The President, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, should persuade Prime Minister Mahendra
Chaudhry and his government to resign
voluntarily, and appoint an interim government from all major political parties,
according to a paper presented to the Great Council of
Chiefs by the Speight group.
"This would be within his legal powers and within the high moral position
of the President of Fiji," the paper says.
While accepting that the takeover was "illegal and unconstitutional",
the paper blames Chaudhry "whose arrogance and refusal to
listen to other view points, contrary to his, are hallmarks of his style of
governance.
"The events of May 19th 2000 could have been avoided if Chaudhry had the
humility and political courage to listen to the growing
unrest of the indigenous people and step down. The country would have avoided
all this trouble if in his place a leader was appointed
who would at least listen and engage in dialogue with the indigenous people."
The paper said instead Chaudhry dismissed the recent protest marches "as
being the work of agitators and those who could not accept
that they had lost the election (of May 1999)."
The problem was exacerbated by the ignoring by the President of "the ground
for the dissatisfaction of the indigenous community
over the last 12 months". This led to two public demonstrations, and finally
last Friday’s entry into Parliament.
The paper also blames the nine indigenous ministers in the Chaudhry government,
including the two Deputy Prime Ministers, of
being "impotent almost to the point of being eunuchs" in their inability
to safeguard the rights of the indigenous Fijians.
It blames the indigenous Fijian leadership for agreeing to the 1997 Constitution.
"To compound this serious error of judgment, the
SVT government, with lack of foresight and prudence, introduced a new electoral
legislation.
"A ganging up of at least two indigenous parties in its allocation of preferences
led to the defeat of not only the SVT, but the National
Federation Party, the premier party overseeing the interests of the Indo-Fijians."
The paper says the SVT, with 38% of the votes, had given certain conditions
when invited to form government. This was rejected by
Chaudhry "understandably".
"(However) if the PM were to lead the country successfully, he would have
allowed the dust to settle, temperatures to cool and then
come back for dialogue with the SVT which represented 38% of the electorate."
This text may have been edited to protect the writer.
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