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Severing church from state in Fiji

By Max Wallace - posted Monday, 16 December 2013


In 2012 a Constitution Commission was established consisting of eminent persons, headed by constitutional law expert, Professor Yash Ghai. After the Commission allegedly released its report and draft constitution prematurely, it was destroyed. The Bainimarama regime took the view that as it had no oversight role for the military, it would not work.

The government re-wrote the draft constitution to ensure the military had that oversight. They also kept the key recommendation that far from being declared a Christian state, Fiji would become a secular state with a constitutional separation of church and state.

The influential Methodist, Reverend Tuikilakila Waqairatu, since August 2013, president of the Methodist Church in Fiji, said in 2012 that the state cannot be secular because that means 'moving away from God'.[7] His colleague, Reverend Akuila Yabaki, gave a prize in a 2012 essay writing

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competition to a teacher who wrote that 'God is in control' and 'the constitution should include a Christian state, irrespective of what the government of the day wants.'[8]

But, when inducted into the presidency, Reverend Waqairatu said:

[The] church ... is committed and open to dialogue with other Christian churches, living faiths, government, all ethnic groups, the vanua [indigenous land and culture], civil society, as a way of moving the nation forward in the course of healthy nation-building.[9]

However, writing in the Fiji Sun on 13 October 2013, retired, former USP Professor of Geography, Crosbie Walsh, a blog commentator on Fijian politics, said the same old politicians are still around and want nothing more than to return Fiji 'to how it was before the 2006 coup.'

Conclusion

The elections are due to be held in September 2014. That is when we will find out whether Fiji, with its brand new constitution has moved on, and whether Commodore Bainimarama, standing as a civilian candidate, will succeed in holding the secular line; or whether Fiji will relapse into the regressive Methodist-influenced state where religion is used, on the one hand, to enforce conservative, patriarchal values, while exercising self-interest on the other.

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At this point in time, the Commodore seems very likely to succeed. In addition to the sweeping changes detailed above he has abolished the Queen's birthday public holiday, the Queen's face is to be removed from the currency and the union jack is to be removed from the flag.

In 2006, Sitiveni Rambuka, the military leader of the 1987 coup was cited as saying, approvingly, after visiting India for medical treatment, that 'The president [of India] is a Muslim, the Prime Minister and the military chief are both Sikhs and the head of the largest political party, Congress, is an Italian.'[10]

After nearly two decades he finally got the secular point that one's beliefs and ethnicity are irrelevant to the business of government. The tens of thousands of Fijian-born Indians who had to flee the country after Rambuka's 1987 coup would surely agree.

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This article first appeared in Concordat Watch.



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About the Author

Max Wallace is vice-president of the Rationalists Assn of NSW and a council member of the New Zealand Assn of Rationalists and Humanists.

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All articles by Max Wallace

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