Ideas on Constitutional and Electoral Reforms III: Money, Governance & Citizenship

Part III (final) of Satendra Prasad's ideas.  Readers should not assume that the  publication of his ideas means that I necessarily agree with them. All thoughtful ideas and comments are welcome on this blog (as they are with the Constitution Commission) but I would prefer readers to comment on the special blog Fiji Political and Constitutional Forum www.fijipcforum.blogspot.com

FISCAL AND MONETARY POLICY

27. Enact into legislation that all fiscal and monetary budgets must be balanced. In other words no expenditure to be allocated if there is no source of funds. This has been done in province of BC in Canada and just recently the Democrats have joined forces in USA to enact a similar Legislation. This will force the elected governments to be more responsible and accountable.

GOOD GOVERNANCE

28. Enact Anti-corruption Legislation that includes the creation of Anti Corruption Tribunal headed by a Qualified Judge with team of qualified investigators including forensic team of accounts, IT professionals, Auditors, etc.

29. Enact a Code of standard practice (including ethical, moral and professional standards for all Government CEOs and political and constitutional appointees. Breaches to be severely dealt with including heavy fines, prison terms and or suspension or sacking where appropriate. These two combined with other good policies and procedures should become checks and balances for accountability, transparency and responsibility and serve as the foundation of the good governance.

CITIZENSHIP REFORMS

30. Change Citizenship Act to Allow Dual Citizenship - Citizenship by birth in Fiji and children of Fiji born in another country to be guaranteed and retained, regardless if some one has acquired a citizenship of another country by immigration( Allow Dual Citizenship similar to NZ, Australia and Canada. This MUST be a persons birth right and humane thing to do. This will encourage many former Fiji Residents like me who have made a lot of wealth overseas to go back to Fiji and semi-retire while investing in business ventures, land developments or Eco-tourism related projects or simply take the role of Financiers for local businesses. This will speed up the foreign investment and economic recovery process in Fiji. 

Currently if you acquire Citizenship of another Country then you automatically lose the Fiji citizenship and unfairly substituted ONLY by residency rights for former Fiji Citizens that only gives free entry, residency and exit rights but restricts from working, doing business and or voting etc. Unless you pay $5000 FJD to apply for Fiji citizenship by registration that seems unwarranted when a person is already a citizen of Fiji by birth. Many countries including Canada, USA, Australia, NZ and UK allow dual citizenship, simply because it is good for their economy, familial and social reasons and it is guaranteed to be very good for Fiji as well.