It is unfortunate that Frank Bainimarama and his people are not handling the press very effectively or sensibly.
That however is a relatively minor issue in the overall scheme of things.
The issues that led to the military takeover are matters of great moment for the country and the region.
The former government in a frenzy of "ethno nationalism" was taking Fiji down the same road as that taken by Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe,
Specifically the legislation that (1) would have appropriated all the coastline to the local indigines, (2)released George Speight and co. and pardoned them and, most importantly,(3) set up an Indigenous Claims Tribunal to recover for indigines all freehold land in Fiji - would have turned the country into the Zimbabwe of the South Pacific. The so called smart sanctions of Aust and NZ are not having any beneficial effect. We need to engage with the government not try to isolate it. And certainly not encourage insurrection as the retiring Forum leader did recently. What Frank Bainimarama is effectively doing is protecting the rights and property of the 40% of the community who are not ethnic (melanesian) Fijians - and it's that which Rudd and NZ should be focussing on.

I heard these same arguments on Counterpoint on ABC RN recently, and they're also being put on Dr Walsh's Blog. All quite accurate too. However, while the People's Charter in Fiji had much to commend it, and, as Greg Sheridan aptly put it back in late 2006, the Qarase SDL Government was "smelly", and the proposed legislation certainly gave rise for considerable concern, what's happened in Fiji since late 06 and particularly over Easter, 09, and continuing, has completely destroyed any minuscule credibility Bainimarama and his regime might have claimed. Monstering the media in the ways described by the Fiji Times' Editor is entirely unnecessary - who caused the "emergency" requiring the PER anyway? - and, as is also amply clear, doesn't work. Is there going to be any sustainable End Game out of all this? I, and many other highly informed observers, can't see one, even very dimly.

Fiji is a relatively small community and many people are connected in some way to one or more of the protagonists.

While not endorsing the clumsy ans inept way Bainimrama's lot have handled the media I am also not very impressed by the comments of the Fiji Times Editor.

You might like to enquire as to his (close) ties to Qarase.

Welcome to what often passes for "debate" Fiji style.

If you can't respond to the substantive points of your opponent's argument, you toss in some vague and unsubstantiated rumor about their family, friends, or associates which, you hope, will find some sufficient purchase somewhere, start cascading, and the discussion gets as murky as a Tanoa (bowl) of Yagona (kava).

Plus, you hide behind a pseudonym - Fiji expat - whom, being a close observer of recent discussion about Fiji, e.g., on ABC RN Counterpoint, I could almost certainly 'out'. In courtesy, though, I won't.

If 'Fiji expat' has any verifiable evidence of any untoward relationships between Mr Rika, ousted Fiji PM Qarase, the ousted SDL government or party, or anybody else in Fijian affairs, feel free to post, or at least point to it, here.

Knowing Mr Rika very well indeed, I very much doubt such verifiable evidence, of a standard which a reputable news organization would publish, exists.

A re-read of Mr Rika's speech, and indeed the archives of the Fiji Times prior to the 06 coup, and subsequently, until the censors got into the act after Easter 09, should indicate very clearly indeed his editorial position WRT the SDL Government, Qarase, and their corrosive nationalist policies on several 'hot button' issues in Fiji.

Land rights for the aboriginal are fine when the aboriginal people have little influence, like in Australia. However such real land rights (prime waterfront, good farming land) scare the ordure out of westerners when the aboriginals are in the position to put some rubber on the rhetoric, like in Zimbabwe or Fiji. We sure as hell don't want the Maoris, South African blacks, Uighurs, or Ainu getting funny ideas.

If someone wants to "out" me - be my guest!

I have no idea what hugoagogo wants - although I can have a pretty good guess - him and the whole mataqali!

On the other hand all I really want is to avoid seeing a wonderful place like Fiji ending up like Zimbabwe - with the 40% odd non-melanesian population treated badly in country for whose economic development and well being they are largely responsible (not to mention their historical dominance of the professions.)

Fiji has never had common roll elections. The Brits when they departed left a very elegant and well thought out electoral system which was designed to ensure that as long as people voted on an ethnic/community basis the indigenous melanesians could never have control of their country taken away from them.

The formation of the Labour Party disrupted that world and (if you ignore the "aberration" of the 1976 election result)started the process that culminated in the emergence of the rampant ethno-nationalism that so far Bainimarama alone has been able to block.

His problem, and why Australia and NZ are on the wrong tram, is that he has to come up with a way to re-introduce democracy without handing the country back to these lunatics with no checks and balances - in a country with no real tradition of democracy, and a traditional social structure that is feudal in character and currently run by a pretty mediocre pool of talent.

The Brits identified the top younger chiefs in the traditional structure and made sure they were well educated - people like Mara, David Toganivalu, Ganilau, Edward Cakobau, and many others. Unfortunately the next two generations let their people down.

Chiefs like Napoleoni Dawai in Nadi in the late 70s - just to quote a single example of the scores that exist - bear full responsibility for the basket case the country became. The "Great Thouncil of Thiefs" and all that.

What checks and balances would you lot suggest to protect the non-melanesians who have lived, worked, and invested in Fiji for generations?