(+) Football Shows a Possible Way to Ease PER and Renew Dialogue

The Emergency Regulations (PER) curb the exchange and spread of opinion, pro- and anti-government alike. They make it difficult for Government to get its views out in an acceptable way. They inhibit public feedback. They allow negative rumours to proliferate. They make public discussion impossible.

My view is that the continuance of PER will soon become counter-productive, producing far more long-term disadvantages than short-term security is worth. It may be too early to resume the President's Political Dialogue Forum (PPDF) but it is not too early to relax PER, and progressively increase dialogue. Relaxing PER is Government's first step to regain support from Fiji's "middle ground," the genuine democrats whose support has turned luke-warm in recent months.

With respect, therefore, I urge Government and the Military Council to consider the following suggestions on how to permit dialogue and media freedom without jeopardizing public security.



My analogy is a game of football.

First, I would urge Government to appoint a small team to separately engage in dialogue with the main interest groups in order to establish acceptable boundaries for dialogue. Such groups may (or may not) include chiefs, religious leaders, political leaders, the business community, trade unionists, NGOs, and the media. The boundaries must be wide enough to allow the expression of honest contrary views; but the views expressed must be positive, helpful and of a kind to take Fiji forward. These boundaries become the rules of the game.

Secondly, codes of acceptable behaviour, appropriate to each group, should be drawn up and signed by each group and by Government. These are the management and players' contracts.

Those who sign the code will be free to meet and express their opinions independently, in groups and in the media. If they break the code, they will be warned. If the breach is repeated, they will be given a "yellow card" and denied freedom of expression for a given period of time, and then a "red card" if the breaches continue.


Finally, the operation of the codes should be overseen by one or more widely-respected "referees" and off-field disputes taken to the political equivalent of the Fiji Rugby Union.

So there we have it: rules, contracts, warnings and cards, a fair referee and line referees, and the FRU.

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