Atiyafa’s bill deserves to be considered

Letters, Normal
Source:

The National, Wednesday 19th September 2012

THERE are always two sides of the coin.
MP Robert Atiyafa’s proposed private member bill ought to be given a fair go and a closer look before we oppose it.
Atiyafa is not wrong when he stressed that so much of taxpayers’ money has been spent on instituting commissions of inquiry that never resulted in any prosecution.
It is disheartening that so much time, effort and money were spent on inquiries, which derived no palpable results.
The government and its law-enforcing bodies and the judiciary are toothless, especially when they deal with “big men”.
So, Atiyafa was spot on.
The second fragment of his bill should include that any leader or high-profile personality in-volved in any form or misconduct must be treated as a criminal and no less.
This means the privilege of leadership code established to set up an inquiry into the misdemeanour of parliamentarians or high-profile individuals must be completely abolished.
This would enable the police crime investigation unit to step in and arrest perpetrators, lay charges and lock them up.
Criminal investigation must convene and the matter taken to court for trial.
This would eventually eradicate the “bigmannarapela lo and liklikmanwankain lo” perplexity that is in practice now.
Furthermore, Atiyafa’s bill should state that all past and current inquiries are to be resurrected, their findings be tabled in parliament and the perpetrators  prosecuted.
Everyone knows that none of those implicated deserves im-munity under any circumstances.
Atiyafa should give the bill another shot, but this time, do it with an open view.

Eragairmayal
Moromaule