The non-government organisation, Dialogue Fiji, has now called off a planned meeting to discuss the state of the country's sugar industry.
It announced plans yesterday for a meeting next Wednesday after a first attempt to hold one two weeks ago was shut down by police.
That meeting was stopped because Dialogue Fiji didn't have a permit for it.
It subsequently got a permit for a meeting but executive director Nilesh Lal says the organisation has decided that the conditions posed too much of a threat to the participants.
He says the permit required discussion that was not inciteful, provocative or defamatory.
Sugar cane trucks in Fiji's western division.
Photo: RNZ / Alex Perrottet
Transcript
NILESH LAL: We sought clarifications from police and based on feedback that we got from him there is no real clear definitions of what this can actually constitute. So that is very problematic from our perspective because a whole lot of things can be construed, you know coming from these perspectives. They can be considered as inciting or in particular defamotry. And then of course you know when we were preparing for the dialogue we had had discussions with a number of stakeholders and we see that a number of these people have quite strong sentiments about certain things in the industry. And one of the things that Dialogue Fiji prides itself on is that it is able to create spaces given the skill of the moderators and given the fact that we provide neutral spaces for engagement. That are able to create delivery processes that are very genuine that are very sincere that are very deep. There are some deep conversations that we are able to get going. So if there are all these constraints we felt that we might fall short of being able to get conversations going that are meaningful and effective and useful in that respect. We also thought that given the fact that all these things are open to varied interpretation then we might possibly also be jeopardising the safety of pariticipants particularly in light of what has transpired in the last few weeks,the detention of people for attending forums. So unless we have some further clarity about what the ambits of these laws and these particular provisions and these regulations and conditions that are placed on permits mean, it would not be very prudent for us to convene a dialogue.
DON WISEMAN: Of course the issue remains doesn't it the sugar industry will remain in this powerless state and facing an even more powerless future unless there are dramatic changes. So Dialogue Fiji I guess you still want to have this meeting at some point?
NL: Well as we have always said our intention has been to also help the government get some constructive feedback from the people. Also create and independent forum where various stakeholders are able to converge and be able to deliberate on possible solutions and be able to come up with some useful suggestions.
DW: So will you be going back to the government and to the police and saying look we need to clarify what you mean when you say inciteful and defamatory?
NL: We are in the process of writing to the police asking further clarifications of what these terms actually constitute. And I think in light of what has happened in the past few weeks, the other organisations in the civil society are also a little bit apprehensive about organising any further NGO activities and there is a need of course for the authorities to come out and explain to the society to the people at large what are the exact restrictions on meetings, on associating with others and on speech as well. At the moment of course those clarifications have not been made but as has also been mentioned by the president talking about parliament for the new session, that there will be some changes to the public order amendment order decree.
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