(o) Justice Needs to Be Seen to Be Done: Let Them Blog

Two partners in the law firm of Munro Leys, Richard Naidu and Jon Apted, have been taken in for questioning. Both have been associated with legal cases against the Government and Apted is a former Supervisor of Elections.They are alleged to have broken the Emergency Regulations by posted blogs on the anti-Government blog Raw Fiji News. Another anti-Government lawyer, Tevita Fa, has also been detained.

This news comes on the same day that Attorney-General Aiyaz Khaiyum announced a further delay in the appointment of new judges (they will appointed "in due course"); and deferment "until later in the year" of sittings of the Supreme and Appeals Courts. Only the lower, Magistrates Court, is functioning -- with one magistrate for each district!

It is over one month since April 10th when the Abrogation of the 1997 Constitution nullified judicial appointments -- far too long, in this writer's opinion, for the country to have in "incomplete" judiciary.

Earlier in the week, lawyer Niko Nawaikula, a former MP in the Qarase Government, struck the right chord. Many lawyers have refused to have anything to do with the Government since the Abrogation. But Nawaikula called on his colleagues to take up appointments to avoid further backlogs and to avoid further delays to justice.

For its part, Government needs to strike a similar chord by displaying "urgency" about judicial appointments and seeking some accommodation with the powerful Fiji Law Society that, incidentally, hopes to meet this week to discuss developments -- if it can obtain a permit to do so!

Government may have good cause for its actions, and inactions, but there is a far more compelling reason why it should ignore the bloggers, speed up the appointment of judges, and allow the FLS to meet. Government needs to quickly reassure the informed public that its own cause is just.

Justice needs to be seen to be done. Blanket clamp-downs convey the wrong message, and deprive Government of the feedback, advice and opinions it needs to achieve its longer-term goals. In today's Fiji, unrestrained opposition and totally gagged opposition are both equally unhealthy and equally dangerous.