Behind the news: When restrictions impede participation

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Prominent artist Aggie Vakaloloma belts out a few tunes in front of the jam-packed Sukuna Park during the STC Yasa Appeal Music Concert in Suva. Picture: JOVESA NAISUA /FILE

Last week, a group of citizens, many of them youths from the greater Suva area, were removed from a public park for engaging in an activity they believed would allow them to enjoy and put to practice their civil and political rights.+

In fact, they were collecting signatures for former prime minister Sitiveni Rabuka’s proposed political party. They were taken to the police station, questioned and were later released. In expressing his disappointment in The Fiji Times, Mr Rabuka called on the police to be mindful of their powers and not misuse it.

On the said day and at the very same park, members of Fiji Islands Performing Rights Association, some of them youths, were having a benefit concert to raise funds for Fijians affected by Severe Tropical Cyclone Yasa.

Thank you FIPRA! Responding to Mr Rabuka’s statement, police spokeswoman Savaira Tabua told The Fiji Times the team was removed because they did not seek approval from FIPRA, as concert organisers.

She further added that police had acted on a complaint lodged by a member of the public. However, prominent Suva lawyer Richard Naidu pointed out in The Fiji Times that police action was unnecessary.

Mr Naidu said there was no law that stopped a proposed political party from gathering membership signatures, in any place or at any time, outside of an election period.

Legality aside, I believe the treatment of the said youths who were actively participating in the formation of a new party of their own choosing went against the very tenets of civic participation, multipartism, pluralism and inclusivity that we love to say we practice and encourage. Those young people were volunteers. They were not paid a single cent to collect signatures.

They did it out of personal conviction and passion, just in the same way FIPRA members had organised their concert. While I may not agree in principle with their political ideologies, I admire how they channelled their time, energy and aspiration toward something they believed in.

I also hold in high regard their recognition of, not only their civic rights but also their civic roles and responsibilities in nation-building. While their peers were playing sports, watching movies and engaging in other social events, the Sukuna Park group made conscious choices to take part in something many would find boring and “for the adults only”.

The 2017 Census shows that our population has a median age of 27.5 meaning one half of our population is below the age of 27.5 years. Provided they are legal, that half of the population should be encouraged to take part in political activities, alongside adults.

But quite often, just like the situation in many countries, our young people feel marginalised from mainstream politics and decision-making, both at community and national levels. Despite making up a significant portion of the population, they struggle to get recognised as a significant force for change and are not accorded the respect they deserve from public officers and community leaders.

Their engagement in political activities to help influence change in their communities, though noble and far-sighted, is often viewed with suspicion because adults like to focus on their lack of experience and skills.

It is this exclusion and the ensuing feeling of rejection it creates that makes young people lose their sense of civic pride and become disinterested in nation building and politics in general. Combined with the distresses of limited jobs, educational and economic opportunities evident in the current period we are going through, they are left idle and sometimes frustrated with the status quo.

This is exactly why the Sukuna Park story is indeed a missed opportunity — missed opportunity to show them we respect their political rights, participation and concern about the governance of this country. Youths of Fiji, regardless of their party of choice, need real opportunities to participate voluntarily and actively in the country’s democratic, development and decision-making processes.

Young people also need the freedom to mobilise, organise, express their opinions and play more active roles in politics and political decision making so that ultimately this “50 per cent of the population” can defend the democracy they are governed under.

It is time-consuming and not easy collecting 10,000 signatures of registered voters from the country’s four divisions to form a new political party. As I’ve mentioned before, this requirement together with some others, make political participation less “free and fair”.

We have many examples of how some policies that affect our political participation, seem to be designed and churned out to make that very political participation a serious challenge. Sometimes these subjective requirements just make us suffer from political apathy and “give up”. As a concept, a free and fair election is not only about seeing that things are run smoothly on voting day.

It is equally about ensuring that processes, laws and requirements make it less irksome so that citizens, political parties and political candidates may participate freely and fairly in the politics of the country prior to and even after voting day. If criteria become stringent, then people’s democratic right of association, right to participate in public affairs and the governance of the country and the right to stand for office could be jeopardised.

Judging by media reports this week, it seems that further changes to election requirements would be made soon by government following public submissions. This is welcomed. But public participation in this process will only be worthwhile and credible if in the end, requirements and policies will enable an election that is genuinely ‘free and fair”.

I believe every Fiji citizen, as a voter, a politician or party executive, needs to be free from being unnecessarily disadvantaged by overtly unreasonable restrictions and laws. When election requirements lose their objectivity and become too stringent and restrictive they may impinge on our ability to enjoy our rights to participate in public life.

When this happens, elections lose their free and fair status. In the same vein, demands placed on candidates and political parties regarding registration and campaigns should not be too rigid that it jeopardises freedom of association and expression. And no existing party should be unnecessarily dissolved or denied the right to form and participate in elections because of petty criteria.

That means that parties should only be deregistered if it genuinely poses a danger to the free and democratic political order or to the human rights of individuals. The bottom line is any election restriction or law introduced should be only those necessary in a democratic society.

Back to the Sukuna Park issue, given the uncertain times we face, authorities should be worried about building the skills, knowledge and confi dence of “50 per cent of the population” and empowering them to express their voices, participate in politics and break down barriers to this participation.

Discouraging them from civic participation because a member of the public raised a complaint during a concert event does not build a strong and vibrant youth citizenry. It only makes them disempowered and dejected.

Until we meet on this same page same time next week, stay blessed, stay healthy and stay safe!

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