FIJI: SLOW PREP FOR ELECTION; PEOPLE'S CHARTER

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 SUVA 000033 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/29/2018 TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM FJ SUBJECT: FIJI: SLOW PREP FOR ELECTION; PEOPLE'S CHARTER MACHINATIONS; IG CORRUPTION ISSUES REF: A. SUVA 019 ¶B. SUVA 013 ¶C. SUVA 020 Classified By: Amb. Dinger. Sec. 1.4 (B,D). Summary -------------- ¶1. (C) The interim government is beginning to put out signals that preparations for a March 2009 election are lagging. From what we hear, the problems are of the IG's own making, and IG officials have been reluctant to accept offers of outside help. The 35 people chosen for the People's Charter process received the game plan last week. It is very broad and detailed in scope, and seemingly would take years, not months, to accomplish. With interim PM Bainimarama having stated that completion of the Charter is essential before elections can be held, worries about the election date increase. Nonetheless, when Tonga PM Sevele visited Jan. 25, he told the media he is satisfied with the IG's progress toward elections, and he recommended that outsiders "not pressure" the IG but instead remove travel bans and provide support to move the country forward. A Catholic-priest NGO activist with IG connections has published a book on democracy that lambastes the U.S. Several recent vignettes suggest the IG's emphasis on "cleaning up" past corruption flies in the face of the regime's own flaws. End summary. Chaudhry says election preparation behind schedule -------------- -------------- ¶2. (C) Interim Finance Minister Chaudhry told Radio Fiji News Jan. 24 that "the work required before the actual conduct of polls is already behind schedule, and much more work needs to be done." He added, "Whether this can be satisfied in the remaining months to March 2009 is a matter which the Electoral Commission would be best qualified to pronounce." The current three-member Electoral Commission was appointed by the IG and reportedly has a slant toward Chaudhry's Fiji Labor Party. Delay in appointing Election Supervisor -------------- ¶3. (SBU) Public Service Commission chairman Rishi Ram revealed last week that the appointment of a Supervisor of Elections has been delayed because two of the three members of the appointing authority, the Constitutional Offices Commission, ended their tenures in December and the interim government (IG) has yet to appoint successors. Australia funded an international search for Supervisor of Elections ;candidates. We hear eight qualified candidates, mostly from Australia and New Zealand, await interviews. Until last week, Ram had been predicting an appointment would take place by February. Now he has hedged his bets. Electoral Boundaries Commission delay, too -------------- ¶4. (C) Also last week, after the long-delayed and controversial appointment of the final member of the Electoral Boundaries Commission (see ref B),the EBC said it is ready to begin evaluation of last September's census data. Chaudhry suggested census data "is not yet fully available;" however, that is deceptive. The numbers and categories needed for electoral boundary purposes have reportedly been on record since October. Who is behind the People's Charter? -------------- ¶5. (C) Some have been aware for many months that John Samy and Francis Narayan were the originators of the People's Charter proposal. Samy, a Fiji civil servant prior to the 1987 coups, thereafter joined the Asian Development Bank, and now, in retirement, is a New Zealand citizen. Narayan, another former ADB official, recently received an IG appointment to head the Fiji Trade and Investment Board (FTIB). With the first meeting of the National Council for Building a Better Fiji (NCBBF, the People's Charter process) two weeks ago, Samy stepped forward as head of the NCBBF Secretariat, the group of full-time officials who will steer SIPDIS activity. In a "Close Up" media interview last weekend, Samy was pressed for names of those who have assisted him. He said he had offered his concept to the Qarase government before the coup, with no reaction. Samy said, when pressed, that Chaudhry contacted him last March to express IG interest. Subsequently Samy said he consulted with a number of people in Fiji, some in the IG, others outside. He SUVA 00000033 002 OF 003 mentioned CCF head Yabaki, CCF member Duvuloco (now in the NCBBF secretariat),academics Vijay Naidu and Rajesh Chandra, and even former Vice President Joni Madraiwiwi. On Jan. 29, Madraiwiwi told the media that Samy had indeed contacted him and asked him to be a co-chair of the NCBBF last March, but after reflection Madraiwiwi declined the offer. (Note: Madraiwiwi consulted with us at the time, and we pointed out pitfalls.) People's Charter process and the election -------------- ¶6. (C) During the initial sessions of the NCBBF, a few of the IG-invited members raised