Thoughts on 2014 Elections in Fiji

My thoughts on the Elections in 2014

This September, I will be looking forward to several things aside from the many birthday parties at home on that month, Fiji will also be having Elections for the first time since the Coup D' Etat on December 5, 2006. Fiji has has four coups and one putsche since independence. This will signal the return to rule of law in Fiji.

When the Coup was executed in 2006, I was seated in the High Court as Junior Counsel to Senior Counsel Peter Maiden who is now a Judge in New South Wales where we were defending Sitiveni Ligamamada Rabuka who at the time was facing multiple charges related to mutiny. The Judge that presided was Justice Winter. I can still vividly recall the room that we were in, was ironically the former Parliamentary Chambers where in 1987 the client we were defending in 2006 had hoisted Fiji's first coup on 14th May, since independence in 1970. We were briefly interrupted to be notified of the Coup. Suffice to say, Rabuka was acquitted and the State's Appeal the following year against the Acquittal was dismissed.

That day in 2006, the memo that was circulated by the Judges and signed by all Judges present at the time that they would promise to uphold the rule of law is still part of my collection to remind me of Fiji's turbulent history.

In 1987, I can recall the divide that I witnessed stemming from the usurpation of authority. Usurpation of authority in any form is wrong. However, given the trend in Fiji where coups are deemed as fashionable, the only way to cease coups is to develop a culture of openness where people can frankly engage in discussions and collaboration but who are driven by common purpose that supersedes their differences. To walk into a mature Fiji, it will require mature leaders who are willing to sacrifice and lay down their enmity for the greater good. I do not want to see Fiji spiral into a South Sudan situation where two leaders who are so caught up in self preservation that they forget that leadership is and always has been about the people. I hope that those who intend to stand in the 2014 elections be willing to lay down their swords, their self interest for the greater good.

Today in January 2014, I declare that I will vote and participate in the elections.

When I vote I don't want to vote for any person holding any resentment, bitterness and grudges because I have seen the toxicity of how it spills over to the country as a whole.

I want to vote for those who genuinely believe in #Fiji and want to see it developed. I am looking to vote for those who have character, integrity and ability to be redemptive to those that have offended them. When I think of Mohandas K. Gandhi (Mahatma) and Nelson Mandela (Madiba), two great men who were imprisoned physically yet their spirits were not imprisoned and they responded with maturity and never with seeds of "bitterness", I know that we can have leaders who have not been contaminated by toxicity and bitterness.

I do not want to see meaningless debates happening in parliament that focus on personality attacks and less on the issues when the ordinary men and women of Fiji continue to suffer.

Whilst I want to see change, I don't want "change" for "change's" sake but that is clear and tangible. I want to know what your thoughts are on economic development, trade, competition, mining, sea bed exploration, en community development, health care, infrastructure, education etc.

I don't want to hear #Whining #whinging. I don't want to elect people who act like they are still in #kindergarten but want to elect #leaders who inspire confidence and show #maturity Change starts with us as #individuals in our own #backyard! I want to see leaders build a #Fiji until she becomes a #beacon of #hope! That is the Fiji I want to see!