An Expat's View of Fiji Politics - Part 2!

After the 2006 coup, I spoke with lots of people here, especially other business owners and resident expats as well as educated Fijians & Indo-Fijians. The common thread was that Bainimarama effected the coup the wrong way for the right reasons. Does that make sense? Nobody wanted to see guns on the street although in many parts of the world, that's the norm - police carry guns in America, but not here. (The guns went "off the streets" here after a very short time.) People living in the capitol city of Suva wanted the guns and soldiers to STAY on the streets - they felt safer! Suva has a history of petty crime although it's much better now...

There was (and continues to be) LOTS of political pressure, especially from the Aussies & Kiwis, to "restore democracy" in Fiji. What continues to amaze me is that they don't understand that we did not HAVE democracy! How can you be "democratic" when people have to register by race AND can only vote for a member of their own race??? Mixed into that is the Fijian chiefly system. The Chiefs tell their people what to do (i.e. who to vote for) and mostly they do what they're told. These positions are hereditary, like royalty, and the blood-lines are tracked religiously. I don't see how you can EVER have "democracy" with these traditions in place. Nor do I want the Fijian culture to change and be "modernized". It's a real Catch-22........

Bainimarama formed a group of NGO's, politicians and "regular people" in 2007 to draft a Charter. It's main objectives are pretty simple: (1) One man - one vote instead of race-based voting and (2) get rid of the endemic corruption in government. Supposedly, 64% of Fiji residents support it -- I don't know how the polling was done which is why I say "supposedly" -- but it's truly a GOOD document. Idealistic, but good.

In late 2008, the High Court ruled that the President of Fiji (an appointed position) had been within his prerogative to dissolve the Qarase government and appoint Bainimarama as Prime Minister. Qarase took it to the Appeals Court which ruled within a few days that (1) the President was wrong; (2) a caretaker Prime Minister not a party to the lawsuit was to be appointed and (3) elections should be held immediately under the existing Constitution. Bainimarama asked for a stay to appeal to the Supreme Court and the Appeals Court said NO -- which meant that there was no longer a government. As a result, the Constitution was "abrogated" by the President in April 2009.

The President was a firm supporter of the tenets of the Charter. Nobody knows who advised him to abrogate the Constitution -- Bainimarama says he did not advise it be done. Who knows??? The history books of the future perhaps..... As an interesting side note, the Apeals Court ruling was quite lengthy. For it to have been issued in a few days implies that it was "pre-determined". The Appeals Court judges at the time were all Aussies. Figure it out for yourself.....

So, here we are. Bainimarama's intention is to implement the Charter (which will make an excellent Constitution) and have elections on the basis of one man - one vote no later than 2014. In the meantime, there's continuous negative international press (still mostly in Australia and New Zealand). There's an emergency rule in place under which the government is "censoring" the media. The stated purpose is to avoid causing dissension. I don't like it -- a free press is incredibly important. But the press here HAS stirred the pot in past years and all that's done is to get the politicians making claims and counter claims with lots of finger pointing and nastiness. Frankly, it's kind of nice NOT seeing politicians on TV every night! And I also don't miss the VERY obvious bias shown by some "reporters" and news organizations in the past.

I've met Bainimarama and I like him but his military background creates a "cloud". The Aussie & Kiwi press keep using words like dictator and junta ~ that's silly. Fiji's military is primarily a peace-keeping force. Our military people have been in the Middle East for many years in that role. There are no tanks, bazookas or jets screaming overhead in Fiji!

I wish the governments crying for "democracy" in Fiji understood why it wasn't possible under the 1997 Constitution and that the Charter WILL create real democracy (as much as is possible with the Chiefly system). 2014 seems a long way away for all of this to happen. When you're literally starting from scratch, it DOES take time. Culturally, EVERYTHING is "negotiated" here; aka "Fiji Time" which slows down even the simplest decisions.... I also happen to think that part of the "strategy" of a 2014 deadline was that the politicians who caused so much of the trouble in the first place will be too old to be effective!

As a sidelight, there's a lot of debate in the country about what to call people. The nationalistic Fijians want only indigenous Fijians to be called "Fijians". The hyphenated terms "Indo-Fijian" or "Fiji-Indian" are awkward ~ and what about the "Others"?? (the official designation in voter registration roles!!). Fiji Islanders? Also a mouthful. It's been proposed that every citizen be called a Fijian and the indigenous referred to as i-Taukei. That's the same as New Zealand with everyone being a Newzealander and the indigenous are the Maori. Or Australians and Aboriginals....

Fingers crossed that the current government can go ahead peacefully with the proposed reforms -- this is a wonderful country and the people are fabulous. If we could only get rid of the politicians (everywhere!).......