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The Forum > Article Comments > Silence in paradise > Comments

Silence in paradise : Comments

By Netani Rika, published 31/8/2009

Journalists in Fiji face a daily battle against Commodore Frank Bainimarama's censors to give the people a voice.

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I'd entirely agree with "Former Expat" (I've read your book if you are who I'm very sure you are) that the British legacy in Fiji contributed significantly to its current travails. And by no means would I deny any of the details of the 'coup culture' as recorded and dissected by many reliable, as well as partisan, observers, analysts, scholars, and generally thoughtful Fijians and overseas observers.

I've had these kinds of conversations over recent years with Fijians in Fiji, in the Region, and in Australia, from a senior Ratu, experienced journalists, villagers, and so on. To summarize (and Crosbie Walsh's Encyclopedic Atlas of Fiji, 2006, plus reliable demographic data, informs this too)...

Given demographic changes since 2000 and probably earlier, Indigenous Fijians are now significantly in the majority.

If credible elections were held, either along lines set out in the (now abrogated) 1997 Constitution OR (setting to one side how this could be legally mandated) One Roll, One Vote, One Value, who'd win a free and fair Fiji election? Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua (SDL) or somebody very like them, probably with a few more extreme groupings bolted to them.

"What'd happen then?" I've asked my informants. "You go figure," they've replied, rolling their eyes towards the northern Suva suburb of Nabua where the military has its HQ, and perhaps having another Bilu of Yagona or a calming pull on their Fiji Bitter.

Bainimarama, to be sure, started out to break the coup cycle, crush ethno-nationalism, and re-make the "psyche" of Fiji along genuinely non-ethnic lines (People's Charter and so on).

But he's completely blown it, and is embedding further resentments which he might contain with brute force, by militarizing all State institutions, or the New Methodists deflect with their weird "fundamentalism"... the draconian media censorship just fuels Fiji's notorious coconut wireless too.

Nobody with credible insights I've talked with about Fiji's current morass can see a sustainable End Game emerging.
Posted by Dr Mark Hayes, Thursday, 3 September 2009 2:24:43 PM
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I have not written any books on Fiji - I am sure you do not know me - I am not a Thompson or a Tarte. I lived there for over four years prior to the 1987 coup and knew most of the main political, trade union, and civil service players well. I continue to correspond with a few people in FJ.

There is no point deploring Bainimarama's failings - what is the alternative? If Aust and NZ don't get off their high horses and put aside their naive simplistic demands for free elections, and start engaging with Bainimarama and trying to help him, we will all wake up one morning and find a Chinese Naval base in Vuda or at Vatia point or somewhere and Fiji irreparably changed for the worse.
Posted by Former Expat, Thursday, 3 September 2009 3:50:49 PM
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