Fiji, 2009

I extend our warm

greetings to the President and to this Assembly. I

congratulate him on his election to the presidency of

the General Assembly at this sixty-fourth session. I pay

tribute to his predecessor, His Excellency Mr. Miguel

d’Escoto Brockmann, for presiding over the sixty-third

session with great sensitivity and for bringing a human

face to our work.

The sixty-fourth session of the General Assembly

will address important contemporary issues of interest

to all Member nations. Such issues include seeking out

effective responses to global crises and strengthening

multilateralism and dialogue on international peace,

security and development. Those issues are indeed of

critical importance to my own country, a small island

developing State that has been enriched by its

membership of and participation in the United Nations.

Fiji and its people, like all small developing

island States, are among the first victims of

contemporary global crises, such as the financial and

economic crisis, the 2009 H1N1 pandemic and, most

dramatic of all, the phenomenon of climate change. In

small economies like ours, those global events have a

very real effect on the daily livelihoods of our people.

For our part, we have attempted to respond to some of

those crises by making policy changes and

adjustments, encouraging our people to grow their own

food and discouraging food imports wherever possible.

Over the past two years, the size of our public service

has been rationalized. We have maintained a very

streamlined Cabinet structure and significantly

controlled Government operational costs.

There have been critics of the events in Fiji since

December 2006, when the military, with great

reluctance, was forced to remove the then Government

of Fiji. I believe that these critics are largely unaware

of the extent to which politicians, in league with those

who employ terror as a tactic to push racial supremacy

and a corrupt agenda, had become a threat to the safety

and security of our people. Terrorism has become a

global issue and it impacts Fiji as well. We are fully

cooperating in the international effort to control and

contain this scourge.

Next year on 10 October, Fiji will celebrate the

fortieth year of its independence and the fortieth

anniversary of its membership in the United Nations.

We embraced our independence full of enthusiasm,

excited by the prospect of deciding our own future and

believing that our community as a whole would work

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together to achieve a better life for all of our people.

Our path has not been smooth or easy.

The President of Fiji abrogated the Constitution

on 10 April this year. He took this step when a Court of

Appeal ruling created a legal vacuum — a

constitutional anomaly which would have also

prevented implementation of the reforms which were

mandated by him in order to achieve a truly democratic

State.

On 1 July of this year, I announced a road map to

lead Fiji to a new constitution and elections based on

equality, equal suffrage, human rights, justice,

transparency, modernity and true democratic ideals.

My Government and I were mandated to carry out and

to continue the reforms, which will ensure that true,

democratic, non-communal and equal suffrage-based

elections for parliamentary representation will be held

by September 2014. A road map to implement this

mandate was announced on 1 July of this year.

Together with stringent steps to protect our

economy from the effects of the world economic crisis,

work will commence on a new constitution by

September 2012. The basis for the new constitution

will be the ideals and principles formulated by the

People’s Charter for Change and Progress, a document

prepared following widespread consultations with and

input from the people of Fiji. The People’s Charter was

adopted by the President after the endorsement of the

majority of the people of Fiji.

Work on the new constitution will involve

consultations with all the ordinary citizens of our

country, as well as with civil society. Consultations

will focus on issues such as the size of the new

parliament, the sustainability of a bicameral system,

the terms of office of Government, and systems of

accountability of Government to the people. The new

constitution will implement reforms and the results of

extensive consultations and will be in place by

September 2013. This will give the people of Fiji a

year to become familiar with its provisions before the

elections take place in September 2014.

There have been critics of this timeline. These

critics have asked why work on the new constitution

will not commence before September 2012. The

answer is very simple, at least to those who know and

understand Fiji’s history. Fiji has a colonial history that

has created many anomalies and inequalities and whose

legacy resonates today. Consequently and due also to

the politicians, our post-colonial period has been

punctuated by political instability. On each occasion

that a new Government has been voted into power, the

old elite which benefited financially from the previous

established Government has been able to successfully

destabilize the Government and to replace it with its

own supporters and representatives. This was possible

only because those institutions of the State that were

supposed to protect democracy and democratic values

instead colluded with the elite to destabilize and

replace the new Government.

And that is not all. Fiji has suffered more than

20 years of mismanagement, corruption and nepotism.

Our infrastructure, our judicial system and our systems

of accountability have all remained underdeveloped

and unproductive. Many of our finest brains have left

the country because they could see no future in a

country governed by ethno-nationalism, corruption and

greed. In order to ensure that democracy has a real

chance of survival in Fiji’s future, serious and

principled reforms must be implemented to build roads,

institutions and values.

Together with infrastructure, the hearts and minds

of our people must adopt and cherish true democracy.

The way of the old elite must never triumph again.

There must be reforms before elections to ensure that

democracy is sustainable for Fiji’s long-term future.

The people of Fiji deserve better than the short-term

band-aid solutions we have experienced over the past

decades.

I ask for patience and understanding, particularly

from our neighbours, who have shown a surprising lack

of understanding and disregard of the peculiar situation

which our country has experienced since independence.

Put another way, there is an almost blind faith that

once independence has been granted to those who were

under colonial rule and the machinery of democracy

begins to work, the country concerned will enjoy

smooth sailing. Nothing could be further from the

truth. I invite the international community to engage

with us, to visit our country to see the situation, and to

provide practical support and assistance to enable us to

implement the reforms.

History is replete with the struggles of people the

world over for self-determination in order to be free

from subjugation and foreign domination. Our own

experience should have provided some indication, if

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one is needed, of how difficult it has been for us to

achieve true, genuine and sustainable democracy.

Many of the nations represented in this Hall

today have experienced the traumas of nation-building.

