SVT mobilised mobs

Issue No: 970; 25 July 2001

The SVT party had mobilized mobs to destabilize the elected government, says SVT member Jone Dakuvula.

In an affidavit sworn to support the CCF's case against the dissolution of the Parliament, Jone Dakuvula states:
"I was the Chief Adviser to the Leader of the Opposition, Ratu Inoke Kubuabola from June to September 1999 and I was privy to discussions which began the campaigns in the Provincial Councils for the agitations leading to the seizure of the Chaudhry
Government. The decision to campaign against the 1997 Constitution and to "shorten the life of the Chaudhry Government" (to quote Ratu Inoke Kubuabola) was in those early days of the S.V.T.'s defeat."

Dakuvula also stated: "I know some politicians had mobilized the Provincial Councils to oppose the Reeves Report and three years later (1999), the 1997 Constitution. I know this for a fact as I had worked with the S.V.T. Members of Parliament who made submissions to the Constitution Review Commission in 1996. I also knew this as I helped co-ordinate the S.V.T's 1999 General Elections campaign and thereafter was appointed as Chief Adviser to the Leader of the Opposition, Ratu Inoke Kubuabola."

Dakuvula argues that "any initiative from the Provincial Council members, to arouse the ordinary Fijians to violently oppose the recall of Parliament" is possible only 'through exploitation of the fears and ignorance of the ordinary Fijians'. In other words, through deliberate incitement to break laws, and not through a spontaneous demonstration of ordinary Fijians with real grievances about the 1997 Constitution. I believe only a very small group of Fijians are opposed to the 1997 Constitution."

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