We Say - 2
We Say - 2
The circumstances in which people convicted, beyond doubt, of serious crimes should be pardoned and freed long before the completion of the sentences imposed on them, should be exceptional. The circumstances in which people of particular prominence should be pardoned and freed should be exceptional, indeed.
There will be conflicting opinions about the pardon and release from prison in November of the former Vanuatu Prime Minister, Barak Sope.
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Sope was freed after serving only three and a half months of a three-year jail term imposed on him for abusing office as prime minister by illegally signing millions of dollars of government guarantees at the behest of an Asian con-man. The reason given for his release was that imprisonment was aggravating his illness as a diabetic. Perhaps, that reason was justified.
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Conditions in Port Vila jail are disgusting. If they have been improved since an international human rights report condemned them several years ago, then that is not obvious.
But if it was proper to release Sope, whose political record is utterly condemned in several reports by the Vanuatu Ombudsman on other misconduct by him, was it necessary for the Vanuatu head of state to appear like an administering angel to personally attend to his release? And is it proper that Sope should be allowed to immediately present himself for re-election to the parliamentary seat he forfeited automatically after his conviction?
By the way, are there other people with medical conditions at least as serious as Sope is said to be, still being kept locked up in Vanuatu's dismal jails for the full term, or nearly so, of their sentences?
Sope's release, which came after pressure for it by his supporters, puts a question mark over justice in Vanuatu.
Some other Pacific Islands countries have such marks over them, some big and some small.
One is Fiji, where more than two years after the coup of May 2000 the number of people who were conspicuous in appearing in what could be held as connivance in the treason of George Speight are, it appears, to be allowed to remain free of any penalty.
Indeed, some have even been rewarded. One is now vice president. Others are cabinet ministers and another continues to be an ambassador. How extraordinary that would be in so many other countries. But in Vanuatu, and Fiji, well, that's just another example of the peculiarities of the Pacific Way.
Speight got a life sentence after finally agreeing to plead guilty to a treason charge. Others with him who also pleaded guilty got off rather lightly. Some are now free and others will soon be.
In Fiji, a life sentence is not really that, but it is quite a long time; perhaps 12 to 14 years.
Speight's supporters, led now by his brother, Sam, elected to replace him in his forfeited parliamentary seat, think that he should be freed now.
Speight is said to have lately found God on his picnic island jail. How convenient. Advocates of his immediate release said it would assist national reconciliation. Really? The fact is that Speight's premature release and even pardoning would cause Fiji severe international difficulties bound to seriously affect the delivery of aid to it.
Another thing. George Speight is quite likely to be physically safer in the exclusivity of his picnic shelter than he would be at large.
Freed, he would certainly be a target for those Fiji citizens, like clansmen loyal to the former president, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, another victim of Speight's treason, who don't at all approve of him.
