The government of Fiji yesterday reinstated the right to hold public meetings, which were outlawed following the 2006 coup that brought Fijian Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama to power.
The government announcement said public meetings could smooth the progress of public discussion as the South Pacific nation prepares for long-awaited consultation on a new constitution.
It also recognized “the important role” that non-governmental organizations and civil groups — including faith-based organizations — will play in the consultation process.
However, it warned the meetings would require police approval and it would not tolerate any gathering that allowed racial or religious criticism or undermined “the economy or financial integrity of Fiji.”
The Methodist Church, the largest Christian denomination in Fiji and representing about one-third of the 850,000-strong population, immediately welcomed the move.
In recent years the church has not been allowed to hold its annual conference, which was considered a public gathering, because the Bainimarama admnistration believed church leaders were critical of the military regime.
“The Methodist Church has finally got what we wanted and most importantly can carry out our annual conferences,” acting general secretary Reverend Tevita Nawadra said.
“We have waited for this of a long time. Now, with the approval of the government, we can carry out meetings unlike in the past years when we tried to have our meeting but the government came in and told us we can’t,” he added.
Bainimarama has said that a new constitution following “true consultations” must be in place for the country to hold elections in 2014.
He tore up the previous constitution when he seized power and promised a new document that would enshrine principles such as one-person-one-vote, an independent judiciary and transparent governance, as well as concentrating on establishing a secular, corruption-free state.
Bainimarama said the constitutional process, which will culminate in long-promised elections in 2014, would ensure “peace, prosperity, economic well-being, and a sustained and true democracy for all.”
In the sweltering streets of Jakarta, buskers carry towering, hollow puppets and pass around a bucket for donations. Now, they fear becoming outlaws. City authorities said they would crack down on use of the sacred ondel-ondel puppets, which can stand as tall as a truck, and they are drafting legislation to remove what they view as a street nuisance. Performances featuring the puppets — originally used by Jakarta’s Betawi people to ward off evil spirits — would be allowed only at set events. The ban could leave many ondel-ondel buskers in Jakarta jobless. “I am confused and anxious. I fear getting raided or even
Kemal Ozdemir looked up at the bare peaks of Mount Cilo in Turkey’s Kurdish majority southeast. “There were glaciers 10 years ago,” he recalled under a cloudless sky. A mountain guide for 15 years, Ozdemir then turned toward the torrent carrying dozens of blocks of ice below a slope covered with grass and rocks — a sign of glacier loss being exacerbated by global warming. “You can see that there are quite a few pieces of glacier in the water right now ... the reason why the waterfalls flow lushly actually shows us how fast the ice is melting,” he said.
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
RSS