Graeme Leung - The Reconciliation, Tolerance, and Unity Bill

The Reconciliation, Tolerance, and Unity Bill

On 21 May 2005, Leung joined numerous politicians, human rights organizations, and the military in opposing the government's proposed legislation to establish a Reconciliation and Unity Commission, which would be empowered, subject to presidential approval, to grant compensation to victims of the 2000 coup and amnesty to persons found guilty of involvement in it. Leung said that he and the Law Society supported the bill's purported aims of reconciliation, tolerance, and unity, but were strongly opposed to the amnesty provisions of the legislation, which he said were "repugnant" and would empower politicians to overturn judicial decisions. "It's likely to demoralise the judiciary and sap it of the will to continue its work," he said. It would also encourage future generations to regard coups as something they could take part in with impunity.

In a letter to Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase on 23 May, Leung said that as reconciliation and forgiveness were matters of the heart, they could not be legislated, and the bill would therefore fail to achieve its stated objectives. "The bill is not the answer to Fiji's problems," he said. He also expressed concern that the way the bill was written, linking compensation with amnesty, rich perpetrators of the 2000 coup would benefit the most. Citing the Fijian cultural inhibition on frank expression of strong opinions, he said that it would be unwise for the government to interpret the silence of the majority of its citizens as approval of its agenda. "It's the way we are - our people show their respect to their leaders by keeping quiet. It is considered rude to speak your mind," he said.

In a parliamentary submission on 16 June, Leung called the bill a recipe for instability, terror and payback, and a retrograde step, which could threaten present and future governments. "It would encourage the belief that if people think they have sufficiently good political reason to topple a government, politicians might consider granting them a pardon," Leung said. He expressed content that the decisions of the Commission and Amnesty Committee would not be required to state any reasons for their decisions, which would not be subject to appeal. He said it was "abhorrent and unacceptable" to create what amounted to retrospective legalization of a terrorist act.

While opposing the legislation, however, Leung cautioned the military to show restraint, saying that Parliament had the constitutional Right to pass laws, whether good or bad, and that it was up to the people to punish politicians for bad laws at election time. "If the law is bad and unpopular, it is for the people through the ballot box, to show their displeasure," he said on 21 May. "But in a democracy, it is not the business of the military, however well-intentioned, to interfere with the law-making process."

On 4 July, the Fiji Times revealed that Leung had been trying for over a week to schedule a meeting with the Prime Minister, without receiving a response. Then on 5 July, Leung called for an urgent meeting with Attorney-General Qoriniasi Bale in an effort to persuade him to rewrite the bill, in response to recent comments by Military Commander Frank Bainimarama calling the bill a form of "ethnic cleansing." Leung said that every right thinking person should be alarmed that the debate had risen to that level.