People's Charter Pillar 1: For Discussion

My thanks to the reader who suggested a regular weekly posting on each of the eleven pillars of the People's Charter that will enable all readers to consider each pillar carefully, offer their opinions and comment on what has been done —and what yet needs to be done—to implement them. Here in the first week is Pillar 1. Please use the opportunity to comment and exchange opinions with other readers. Please try to comment over the next seven days. Pillar 2 will be published next Saturday.

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Postscript. I have added Chapter 1 of the State of the Nation paper 

on the recommended electoral reforms  at the end of Pillar 1.

PEOPLE'S CHARTER

PILLAR I

ENSURING SUSTAINABLE DEMOCRACY AND GOOD

AND JUST GOVERNANCE¹

Critical Problems and Issues:

A fair and just Constitution is the basis of good governance. However, a Constitution that divides the people and separates them, which does not provide for equal opportunities, can be neither fair nor just. The world community, in declarations and treaties expressing the highest ideals, has opposed racism and injustice. We the people of Fiji are all too aware of the harm racial division has to our country. We declare, through this Peoples Charter, our commitment to a Fiji free from all forms of discrimination.

Democracy must be entrenched in our Constitution in accord with our pledge to rebuild a Better Fiji for All: one nation, one people with a common identity and shared destiny.

Fiji’s electoral system is racially discriminatory and undemocratic. The United Nations Convention on Discrimination and the Right to Universal and Equal Suffrage requires each individual vote to be

equal in value. The current communal system of representation entrenches inequalities, by not providing one value for one vote, has contributed to the “coup culture”, and the consequent ethnic-based politics that has impeded our national development. We commit ourselves to a free and fair electoral process, that promotes one people, one nation and one identity.

We acknowledge that democracy is more than just a matter of voting. Effective democratic governance must place the people at the centre. We, therefore, affirm our commitment to secure a more transparent and accountable process of government. The peoples eyes are the eyes of the nation; their ears are the ears of the nation, and their voice, the voice of the nation. To perfect democratic governance in Fiji, we, the people, must be free to see, to hear, and to speak on the affairs of our country.

In the wake of the coups since 1987, Fiji suffers the stigma of having a “coup culture”. We must put an end to the cycle of coups.

The Way Forward:

The following key measures and actions must be taken with due priority and urgency (For the detailed recommendations and proposed implementation actions, see the Report on the State of the Nation and the Economy) :

A. Reform of the Electoral System:

♦ abolish the communal representation system as provided for under the Constitution and the Electoral Act 1998, and replace this with the use of a common roll system for all

future elections.

♦ establish a fair system of voting so that all the interests and wishes of the people of Fiji can be represented in the Parliament as expressed through free, fair and honest elections and for this adopt an Open List Proportional Representation (PR) Electoral and Voting System.

♦ incorporate specific anti-discrimination measures into Fiji’s electoral laws to ensure no person is discriminated against by political parties on the grounds of race, religion, gender or circumstance.

♦ remove the mandatory power sharing arrangement as provided for under the current Constitution.

♦ reduce the voting age from 21 to 18 years of age.

♦ maintain compulsory registration and abolish compulsory voting.

♦ promulgate an AntiDiscrimination Act.

♦ the electoral system be removed from the Constitution and enacted as law so that it may be amended and reformed from time to time according to the will of the people. However, the fundamental recommendations of nonethnic voting, equal franchise and Proportional Representation be enshrined in the Constitution.

B. To ensure good and just governance, including greater transparency and accountability, and to combat corruption:

♦ The government be fully accountable to the people of Fiji through Parliament and its procedures. These include:

A robust and effective Opposition, able to fully scrutinise the programmes and policies of government.

A Parliamentary Committee system that has the resources and capacity to consider matters before

the Parliament in a non-partisan manner in the interest of the people and the nation.

The people have access to Parliament through their petitions and proposals and that these receive

appropriate and due consideration.

♦ The Parliament of Fiji must have the capacity to adequately carry out executive and administrative oversight of governance through its own or constitutionally created independent statutory agencies.

These include: an independent and well resourced Ombudsman’s Office with broadened powers of investigation; an independent and well resourced Fiji Human Rights Commission; an independent and well resourced Auditor General’s Office; and an independent and well resourced Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption (FICAC).

♦ The Government must publish timely public reports with adequate details so that the people of Fiji are aware of what is being done in their name and with their taxes.

♦ Enact Freedom of Information legislation and establish a Media Tribunal.

C. To end the cycle of coups:

♦ Adopt and apply a thirteen prong principles-based strategy including reforms addressing ethnonationalism, leadership, good governance, human rights and national reconciliation.

Ending the Coup Culture: 13 Key Principles

1. Remove the political, economic and social conditions for coups and strengthen the

sanctions against coups.

2. Build genuine national reconciliation through dialogue, forgiveness and appropriate

conflict resolution mechanisms for groups and individuals affected by coups.

