Press Releases

THE “QARASE CHARTER” VS “THE PEOPLE’S CHARTER”

by Desmond Whiteside and Ratu Jolame Lewanavanua

The article by the former Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase titled “Fiji Already Has A People’s Charter” argues there is no need for another “People’s Charter” because his Government had already produced one. Qarase refers to the “Strategic Development Plan 2007-2011” as the so-called “Charter”. There are a number of points raised in Qarase’s article that we must challenge:

He says “a great deal of money is being poured into the work of the NCBBF and it is being wasted”. Mr Qarase has not given a comparative figure on how much it cost to produce his Governments’ Strategic Plan. Was it cheaper? The budget of the NCBBF is $2.4 million which is about 0.16% of the Interim Government’s 2008 budget, an insignificant amount for a national undertaking. It is said that the General Election that Mr Qarase is demanding to have will cost about $35 million.

We could spend this much on a General Election and it will be a waste if the Coup cycle does not end after that Election. The NCBBF and the People’s Charter wants to ensure there is no repeat of December 2006. It has the support of the RFMF for a new way of government under a People’s Charter based on national consensus. What is the SDL alternative beyond the Elections?

Qarase’s so called “Charter” was merely an outcome of the on-going development planning process of Government. Fiji governments have produced similar documents every five years since independence. SDL produced one in 2000 and another one in 2006. It is nothing new. It is a document that tends to be narrowly economistic and rather “dry”. So our PCCPP will be “wet”. Very few people from outside government were involved in its consultation process. Qarase’s Strategic Plan did not excite many to read it., it being yet another “development plan”. For him to call it a “People’s Charter” is a joke.

Contrary to what Qarase says, the NCBBF is not trying to reinvent the wheel. The State of the Nation and Economy Report, out of which the People’s Charter will be drawn, is a very different process from the production of the Qarase Government’s Strategic Plan document. Many of the civil servants who were involved in his Strategic Plan are involved in the Technical Support Secretariat of the NCBBF. They say the work they are involved in now is more holistic, comprehensive, deeper and more challenging than their work on the Strategic Plan of the Qarase Government. Some members of the NCBBF and Working Groups had also been involved in the work on the SDL Government’s Strategic Plan. That includes us, and we say that the Qarase Government SDP process was narrow in its consultation base and focus of diagnosis and recommendations. It does not remotely compare with the People’s Charter process.

The public consultation process of the NCBBF and PCCPP is broader, and more democratic than that of the Qarase Government. Hardly anybody knew about the SDL Strategic Plan whereas the NCBBF’s work is well publicized and aims to stimulate real discussion and debate so the people of Fiji can contribute to the SNE Report and the People’s Charter formulation. It is very open and anybody can participate by attending consultative meetings, sending the Secretariat written submissions or posting their views on the website.

The consultation on the SNE Report and the People’s Charter involves people in communities at the grass roots level. It is therefore a “People’s Plan” not the “Strategic Plan” of government bureaucrats. Most politicians in the SDL would not have read it, leave alone ordinary people. So what good had the two Strategic Plans of Qarase done for the people of Fiji in the time they were in power?

Qarase tried to paint a rosy picture of his period in office (2000 – 2006). In terms of public debt alone, his government’s record was disastrous, with public debt cumulatively rising from $1,435,331,000 in 2000 to $2,863,078,000 in 2006. Within a period of 6 years, the Qarase government doubled the public debt. Compared to the previous 30 years, public debt had risen from $40,185,000 in 1970 to $1,371,926,000 in 1999. Add to that, his vote buying promise to pay public servants $300 million in 2007 and his $19 million agriculture assistance scam that helped the SDL win the 2001 Election. The Qarase government was taking Fiji towards bankruptcy, had it not been removed.

It is also clear from this SDL Plan that there was no commitment at all to find real solutions to the expiring land leases problem that had got steadily worse under his leadership. These are only few examples of the disastrous policies of the Qarase government. Many of these policies were ethnically divisive.

In his article Qarase also claims the SDL Strategic Plan had drawn extensively from the Election manifesto of the SDL and FLP, but there is no evidence of this in the document. He even claims that electoral reforms could have been embraced by his Strategic Plan and that “national unity and identity, constitutional changes, social cultural reforms and good governance” were in his plan. We have again carefully reviewed the document and have not read anything about these issues in the SDL Strategic Plan. It would appear that Qarase in desperation, is “plagiarising” the key elements of the PCCPP work and its contents now underway.

Qarase’s claim that the People’s Charter is being “rejected” by large sections of our community has no substance. Our outreach teams that have been visiting rural and urban settlements for the last 6 months have mainly reported receptiveness to the idea of a People’s Charter. They say it is a different approach from politicians who visit only at Elections time and are never seen again for five years. It is different because people are being asked for their views. The consultative process of the NCBBF informs and empowers people to contribute to the determination of their own destiny. The People’s Charter will capture the hopes and aspirations of all of Fiji’s people.

In his “opinion article” at the end Qarase calls for political dialogue to take place between the political parties as the way forward. The days of politicians meeting and negotiating behind closed doors on the presumption they represent ordinary people’s views and interests are now gone. That is what the SDL used to do in its “Talanoa Sessions” with the Fiji Labour Party and they never came to any agreement that could have been implemented.

Any dialogue between the interim government and political parties has to take place within the framework of the NCBBF and the work on the People’s Charter. It cannot take place separately at another level. Qarase and his colleagues must listen to the voices and learn from the people of Fiji, change their ways and follow “the New Way” of the People’s Charter by listening to the People.

Qarase’s underlying message is that he really regrets that during his leadership, he had not thought about tackling the range of our deep seated national problems that are now being addressed by the NCBBF. Even though the NCBBF was initiated by the Interim Government, it is being run as an autonomous process and we once again urge Qarase to be part of it.

The Invitation of his Excellency the President to Qarase and the SDL Party to join the NCBBF remains open. Together we can draw up a better national development plan based on real national consensus and serious commitment. We hope Qarase will reconsider and not be left behind as we move steadfastly towards the General Election.

8th April, 2008

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