Be patient, Bainimarama tells UN
September 27 2009
The international community needs to be patient while Fiji tries to resolve its problems, the country’s Prime Minister told the United Nations General Assembly yesterday.
In his address to world leaders, Frank Bainimarama said that international critics of his regime needed to show patience as political and constitutional reforms were introduced to overcome years of "mismanagement, corruption and nepotism".
Mr Bainimarama said the abrogation of the Fijian constitution in May this year had been a necessary step to fill a legal vacuum created by an earlier court ruling.
Without naming New Zealand or Australia, he said that Fiji's neighbours had shown a "surprising lack of understanding and disregard" of his country's situation and that the big powers of the South Pacific needed to stop trying to dictate its future.
They had the right to disagree, he said, but "that does not give them the right to interfere with our efforts to build a better country for our people".
Meanwhile, the Commonwealth has asked Mr Bainimarama to lift the country's state of emergency and show his willingness to resume a fully inclusive political dialogue.
Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma has also told Mr Bainimarama his government's plans to wait five years before holding elections could not be supported by the Commonwealth.
Fijilive.com reported that the message was relayed at a meeting on the sideline of last week's United Nations General Assembly.
Mr Sharma said the Commonwealth was ready to support a national dialogue in Fiji.
He said it was also open to re-engaging with Mr Bainimarama's administration, on the basis of Commonwealth principles.
The meeting follows a visit to Fiji earlier this month by the Sharma’s Special Representative for Fiji, Sir Paul Reeves.
Fiji was suspended from the Commonwealth at the beginning of this month.
The Bainimarama regime, which came to power in a coup in 2006, has been under international pressure to hold early elections, with the latest move being the Commonwealth ministerial action group's push to have Fiji excluded from next year's Commonwealth Games.
Mr Bainimarama, however, is sticking to a plan to introduce a new constitution by September 2013 with elections a year after that. Critics of the long timetable did not appreciate Fiji's "peculiar" history, he told the UN.
He also expressed disappointment at "what appears to be a unilateral decision on the part of the United Nations to debar our country from any new peacekeeping operations".
The international community needs to be patient while Fiji tries to resolve its problems, the country’s Prime Minister told the United Nations General Assembly yesterday.
In his address to world leaders, Frank Bainimarama said that international critics of his regime needed to show patience as...
The international community needs to be patient while Fiji tries to resolve its problems, the country’s Prime Minister told the United Nations General Assembly yesterday.
In his address to world leaders, Frank Bainimarama said that international critics of his regime needed to show patience as political and constitutional reforms were introduced to overcome years of "mismanagement, corruption and nepotism".
Mr Bainimarama said the abrogation of the Fijian constitution in May this year had been a necessary step to fill a legal vacuum created by an earlier court ruling.
Without naming New Zealand or Australia, he said that Fiji's neighbours had shown a "surprising lack of understanding and disregard" of his country's situation and that the big powers of the South Pacific needed to stop trying to dictate its future.
They had the right to disagree, he said, but "that does not give them the right to interfere with our efforts to build a better country for our people".
Meanwhile, the Commonwealth has asked Mr Bainimarama to lift the country's state of emergency and show his willingness to resume a fully inclusive political dialogue.
Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma has also told Mr Bainimarama his government's plans to wait five years before holding elections could not be supported by the Commonwealth.
Fijilive.com reported that the message was relayed at a meeting on the sideline of last week's United Nations General Assembly.
Mr Sharma said the Commonwealth was ready to support a national dialogue in Fiji.
He said it was also open to re-engaging with Mr Bainimarama's administration, on the basis of Commonwealth principles.
The meeting follows a visit to Fiji earlier this month by the Sharma’s Special Representative for Fiji, Sir Paul Reeves.
Fiji was suspended from the Commonwealth at the beginning of this month.
The Bainimarama regime, which came to power in a coup in 2006, has been under international pressure to hold early elections, with the latest move being the Commonwealth ministerial action group's push to have Fiji excluded from next year's Commonwealth Games.
Mr Bainimarama, however, is sticking to a plan to introduce a new constitution by September 2013 with elections a year after that. Critics of the long timetable did not appreciate Fiji's "peculiar" history, he told the UN.
He also expressed disappointment at "what appears to be a unilateral decision on the part of the United Nations to debar our country from any new peacekeeping operations".
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