Fiji interim PM avoiding date for return to democracy
Updated
Fij's Interim Government is trying to avoid announcing a new date for when it will return the country to democratic rule. On Friday interim Prime Minister Commodore Frank Bainimarama confirmed he would not be meeting the commitment he made last year to the people of Fiji, the Pacific Islands Forum, the European Union and other members of the international community to hold elections by the end of March 2009. The Commodore has blamed the Pacific Forum, saying it has been unreasonable in expecting that date, and hasn't kept its promise to accept an extension.
Presenter: Pacific Correspondent Campbell Cooney
Speakers: Fiji's Interim Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed Khayum; Australian Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith. President of the United People's Party and Former Fiji Opposition Leader, Mick Beddoes; Fiji's Interim Prime Minister Commodore Frank Bainimarama
COONEY: On Friday Commodore Bainimarama confirmed what a lot of people ini Fiji and around the Pacific already believed and what many others had been forecasting, that is there would be no elections held before March, 2009.
It was a date set last October, in Tonga, at the Pacific Forum Leaders meeting.
In an interview with Fiji Broadcasting Limited the Commodore laid the blame for the failure with the Pacific Forum.
Prior to the meeting he had given "In Principle" agreement to elections being held before the end of March.
But, during his interview he said Forum Chairman Tongan Prime Minister Dr Fred Sevele told him to remove the "in principle" qualifying statement, to show he was serious.
If he did this the Commodore says Doctor Sevele told him.
BAINIMARAMA: If there is any extra time that you want for the election to be held, we will be quite flexible in coming up with additional timing and that's how I came up with March, 2009, in the Forum, on our understanding that if there need to be an extension in time, the international community will be very flexible. Unfortunately for me, that date was edged in stone and written in blood by everyone in the international community.
COONEY: Its not just the Forum though, who received that promise.
Last October the same promise was made to the European Union, and last week it said its financial aid, in particular sugar industry assistance, relied on elections before March 2009.
Laying the blame on the Forum doesn't wash with the former leader of the opposition in Fiji, Mick Beddoes.
BEDDOES: That I guess alludes to the embarrassing situation that we have in terms of the calibre of leadership we're currently have to put up with. But the fact remains that he was not obliged to go along with what they were recommending. If he wasn't happy with it, if he didn't think he really should do it, then he should not have done it. He came back to Fiji and on television, and on arrival, said nobody pressured him into anything. He made that decision because he thought it was in the best interest of Fiji and now all this time later, he's saying that actually he was pressured in that. It's pretty obvious that they are going to try and stay in there as long as is possible.
COONEY: In a statement in response to Commodore Bainimarama's words, Forum Chairman Dr Sevele's confirmed Commodore Bainimarama was told the removal of the words in principle" from the forums communique would be proof to the forum and the international that he was serious in his intentions.
He's also confirmed the Commodore was told if the Interim Government found it was genuinely impossible to hold free and fair elections in the first quarter of 2009, the Forum Leaders would, as reasonable people, be flexible about an extension.
Using different words forum member nations have since October said very much the same thing.
But most of them aren't supportive of the reasons often quoted for why an election will be delayed, that reason is the proposed peoples charter to change Fiji's electoral system, and as Commodore Bainimarama puts it, remove race based voting.
The governments of Australia and New Zealand have been the strongest critics, saying while the purpose is admirable, it would best be driven by an elected government, not a military backed regime.
Last week the Forum Ministerial Contact Group was in Fiji investigating its progress towards elections.
At the end of its two day mission, Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith wouldn't say what it would be reporting to the Forum Leaders, but did say the group could find no reason why Fiji wouldn't be ready by next year to go the polls, as long as the political will existed.
On Saturday, three days after the contact group visit, and one day after the Commodore postponed the elections, Mr. Smith was asked about Fiji at a press conference in Perth, Western Australia.
SMITH: It is a disappointment that as soon as the Ministerial Contact Group left Fiji, that he saw fit to make these remarks, so there is that disappointment. I again make exactly the same point that I made in Fiji during the week. On our observation, there's nothing standing in the way of the conduct and the holding of an election by the end of March, next year, provided there is the political will.
COONEY: The one question that isn't being answered is, if the elections not going ahead next year, when will it be held?
Just after the coup Commodore Bainimarama said more than once he'd be ready to hold a poll in 2010.
But on Sunday night on Fiji TVs Close Up program, despite the question being asked repeatedly Interim Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed Kayum tried his hardest to avoid answering it.
KAYUM: What the prime minister has said is that the March 2009 timetable is in fact secondary for the government's need to have in place electoral reform.
REPORTER : So as such, 2009 shouldn't be seen as election deadline?
KAYUM: Not necessarily.
REPORTER: What does that mean not necessarily?
KAYUM: It means not necessarily.
REPORTER: The whole of March, 2009, the whole of 2009?
KAYUM: You see I think you need to stop being so obsessed with specifics.
