zealand’s government has registered concern, via a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“New Zealand is concerned by reports about the detention of a number of Fiji political figures,” a ministry spokesperson said.

“We are continuing to monitor the situation and the New Zealand High Commission in Suva is making inquiries with Fiji officials to ascertain further details.”

Ali said that she had worked with various diplomatic missions in Fiji over the years as upheavals, including coups, have happened in the country.

“I have never seen such a docile international community as I have seen this time around. The threat of China is also there, so people are taking it easy,” she said.

“Monitoring the situation is good, they need to do that. But I just think some firm diplomacy around accountability and those things also should be there.”

The situation in Fiji is a major concern for the Pacific Islands Forum, but the regional body’s limited ability to respond to the crisis is compounded by the expectation that the Bainimarama government is about to take up the Forum’s rotational chair.

While covid has the country’s health system is on its knees, job losses and food shortages are causing serious hardship in Fiji.

Shamima Ali said her centre was seeing increasing cases of domestic violence, a sign that the strain on Fiji’s social fabric is becoming untenable.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

A Pacific social justice movement is calling on the New Zealand government to formally apologise for the Dawn Raids of the 1970s.

The Labour and then National governments of the time authorised police raids on Pasifika homes and work places, to check for overstayers; even churches and schools were not taboo.

This practice had followed a boom period where migration was encouraged to New Zealand from the Pacific to fill labour shortages.

When the economy declined it was the Pasifika community that became a political scapegoat for a lot of the social ails that followed.

In the midst of all this the Polynesian Panthers evolved from a need for Pacific migrants to have representation when the government, and sections of the media, seemingly turned their back on them.

The Polynesian Panthers now want a government apology for the race-based Dawn Raids.

During the Dawn Raids police used a policy of “random checks” to stop Pacific people and an “idle and disorderly” charge to detain them even when no crime was committed.

Negative stereotypes
Mainstream media at the time appeared complicit in perpetuating negative stereotypes.

One of the Polynesian Panther’s founding members, Will ‘Ilolahia, said the Dawn Raids marked a dark time for the Pasifika community.

“It was harrowing to hear our community coming and telling us about all these issues and then some of my friends and that were picked up on the road even though they were actually New Zealand-born Pacific Islanders. And so the call for an apology I think is long overdue.”

The call went out during a public kōrero on the Dawn Raids at the Auckland Arts Festival.

Echoing the Panthers’ call was Pasifika youth leader and mental health advocate Josiah Tualamali’i.

He’s pledged to write weekly to the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, asking for her to honour the call for an apology.

✊?The Polynesian Panthers have issued the call for an apology for the racist dawn raids. Please whānau & friends let’s lift our voices to #TautokoThePanthers call. ✍ Please write for free to:

Rt Hon. J Ardern
Freepost Parliament
PB 18 888
Parliament Buildings
Wellington 6160 pic.twitter.com/RxlQ7PTenl

— Josiah Tualamali’i ???? (@JosiahT_NZ) March 13, 2021

‘Honour the past’
“Please honour and own what’s happened in the past. The government can show us with the large number of Pacific MPs we have and Pacific decisions makers across government that it’s not a small thing to own what’s happened in the past.”

He said it was a privilege to amplify the voices of those no longer here to tell their stories.

“But thankfully we have [some of] the Panthers who are still here with us. Some of them are still here who can remind our country of what’s happened and that we can do more to remedy and to set out the future that Aotearoa needs.”

Tualamali’i said young Pasifika were learning about what was a dire part of New Zealand history despite a lack of coverage in school curricula.

He said universities, churches and Pacific youth clubs helped spread the story but the Polynesian Panthers had been the driver.

“More of the story’s being told online and particularly the exhibition that the Panthers have been going around Aotearoa with and the books they’ve been writing is a huge part of that.

“They’ve put the effort in to tell the story and I suppose, in a small way, our generation is trying to honour what they’ve told us,” Tualamali’i said.

