Transcript
RO TEIMUMU KEPA: The Black Ribbon is to signify the concern that we have on some of the happenings in the last two years, now that we've reached our mid-term, and the latest being the incarceration of our party leaders over the weekend.
DON WISEMAN: In parliament you got what sort of reaction from wearing these black ribbons?
RTK: Very little, if any, as they were concerned about the latest reshuffle in cabinet and also concentrating on the president's speech.
DW: What do you make of these arrests over the weekend?
RTK: Our concern is that after the elections the belief is that we are now living in a democracy where there is no longer the dictatorship that we experienced over the last eight years. Two years later we have realised, you know in the last two years here in parliament, there are decrees that are very much in place and also the fact that there are some parties that are thriving in a democracy and others are still contained within the dictatorship decrees.
DW: In the speech from the president today, he made reference to plans in the session to remove a fair bit of legislation, including the public order act. You'd be delighted at that?
RTK: If that would turn out to be true, we might be delighted in that. In light of the fact that with the Public Order Act we all have to apply for a permit to conduct any meetings, including visits to our constituencies, which the opposition parties have to abide by although the Fiji First Party can hold their meetings anywhere, everywhere and at any time of the day or night. They are not held under these restrictions which our opposition political parties have to strictly abide by, otherwise you know what happened to the leaders that were incarcerated over the weekend.
DW: The black ribbons, will you continue wearing them in parliament as the session continues?
RTK: I think with the black ribbon, we did have a caucus meeting before that, in regard to the fact that there are some issues that are very important that we need to bring out to the public. Amongst them is the suspension of our two opposition MP's. One will be returning in May next year and the other one, both of them for two years, the other one is expected to be expelled, yeah practically expelled from parliament because the remaining two years she will not be here. And there are very important issues also that we are concerned about that we need to consider in terms of black ribbon.
DW: So you may wear it for some time?
RTK: We'll have to discuss that in caucus in see what we need to do next.
