Politics
Chaudhry, Qarase Continue Discussions
But country in suspense as it awaits decision
On July 24 as this edition of Islands Business went to press, Fiji was without a legal government. The country lay in suspense about the composition and effectiveness of one about to be formed. While the country, destabilised by three coups since 1987 was outwardly calm, Fiji Islanders were worried about the possibility of another damaging flaring of bad race relations between indigenous Fijians, now about 52 percent of the population, and Indians, now down to about 43 percent.
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On July 18, the Supreme Court declared that a government formed after a September 2001 election with a cabinet of presently now 22 Fijians, one Indian and one Fijian/European was unconstitutional. That meant it was also illegal.
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Chief Justice Daniel Fatiaki said he and four Australian judges who dealt with the case brought by Fiji Labour Party leader Mahendra Chaudhry directed that Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase, leader of the Soqosoqo ni Duavata ni Lewenivanua (SDL), should "implement without further delay" a constitutional requirement to bring the opposition Fiji Labour Party into his cabinet, Qarase's claim that policy differences between his party and the FLP were a valid reason for not appointing FLP ministers to his cabinet after the 2001 election was not valid, the court said.
The intent of the constitution, adopted in 1998, was that Fiji should have a multiracial national government that embraced the main opposition parties. "The constitution makes a requirement that must be obeyed," he said. "That obligation will not inevitably produce an unworkable government."
Chaudhry, for a year Fiji's first Indian prime minister until toppled by an anti-Indian coup in May 2000 organised by Fijian nationalists, opportunists and businessmen frightened by Labour's socialism, told reporters after the ruling that his party calculated it was entitled to nine seats in a cabinet of 20.
The constitution requirement is that a Prime Minister should offer opposition parties holding at least 10 percent of Parliament's 71 seats a number of cabinet places in proportion to their parliamentary strength. The FLP has 27 seats, down from 28 when a few days after the ruling a Labour MP died.
Qarase in 2001 complied with the formality of inviting the FLP into cabinet but claimed that Chaudhry had forfeited the entitlement by setting conditions that would make a SDL/FLP government "unworkable."
Not surprisingly, Chaudhry disagrees. "There are sufficient guidelines for us to follow and make it work," he told reporters. "If in cabinet the two sides collided over policy then rules relevant to collective cabinet responsibility apply. If we have our own personal egos, personal agendas, I think we must make that subordinate or subservient to the national interest. "
"So while there may be differences of opinion, the constitution requires us to put those aside in the national interest and find a way to make a multiparty government function. "If we have that as a common goal, then I feel ways can be found to reconcile whatever differences we have."
On July 23, after a 20-minute meeting at which the two leaders opened talks on a workable constitutional compromise, Qarase made a statement that, as some critics commented, indicated that he hoped to escape the arrival of the Indian-dominated FLP's presence in the cabinet. He asked the FLP to either accept 14 places in a greatly enlarged 36-member cabinet or become the official Opposition, a role it rejected after the 2001 election. Qarase said Labour's presence in the cabinet would be a "recipe for unstable and ineffective" rule.
It would put his party, the Soqosoqo ni Duavata ni Lewenivanua "on course for political suicide", since it would lose its base of ethnic Fijian support. Labour could not be trusted to cooperate in implementing government policies since for the last two years it had been "relentless and vocal" in attacking them. Qarase offered the FLP 14 places to avoid the risk of losing the support of the Fijian nationalists the SDL relies on for its parliamentary majority. He'd need to sack extremists ministers to make room for the FLP in a smaller cabinet.
Qarase said Chaudhry would ensure political stability for the country if he took the "more sensible" choice of becoming Opposition Leader Qarase said he had considered resigning and calling a fresh election, but the result of that would almost certainly be no different from the outcome of the 2001 election, so maintaining the present impasse.
Chaudhry, after the meeting with Qarase, again rejected the notion of being opposition leader and also the idea of an unwieldy, not to mention excessive cost of a 36-member cabinet. "There will have to be more meetings between the Prime Minister and myself after I have completed discussions and consultations with the (Labour) party." It didn't look if as Fiji would acquire a constitutionally kosher of any kind before the end of the first week of August.
