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Fiji Church Gives Last Effort To Lift Regime Conference Ban

By: Derick Ho
CP Asia Correspondent
Tuesday, 14 July 2009, 8:01 (EST)
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Fiji’s Methodist church is pinning its last hope on the meeting with interim Prime Minister this week will result in it to go ahead with an important annual conference that happens in August every year.

The General Secretary of Fiji’s Methodist Church, the Reverend Tuikilakila Waqairatu, says a discussion was confirmed was confirmed before the interim Prime Minister left for Vanuatu, reported Radio New Zealand International on 8 June.

But the government spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel, Neumi Leweni, has repeated that as far as the interim regime is concerned, the annual conference is off:

“As far as government is concerned the decision has been made, its been postponed indefinitely and that’s what it is now. Apparently a lot of people are saying so many things, but nothing has changed it’s remained at that, it’s off and that’s it.”

Lieutenant Colonel Leweni says he has passed the message through the local media that the church hierarchy should be telling its members the annual gathering won’t be going ahead.

The Fiji Methodists' conference each August is the church's major annual event. It features a big choir competition and it is where the church raises a good deal of money for its operations and ongoing activities. Last year, the conference netted the church more than 1.6 million U.S. dollars.

However, the police and military in Fiji announced on May 29 that a permit for this year's Methodist Conference was being refused under Fiji's Emergency Regulations. The Emergency Regulations came into force on Good Friday when Fiji's constitution was abolished and all the judges were sacked.

It came in the wake of Methodist senior minister Reverend Manasa Lasaro, who seemed to have angered the regime when he used a sermon to call for peaceful protests to restore democracy.

These sweeping regulations give Bainimarama's Government virtually total power under what is called 'Fiji's New Legal Order'.

The reason given for the refusal to allow the conference to proceed was that 'political' subjects would be discussed which could lead to trouble.

According to FijiLive, the Methodist Church leaders sought a meeting with the Commodore on 3 June to plead for the ban to be lifted. The meeting went ahead but Bainimarama refused to yield.

“Basically the conference will happen once they remove politics not only from their agenda but from the church too,” Commodore Frank Bainimarama, the interim Prime Minister said.

And have demanded the Church to sack two of its former presidents, the Reverend Manasa Lasaro and the Reverend Tomasi Kanailagi, whom the regime sees as interfering in the affairs of the government.

Australia Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported that Methodists in Fiji numbers over 200,000 in a population of less than one million.

About 80 per cent of Fiji's indigenous people are members of the Methodist Church. With 90 per cent of the military being indigenous Fijians this has led to some speculation as to the extent of support Commodore Bainimarama has from within his own ranks for banning the Methodist Conference.

Earlier, Australia’s Uniting Church, Tonga Methodists in New Zealand, Fiji’s Ecumenical Centre for Research, Education and Advocacy (ECREA) have all called upon the Figi regime to allow Fiji’s Methodist Church to hold the annual conference ‘Bose Ko Viti’ which is supposed to held next month – August 2009.

Meanwhile, the military ruler on 1 July announced that it will have a new constitution in 2013 that scraps the ethnic-based system introduced in 1997, according to BBC news.

Unveiling his "roadmap" for a return to democracy, Commodore Frank Bainimarama said elections would be held in 2014.

The ban on the Methodists’ annual conference, if not rescind, will likely to stay for another five years.


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