He hoped others of his generation would also write to the prime minister and express how they felt about the Dawn Raids and also ask for a formal apology.

Open up pathways
Meanwhile Will ‘Ilolahia said one way the government could show they were genuinely sorry was by opening up pathways for 10,000 Pacific people currently overstaying in Aotearoa.

“I would suggest that the government in their apology for the Dawn Raids provide a pathway for residence for the present overstayers here in Aotearoa.

“That will be a meaningful apology, rather than being just a ‘I’m sorry’.”

‘Ilolahia was also part of an Auckland Tongan Advisory group which helped put together a petition which was delivered to Parliament last year calling on better channels towards residency for such people.

The petition was scheduled to go before a Select Committee this month.

‘Illolahia said the overstayers represented by petition were contributing members of society.

“I’ve got cases of people being here for 13 years. Their children are actually playing rugby, representative. Their children are head boys in some of our schools,” he said.

‘Contributing to Aotearoa’
“They are working on farms. One particular lady is sewing Korowai. You can’t tell me that these people are not contributing to Aotearoa.”

‘Ilolahia also said the people were unprotected because of their status, meaning some were being taken advantage of by being paid minimal rates and working under bad conditions.

RNZ Pacific approached the government for a response to the call for an apology.

The prime minister’s office referred the matter to the Minister for Pacific Peoples, Aupito William Sio.

Aupito ruled nothing out and in a statement said: “I have been approached regarding a formal apology from the government for the Dawn Raids.

“I am now receiving advice on this and at this stage it would be inappropriate to comment further due to these ongoing discussions.”

Meanwhile, both Tualamali’i and ‘Ilolahia will continue their fight for an acknowledgement for what they regarded as a great evil that had occurred to many Pacific families.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

By Ghinan Salman in Surabaya

As many as 43 Papuan students were taken to the district police headquarters after Indonesian police fired teargas and forced their way into a student dormitory in the East Java provincial capital of Surabaya at the weekend.

The Papuan students were forcibly removed from their dormitory on Jl Kalasan yesterday and hauled into trucks by police before being taken away.

Surabaya district police (Polrestabes) deputy police chief Assistant Superintendent Leonardus Simarmata said the Papuan students were taken in for questioning.

READ MORE: Tongan PM blasts Pacific silence over West Papua

He said the police were investigating the vandalism of a national red-and-white Indonesian flag which was then thrown into a ditch, which had been allegedly committed by a “rogue” Papuan student.

“Currently, we’re taking statements at the Surabaya Polrestabes. In all there are 43 Papuan students that were arrested,” said Simarmata at the Papuan student dormitory.

Simarmata said the 43 students comprised 40 men and three women. He also gave assurances that the students would be returned home after being questioned.

“After we’ve finished they’ll be returned home. We’re treating (them) very well, we gave them time to go to the toilet if they wanted, have a drink and so on, we still gave them this. We still given them all their rights,” he said.

Earlier on Saturday afternoon, the situation at the Papuan student dormitory was again tense. Negotiations between the Papuan students and police, the subdistrict head and social figures reached an impasse.

At around 2.45pm local time police fired teargas into the dormitory at least 10 times. Armed with riot shields, police then forced their way into the dormitory by breaking down the front gate.

They then entered the dormitory and brought out a number of Papuan students who were then taken away in three trucks.

• IndoLeft News reports that according to CNN Indonesia, the day before the arrests a photograph of a flag pole bearing the red-and-white national flag which had been vandalised and thrown into a ditch — allegedly by the Papuan students — was circulated on the NKRI Lovers Alliance WhatsApp group.
• Several hundred outraged Islamic and nationalist vigilante groups then rushed to the dormitory only to find that the flag standing in place and undamaged. This did not however stop them from then besieging the dormitory, vandalising the front gates and pelting the dormitory with stones.
• Translated by James Balowski of Indoleft News. The original title of the article was “Polisi Angkut Paksa 43 Orang dari Asrama Mahasiswa Papua di Surabaya”.
• More West Papua news

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz