Fiji - Fiji military alleges foreign influence on Constitution commission

SUVA, Fiji (FIJI LIVE) ---- Fiji?s military Land Force Commander Colonel Mosese Tikoitoga believes the now dissolved Constitution Commission was influenced by another country.

Speaking to FijiLive, Tikoitoga said ?we can assume now in hindsight that the commission was influenced by another country.?

He said because the commission?s work was funded by the AusAID, the five-member team would have felt they were not answerable to the Fiji government and its people judging from their actions and comments.

?But, let it be known that the people are happy with the government. We have had feedback from the rural and the urban sectors who are happy with how things are and feel that there is no need for an election,? Tikoitoga said.

He said if anyone is in the wrong, it is Ghai and the commission members whose actions were not in line with an oath they had taken in High Court to follow the terms of the country which includes performing their duties within the confines of decrees 57 and 64

?But, they did not. They went back on their words and said they wanted to be transparent and accountable. But, the fact remains that they took an oath to follow the set rules.

?They claim they want transparency and accountability for all Fijians. But in doing up the draft constitution they did not reveal who all were involved in the formation of the draft constitution.

?We now know it was not all the commission?s work as they had taken on advisors, unionists, political parties, NGOs that actually advised the commission on what the constitution should formulate. What does that say about transparency and accountability.

?And then there?s the commission that?s telling us that we need to go back to pre-2006, how does that happen. And then there?s Penny Moore who is speaking to overseas media about the criteria.

Her responsibility and that of the commission was to look after the people?s interest and not further their own.?

He reiterated that the RFMF maintains its statement that the commission had no right under the decrees to disseminate and hold public consultation on the draft constitution.

Tikoitoga also admitted they would not be able to take any legal action against Ghai as no provisions were made in the Constitution Commission decrees about it.

He said these were not considered because the commission members were then believed to be ?credible? people.

Source: http://www.islandsbusiness.com//news/index_dynamic/containerNameToReplace=MiddleMiddle/focusModuleID=130/focusContentID=30855/tableName=mediaRelease/overideSkinName=newsArticle-full.tpl

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