The military has the overall responsibility of the safety, security and well-being of the people of Fiji.
This contentious issue which was heavily debated in the months leading up to the December 2006 takeover, has been maintained by the military during the talks in the National Council for Building a Better Fiji Task teams and working groups.
When asked by Fijivillage News Director, Vijay Narayan on whether the enhancing of the military's role in the draft People's Charter also sees the military having the overall responsibility for the security of the people, NCBBF's Technical Head, John Samy said the RFMF definitely needed to be involved in national development.
"One of the issues leading up to the events of December 2006 was the military’s role, whether it should be dealing with the government and telling the government what to do. The military said they have a constitutional right – that they are responsible for the overall security, safety and well being of the people of Fiji. Have they maintained that? I think the short answer is “yes”! In the recommendations that are contained in the SNE Report and touched upon briefly in the charter document the concept of the military going forward – that is being advanced now –is the concept of human security rather than the narrower, hard concept of security. In fact this is a concept that the United Nations is the champion of, globally. And this concept takes an institution, like the military, closer to the people."
Samy said over the next few years the military can also play a huge role in the infrastructure development of the country.
"The military, for example, has an engineering corp that goes out and does some very basic infrastructure work. In that capacity, the competency and efficiency of the engineering corp seems to be far superior that that of the PWD. In terms of cost efficiency and timeliness they are able to get the same things done. If that sort of corp, could get involved with communities at the village level and community level, work with leaders, identify their unemployed youth and team up through a partnership fix basic infrastructure. That would make a big difference to the lives of the people. In the feedback that we got from the over a thousand villages and settlements – basic bread-and-butter issues: half a kilometer of roads, fix that broken bridge, school that needs fixing, toilet facilities, water supplies – this is not rocket science. This can be done and done with a degree of efficiency. Fiji’s infrastructure is collapsing, it’s dilapidated."
Military Spokesperson, Major Neumi Leweni said while the military's overall responsibility on people's safety and security is nothing new this is another step forward.
"The RFMF knows and understands that it’s core role is the wellbeing and the security of every citizen of this country and that is what it has set out to do and now that it’s been highlighted in the proposed charter it’s an indication of the significance of the RFMF being there: to see and assist in the way forward for Fiji."
The Draft Charter includes the re-alignment of the role of the RFMF to include human security and the ways suggested are to enhance the military-community development partnership by strengthening its developmental role.
