Unions in Fiji say it is hard to believe the Prime Minister only found out about the controversial draft Police Bill after public uproar.

The draft legislation would have given police more surveillance powers if passed in Parliament.

Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama pulled the plug on the bill last week following widespread condemnation from civil society groups, individuals and opposition parties.

READ MORE: More reports on the Fiji Police Bill

The prime minister had said he only found out about the controversial draft legislation after the public uproar.

But the Fiji Trades Union Congress (FTUC) said it was surprised that Bainimarama had pulled the plug on the proposed Bill.

FTUC national secretary Felix Anthony said the whole country was aware of the draft bill because the consultations were launched publicly.

He said there was even a cake-cutting ceremony to mark the occasion in Suva with representatives from the New Zealand High Commission and UN development programme present.

NZ, UNDP funding consultations
Both New Zealand and the UNDP are co-funding the public consultations.

Anthony said the prime minister was obliged to tell the public how he was not made aware of it.

“Bainimarama needs to tell the public what actually happened and not only that, but we believe that there needs to be full consultation on any proposed Bill with the public and all parts need to be addressed,” the FTUC said in a statement.

The unions said it was “crazy and an insult” to the people of Fiji to ask them for their opinions on the proposed Bill which breached the Constitution.

“It is simply crazy that they know what was wrong with it, they know it was breaching the Constitution, yet they wanted to ask the people to tell them what is wrong with it, which is simply crazy and an insult to the people of Fiji.’

Following the prime minister’s retraction of the public consultations, his minister in charge of the police force, issued an apology.

Defence Minister Inia Seruiratu said he was sorry for allowing the draft Police Bill to go for public consultations.

Seruiratu said the ministry had overlooked the process the draft document needed to go through.

“I did the launching because of the work we had prepared,” Seruiratu said. “We have overlooked the process and we sincerely apologise for that.”

The Draft Bill is now under review, the minister said.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Reports that Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama has pulled the plug on Fiji’s draft Police Bill 2020 has raised more questions than answers and left critics puzzled.

What, when, where, why, and how were pressing questions people asked as they tried to unravel how the bill was thrust into the public sphere for discussion without the government’s knowledge.

National Federation Party president Pio Tikoduadua said the prime minister’s statement came two weeks after Defence Minister Inia Seruiratu was photographed at the launch of consultations on the bill.

• READ MORE: Proposed police bill will not go to Parliament, says PM
• Other reports on Fiji’s controversial proposed police bill

He claimed everybody knew that everything happened in the government on the Prime Minister or the Attorney-General’s command.

Former PM Sitiveni Rabuka said Bainimarama’s comments that the Fiji Police Force had acted unilaterally and government had not been consulted before consultations began was “puzzling”.

Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre co-ordinator Shamima Ali said the government or the Prime Minister’s Office needed to issue an official statement regarding its stand on the draft bill because the only information people had was from two media platforms and social media sites.

Wanshika Kumar is a Fiji Times reporter.

A proposed draft Police Bill in Fiji has come under intense scrutiny from civil society groups and opposition parties.

The draft legislation will give police greater surveillance powers if passed in Parliament.

The proposal is now open to public submissions and the government says it will replace the Police Act 1965.

• LISTEN TO RNZ DATELINE PACIFIC: The draft Fiji Police Bill (duration 5′:00″)
• READ MORE: Other Fiji police reports

The draft Bill gives police the powers to secretly or forcefully enter any premises to place tracking devices.

Police can secretly monitor and record communications of people they suspect are about to commit a crime or have committed one, the Bill states.

The draft law also allows police to recruit an informer or anyone else who can provide information in relation to a police matter.

The government has not stated why it is necessary for police to search a crime scene and seize potential evidence without a warrant as stated in the Bill.

Police powers need ‘updating’
But the Minister for Police, Inia Seruiratu, said the Police Act 1965 needed to be updated because officers were now tasked with enforcing laws aligned to new and emerging challenges such as the global govid-19 pandemic, terrorism, transnational organised crime and other crimes evident around the globe.

Seruiratu said the Bill was a preliminary draft of submissions received by police during three days of consultations with the force’s key stakeholders in May 2019.

“Policing has developed beyond the traditional roles it is known for and the Fiji Police Force needs an enabling foundation that not only assists them in the work they are constitutionally mandated to do but will greatly enhance our national efforts to effectively respond to the rapidly evolving criminal landscape.”

However, the opposition parties have condemned the draft legislation and warned it encroaches on the civil liberties, democratic values and fundamental rights of Fijians.

The leader of the Social Democratic Liberal Party, Viliame Gavoka, said they would do everything in their power to ensure the draft legislation did not reach the floor of Parliament.

Gavoka said the “draconian” draft Bill would turn Fiji into a “police state”.

