Sourced Content (Edited)
Social Democratic Liberal Party Leader Sitiveni Rabuka has said that he has reservations on using ‘Fijian’ as a common name following the adoption of the 2013 Constitution.
Speaking to law students at the University of Fiji earlier this week, he said that personally he has three reservations on the common name.
He said that the people of Fiji were never consulted about the name change and that it was imposed, just like the unilateral revocation of the 1997 Constitution and removal and abolition of the Great Council of Chiefs.
Right to consultation
Mr Rabuka said that the people of Fiji have a right to be consulted and to be heard on this very important issue.
He said that the 2013 Constitution, for the first time in Fiji’s constitutional history, has allowed a Fiji citizen to hold citizenship of a foreign State simultaneously.
“This dual nationality is a good thing in the context of our globalised world but it creates the dubious situation about a person’s patriotic loyalty and attachment to Fiji when one is at the same time the national of another State,” he said.
Mr Rabuka said that his third reservation was that it ignores the group rights and self-determination of indigenous iTaukei and Rotuman people.
The above Report has been published by Indian Newslink under a Special Agreement with Fiji Broadcasting Corporation (FBC News).
Photo:
Sitiveni Rabuka in Suva, Fiji
(Picture from Fiji Sun, under a Special Arrangement)
