For many of us, Fiji is best known as a country of beach resorts and beautiful tropical scenery. But yesterday’s news that a Fijian man killed himself at Villawood detention centre is a sharp reminder that many Fijians are being forced from their homeland as a result of long-standing political unrest.
Overshadowed by turmoil in countries like Iraq and Sri Lanka, Fiji’s political situation has not been covered in the media as widely as it could have been. Australian National University Fiji expert professor Brij V. Lal — director of the Centre for the Contemporary Pacific — helps clarify what has really been going on, and how it is affecting the Fijian people.
What is the current political situation in Fiji?
Professor Lal describes Fiji’s political situation very simply: “an impasse”. The country is technically ruled by a president, but real power rests with the cabinet, which is headed by the prime minister and the military and essentially claims the right to intervene in the political situation at any time.
At the moment, the country has no constitution, no evidence of democracy, and is “being ruled by decree”. The military has promised to hold elections in 2014, but professor Lal has seen no evidence that this will actually happen. Until an election does happen, Fiji is in a state of social and economic limbo, which looks unlikely to resolve itself. Even if a successful election does take place, history suggests the likelihood of another coup removing the elected government is high.
How have the coups affected the country?
According to professor Lal, the first coup in May 1987, which was led by the military’s third highest ranking officer, was the start of political instability from which Fiji has never really recovered. A subsequent coup in September of the same year overthrew the Fijian monarchy and its constitution, and soon after led to Fiji being declared a republic. Since then, there have been coups in 2000 and 2006. Professor Lal believes that “each coup takes the country back a generation”.
How has the freedom of the press been affected?
Fiji has a media decree in place that makes reporting the news impartially almost impossible. As professor0 Lal states: “There is no freedom of the press whatsoever.” Strict penalties for journalists who defy the state have led to a situation where there is “censorship as well as self-censorship” and journalists are afraid to write anything that might be disapproved of.
This has had consequences not just for Fijians, but for foreign media outlets trying to get an idea of what is actually going on within the country. Last week, News Limited was forced to sell the Fiji Times after the media restrictions became too much to manage.
How have everyday people been affected?
At the moment, 45% of Fijians live below the poverty line and 15% live in squatter settlements, and this number is increasing. There is no suggestion that the trend is about to change, either, because there is no investment being made to secure the country’s future. Many people live in fear of the military, and this is also a big barrier to progress.
“There is fear of harassment by the military: people are still being taken in for questioning all the time. It’s a fear that anything could happen at any time,” professor Lal says. Although immigration figures are very hard to obtain because of strict state control, it’s not hard to see why many Fijians are desperate to escape.
If, like The Australian, you are trying to suggest Fiji is something akin to a failed state in Africa, then you are so wide of the mark. Sure, there is a military government. Sure, those who actively try to undermind the present government will find they have a case to answer for. My view is there is a serious attempt being made to right the wrongs of many years of self-interested leadership of Fiji and it is really those past leaders who have a case to answer for, the most recent being Qarase who was openly racist. I say this not as a distant observor but someone who has visited there regularly for many years – and was born there. The Australian government is failing itself, the nation and the people of Fiji with it’s beligerent, headmaster, 1950’s Colonial approach to the situation. And the press, as generalisation, is not far behind.
Funny no mention of what he was doing here all about Fiji being a land of bogans.
he was picking fruit and sending the money home, this is a normal procedure he comes here works for a certain period and then goes home.. end of story better than the days immigration and taxation raided tomato farms the workers disappeared and the crop rots btw people on visas can extend them if they do work on farms
its none of the crap that you padded your article with to please the inner city friends give us farmers break and let the system do as it is intended hope .pity your internship is giving us such left wing views
The situation in Fiji does not sound good. But every cloud has a silver lining – at least they are rid of News Ltd.
– Stephen Marshall. This article is supposed to be a very brief overview of Fiji’s political history and its current state for the benefit of those who don’t know much about the matter: it’s not an opinion piece or a comparison between Fiji and any other country. The information I used for the article was provided by an expert who has studied the Fijian political situation extensively and has a very good understanding of what’s going on. I can absolutely guarantee to you that this article just touches on Prof. Lal’s concerns and there were plenty of other quotes about the poor state of the government that I could have used.
In retrospect I think some of the words used were too strong – the title could have been toned down, and terms like “social limbo” and “escape” could have been chosen better.
That said, this was a small article which was intended to briefly summarise what is going on, so of course the picture is not complete. I’d love to hear what you have to say on the matter in more detail and get the perspective of someone who has spent a lot of time there. I’m here for the next two days, so if you’d like to send an email to one of our staff, they can forward that to me and I might be able to write a longer article about Fiji encorperating what you have to say.
First of all Brij Lal’s story is a fascinating one, “Mr Tulsi’s Store: A Fijian Journey” (2001), and all to his credit; if my memory serves me right he was very involved with the constitutional review in Rambuka’s time; second, I do not condone the military interventions but I well understand them; I flew into Fiji within days after the Speight coup was defused; the aircraft was full of Fijians and Fiji-Indians talking and joking with each other; in my view the issue in Fiji has not been, generally, with the population at large but with the leadership, leadership that has first looked after itself and the people second; Bainimarama handed over to Qarase with an understanding of what needed to be done and regretably Qarase, for whatever reason, failed him; I recall being there when Qarase issued a ‘statement’, full pages in the press, and I was bitterly disappointed; a man who would not even discipline his members in parliament when Indians were referred to as ‘snakes in the grass’; as I see it, the rhetoric aside, and poor PR and some poor decisions aside, Bainimarma genuinely has the interests of the nation at heart and Brij, the Australian government and so many with their own barrow to push, need to take a step back, think what is truly best for the nation and the people, and move forward; we look at Singaproe these days as a ‘model’ economy; it pays to look where it came from 🙂