Voices of the People - Perceptions and Preconditions for Democratic Development in Fiji (original) (raw)

Development Challenges- The Coup d’état and Fijian Politics

Political stability lays the corner stone for development as it is a fundamental aspect of national strength and progress. However, when such stability is recurrently challenged and undermined, it defeats the purpose of establishing a sound and viable government that brings about collective development. A coup is indicatory of such instability. This paper will discuss how Fiji’s history of political instability has infringed upon her development. Such a discussion will be done in relation to the Modernization Theory. The scope of analysis of such a problem will take into account its causes, its prevalence, those who are affected by it and whether the development theory being used creates a framework for understanding the problem in its entirety.

Coup: Reflections on the political crisis in Fiji

2008

In the Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon, Marx remarks that history repeats itself, so to speak, twice: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce. The events in Fiji of May-July 2000 would tend to exemplify this dictum. One coup is bad enough, but three in thirteen years staggers the imagination. This collection is not an academic analysis of these events, their origins, processes and impacts. Rather, the contributors to this volume simply reflect, often in the heat of the moment, on what the coup meant to them. The contributors are Fijians of all stripes as well as others who take an interest in the country. They express themselves in statements, speeches, essays and laments. Many overseas people familiar with Fiji are dismayed and disillusioned with the events in that country. Many contribute pieces to newspapers or the internet. The majority are critical, praying for an early resolution of the crisis. They are moving in their sincerity, eloquent and anguished in their tone. This volume of essays contains a sample, but only a small sample, of these responses. They were written when the Fiji crisis was in full swing. The hostages were still in the parliamentary complex, and George Speight was a regular sight on our television screens. Since then, academic analyses have appeared, focusing on the larger political and electoral issues that underpinned the crisis. More will assuredly come as the dust settles and people attempt to make sense of the madness that so dramatically engulfed their lives. Editors inspect what they get, not get what they expect, a colleague reminded us as we grappled with the balance of perspective reflected in this collection. As it happens, the overwhelming bulk of the published commentary on the Fijian crisis was critical of the events. Our effort ix x to solicit contrary perspectives was not as fruitful as we would have liked. This is regrettable, but that is the way things are. There is enough here to give the reader a fair sense of the issues on all sides of the political divide. The strength of this collection lies in its contemporaneity, catching unprocessed voices as the events were unfolding in Fiji. Many pieces are straight from the heart, expressing bewilderment, frustration, anger and anguish. They are partial, in both senses of the word. As they have to be. Nonetheless, they will form an indispensable building block of a future interpretative edifice. The collection is offered to the readers in that spirit.

8. The great roadmap charade: Electoral issues in post-coup Fiji

Electoral issues were to figure prominently in the wake of Fiji's 2006 coup – as instruments in the ideological justification of the military takeover; as internationally required stepping stones on the 'roadmap' back to democracy; and as predominant features of the interim government's vision for social transformation. The coup-makers and their supporters justified the seizure of power on the grounds that the May 2006 election had been marred by ethnically biased ballot-rigging; that the preparations of the Elections Office had been gravely mismanaged; that the constitution had been violated; and that Qarase's Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua (SDL) party had abused its incumbent position in order to secure victory. Over the longer run, weaknesses in Fiji's electoral system were blamed for generating ethnic polarization since independence and for fostering an insular political control over the indigenous population by way of churches and chiefs. Only a wholesa...

STIFLING OPPOSITION: AN ANALYSIS OF THE APPROACH OF THE FIJI GOVERNMENT AFTER THE 2006 COUP

A day after the military takeover of the Fiji government on 5 December 2006, Commodore Bainimarama proclaimed a nationwide state of emergency that gave wide-ranging powers to the military to enforce the new regime’s agenda. These repressive powers were entrenched in the Public Emergency Regulations (PER) imposed after the 10 April 2009 abrogation of the 1997 Constitution. Early promises of elections by 2009 were not kept; instead, successive decrees were promulgated to restrict human rights, suppress freedom of expression and clip the wings of the judiciary and indigenous Fijian institutions. They were aimed at stifling the capacity and will of the people to demand a return to democracy, and at entrenching the position of Bainimarama’s unelected government.1 The allocation of key government ministries and departments to military officers, and the winning over of specific indigenous communities by the provision of infrastructure projects have strengthened this position. All of these actions, combined with a strategy of sidelining any political or military leader capable of replacing Bainimarama as PM or military commander, suggest that the post-April 2009 authoritarian military regime has become what Geddes terms a ‘personalist’ regime, (in contrast to military or single-party regimes) even if this was not an original aim of the coup. In personalist regimes ‘access to office and the fruits of office depends much more on the discretion of an individual leader’ (Geddes 1999:121). But, despite the high levels of repression, the fragility of Fiji’s economy poses a threat to the current government, adding to the threat imposed by those few still voicing opposition.

