Yellow Ribbon Campaign (Fiji) - The United Peoples Party

The United Peoples Party

United Peoples Party leader Mick Beddoes called the proposal a recipe for disaster which would licence any would-be political activist who wanted to engage in coups, to do so. He accused the government of kow-towing to its junior coalition partner, the Conservative Alliance, on which it depends for its parliamentary majority, in order to keep them on board until the next parliamentary election, expected for 2006. In a statement on 16 May, he said that the bill was not about reconciliation or restorative justice, but rather the creation of a "legal framework" to pardon, at will, anyone convicted of coup-related offence. This would lead, he said, to the law of the jungle prevailing. On 14 June, Beddoes announced the beginning of a Yellow Ribbon Campaign to promote a petition aimed at forcing the bill to be withdrawn, or at least significantly amended.

On 17 June, he accused Prime Minister Qarase of lying about widespread public support for the bill, which, Beddoes claimed, most people had not been given the chance to see. The "small group of dissenters" referred to by the Prime Minister were, according to Beddoes, the minority who knew what the bill contained. He said that asking the Fijian people to support the legislation without making them aware of its contents was "a deliberate attempt to mislead the Fijian community." Beddoes was joined on 18 June by Bruce Rounds, the General Secretary of his party, who said that there were major differences not only between Fiji's two principal races, but also within them. This acrimony in the community, he said, was partly to blame for the high rate of emigration, particularly of highly-skilled and highly-qualified Indo-Fijians.

Following a visit to cities and towns on the northern island of Vanua Levu, Beddoes said on 28 June that he had heard many complaints from locals about having been misled by the title of the bill. The copies of the bill that he had distributed were the first that most of them had seen, he said. Ignorant of what the bill really contained, many had wrongly assumed that it was a sincere effort on the part of the government to unify the country.

On 27 July, Beddoes strongly criticized the Great Council of Chiefs for its refusal to accept submissions from the Fiji Labour Party and the Fiji Council of Churches. He said that the government and the Methodist Church, whose submission has been accepted by the Great Council, both had vested interests in the Unity Bill, and that by being selective in its acceptance of submissions, the Council would not be hearing balanced appraisal of the bill.

Beddoes condemned what he saw as the hypocrisy of imprisoning a man for three years for the theft of six buns and F$200 cash, while legislating provisions to free men imprisoned for much more serious crimes including treason, murder, rioting and looting.

Beddoes intensified his attack on the chiefs on 2 August, saying that history would judge them for their endorsement of the bill. He was not surprised by the decision, he said, as a vote against the bill would have amounted to a vote of no confidence in the government, but they could have recommended certain amendments. "History will judge them once the impact of the Bill is discharged", he said. "There is no way anyone with a conscience can support the Government's attempt to legitimise and excuse the act of treason as being justified because it was politically motivated."

Speaking on Radio Sargam on 16 August, Beddoes declared that if the bill was passed without very significant amendments, he would challenge it in the courts.