People’s Alliance urges court to strike down 2013 Constitution

Despite Fiji Law Society lawyers arguing the Supreme Court has no jurisdiction to hear the constitutional amendment case, People’s Alliance lawyer Simione Valenitabua told the bench that the 2013 Constitution must be “obliterated.”

“I begin by saying that the 2013 Constitution must be obliterated. The point raised by Justice William Young yesterday was on point,” Mr Valenitabua said.

“The party leader for my client, who is also the Prime Minister of the legally effective government, has signed off on these questions and I submit to co-operate for convenience. As Ms Raikaci said, ‘under duress’," he said.

“There is a saying in Fijian, and I quote, ‘De qai tu nai nima, luvu na waqa’. Your Lordships, that is to just sit with your arms folded while the canoe sinks. Or cabinet, sits with its arms folded while the canoe sinks.

“Choosing an alternative remedy, when the constitutional remedy under Section 91(5) was there, to use, would be to let the canoe of our state sink under the weight of an illegitimate constitution.

“This co-operation, for convenience, however, must not be mistaken for a quiescence. We come before you not to tinker with the rigging of a sinking ship, but to ask you to condemn the hull. The hull itself needs to be condemned.

“Cabinet has used the procedure under the 2013 Constitution precisely and we argue that the entire instrument is void. And to invite this honourable court to perform its deepest duty, to restore the rule of law by reviving the lawful supreme law, the 1997 Constitution, which your Lordships and your Ladyships own jurisprudence in Fiji, in Prasad and Qarase, was never lawfully abrogated.”