SUVA, Fiji (23 Nov 2000) -- Fiji's High Court has upheld the validity of the country's 1997 constitution and ruled that Fiji's elected Parliament should be recalled. In July, the constitution was abrogated by the military two months after George Speight led a coup. The ruling by justice Tony Gates puts legal pressure on the interim government to resign but acting prime minister Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase has vowed to fight the decision. The deposed prime minister, Mahendra Chaudhry, has welcomed the ruling that all those voted into public office should be recalled and urged the interim government to abide by the judgement. Dr. George Williams, the constitutional lawyer who led the successful case said that the ruling brings some optimism to Fiji. "Fiji has been dominated by who's had the most guns rather than what the proper lawful thing to do is and this decision offers a ray of hope." Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the ousted Fijian Parliament should reconvene to elect a new government. New Zealand Prime Minister, Helen Clark, said the High Court ruling shows that the interim government must drop its slow schedule for returning to democracy. "I think the sooner the government, unconstitutional as it is, in Fiji comes up with a clear timetable to return to constitutional democracy, the better," she said. | | Tensions remain high in Suva "There's no path for Fiji in going down the track of the late 1980s, being an international pariah and treating one part of its citizenry as less than equal." Cyber Diver has proactively opposed the overthrow of Fiji's democratically elected government and the disenfranchisement of Indo-Fijians. "We have held from the beginning that the interim government is illegitimate and the only way back for Fiji and its dive tourist industry is to reject the racist agenda of those who seek to disenfranchise 44% of Fijian citizens," said CDNN Editor-in-Chief Stanford Suzuki. The diving industry, led by PADI and Rodale Inc, publisher of a US dive magazine, has dismissed the political upheaval and violence against Indo-Fijians as little more than an unpleasant backdrop and minor inconvenience that dive tourists can, and should, ignore. © CDNN - CYBER DIVER NEWS NETWORK |
