When Sitiveni Rabuka narrowly won the parliamentary vote to become Fiji Prime Minister a year ago on Christmas Eve 2022, his position looked extremely precarious. With only a one-seat majority, the new coalition government seemed unlikely to survive a full four-year term. In January 2023, defiant press conferences by outgoing Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama and a public statement by the military commander that was critical of the new government for transgressing the ‘separation of powers’ suggested that the People’s Alliance Party-led government might be nipped in the bud.
One year on, the political situation is much changed. In December, the former ‘minister for everything’ Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum stepped down as General Secretary of FijiFirst, and in March defeated Prime Minister Bainimarama resigned from parliament, bringing an end to an era during which these two men dominated Fiji politics. FijiFirst remains the largest party in parliament, but its leadership has been thoroughly overhauled. Powerful constitutional officeholders have rallied behind the new order. Military Commander Jone Kalouniwai has publicly demonstrated his support, welcoming the Prime Minister at a parade at the Queen Elizabeth Barracks in December. The President Ratu Wiliame Katonivere has shown no sign of buckling under pressure to censure the new administration.
Nevertheless, assessments of that government’s achievements over its first year differ greatly.
To its supporters, the government has chalked up an impressive array of achievements. The draconian Media Industry Development decree is gone, ending 16 years of press censorship. Even civil servants now feel free to talk to the media. A fiscal crisis has been averted, after a successful 2023-24 budget. Promises to overhaul tertiary scholarships have been kept and the University of the South Pacific has had its government grant restored. The retirement age has been raised to 60, honouring another campaign pledge. An electoral law that discriminated against women has been ditched. The provision of F$200 support for children returning to school in January 2023, now renewed also for 2024, and the reinstatement of Airport Terminal Services workers, did much to undermine Opposition insistence that the new government was favouring only the rich. FijiFirst’s campaign trail claims that a Rabuka-led government would unleash a wave of victimisation against Fiji’s Indian community have proved false.
To its critics, the government has repeatedly flouted the 2013 Constitution and undermined the rule of law. The Attorney General’s proposals for constitutional reform were illegal, as was the reversion to use of the term ‘Fijian’ to describe only indigenous citizens. The suspensions of the Commissioner of Police, the Supervisor of Elections (now resigned), the Chief Justice (now deceased), the Commissioner of Prisons (now resigned) and the Director of Public Prosecutions disregarded due process. Appointments at senior levels in the civil service have been criticised as discriminatory, either against Fiji Indians or expatriates. Restoration of the Great Council of Chiefs is said to have demonstrated the government’s attachment to defending the elitist traditional hierarchy. As Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum warned in his resignation letter, Fiji risks sliding into “social dislocation, growing poverty, discrimination, elitism, cronyism, clientelism, neglect of the marginalised, and hate rhetoric.”
Rabuka’s government has trodden cautiously on the 2013 Constitution, aware that any amendment requires a three quarters majority of registered voters in a referendum. Although three prominent militants, Ratu Inoke Takiveikata, Timoci Silatolu and Joe Nata, imprisoned for their part in the 2000 coup debacle and the subsequent mutiny at the Queen Elizabeth Barracks were granted presidential pardons in mid-December, failed coup leader George Speight has not been released from prison, avoiding a likely source of friction with the Republic of Fiji Military Forces (RFMF) for whom defeat of the 2000 putsch was hugely symbolic. The Attorney General’s poor handling of the failed court case against Bainimarama and police chief Sitiveni Qiliho for allegedly perverting the course of justice was the major reason for an attempted reshuffle of Cabinet in October, also moving the Minister of Education to the Fijian Affairs ministry. But this was badly mishandled.
The intended incoming Attorney General, Filimoni Vosarogo, had pleaded guilty to professional misconduct before the Legal Services Commission in 2013, 2017 and 2022 and was therefore legally prohibited from serving as the government’s chief legal advisor. Nor was this the only such ill-advised appointment. The Fiji Law Society is expected to mount other challenges to the government’s appointees in the law and justice sector in the New Year.
Being tied down by the 2013 Constitution has proved a mixed blessing. The extravagant powers it grants to the Prime Minister and his Attorney General were devised with the previous officeholders in mind, but these now benefit their successors. Its absence of robust checks and balances weakens the Opposition, as became apparent when Bainimarama tried unsuccessfully to challenge suspensions of his government’s officeholders through the Constitutional Offices Commission.
(Photo: Government of Fiji)
Yet the 2013 Constitution remains a huge imposition on the people of Fiji. It was drawn up behind closed doors by the former Attorney-General. It is a constitution written in the name of ‘We, the people of Fiji …’ but ‘the people’ played no meaningful part in its formulation. No elected politicians were involved. It was never put to a popular vote. The Bainimarama government even breached its own decrees by ditching the ‘constituent assembly’ that had been intended to review the 2012 draft.
But what can be done? Some ministers talk of a potential judicial review, recalling the 2001 Chandrika Prasad case which resurrected the 1997 Constitution. But Fiji’s current judges have all sworn an oath of allegiance to the 2013 Constitution whereas those on the Court of Appeal in 2001 had all signed up under the 1997 Constitution. No judge is likely to rule unlawful a constitution he or she has promised to uphold.
In any case, a government with only a one-seat majority lacks a mandate to draw up a new constitution. That does not mean that its hands are tied. Nothing in law prevents the government from initiating a constitutional review to canvass opinion on a new legal framework, even if reform awaits a second term. In the meantime, much depends on the coalition between the People’s Alliance Party and the National Federation Party holding firm into the next election, which could potentially be fought on the constitutional amendment issue.
As for SODELPA, the third governing coalition partner, it can count itself fortunate to be in government. It lost half its MPs even before the 2022 polls and its management committee split down the middle over which side to back to form a government. SODELPA benefitted from the 2014 shift to a proportional representation system. It only narrowly squeaked over the 5% threshold. Under the old electoral system, it would have suffered the same fate as befell the SVT party in 2001 and lost all its seats.
There is much that the current government can achieve without constitutional reform. Restoring the assessor system, a precursor to trial by jury, would strengthen the rule of law. Government is committed to municipal elections in 2024, which will reinforce the local-level bases of the country’s governing parties. A planned Truth and Reconciliation Commission might diminish festering grievances, but this will count for little unless there emerges a unified hostility to the repeated use of coups to achieve political objectives. More needs to be done to attract support from the Fiji Indian community, for example by strengthening provisions for land leasing and by avoiding cronyism in government. High rates of out-migration, particularly of skilled workers, need to be slowed, but that depends on sound economic management. Much has changed over the last year in Fiji. At no previous point in Fiji’s history has the future shape of the country’s politics looked so uncertain. The critical issues and protagonists at the 2026 election will look very different to those of December 2022.
Jon Fraenkel is a Professor of Comparative Politics at Victoria University of Wellington.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this publication.
