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Fiji Time: 9:50 AM on Thursday 20 June

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'Speak for yourself'

Maciu Malo
Tuesday, September 04, 2012

PEOPLE have been urged not to be swayed by groups feeding them information to submit to the Constitution Commission.

Commission member Penny Moore said from their findings over the past few weeks, many people were submitting issues that did not affect their livelihood while some people had submitted orchestrated comments from various groups.

"Looking at the submissions, we can clearly tell that most people are being fed with issues to submit," she said.

"Because when we ask them for the reasons as to why they want particular submissions to be included, they failed to give answers on the grounds of their submissions.

"These are issues that affect the land, reinstatement of the Great Council of Chiefs and the declaring of the country to be a Christian state to name a few.

"It is sad to see people being used for the benefit of some groups."

Ms Moore urged members of the public to express issues that were of concern to them and their future generations.

"We want people to express freely what they think from their hearts, not what they have been told to say.

"This is the only opportunity for the people to be heard and we are urging them to come out with a pure heart on issues that really concern them.

"It is very important for people to speak for themselves and we want them to speak from the heart.

"We are also pleading with various groups not to use the people through the submission process."

Ms Moore said despite the issues raised, the commission would consider all submissions based on their guiding principles.