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The multi-million dollar meeting house of Fiji’s Great Council of Chiefs is to be opened this Friday, four years after construction began.
Outgoing President Ratu Josefa Iloilo is expected to be confirmed by Government as guest of honour for the occasion.
Before its launch in 2005, the GCC had hoped that a member of the British Royal Family would open the new complex at its completion, given the close ties between the monarchy and Fiji’s chiefs.
But this will not be the case.
And neither will initial plans to exhume the remains of Fiji’s lone Victoria Cross recipient Corporal Sefanaia Sukanaivalu from Bougainville for a special memorial at the complex eventuate.
“I can not confirm that,” said Government spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Neumi Leweni.
Lt-Colonel Leweni did confirm that the main GCC meeting house to be opened will be called just that - “Vale ni Bose”.
On May 22, 2009 part of the new GCC building was officially opened to house the Ministry of Indigenous Affairs.
The main GCC meeting house and the rest of the complex will opened on Friday in what is expected to be a grand occasion.
The new complex is centrally located, next to Government House, where the President of the Republic of Fiji resides.
Meanwhile, the Minister for Indigenous Affairs Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama has yet to confirm when the GCC, suspended in early 2007, will be reconvened and meet at the new complex.
Following its dissolution, the interim Government approved new membership criteria for the GCC, including only those who have been traditionally installed, are not involved in politics and do not have a criminal record.
The new-look GCC, with a total of 52 members, 10 less than the previous GCC, is to be chaired by the Indigenous Affairs Minister.
This includes three representatives each from the 14 Fijian provinces and Rotuma, while the Minister will appoint six co-opt members who are chiefs who have been traditional installed and recorded as such in the register of Native Landowners administered by the Native Lands Commission.
Each member will take an oath of allegiance before the President and can seek re-appointment at the end of their three year term.
According to the GCC decree, members are disqualified if they:
- are an un-discharged bankrupt;
- are serving a prison term;
- contested the general elections;
- were office bearers of a political party;
- held public office, including Senate and the House of Representatives over the past seven years preceding their appointment to the council;
- have a previous conviction in the 10 years leading up to their appointment in the council, particularly if they had served a term of imprisonment of more than six months;
- have allegiance, obedience or adherence to a power or State outside Fiji including being a citizen or resident of another country;
- have unsound mind in respect of the Mental Treatment Act.
