Question 1
What were the major factors that led to the review of the 1990 Constitution and how it was formulated?
A constitution is a set of rules and regulations by which a country is governed by. They often determine what happens in a country and how the people of different races and nationalities deal with everything that is going on in the country. Fiji, is one of the countries that has had four different constitutions and one of the ones involved in change is the 1990 Constitution.
Factors that led to the Review
- One of the first factors that led to the review is the stagnation of the economy. This was a widespread perception in the country that it was due to the political instability that was being faced inside the country.
- Secondly, another reason for the reform was that the World Bank had urged the government to initiate a reform process; in turn dealing with the constitution and to enter into dialogue with the Indo Fijian community. Therefore, the other international organizations hoped that the two races would come into harmony with each other.
- Also, there was a certain amount of pressure from Fiji’s major bi-lateral donors, for instance New Zealand, UK, and Australia for the two communities to live together.
- There were a lot of demands upon the government on racial discriminations which was performed by the ITaukei’s and it posed a violation of human rights in the international community so they reformed the constitution.
The constitution was then further formulated when the review had occurred in 1993. In order to increase the credibility of the subcommittee, Rabuka had in turn persuade two members of the two opposition parties FNP and FLP to join. In the attempt to make sure everything was fair the people were consulted and recommended a draft constitution. Hence, that is how it was formulated.
Question 2
What are the major pots of 1990 and 1997 Constitution?
1990 Constitution
The government still followed the ways and the practices of the colonizers and hence wanted to protect the interest of the Fijians. These are some of the points of the 1990 Constitution:
- To exclude permanently any possibilities of Indo-Fijians forming government.
- The constitution that was made was seen to be biased towards the rural Fijians.
- Abolished all forms of non-racial electorates or voting.