Media rubbishes Scott judgement

Issue No: 934; 12 July 2001

 
Two of the three print media in Fiji have condemned the decision of Michael Scott to uphold the violation of the Constitution by the President.

Today the Fiji Times and the Fiji Sun have both run strong editorials hitting out at Scott for saying and the Constitution can be done away with at the whim of the President. The Daily Post, however, endorsed the judgment. The Post is owned by the state; its editor is a close relative of regime's Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase. The paper is now managed by Yashwant Goundar of the Review Magazine and the Fijilive website. Goundar has reportedly sacked the publisher Ranjit Singh.

The Fiji Sun wrote:
"Justice Michael Scott's judgment is too practical that it is in consistent."

"Yes, he agrees that the President erred when he failed to summon parliament after May 27, 2000. In so doing, Justice Scott has ruled that the President's decision was inconsistent with the Constitution."

"Why then did he throw out the legal questions raided about the President's other decisions - which is tied to the very declaration he upheld?"

"As such, while Justice Scott agrees that we can't lose sight of the Constitution, his decisions to dismiss the other declarations is inconsistent with the principles of democracy."

"He suggests that his decision was based on trying avoid the legal and administrative nightmare that his judgment could have caused had it been aligned towards the appellants."

"Of course, we all hate nightmares!"

"But what would have been another nightmare to put things right once and for all? At least our misdirected journeys of the past could have been put on the right course by the courts."

"Yes, courts are a part of society, not above it."

"But don't they have a legal obligation to see that society fits into the legal framework that binds them?"

"While all judgments need to be sensible and practical, it also needs to be legalistic. If it has to be excessive in the process, then, why not?"

"We need to know that no one is above the law - not even the President. We need to be informed that the Constitution is still the supreme law of this country and on one can twist if for practical purposes."

"Justice Scott was right about one thing when he quoted the prophetic words of William Blake, who wrote that:
"the errors of a wise man make your rule rather than the perfections of a fool""

"In so doing, he has justified the common human fallacies that we can only learn from our mistakes. Likewise, in Joy Jumps Barbara Johnson said that the road to success has many detours because it is always under construction (1995)."

"This country's road to success has been under various forms of construction - only to be completely deconstructed twice by coups. And then to be deconstructed again, by the very thing that should have held its infrastructure - its legal arm."

"In other works - the blood, sweat and tear that our ancestors, our parents, and we all have put into building this country has been all for nothing."

"We might as well just do away with our Constitution."

"Afterall, for practical reasons, we can be immune from it related sections and clauses!"

 

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