Thakur Ranjit Singh
Auckland, December 25, 2022
The new government in Fiji needs to take immediate action to implement legislation disabling, nullifying and invalidating contracts, agreements, arrangements and appointments made by the FijiFirst government under questionable circumstances to reward friends, relatives and cronies.
Such actions include the unusual manner in which some state assets and shares were divested.
There is a need for the new government to carve out a home-grown situation and drift away from the Westminster style of having a permanent executive arm of civil servants. This is more so because the FijiFirst government did not follow the strict British style of separation of powers between the Legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary.
Public Service Commission diluted
I believe that the Public Service Commission, the body that independently appoints all civil servants, has degenerated into a cheerleader of the regime. It is alleged that politicians of the ruling FijiFirst Party appointed their favoured people to top government and statutory positions.
This brings into question the appointment of 13 Permanent Secretaries on November 18, 2022, less than a month before the election day (December 14, 2022) which shocked many Fijians.
It is good practice that before the election, the incumbent government takes a caretaker role and does not make long-term contractual arrangements. This is common-sense, and a show of respect for the incoming government.
Permanent Secretaries are Chief Executives of the government and executioners of its policies. An incoming government must have implicit confidence and trust in not only their competence and skills but also loyalty to the new government.
According to Nitya Reddy, a critic of government appointments, very few have measured up to the required levels of public service ethics of neutrality, independence, professionalism and integrity.
“It is extraordinary not only for its blatant lack of respect for the new incoming government (whomever it is) but also because it is a criminal and reckless act of entering into three-year employment contracts. If revoked earlier, it will cost the taxpayers millions in damages. It is a deliberately vindicative act of exposing taxpayers to serious potential damages,” he wrote on his Facebook Page on December 3, 2022.
The Doctrine of Necessity
This may be unusual but the Doctrine of Necessity enables and enhances the new government, restores order and grants assurance and confidence that those in its Executive, Statutory and Judiciary arms are able to drive policies which are not diluted by corruption, favouritism, nepotism and cronyism that were the basis of past appointments.
Editor’s Note: The Doctrine of Necessity is the basis on which extra-constitutional actions are implemented by a government or administrative authority, which are designed to restore order or attain power on the pretext of stability are considered unlawful even if such action contravenes the established constitution, laws, norms or conventions. The maxim on which the doctrine is based originated in the writings of the medieval jurist Henry de Bracton and similar justifications for this kind of extra-legal action has been advanced by more recent legal authorities, including William Blackstone. The Supreme Court of Canada applied this doctrine in the 1998 Reference regarding the Remuneration of Judges (No 2) case.
This would be an example of a Fijian homegrown solution, not an imported British system that failed Fiji so many times before.
The appointment of Permanent Secretaries is only one part of the problem.
Ministry of Reform
I suggest that the new government has a Ministry of Reform, with capable Permanent Secretaries and Chief Executives.
The Fijian Parliament needs to pass legislation enabling powers to review/rescind all contracts above the level of Director in all statutory and diplomatic services which were not made with transparency, proper legal requirements with correct procedures, and were granted without proper legal authority.
Any termination is to be without any recourse of claims for termination.
This, among others, should also include appointments of some highly paid expatriates and others made without proper and due processes and those of the judiciary.
Unlike governments of the past, the coalition government comprising the People’s Alliance Party, the National Federation Party and the Social Democratic Liberal Party should arm itself with the power to protect democracy and rule of law through this doctrine.
This will be an exercise to protect democracy and learn from the fall of Mahendra Chaudhry’s Peoples Coalition because many Permanent Secretaries and key civil servants in 1999 and 2000 openly opposed and insulted the new government and its Prime Minister.
This should never be allowed to happen.
Fiji needs to learn from its past falls to strengthen democracy.
Thakur Ranjit Singh is a political commentator, a blogger and a social media enthusiast. He was the Publisher of ‘The Daily Post’ in Fiji. He lives in Auckland and runs his blog, Fiji Pundit.’ Email: thakurjifj@gmail.com The above article is an edited version and reflects the personal views of the author and not those of Indian Newslink, its Editor or Management.