“There’s lots of uproar in the community about police brutality as it has been ongoing for some time,” he said.

“And then to introduce a Bill like this is truly frightening.

People ‘fearful of the police’
“The mentality of the country right now is fearful of the police. And here we have a Bill that gives them more powers to virtually do whatever they want to do with you.”

The president of the National Federation Party, Pio Tikoduadua, said the government’s plan to introduce a law that could allow authorities to enter and search anyone’s property through force at any time was “frightening”.

Tikoduadua said it was “inconceivable, ridiculous and insane”, adding a provision in the proposed Bill would make police force subject to military law in emergencies.

“So, when police are subjected to military law, does it make them soldiers? This is unthinkable in a democracy. It is martial law and can be invoked at any time.”

Former opposition leader Mick Beddoes said the proposed legislation would empower the police to suppress instead of protecting the people who had paid $US1.8 billion in wages to the security forces since 2017.

Beddoes said the Bill would dilute people’s constitutional rights and impose on them some of the harshest penalties and fines.

He said the proposed new law was ‘unwarranted and unjustified’.

Human rights activist Shamima Ali said this violated the fundamental rights of police officers who risked their lives on the front-line to ensure Fijians were safe.

Speaking at the International Women’s Day in Suva this week, Ali said i was time to push the barriers.

“The Police Bill has the potential to further shrink us,” she said. “We might think, ‘oh it doesn’t concern us. We’re only concerned with bread and butter’. This concerns everyone.

“We already have high rates of police brutality, pending cases and other criminal allegations. There are some hardworking, honest officers in the force but there are also the bad cops.”

The Coalition on Human Rights said this was not the time to be giving police more powers when Fiji was facing a pandemic of police brutality cases where individuals had lost their lives at the hands of police.

Its director, Nalini Singh, said this was unacceptable and a disgraceful reflection on the force which should be the bastion of lawfulness in this country.

Raised human rights concerns
“As the Coalition on Human Rights, we have repeatedly raised our concerns about the excessive force used by the Police during arrests on individuals, and the lack of transparency and urgency from the Police in investigation processes.

“And yet our call for urgent action have been left unanswered. This proposed Police Bill 2020 is a sad reflection of Fiji’s priorities in its commitments towards upholding and respecting human rights of Fijians.

According to data from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, between May 2015 and April 2020, 400 police officers were charged with serious violent-related offences.

The ODPP data showed the offences included 16 charges of rape, two charges of murder and nine charges of manslaughter.

The largest women’s group in Fiji, Soqosoqo Vakamarama iTaukei, said police officers had the right to be part of a union.

The group’s spokesperson, Adi Finau Tabakaucoro, said the Bill was supposed to help facilitate the work of the force.

Meanwhile, the Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Commission said it would, in its substantive submission, call for alignment of the Bill with the state’s human rights obligation under the domestic procedures and international conventions and treaties that Fiji had ratified.

Submission after tabling
Commissioner Ashwin Raj said his office would make its submission when the Bill was tabled in Parliament.

Raj said any commentary on the draft bill, before it was tabled in Parliament, was “premature”.

Meanwhile, police and the roads authority received an application for a protest permit march next week against the draft bill.

Lautoka-based businessman Ben Padarath also lodged applications with the Suva City Council.

The move has been supported by Opposition Whip Lynda Tabuya who said she would gather signatures for a petition to be presented to Parliament when it sits next month.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

New Zealand’s High Commissioner in Fiji, Jonathan Curr, has taken to social media to counter claims that Wellington drafted a bill to give greatly increased powers to Fiji’s often corrupt police force.

The Police Bill, tabled in Parliament last week, has been labelled draconian by critics while social media has been merciless over the friendship between prime ministers Voreqe Bainimarama and Jacinda Ardern.

She signed off on the deal in Suva in February 2020.

• READ MORE: More power for Fiji’s police force – draft bill enables eavesdropping

New Zealand is spending $11 million over four years to improve the Fiji Police Force which, since the 2006 Bainimarama coup, has been under military control.

Amid intense criticism on Facebook, Curr took to Twitter: “NZ is engaged in a 4 year strengthening programme with @fijipoliceforce, partnering with @UNDP_Pacific & @nzpolice to improve policing, and support Fiji to meet international human rights obligations.”

NZ is engaged in a 4 year strengthening programme with @fijipoliceforce, partnering with @Undp_Pacific & @nzpolice to improve policing, and support #Fiji to meet international human rights obligations.

— Jonathan Curr (@JCurrNZ) March 5, 2021

In a second tweet, Curr said a component of the aid programme was to support public consultations on the Draft Police Bill 2020, led by Ministry of Defence and National Security
He added: “NZ has not been involved in drafting or developing the Bill.”

