Strong families make a strong nation, former Supervisor of Elections Semesa Karavaki declared in Parliament yesterday.  The parliamentarian from the Social Democratic Liberal Party (SODELPA) mixed apocalyptic turns of phrases and legal analyses in his maiden speech. He recounted how he had been ‘unceremoniously removed’ from his position at the Elections Office in 2006 and given 24 hours to vacate his Government quarters.  However, he thanked his family for their close support during trying times, an experience that has made his stronger.

However, in a speech peppered with biblical texts, he pointed out the irony of his election to Parliament, since his removal from office in 2006.

“I resisted the temptation to move abroad and now I have the right to say this in his (Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama) presence,’’ he said.

Mr Karavaki focused on one of SODELPA’s key pillars, iTaukei rights and constitutional redress. Unlike previous speakers, he poured water on their optimism by saying ‘we have never been so divided.’

He claimed that the fundamental rights of the iTaukei had been relegated under the current Government that was symptomatic of a ‘lack of respect towards indigenous Fijians and institutions’ that were cemented by ‘divine arrangement.’

The Ten Commandments was the only absolute law in Fiji, he claimed, and not the Peoples Charter for Change.

He urged the Bainimarama Government to review claims of landowning units (mataqali) to state and freehold land.

He also claimed that some mataqali in Bua had not been compensated appropriately for bauxite mining on their land.

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