Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum during a parliament session 10 February 2022. Photo: Parliament of the Republic of Fiji
Fiji's coalition government is putting its political survival ahead of the people's needs, the country's former attorney-general claims.
Speaking with RNZ Pacific for the first time since losing power in December 2022, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka's administration is doomed unless it deals with the nation's social and economic crisis.
Sayed-Khaiyum hit out after one of Fiji's deputy prime ministers said the nation was recovering from a "sixteen year dictatorship".
Sayed-Khaiyum was widely regarded as the right-hand man of convicted former prime minister Frank Bainimarama for 16 years.
Critics have labelled him the architect of the highly controversial 2013 Constitution.
Bainimarama seized power in a military coup in 2006 and took the top job a year later. However, he returned Fiji to democracy with a general election in 2014.
The former military leader's now deregistered FijiFirst Party had a landslide victory after the first election in eight years.
But the party was viewed as being dictatorial due to allegations of bullying and intimidation of opponents, human rights abuses, and suppression of the media.
Deputy Prime Minister Manoa Kamikamica told RNZ Pacific last month that changing the 2013 Constitution was a priority because it "effectively legalises dictatorship."
"One of the main reasons Bainimarama's regime is not in government now is the imposition of a constitution that was foisted on the people, with little consultation.
"I am told that only a handful of people were involved in the drafting of it, then it was brought in by decree," the deputy PM said.
However, Sayed-Khaiyum described Kamikamica's comments as "idiotic" and "factually false".
"[To] say that the 2013 Constitution has had no input from ordinary Fijians and was drafted by a handful of people in some closed room in secrecy is a complete lie," he told Pacific Waves on Thursday.
He said the document was the product of widespread consultations after the interim regime was formed in 2007, through the process called the National Charter for Building a Better Fiji, the People's Charter, and extensive discussion with people in villages and settlements.
"It is a cliché to say we were dictators. We were elected by the people and I would argue that people had far more freedom to speak than ever before," Sayed-Khaiyum said.
"Kamikamica's narrative is a bit like Nazi propaganda, when you keep on saying something repeatedly people start wanting to believe it," he said
"The government knows it will not survive [the 2026 polls] and, in fact, it is being run like there is only one person heading it."
He said the country needs stability, otherwise it will face a socio-economic crisis.
The government's inability to govern effectively and implement credible policies meant the gap between rich and poor was growing, he said.
"Poverty, crime, drug use, and unemployment was high and thousands of Fijians were leaving.
"If Rabuka is concerned about our economy and the welfare of ordinary Fijians, then he must direct all the government's energy and resources towards dealing with the issues faced by the people, our business, and investors.
"If he can do that and not listen to the political opportunists and extremists around him, then he will gain the political ascendancy that he seeks."
Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum and Frank Bainimarama. September 2023 Photo: Facebook / Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum
He said if Kamikamica claimed FijiFirst lost the 2022 elections because people rejected the Constitution, they voted overwhelmingly for Bainimarama in 2014 and 2018.
"That had nothing to do with the Constitution. In fact, the document allowed people to vote on policy-based issues for the first time. It did not divide people along ethnic lines." he said.
"Previously, people had two votes, one for an ethnic group and one for an open seat. The 2013 Constitution got rid of that.
"One person, one vote, one value. The electoral system under the 2013 Constitution also gave women more representation than ever before."
Sayed-Khaiyum believes that the government's moves to alter the document are "underhanded" and "unconstitutional".
"Every government has the right to change the constitution, it is a two-step process.
"You have to have three-quarters of parliament approving the first, second, and third reading.
"The amendment is then referred to the Electoral Commission, which has to put in place a referendum and three-quarters of registered voters must agree to it.
"What is being proposed by this government is a carte blanche amendment that does away with a referendum and only requires the approval of a two-third majority of members of parliament to carry out amendments."
What they mean, he said, is that they can change the constitution every month should they wish. He said the constitution was the supreme law of the land and needed stability.
The government recently failed in its bid to win enough support in parliament to amend the document and has now sought advice from the Supreme Court.
Rabuka could not get the 75 percent support needed to amend the 2013 Constitution during the Constitutional Amendment Bill's second reading.
Meanwhile, Sayed-Khaiyum is facing a raft of criminal charges, which he described as "bogus".
They include 11 counts of unlawful carriage of a firearm on an aircraft, 11 counts of receiving a corrupt benefit, 11 counts of breach of trust by person employed in the public service and 11 counts of abuse of office.
"Everyone knows I did not carry a gun on a plane," he said.