3. Redefine the role of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces to bring it closer to the people.

4. Transform the role of public leadership.

5. The Courts to be empowered to penalise including orders of dissolution of political

parties that engage in activities that breach important values of the Constitution.

6. Improve ethnic relations at the personal, communal, institutional and national levels.

7. Enlarge public accountability for national security.

8. Implement electoral reforms.

9. Strengthen the accountability and transparency of State institutions, the private sector

and civil society organisations in particular to enhance their adherence to the rule of law.

10. Establish civic programmes to raise public awareness about the injustice and illegality

of coups and issues of democracy and good governance.

11. Reform institutions and rehabilitate individuals and groups which are most prone to

being implicated in coups such as ethno nationalists and religious fundamentalists.

12. Ensure a separation between religion and state.

13. Facilitate greater public participation in all aspects of governance.

♦ Realign the role of the RFMF to include Human Security:

Enhance the RFMF–community development partnership by strengthening its developmental role

to ensure that its professional, technical and social potential is fully realised. This to be achieved

through the implementation of the National Youth Service, and in areas such as conservation of

biodiversity, basic infrastructure rehabilitation and development, especially in the rural areas through an expanded Engineering Corps; and provision of security services.

D. To redress the law and order situation:

♦ reduce overall criminal offence rate;

♦ reduce crime rates against women and children;

♦ reform laws that impede the combating of crimes;

♦ enhance enforcement capacity to address crimes including sophisticated crimes and cross-border

security issues.

♦ reduce prison population through measures such as alternative sentencing, community service, and restorative justice.

¹ I have made minor formatting changes to the original text to make discussion easier. For example, use bold subheadings and underlined test, the use of A-D, and the tabulation 1-13.

  

FIJI: THE STATE OF THE NATION AND THE ECONOMY EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 

Chapter 1: Reform of the Electoral System

• The nationwide consultation process and the work of the three NTTs and nine WGs,
  identified weaknesses in Fiji’s constitutional arrangements and political system —
  particularly problems with the electoral system — as one of the most immediate and
  urgent set of problems lying at the heart of the nation’s malaise.
  
  
  The race-based architecture of the current electoral system and the patent unfairness of the outcomes it has delivered in the three elections since 1997 is a major reason for the growing disaffection with the current constitutional arrangements. The retention and indeed the increase in 1997 of the proportionate share of communal seats in Parliament, together with the use of the Alternative Voting system, strengthened extremist elements and weakened the forces of political moderation. As a result, political life has been polarised: members of Parliament elected from communalroll
  seats have little incentive to take account of, or care about, the concerns of other communities. This lack of incentive has encouraged some politicians to exaggerate communal and religious differences for their own narrow political purposes and to promote the belief among their followers that the only objective of electoral competition is to aggrandise the position of their own community at the expense of every other. The end result for Fiji, as a nation, has been a lessening of trust between communities which in turn has led to an increase in religious and racial intolerance, even hatred, as demonstrated in the rising incidence of violence and religious sacrilege.
  
  
  In short, the electoral system under the current 1997 Constitution appears to have lost
  credibility and legitimacy among many of Fiji’s citizens. There is strong demand for a new and fairer electoral arrangement.
  
  
  The Case for Electoral Reform
  For reasons of practicality, democracy has always taken the form of representative
  democracy where, on the basis of free and equal suffrage, people elect representatives to decide on the nation’s priorities and use its resources for the common good. But
  elections must be free and fair to make democracy work properly. They should also
  operate in a way that tends to unite people around visions of a common good that do not exclude some citizens.
  
  
  In 1996, the Reeves Constitution Review Commission linked the perpetuation of ethnic politics to the electoral system when it asserted that:
  
  
  ‘The people of Fiji need to make a conscious choice about whether they wish to
  take a decisive step away from the communal system that has made ethnic
  policies inevitable since before independence.’
  
  
  The Reeves Commission’s conclusions on communal representation are as relevant today as they were in 1996. In fact, given Fiji’s recent past, there is now an even greater need to completely eliminate communal representation. Retention of the communal voting system reflects a lack of commitment by Fiji to international conventions like the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD). These international standards favour a strong commitment to the principle of equal suffrage and a move toward systems that do not place restrictions on the grounds of race. Furthermore, international conventions on indigenous rights contain the proviso that the application of indigenous rights should not be detrimental to the basic human rights of other members of society. Since the enactment of the 1997 Constitution, there have been two more coups in Fiji and continuing political instability which are, in large part, a consequence of a communal voting system that segregates Fiji’s communities. Communal voting has not achieved either the objective of drawing the country closer together or of protecting the interests of the identified ethnic groups.
  
  
  Further, there has been significant demographic change since 1987: Fijians are now a clear majority of the population. This change has invalidated the reason once advanced for the retention of communal voting – the need to protect the interests of a minority indigenous race. Clearly, a new approach is needed for Fiji that eliminates race-based politics.
  
