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Issue No: 675; 12 April 2001
No ethnic Indian of repute in Fiji has accepted offers by Laisenia Qarase to become a member of the Qarase cabinet. Qarase had announced on the day of his swearing-in in mid March that he will include ethnic Indians in his cabinet. Yesterday he announced that he was not doing this. His reason was that the pending court case on the legality of the Qarase regime "created uncertainty, doubts and problems which made it inadvisable to expand the cabinet". The actual reason, however, is that no ethnic Indian of any repute was prepared to serve on a team which is illegal and which is overtly racist. Numerous businessmen were approached, but all declined the offers. In his statement to the media, Qarase condemned the court challenge. He asked: "Where will it lead us? Will it help us to remain on a steady course for the restoration of parliamentary governance? Or will it take us into further confusion and instability and delay the elections? Is the legal option … reflective of a spirit of compromise?" One ethnic Indian who earlier had accepted to serve on
Qarase's Constitution Review Commission, has already condemned the racist agenda
of the Commission and resigned. |
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People's Coalition Government - Fiji Islands |
