The article opens: "Salesi Temo is cantankerous, erratic, capricious, imperious, self-important, sexist, patriarchal and behaves like a schoolyard bully. He shares these characteristics with a tiny minority of crusty judges in other jurisdictions of the common law that Fiji also inherited from the British. But he is unique in one particular aspect. The Acting Chief Justice is an outlaw – someone who presides over the administration of the rule of law in Fiji yet continues to debase it with his violations of the Constitution, the supreme law.
"Temo’s defiance of the law with his advice to the President to illegally appoint a fellow judge, Alipate Qetaki, and the Acting DPP, John Rabuku, have been canvassed at length in these columns. He appointed them when the Constitution specifically prohibits them from holding those offices because they have been found guilty of professional misconduct.
"The Fiji Law Society – which represents lawyers in private practice in Fiji – has complained publicly about these appointments and made private representations to the Prime Minister that Salesi Temo must not be confirmed in the substantive position of Chief Justice. This led to an extraordinary outburst by Justice Temo at an induction ceremony for young lawyers when he publicly castigated the President of the Law Society, Wylie Clarke.
"Justice Temo also continues to defy the law by not naming a date for the judicial Tribunal hearing into the allegations of misbehaviour against the suspended DPP, Christopher Pryde. It has been a full year since Pryde was stood down on full pay for having a conversation in public view at a Japanese Embassy function with the ousted attorney general, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum. Yes, 12 months in which someone in the prime of his professional life with an unblemished record has been sidelined, had his reputation impugned and been denied the opportunity to clear his name.
"All this, in itself, would suggest to anyone with a sense of justice and respect for the rule of law that Salesi Temo is unfit to be Acting Chief Justice and preside over the judiciary. But there’s another equally alarming aspect to “His Lordship’s” conduct. He happens to be a very poor lawyer. And the proof of that is in the astonishing transcript of the proceedings last week when the Office of the illegal DPP launched its appeal in the High Court against what it argues is the excessively lenient sentences passed by the Resident Magistrate, Seini Puamau, against Frank Bainimarama for perverting the course of justice and Sitiveni Qiliho for abuse of office.
"Ever since the transcript of the proceedings became available, jaws have been dropping in legal practices all over Fiji at the Acting Chief Justice’s statements in court...". Click link above to read on.
No comments:
Post a Comment