a concern that the NCBBF process not be utilized to delay elections. They were reacting to public comments by Bainimarama that the Charter is the military's "exit strategy" from interim rule, an essential prerequisite for elections. Samy reportedly responded that the Charter timeline has been worked back from March 2009, the date Bainimarama promised Pacific Islands Forum leaders elections will take place. Still, a number of NCBBF members have commented that the scope and detail of proposals Samy provided the three NCBBF working groups in meetings last week signal a process that could take years, not just months, to complete. NCBBF members Beddoes and Tarte have said publicly that they will leave the process if it is used to delay elections. Comment: Cynical observers have presumed all along that an aim of Bainimarama and Chaudhry is to discover at some point in 2008 that the Charter simply can't be finished early enough to permit March 2009 elections, necessitating postponement. Tonga PM Sevele sees IG progress toward elections -------------- -------------- ¶7. (U) Per ref C, Tonga PM Sevele, current Chair of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF),stopped by Suva last Friday on his way home from a visit to Honolulu. Aside from a meeting at the Embassy, Sevele met with Bainimarama and with members of the PIF-Fiji Working Group to get an update on the status of the PIF-mandated process toward an election. Sevele later told the media he feels Fiji is progressing well toward democratic elections in March 2009. He recommended that "people should not pressure the interim government but instead provide support." He reportedly called on Australia and New Zealand to review their travel bans and other restrictions on those assisting the IG, as (such people) are helping move the country forward." Father Barr slams U.S. approach to democracy -------------- ¶8. (SBU) Catholic priest Father Kevin Barr has published a slim book, "Thinking about Democracy," that is highly critical of the United States. He proposes the U.S. is primarily an advocate for capitalism, not democracy. Barr heads the Ecumenical Centre for Research, Education, and Advocacy (ECREA),an NGO that focuses on a "pro-poor" agenda and argues that "economic" human rights are at least as important as "political" human rights. Barr briefly acknowledges in the book that the 2006 Fiji coup was wrong and that human-rights violations were a shame, but he is enamored with the IG's "clean-up" agenda and its "non-racist" vision for the future. Barr sees a transformation of Fiji's polity as far more important than early elections. Worth noting: the IG has made Barr one of the three members of the Electoral Boundary Commission, a role for which he has no known qualifications. RFMF/IG corruption? -------------- ¶9. (C) Military commander Bainimarama proposed that a "clean up" of corruption was a prime motivation for the December 2006 coup. Opponents of the coup were skeptical. While nobody would suggest the government of deposed PM Qarase was corruption-free, thus far the IG-created Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption (FICAC) has not revealed any ministerial-level corruption from the Qarase era. In the meantime, several IG activities are receiving rumor-mill criticism: -- Seemingly credible allegations that an unnamed "senior minister" (by all accounts Chaudhry) attempted to evade income taxes on sizable overseas bank accounts have been swept under the rug. Finance Minister Chaudhry oversees the tax and customs authority, FIRCA. -- A rumor has spread that one of Chaudhry's cronies, Arvin SUVA 00000033 003 OF 003 Datt, who joined the FIRCA Board after the coup, recently established a carpet-retail company and has been awarded the contract to supply and install all carpets for the new FIRCA complex in Suva. -- For the first six months after the coup, the military took over security of Fiji ports, then withdrew from that role reportedly as a cost-saving move. News leaked last week that a "private" firm run by senior military reservists (territorials) has been awarded a major contract for port security. Interim PM Bainimarama told the media the contract was awarded through a transparent process and on merit. Others are not so sure, and some commentators have recalled Bainimarama's pledge just after the coup that nobody in the military would profit. Comment -------------- ¶10. (C) Tonga PM Sevele's positive comments about the election-preparation state of play suggest he weighed IG opinion heavily. We are quite sure the chair of the PIF-Fiji Working Group, PNG High Commissioner Eafeare, and at least the Aussie and Kiwi members would not have given such an upbeat assessment. We have heard serious concern from all of them, in light of factors such as those described in paras 2-4, that the IG is not working hard enough on election preparations and is not seeming open to offers of assistance to keep up the pace. DINGER