  
  Seven standard criteria were used for assessing the fairness of the electoral system. The criteria are :
  (i) legitimacy of the transfer of power from the people to Parliament (one person,
  one vote, one value delivering electoral outcomes that are seen to be fair and
  reasonable);
  (ii) accountability (elected representatives are held to account for their actions),
  parties issue manifestos or stand on platforms that provide them, once elected,
  with a mandate for their policies;
  (iii) the representativeness of Parliament (parties or social groups are elected to
  parliament in proportion to their votes or numbers in the community – sometimes
  called “social mirroring”);
  (iv) the system’s simplicity;
  (v) the system needs to promote neutrality, and finally; and
  (vi) the system’s acceptability in the form of popular support by the people.
  
  
  Fiji’s current electoral system does not meet these criteria. Nor does it meet the specific need within Fiji for an electoral system that bridges ethnic differences rather than exacerbating them. The outcomes are not considered to be fair and reasonable: for example, the failure of a party such as the National Federation Party (NFP), to win a single seat in Parliament despite receiving significant electoral support in three
  successive elections, is not a fair outcome. The suffrage is not equal because there is a great disparity between the values of a vote in different constituencies.
  In 2006, for example, there were 3,340 registered voters in the ’iTaukei’
  seat of Namosi but 19,044 registered voters in the nearby ’iTaukei’
  seat of Nadroga/Navosa. The average number of registered voters in 17 provincial Fijian constituencies was 9,521 but the average number of registered voters in six urban Fijian constituencies was 15,930.
  
  
  As noted above, the legitimacy of the current electoral system is also suspect in terms of human rights. These factors taint every other aspect of the present system since electoral outcomes cannot be trusted to exact appropriate accountability or give genuine and fair guidance on the appropriate mandate to be implemented by Government. The effective representation of the diversity of Fiji is largely defined by race and its impact is distorted in consequence. In addition, the present system has demonstrated itself to be far from simple as there have been unacceptably high numbers of invalid ballots at all elections held since 1999.
  
  
  In considering the options for reform, the NCBBF considered the separate elements of the present electoral system in order to identify particular points for change. The key elements so identified were:
  
  
• Which method of election should replace the present alternative voting
  system?
• Should communal seats be retained or replaced by the use of common rolls for
  all seats?
• How should constituency boundaries be drawn to ensure representative
  government and one person, one vote, one value?

Given the objective agreement to eliminate race-based politics, a consensus was reached that the first two questions were intimately linked. Retention of communal seats was seen as being incompatible with the elimination of race-based politics. No citizen should be compelled to identify his or her race in order to participate in voting, the most important political act of citizenship. Nevertheless, the system that is adopted must assure the fair representation of Fiji’s ethnic diversity. Following a comprehensive examination of the options, the NCBBF unanimously agreed that some form of Proportional Representation (PR) electoral system is desirable in Fiji.

The independent Electoral Commission also reached the conclusion that Fiji needs to

move to a proportional representation system in order to secure fair and just electoral

outcomes.

The NCBBF also agreed that the issue of equitable electoral boundaries would be heavily influenced by the decision on the type of PR system chosen. After considering the three main variants of the proportional representation system (namely, single transferable vote (SVT); mixed member proportional system (MMP); and a simple list system) the NCBBF opted for the open list system on the grounds that

(i) the intrinsic fairness of this system would strengthen the legitimacy of Parliament (ii) it would increase the accountability of political parties to the electorate; and, moreover

(iii) by allowing voters to select an individual candidate from the party list some personal accountability was offered as well.

Other major advantages are its close reflection of the actual vote (i.e. social mirroring) and its relative simplicity of operation.

Accordingly, the NCBBF recommends the:

• abolition of the communal representation system as currently provided for
  under the Constitution and the Electoral Act 1998,
• the use of a common roll for all future elections,
• the adoption of a Proportional Representation (PR) system (using the open list variant), and

• the implementation of these electoral reforms before the next general election,which should be held as soon as is practicable.

The NCBBF also considered some ancillary issues. It proposes a relatively small number of large constituencies to maximise the proportional benefits of a PR electoral system. It recommends the repeal of the mandatory power sharing arrangement currently provided for in the Constitution; the reduction of the voting age from 21 to 18 years; and the abolition of compulsory voting.

A number of other issues relating to the electoral system, such as the term of Parliament, the size of Parliament, whether the Constitution should be amended to allow referendums in Fiji, the eligibility of citizens living overseas to vote; and the role, size and composition of the Senate, were also canvassed and are to be taken up in the countrywide consultations on the proposed electoral reform package.

The NCBBF also considered some ancillary issues. It proposes a relatively small number of large constituencies to maximise the proportional benefits of a PR electoral system. It recommends the repeal of the mandatory power sharing arrangement currently provided for in the Constitution; the reduction of the voting age from 21 to 18 years; and the abolition of compulsory voting.

A number of other issues relating to the electoral system, such as the term of Parliament, the size of Parliament, whether the Constitution should be amended to allow referendums in Fiji, the eligibility of citizens living overseas to vote; and the role, size and composition of the Senate, were also canvassed and are to be taken up in the countrywide consultations on the proposed electoral reform package.