The Constitutional Commission will soon release to the public a 50-page booklet that will enable people to understand the process of constitution making.
Constitutional Commission chairperson, Professor Yash Ghai says the booklet is aimed at facilitating discussion among all Fijians and it also identifies several issues since independence.
“The booklet also looks at past experiences with constitutions in Fiji and also issues that need to be addressed in a constitution, the obvious one being the system of Government that Fiji will have, whether we will continue with the parliamentary system since Fiji has had since independence,” Professor Ghai said.
“There are several constitutional issues including the role of the security forces but the commission will not give any answers, people have to tell us what they want.”
Professor Ghai also added that the booklet would give opposing questions partly by giving options in comparison to what other countries have done.
“The commission is not trying to influence answers by the public, we want to hear views of all Fijians as the booklet is primarily to facilitate discussions among themselves before they come to talk to us,” Professor Ghai said.
“This is also the first time people have been invited in an extensive way to make submissions regarding Fiji’s constitution and we are aiming to be very extensive in our consultations in seeking views so that we can really call it the peoples constitution .”
Constitutional Commissioner, Satendra Nandan also said that people could make submissions in the three major languages (English, Fijian and Hindhi) and in any form because the commission will have translators including interpreters for sign language.
The Constitutional Commission begins hearing submissions from the people of Fiji on Friday, August 3 at the lower civic auditorium.