Chapter 2: Compact. The second chapter of the Fiji Constitution

Constitution of Fiji

The 1997 Constitution of Fiji was the supreme law of Fiji from its adoption in 1997 until 2009 when President Josefa Iloilo purported to abrogate it. It was also suspended for a period following the 2000 coup d'état led by Commodore Frank Bainimarama....

 contains Sections 6 and 7 of the Constitution. They summarize, in "compact" form, the intent and purpose of the Constitution, as well as the goals that it seeks to accomplish. It establishes the principles on which the Fiji government

Politics of Fiji

Politics of Fiji takes place within the framework of a parliamentary representative democratic republic. Fiji has a multi-party system with the Prime Minister of Fiji as head of government. The executive power is exercised by the government...

 are to be based, and according to which the Constitution is to be interpreted.
Section 6 sets out the following principles. They are only a summary; they are dealt with more fully by subsequent chapters of the Constitution.

• The rights of all individuals and population groups are to be respected fully.
• Property ownership is defined, and protected. The ownership of Fijian land according to Fijian custom is preserved, along with the ownership of freehold land. The rights of landlords and tenants under leases of agricultural land are formally recognized and protected. Indigenous Fijians insisted on this clause, fearful that a future government dominated by Indo-Fijians might try to change the land laws, under which more than eighty percent of the land is still owned by Fijian tribes, but leased by individuals, including Indo-Fijians. The fear of forced land reform had been one of the pretexts given by instigators and supports of the coup of 1987, which removed an Indo-Fijian supported government from power.
• The right of all Fiji citizens "to practice their religion freely and to retain their language, culture and traditions" is guaranteed. These rights safeguard both indigenous and Indo-Fijian culture; many ethnic Fijians
  Fijian people
  Fijian people are the major indigenous people of the Fiji Islands, and live in an area informally called Melanesia. The Fijian people are believed to have arrived in Fiji from western Melanesia approximately 3,500 years ago, though the exact origins of the Fijian people are unknown...
  
   sought a provision to safeguard their strongly Christian traditions from possible future Indo-Fijian attempts at Hinduization if they should gain political power, while many Indo-Fijians were alarmed by the efforts of fundamentalist Christians to enshrine Christianity in the Constitution as the official religion of the republic, a goal that some Christians have continued to push for since. This Compact enunciates a compromise that is repeated throughout the Constitution: although laced with references to Christianity, the constitution carefully protects the rights of all Fiji citizens to profess, practice both privately and publicly, and propagate all religions. The language provisions, too, benefit both major population groups. Increasing use of English
  English language
  English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
  
  , especially among the younger generation, has concerned leaders of both the indigenous and Indo-Fijian communities that a future government might mandate an English-only education system, which, they fear, would lead to the demise of their own languages. But while English is the main language of most schools, the right of parents to choose schools teaching in Fijian
  Fijian language
  Fijian is an Austronesian language of the Malayo-Polynesian family spoken in Fiji. It has 450,000 first-language speakers, which is less than half the population of Fiji, but another 200,000 speak it as a second language...
  
   or Hindustani
  Hindustani language
  Hindi-Urdu is an Indo-Aryan language and the lingua franca of North India and Pakistan. It is also known as Hindustani , and historically, as Hindavi or Rekhta...
  
   - or any other language - is protected by the Constitution.
• The "separate" administrative systems - in other words, the traditional chiefly systems - of the Fijian and Rotuman people
  Rotuman people
  The Rotuman people are the indigenous inhabitants of Rotuma, a small island group forming part of the Republic of Fiji. The island itself is a cultural melting pot at the crossroads of the Micronesian, Melanesian and Polynesian divisions of the Pacific Ocean, and due to the seafaring nature of...
  
   are preserved. The purpose of this is twofold. Many ethnic Fijians see the rule of their chiefs, each of whom heads a matagali, or clan, as a bulwark against domination by non-Fijians. Although similar in some respects to the British
  United Kingdom
  The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
  
   Peerage
  Peerage
  The Peerage is a legal system of largely hereditary titles in the United Kingdom, which constitute the ranks of British nobility and is part of the British honours system...
  
