Refer my thead on 'Weapons of mass destruction: MC and PC'

The author said:

[In essence, Ratu Mara sought a united, multi-racial, multi-religious Fiji in which indigenous Fijian interests and aspirations would always be protected and respected, but not at the significant expense of other ethnic interests and aspirations.]

COMMENT: One of the many statements I will never forget from an Indonesian Chinese after the bloody ethnic riots of 1998 was this:
"Prior to the riots, we (chinese) controlled 90% of the economy, another 5 yrs and we would have controlled it all"
So.. was that a 'legitimate aspiration' of the Chinese segment of the community ? Hardly, and it received an understandable reaction from indigenous Indonesians. What about Fiji ? Should any non Indigenous ethnic group be allowed to take full financial control of the economy ?

The Author further said :
[The Rule of Law, as set out in the 1997 Constitution, which Ratu Mara supported, and which was a significant improvement on the earlier, racist, 1990 Constitution, would ensure this occurred.]

"RACIST" constitution ? gee.. I wonder why ? Cannot for the life of me work this out.. why a constitution would be weighted against one segment of the community.. could it just possibly BE a similar direction to that of the Chinese in Indonesia ?

So... protection of ingidenous interests and aspirations is 'RACIST' if it stops one ethno/religious segment of the community from wiping it out financially and taking control of the countries financial future ?

Welcome to the world of PC/MULTICULTURAL "SPIN" !

It's well past time we crawled out of the sand pit excavated by the cultural 'Ant Lion' and started talking tough and dirty about such issues before it consumes us.

SEPARATE COMMUNITIES COMPETE.. is as true as dropping an Tomato from head height will cause it to hit the ground SPLAT !

The lesson from Fiji is DON'T let communities run their own show at the expense of national interest and communal harmony.

Actually, the policies of Indigenous Fijian advancement pursued by the Qarase-SDL governments following, particularly, the 2001 and, to a lesser extent, the 2006 elections were influenced by similar policies in Malaysia for Indigenous Malay development over against general Malaysian development (preferring Malays to ethnic Chinese and others). Qarase was quite explicit about this early in his term as PM. The Reconciliation, Truth and Unity Bill, and particularly the Qoliqoli Bill (returning control of foreshores and littoral zones to traditional mataqali), plus other preferences available only to Indigenous Fijians such as scholarships, were all ethnically biased. And, of course, Fiji's cumbersome three-roll - Indigenous, Indo, General (Vulagi) - electoral system, with 'reserved' seats in both chambers of Parliament for the three races. Race is very important in Fiji, but not decisive in the current post-2006 environment.

OK, interesting; but the real problem isn't addressed. And it's only the more pressing when the purported motive for the coup is to save the rule of law.

WHAT NEXT...? Suppose the new commission really does gather a lot of evidence. The regime will have to stay in place long enough to do the prosecutions, for how can it be sure an elected one will? Especially since it is the existing successful politicians it (rightly) believes are so corrupt? And then it will have to stay in place long enough to see out a few prison sentences...

Making omelettes means breaaking eggs, sure. But you can't hatch chickens by breaking eggs, and you can't make the rule of law by armed coup.

Entirely agree with Mr Fraser.

Constitutional purists versus political realists.

Much depends on what the Eminent Person's Group from the Pacific Islands Forum reports and recommends. They were in Fiji last week.

Latest reports from Fiji suggest they're having trouble finding people to serve on their projected Fiji Independent Commission on Corruption (FICAC) because those who want to, and would be qualified to, don't want to fall foul of Australia and NZ's travel bans on all interim government officials. If Australia wants to demonstrate its sincerity WRT returning Fiji to democratic rule, Downer should firmly offer to assist WRT a necessary census, then electoral roll and electorate boundaries redrawing, public electoral education, alongside assisting with setting up FICAC so it operates properly. So far, zip.

Hey! i am doing an assigment on Tensions in Fiji.

sorry this seems to be the only topic covering Fiji. I was doing some research and looking at some statistics. I came across some Relgion stats, and noticd that most Fijian are Methodist(Christian) and most indians are Hindu or Muslim. In was just wondering, do you think as well as the racial tension. This new relgious dimension, may fuel the fire?