Speight of Violence Inside Fiji's 2000 Coup

Speight of Violence, 2005

There are certain events in our lives that are etched in our consciousness. They affect forever how we think, how we feel and how we see the world. Until these events leave our memory, they continue to grate and fester and, like a young life in an embryo, they seek full expression through their own existence in the world. But like all births, these events or stories have their own timing and also require an appropriate environment for their full appreciation. The three authors have had their lives affected by Fiji 's 2000 coup. They have carried that experience in their consciousness while longing and waiting for an opportunity to share it with others. This book provides that opportunity and it is by coincidence that we were able to come together through a meeting with a Reed Publishing representative.

REVIEW: Coups, globalisation and Fiji’s reset ‘democracy’ paradigm

Pacific Journalism Review, 2018

The General’s Goose: Fiji’s Tale of Contemporary Misadventure, by Robbie Robertson. Canberra: Australian National University. 2017. 366 pages. ISBN 9781760461270 When Commodore (now rear admiral retired and an elected prime minister) Voreqe Bainimarama staged Fiji’s fourth ‘coup to end all coups’ on 5 December 2006, it was widely misunderstood, misinterpreted and misrepresented by a legion of politicians, foreign affairs officials, journalists and even some historians. A chorus of voices continually argued for the restoration of ‘democracy’ – not only the flawed version of democracy that had persisted in various forms since independence from colonial Britain in 1970, but specifically the arguably illegal and unconstitutional government of merchant banker Laisenia Qarase that had been installed on the coat-tails of the third (attempted) coup in 2000. Yet in spite of superficial appearances, Bainimarama’s 2006 coup contrasted sharply with its predecessors.

CASTING A BLIND-EYE: IS FIJI'S 2013 'ETHNICALLY-BLIND' CONSTITUTION A PATH TO DEMOCRATIC STABILITY

Journal of South Pacific Law, 2017

Fiji has a checkered history with democracy. Since gaining independence from the United Kingdom in 1970, its politics have been marked by a pattern of coups and constitutional reform. After the first military coup in 1987, three constitutions designed by political elites have attempted to resolve ethnic tensions and foster democratic stability. Underlying Fiji's constitutional reforms is a struggle for supremacy between two very different conceptions of the nation, namely ethnic and civic. While the 1970 and 1997 Constitutions sought a form of multicultural compromise with the realities of Fiji's demographic make-up, demands for continued ethno-political paramountcy by sections of the indigenous Fijian (iTaukei) population led to the overthrow of the democratically-elected governments in 1987 and 2000. In fact, the 1990 Constitution institutionalized the privileged ethno-political status of indigenous Fijians. Subsequently, the coup of 2006 ushered in a period of political reform that has sought to promote a more civic and 'ethnically blind' set of constitutional arrangements. This article investigates the potential for democratic stability provided by the 2013 Constitution. It argues that while the 2013 Constitution and its provisions do shift the discourse away from previous preoccupations with race and ethnicity, the context of the constitution-making process also indicates that the Bainimarama regime was largely intent on maintaining the status quo.

CONSTITUTIONAL RE-DESIGN FOR DEMOCRATIC STABILITY IN A DIVIDED SOCIETY: A FIJI CASE STUDY

MA Thesis, 2017

Divided societies have pursued different paths in their attempts to design constitutions that settle ethnic tensions while at the same time promoting and consolidating democracy. Some of these projects have been successful while others have not. Constitutional and democratic design in a divided society has been a difficult process. The negotiation and accommodation of group interests have often been characteristics of the development of divided societies such as South Africa, Lebanon, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina amongst others. The accommodation of contending demands to political and socio-economic rights by diverse ethnic groups – and the strain they present for constitutionality and democracy – has been one the immense challenges confronted by societies that are described by long lasting ethnic division and conflict. Since gaining independence from the United Kingdom in 1970, Fiji politics have been marked by a pattern of coups and constitutional reform. Fiji has negotiated various constitutional arrangements with a view to meeting group claims to difference and equality. While the 1970 and 1997 Constitutions sought a form of multicultural compromise with the realities of Fiji’s demographic make-up, demands for continued ethno-political paramountcy by sections of the indigenous Fijian (iTaukei) population led to the overthrow of the democratically elected governments in 1987 and 2000. The 1990 Constitution institutionalized the privileged ethno-political status of indigenous Fijians while the coup of 2006 ushered in a period of political and constitutional reform that has sought to promote a more civic and ‘ethnically blind’ set of constitutional arrangements. The main research question is: does Fiji’s new ‘ethnically-blind’ constitution increase the likelihood of democratic stability? In order to answer this question, this thesis analyses the failures of Fiji’s earlier constitutional frameworks and examines influential continuities and discontinuities in Fiji’s politics and governance.