   system, it is closer to the people, as almost all ethnic Fijians are somewhat closely related to a Ratu (chief), whose power therefore gives the entire clan a direct voice in politics. The second provision, for the Rotuma
  Rotuma
  Rotuma is a Fijian dependency, consisting of Rotuma Island and nearby islets. The island group is home to a small but unique indigenous ethnic group which constitutes a recognizable minority within the population of Fiji, known as "Rotumans"...
  
  n administrative system, was to assuage the fears of the Rotuman Islanders of political and cultural domination by the other population groups. Related more closely to the New Zealand
  New Zealand
  New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
  
   Māoris and other Polynesian
  Polynesian culture
  Polynesian culture refers to the indigenous peoples' culture of Polynesia who share common traits in language, customs and society. Chronologically, the development of Polynesian culture can be divided into four different historical eras:...
  
   peoples than to the Fijians, who are predominantly Melanesian, and numbering only ten thousand, about 1.2 percent of Fiji's total population, they wanted their cultural identity protected, along with a degree of political autonomy. In 1987, following the coup, Rotuman secessionists had tried to organize a bid for independence from Fiji. This clause in the Compact may be seen as an attempt to placate them.
• All Fiji citizens, of whatever ethnic background, are guaranteed equality before the law. Their right to make their permanent homes in the Fiji Islands is also protected.
• Every Fiji citizen is guaranteed the right to form or join a political party, to participate in electoral campaigns, and to vote and hold political office. Elections to the House of Representatives
  House of Representatives (Fiji)
  The House of Representatives is the lower chamber of Fiji's Parliament. It is the more powerful of the two chambers; it alone has the power to initiate legislation...
  
   are to be free, fair, by secret ballot, and ultimately on the basis of equal suffrage. This was to redress the grievances of the Indo-Fijian community that under the previous constitution (adopted in 1990), the allocation of specific numbers of seats to particular ethnic communities had greatly overrepresented ethnic Fijians, at their expense.
• A government (executive) must be formed that has the support of a majority in the House of Representatives. Inclusion of a particular political party in the Cabinet
  Cabinet (Fiji)
  Fiji has the Westminster system - executive authority is vested nominally in a President, but exercised in practice by a Cabinet of Ministers, presided over by the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister is formally appointed, but not chosen, by the President: the President must appoint as Prime...
  
  (executive) depends on the electoral support for that party in the most recent election. No political party, however, may be forced to participate in the Cabinet against its will.
• In the formation of a government, and in the promotion of legislation or the implementation of administrative policies, full account must be taken of the interests of all communities. In the event of a perceived conflict in the interests of the different communities, all interested parties are required to negotiate in good faith with a view to reading agreement. In all such negotiations, however, "the paramountcy of Fijian interests as a protective principle continues to apply, so as to ensure that the interests of the Fijian community are not subordinated to the interests of other communities. In other words, the interests of all communities must be taken into account and negotiated over, but in the event of a deadlock, indigenous Fijian interests prevail.
• Affirmative action and social justice programs are to be set up, in order to secure "effective equality of access to opportunities, amenities or services for the Fijian and Rotuman people, as well as for other communities, for women as well as men, and for all disadvantaged citizens or groups." Such programs must be based on "an allocation of resources broadly acceptable to all communities." This provision for affirmative action is meant to guarantee equality of opportunity, not equality of results. There is a widespread perception among ethnic Fijians that most of the nation's wealth is in Indo-Fijian hands, and this clause was written partly to allay their fears. It is not race-specific, however: the poor of all communities are intended to benefit.
• Equitable power-sharing must be not only political, but also economic and commercial. The granting of equal political rights to Indo-Fijians must be matched by an economic empowerment of indigenous Fijians, "to ensure that all communities fully benefit from the nation's economic progress."

Section 7 deals with the application of the Compact. The principles referred to in section 6 are a statement of intentions, only. They may not be used justiciably; they may not be used as a basis for ruling a law to be constitutional or unconstitutional, unless they are included in other provisions of the Constitution, or in a law made under the constitution. They are intended, however, to serve as a frame of reference for interpreting the whole constitution.