Bainimarama hits out at the President

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Leader of Opposition, Voreqe Bainimarama during the Parliament sitting at the Parliament complex in Suva on Monday, 13 February, 2023. Picture: JONACANI LALAKOBAU

Opposition leader Voreqe Bainimarama may find himself in hot water for the scathing attack he launched on President Ratu Wiliame Katonivere in Parliament yesterday.

The former prime minister stunned not only Parliament but listeners nationwide when he said the President had “failed the Fijian people and he will go down in history as the person who aided and abetted the most incompetent and divisive government”.

Mr Bainimarama accused Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka and the coalition Government of “setting out to destroy constitutional democracy”.

“In all of this,” Mr Bainimarama said, “the President who we looked up to because we believed that he genuinely believed in the values and principles of the Constitution has done an about turn.”

Deputy Prime Minister Viliame Gavoka said the former PM may have breached Order 62 of Parliament’s Standing Orders. Order 62 says that the conduct of the President “must not be raised, except on a motion with notice introduced with the Speaker’s permission.

In any other situation, reference to the President’s conduct is deemed “out of order”.

“We will not sweep this under the carpet,” Mr Gavoka said.

Home Affairs Minister Pio Tikoduadua labelled Mr Bainimarama’s comments “treasonous” but did not say what the Government would do about it.

Mr Bainimarama claimed the President, as Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the RFMF, “failed to acknowledge the fact that the very Constitution which he is supposed to uphold is being stripped away almost on a daily basis”.

“As the commander in chief, he has failed to provide proper guidance to the RFMF,” he said.

“In short, he who previously espoused to subscribe to the values of the Constitution, has now tragically ignored the mockery that the Rabuka-led government has made of constitutional democracy.”

Mr Bainimarama spent the bulk of his speech attacking the PM, Speaker Ratu Naiqama Lalabalavu and the President.

He also told the rank and file of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces that their “gift and legacy, the Fijian Constitution”, was being “ignored and bashed on a daily basis” and claimed Mr Rabuka “wants what the RFMF worked so hard for, removed”.

Mr Bainimarama said the Fiji of today was a far cry from the Fiji he once ruled over.

“It is a Fiji where the Prime Minister, his Attorney-General and his ministers do not follow the Constitution which brought them to this Parliament in the first place,” the Opposition Leader said.

“They make their rules and disregard the law as and when it suits them.

“We have a Parliament where the Speaker, without following the Standing Orders, without debate, has decided that parliamentarians can speak in languages other than English and say a Christian prayer excluding those of other faiths.”

To loud jeers from Government members, Mr Bainimarama described Fiji as “an environment where people are worried to speak openly.”

“Freedom of expression is under threat. Social media is vile and toxic. Supporters of this three uneven legged stool government are making extremely racist and religiously chauvinistic comments and indeed threats and getting away with it.”

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