And in a third tweet said: “Such an important piece of legislation needs to be consulted with Fiji’s citizens. This is an opportunity for the community to influence the final shape of the Bill, and to express concerns & provide feedback.”

NZ push for consultation ‘useful’
Fiji lawyer and politician, Tupou Draunidalo, went on Facebook to support Curr, suggesting New Zealand’s insistence on consultations was useful.

“If NZ did not sponsor the consultations, we would get the bill in its raw form through s.51 standing orders (as is normal) with one hour debate.”

She added: “So what the NZ government is sponsoring (to allow every Fijian a say in the Bill, not even just the parliamentarians) is highly commendable for current and future governance infrastructure.”

New Zealand, Australia and the UN Development Programme were rebuilding what the opposition and their allies destroyed over decades, Draunidalo said.

“If we really prefer no consultations, just write to the (New Zealand High Commission) so that they don’t waste their money on the doomed.”

The consultation process was formally launched last week with some odd optics. Police Minister Inia Seruiratu joined with UNDP representative Nanise Saune-Qaloewai and Curr to grasp a large military sword to cut an over-iced yellow cake.

The significance was not explained.

Target audience
The consultation New Zealand is paying for involves online surveys and face-to-face interviews. The “target audience” for consultation was five to 10,000 people by the end of April.

Social media critics have been outspoken. One asked how long Curr had been in the country: “Do you not know that the public consultation process is a facade and the (FijiFirst Party) government will do whatever they want regardless of what the public’s views are?”

Another said it was “clearly unacceptable unless NZ foreign policy now supports draconian legislation overseas.”

One comment said it would have been better to train police because most of them “don’t even know what they are doing.”

Another writer said the consultation process was an excuse by the government which could then use parliamentary orders to claim ”it has received public scrutiny—therefore allowing this bill to pass through with limited debate on the floor of Parliament.”

Curr had earlier said New Zealand was working on enhancing investigative skills, providing early access to justice and promoting gender equality.

“This is critical to supporting the work of other components of the criminal justice system, and it is an important plank in the efforts of New Zealand and Fiji to combat shared threats such as trans-national organised crime,” he said.

Communications powers
Under the bill, Fiji police take new powers to monitor communications and forcefully enter premises to place tracking devices. Police will have the powers to secretly or forcefully enter any premises to place tracking devices, states the draft law.

Police can also secretly monitor and record “communications” of persons about to commit a crime or have committed a crime if the draft law is passed in its current form.

The law also allows police to recruit an “informer” who is described as “any person who, whether formally recruited by police or otherwise, provides information in relation to anything sought by police for any lawful purpose”.

Police officers will not be allowed to join a union, states the draft law and it will be unlawful for them to go on strike or to take any industrial action.

Ardern announced the aid package just before covid-19 ended overseas travel.

“In the same way we cooperate on issues that affect the whole Pacific like climate change, Fiji and New Zealand will work together to combat transnational crime and drug trafficking, which are having an increasingly negative impact across the region,” she said

“The more we can do to prevent countries like Fiji being used as a transit point for trafficking, the more we can stop drugs arriving on New Zealand’s borders.

“This police partnership programme highlights the deepening of relations between New Zealand and Fiji and is an important step in the strengthening of a key institution in Fiji.”

Michael Field is a co-convenor of The Pacific Newsroom. This article is republished with permission.

Fiji police will have sweeping powers to monitor communications and forcefully enter premises to place tracking devices under the proposed Police Bill 2020.

The draft legislation is now open for public submissions and will replace the Police Act 1965 once passed by Parliament.

Police will have the powers to secretly or forcefully enter any premises to place tracking devices, states the draft law.

• READ MORE: Draft Police Bill says police can search crime scene without warrant

They will need to obtain a warrant from a High Court judge and “specify the vehicle, craft, or conveyance of any kind or goods that may be tracked, specify the premises, vehicle, craft, or conveyance of any kind that may be entered pursuant to the warrant”, states the draft law.

Police can also secretly monitor and record “communications” of persons about to commit a crime or have committed a crime if the draft law is passed in its current form.

The law also allows police to recruit an “informer” who is described as “any person who, whether formally recruited by police or otherwise, provides information in relation to anything sought by police for any lawful purpose”.

Police officers will not be allowed to join a union, states the draft law and it will be unlawful for them to go on strike or to take any industrial action.

Fiji Village radio website reports that the draft bill proposes that a police officer or special constable would be able to search a crime scene and seize potential evidence without a warrant.

The proposed law says a police officer or special constable may search any person, animal, vehicle or vessel at the crime scene or in the immediate vicinity of such crime scene.

Any person who fails to comply with this could be sent to prison for up to five years.

Anish Chand is a Fiji Times reporter. This report is republished with permission.