Everything has gone a bit quiet on the state of play in Fiji at the moment – the normalisation of the military regime is obviously continuing apace…..
A good illustration of this is the fact that the military have allowed most lawyers to practice (we presume with certain unsaid strictures) whilst a few "troublemakers", such as Graham Leung, have been sidelined.
Here’s how NZ radio report it
Fiji’s interim government has issued practising certificates to a large majority of Fiji’s lawyers.
The Chief Registrar’s Office, which took over the role from the Fiji Law Society, has publicly listed 337 lawyers who have been permitted to practice.
Former Law Society president, Graham Leung, is an outspoken critic of the military regime and one of the small number of lawyers who did not reapply.
Mr Leung says his decision was a matter of principle and conscience.
“The large majority of lawyers took an entirely pragmatic view of the situation and I’m not going to criticise them for that. Those are individual decisions. But really at a time of crisis such as this one might have hoped that the lawyers might have demonstrated greater leadership.”
Graham Leung says compliance with the military regime is disappointing but not surprising given that the lawyers have to earn a living
