As the Pacific Islands Leaders Forum announced today that it wants Fiji to honor its commitment to have elections in March 2009 or face further action, the leader of the Fiji Labour Party and former Interim Finance Minister, Mahendra Chaudhry says this is a wrong move by the forum.
Chaudhry says everyone in Fiji, the Pacific Forum and the international community should understand that elections cannot be held in the first quarter of next year.
He says the electoral system has to change first as the current system will not pass the test of democracy under the UN Declaration of Human Rights.
“I think they have been unrealistic, definitely elections by march 2009 is out and as you know that currently the work has been done on the electoral reform. I believe and so does the Fiji labour Party believe that we need electoral reform to make our electoral system to near and representative and democratic. As it is, it’s seriously flawed. Those who talk about early elections in Fiji need to first of all understand that electoral reforms are absolutely necessary before we go into the next election. We had communal politics dominate parliament here and that has been the root course of division and discoed in our society and I think those who want to turn a blind eye are doing great injustice to Fiji”.
On the threat of suspension from the forum at the end of this year if Fiji does not have election in March 2009, Chaudhry says it will be the forum that will lose out if Fiji is suspended.
“Forum should be more concerned about assisting Fiji and resolving this particular issue and not putting it into a corner and making demands on it. I feel that Forum would be weakened without Fiji’s presence. I don’t think in the long term Fiji has much to lose if it’s not the member of the forum to be quite honest. I myself had reservations about the usefulness of the forum. When I see it largely as an organization dominated by Australia and then by New Zealand, Island nations have had very little to say in shaping the forum and it is time the Island nations took a little assertive position with regard to what the forum should be doing. How its policies should be formulated and not be pushed around by Australia or New Zealand”.