It would not be out of place to reflect on what

President Obama said during his address to the General

Assembly on Wednesday, 23 September:

“Democracy cannot be imposed on any

nation from the outside. Each society must search

for its own path, and no path is perfect. Each

country will pursue a path rooted in the culture of

its people and in its past traditions.” ()

We thoroughly endorse such sentiments.

Our dream is for equality, for justice and for

security. Our dream is for dignity and for economic

well-being. Our dream is for true democracy. I thank

those of our friends who have had continued dialogue

with me and my Government and who have helped us

to achieve what they themselves now take for granted.

I thank Fiji’s friends for their respect and

understanding even when we agree to differ on some

issues. If there is to be genuine dialogue at both the

regional and the international levels, there must be a

willingness to listen and to respect a different point of

view.

To those nations that have refused to engage with

Fiji and have expressed an unwillingness to enter into

dialogue, I can only repeat my plea that they change

their stance. Fiji is a small nation. Our people pose no

threat to anyone, least of all to the big Powers of the

South Pacific that have arrogated to themselves the

right to dictate to us our future and the way we govern

ourselves. We respect the right of anyone who

disagrees with us to exercise their freedom. However,

that does not give them the right to interfere with our

efforts to build a better country for our people.

In addition to all of this, they have used their

extensive diplomatic and financial resources to deny

Fiji the ability to participate in new peacekeeping

operations. Fiji has participated in peacekeeping

operations since 1978 and is proud of its association

with the United Nations, in particular with the

Department of Peacekeeping Operations. Indeed, the

Fiji Military Forces, since the beginning of their

participation in peacekeeping, have established a

reputation for professionalism, skill and rapport with

the communities in their areas of operation.

Fiji has been disappointed by what appears to be

a unilateral decision on the part of the United Nations

to debar our country from any new peacekeeping

operations. To this day, we have not been able to

receive a clear and satisfactory reply from the

Organization on this matter. I express the hope that the

United Nations will deal equitably and fairly with

troop-contributing countries.

Our experiences as a member of the United

Nations, particularly in the area of peacekeeping, will

be strengthened and enhanced by our People’s Charter

and the road map to the elections. Those documents

aptly demonstrate the positive values of genuine

dialogue and engagement. We believe that, if we are to

achieve genuine peace, security and development in

our country, we must build on a foundation of patience

and respect for all views.

Like most small island nations, Fiji regards the

threat posed by climate change as one that will

undermine international peace and security. The lives

of real people from real places are at stake. The future

survival of real generations, the continuation of real

cultures and the security of belonging to a real

homeland are being threatened.

The adverse impacts of climate change will be

politically blind; its devastating effects on humanity

will far outweigh any ideology or system of belief

devised by man. The potential casualties resulting from

its impacts could be far greater than those caused by

any of the battles we have ever fought. Yet the ability

to reverse its onslaught is well within our collective

control.

Fiji is thankful to the general membership of the

Assembly for adopting, at its previous session, a

resolution promoted by small island developing States

linking the threat of climate change to security. Some

of Fiji’s closest neighbours live on the lowest-lying

atolls in the world. The rise in sea level brought about

by climate change threatens literally to drown them.

Why should they be forced to abandon their homeland

for no fault of their own? All human beings have the

right to live in their ancestral homeland, if they so

choose.

It is vital to understand that no measure of

financial assistance can resurrect what has submerged,

generate rain to end drought, reverse the effects of

natural disasters or replace what has been lost as a

result of climate change. No small island State can

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survive the future by merely mitigating the impacts of

climate change. Adaptation and mitigation are not

enough. We can halt the impact of climate change and

ensure the survival of island States only by

significantly reducing carbon emissions.

It is on the basis of that premise that Fiji, as one

of the States that are more vulnerable to the impacts of

climate change, calls on all nations — in particular the

major emitters — to be responsible and commit

themselves to the carbon emission reduction targets of

approximately 45 per cent from 1990 levels by 2020

and 85 per cent by 2050, with a global atmosphere

concentration of less than 350 parts per million; and,

further, to limit temperature increases to less than

1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial level by

2020. I wish to emphasize that, realistically, that is the

minimum reduction level that will allow us to address

the devastating impacts of climate change that we

currently face.

To fail to meet those targets would be to make the

probability of risk astoundingly high for the most

vulnerable. To negotiate on those targets would mean

negotiating on the lives of millions. The inequity that

exists in terms of the extent of our vulnerabilities and

abilities to meet mitigating costs vis-à-vis our

contributions to climate change has divided our views

and weakened our collective strength to deal with this

global issue. Those inequitable circumstances are

further complicated by the conflicting political and

economic interests of States. Understandably, decisions

and positions are based on national self-interests,

which, in most cases, take priority over the principles

of equity and responsibility.

Those are the differences that have given rise to

the challenges that we currently face as an international

community in arriving at a binding international

agreement that responds to the current most

fundamental need of the world: its survival.

Fiji hopes that political goodwill and compromise

will be found on the road to Copenhagen and that the

necessary platform will soon be found for a fair,

effective and ambitious climate change regime that

ensures significant reductions in carbon emissions and

the creation of a financial regime that supports the

adaptation and mitigation needs of every country,

particularly the most vulnerable ones.

My Government is committed to upholding the

principles and values enshrined in the Charter of the

United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human

Rights and other United Nations conventions. We are

resolutely committed to the elimination of all policies

and laws that are inconsistent with our international

obligations. We wish to create a new and brighter

future for our people based on equality, dignity and

respect.

We seek the understanding of the General

Assembly and the community of nations, as well as

their support in fulfilling our dreams.