Power Corrupts........ Absolute Power ??????

It has been another busy week on Fijian social media as our various influencers and trolls hunt down the latest drama to exploit. This does make life interesting, but it gets a bit tiresome if you are trying to actually get something real done.

There have been numerous internet “holes” to troll this week including the strange story of the Miss Universe contest that popped up out of nowhere. Most of us were unaware of there being a contest at all and YB suspects that was deliberate. BUT we have more important “holes” to explore.

Let us begin on a positive note. It was great to see the return of the Hibiscus Festival and congratulations to all those responsible for the relaunch. Yes, we know improvements can be made and certainly organisers have received lots of “advice” from the PM down and of course from the usual social media commentators. For once, let's just take a moment to say THANK YOU to those who choose to make a difference!

BUT there is more, in the middle of Hibiscus, the school holidays and the September parliamentary sessions, the FICAC drama popped up. This has been brewing for a while, so it requires us to set the scene before analysing recent developments.

As you may recall, part of FijiFirst’s legacy was a complex electoral system deliberately designed to make life extremely difficult for anyone in opposition. Key to this strategy was the creation of a minefield of regulation aimed at tripping up unwary candidates with severe penalties for even the most minor of infractions or mistakes. This assumed of course that FijiFirst would always be in power and never have to worry about enforcement of these rules on them!

To police these breaches of public office they created FICAC, billed as our defenders against the rampant corruption that was allegedly present in previous governments. In truth their prime role seemed to be...... yes you guessed it..... harassing opposition politicians. To cement this organisation in place it was given unprecedented constitutional protection that meant limited or no accountability. Once again, this wasn't a concern for FF as they were in power and told everyone what to do anyway, so what could go wrong. As the current Attorney General Graham Leung pointed out in his media conference last week the result is that we have, in FICAC, a body with wide powers to investigate, arrest and detain that is accountable to nobody.

Into this mix stepped a highly active, some might suggest obsessed, group of online lobbyists and influencers, largely based offshore, who took it upon themselves to publicly police these regulations. If you have had the misfortune of being included on their mailing list you will have received, a blizzard of emails making all sorts of allegations against those in power, and in fairness, members of the previous Government, the bulk of them relating to alleged infractions of the electoral act.

Now, one can speculate as to the motivations behind this group. YB suspects the truth is they have gathered for different reasons, some well-meaning, but many just enjoy creating chaos and their old home Fiji provides a wonderful playground especially as most don't live here. The sad thing is the disruption and distrust they create comes at a real cost to those of us who have chosen to live in Fiji who want to get on with rebuilding our home.

This is not of course unique to Fiji. With the rise of social media, citizens everywhere have been empowered to promote all sorts of claims, theories, and accusations easily and anonymously. The difference is that in most jurisdictions, that aren’t run by despots, those enforcing the law understand the need to sift through the allegations weeding out those, that “aren’t in the public interest.” In other words, those that are not supported by facts, not criminal in intent or are so minor they can be resolved in other ways. For example, a request to update information that may have been mistakenly missed etc etc.

In Fiji, FICAC with their 400 or so staff and a $10 million budget appear to have taken the approach that all accusations should be investigated, the culprits charged (in the most spectacular manner possible, leaving it to the Courts decide their fate. As one legal observer described it, they seem to have become zealots in the pursuit of these issues. Now you may say but this is all about the rule of law so let them at it. The danger is that if FICAC is consumed by chasing the “low hanging fruit” when are they going to find the time both to investigate and prosecute major breaches or acts of corruption. In addition, even if they find the time they will find the Courts jammed with “minor” cases delaying indefinitely the critical ones. The more sceptical amongst us might also suggest that it is far easier to look busy chasing the smaller obvious issues then to put the hard work into catching bigger fish.

Now, with that in mind lets step through the strange events of last week. The Judicial Services Commission Chaired by the Acting Chief Justice announced that they were appointing Barbara Malimali to fill the vacant position of FICAC Commissioner. Now we say announced but in fact they were in the process of announcing and hadn’t quite finished the job when all hell broke loose.

On Wednesday, ACTING Deputy Director Francis Puleiwai suddenly revealed to the media that Malimali was under investigation for abuse of office relating to her role as Chair of the Electoral Commission. This timed perfectly with the news of her new appointment.

There was early confusion initially as to how Malimali could hold two positions until it was revealed that as part of the appointment process she had resigned from the Electoral Commission. The fact that the AG was unaware of this when he spoke to the media added to the confusion but in the scheme of things that is a minor, not a major issue.

It turns out the abuse of office accusation relates to a letter signed by Malimali but supported by all the Electoral Commissioners and sent to the Chair of the Judicial Services Commission expressing an opinion on the appointment of the Supervisor of Elections. If this is all Malimali is accused of, “abuse of office” would seem a stretch, as the AG suggested in his media conference.

Anyway, Puleiwai took it upon herself to launch an investigation into the person had been appointed to be her boss on the eve of her taking up the position and then proceed to detain Malimali as she arrived for work on her first day!

Not only that, Puleiwai summoned the media to wait on FICAC’s doorstep while she interviewed her boss with the apparent plan to charge her and then, as the Americans say, “perp walk “her out of the office and to court in front of the media. If that was not enough, she made it clear she was preparing to file immediate charges against Deputy Prime Minister Biman Prasad with suggestions that investigations were pending into several senior cabinet ministers. This flurry of activity came to a grinding halt when word arrived from the Acing Chief Justice that the Courts would not accept charges filed by Puleiwai as these would need to come from her newly appointed boss Malimali!

So, was this a case of a diligent servant of the law being blocked from doing her duty or was this, as the Attorney General suggested, an organisation “going rogue.” The key issue, revealed in the AG’s media conference, was the fact that Puleiwai had applied for the position of Commissioner and so herself was in breach of conflict-of-interest codes that require her to stand down from any investigation. Even if that was not the case, Malimali had been lawfully appointed as Commissioner FICAC and so the correct procedure, if it was felt investigation was required, was to hand it all over to another authority i.e. the Police.

The aggrieved Puleiwai subsequently resigned muttering about interference when her own behaviour is open to serious question. One important reminder, the Judicial Services Commission comprises the Chief Justice, the President of the Court of Appeal, Permanent Secretary for Justice, and a representative of the legal fraternity. It is not a political body i.e. under the influence or control of the Coalition Government.

This does leave FICAC with quite a mess to sort out if it is to regain the confidence of the public. This needs to start with Malimali inviting the police to conclude the investigation into her and a speedy but transparent wrap up of the outstanding investigations into our political leaders. This can leave no room for internet gossip and inuendo and needs to focus on delivering fair and reasonable outcomes that make sense to the people paying the bills i.e. US!

Meanwhile, the Coalition Government finds itself, once again, in the midst of DRAMA not entirely of its own making. With the general investment mood improving following the collapse of FijiFirst and subsequent stabilising of the Government, this is the last thing they need. We say not entirely because it could be suggested that part of the problem here is the excruciatingly long time it seems to take to appoint officers of the law. That is, as we have said, not directly the responsibility of Government but once again it raises issues around the performance of some of those holding high Judicial positions who are meant to be making these decisions in a timely manner.

Finally, the Attorney General has highlighted yet another reason to start work on changing the Constitution. We cannot have an organisation like FICAC, with the sweeping powers it has been given, being able to operate without clear lines of accountability protected by a constitution set in stone. As they say “power corrupts ….. absolute power corrupts absolutely.”