Fiji Parliament in session this week. May 2024 Photo: Facebook / Parliament of the Republic of Fiji
A former long-serving Fiji parliament staffer has lamented the state of political debates in the House and wants "somebody to put their foot down" on MPs behaviour.
On Monday, two MPs from the opposite sides of the floor of parliament went on the attack against each other by name-calling and throwing insults.
Former secretary general to parliament, Mary Chapman, who spent over 4 decades in the civil service - most of it with the parliament office - told The Fiji Times that parliamentary standards was on the decline in the country.
She said MPs using degrading language to call each other a "murderer" and "chor" (thief) was unprecedented when she was working for parliament.
"It is not like a parliament anymore," she was quoted by the newspaper as saying.
"It's just like a Banana Parliament. People are calling each other murderers and liars. All these are unbecoming.
"In my days, if you call somebody a liar, you can get suspended. But now, it's gone to the extent of a liar to murderer to 'chor' (thief), what next?"
Chapman said during her days, the Speaker would have "stepped in" when such insults were thrown around.
She said the current MPs regard parliament "as a place where they can joke across the aisle".
She also questioned the direction in which the country was heading.
"Parliament was serious business. They are doing things for the whole of Fiji."
Earlier this year, the then-secretary general of the ruling People's Alliance Party, Pita Waqatairewa, told RNZ Pacific that MPs were accountable to the taxpayers and needed to behave with decorum.
"All parliamentarians must remember that they are public officers paid for by the taxpayers, [their] salaries, and the extra privileges that come with the position they are filling," he said in January.
