Asia-Pacific Network: 10 June 2000
FIJI: THE MILITARISATION OF FIJIAN NATIONALISM
The hijacking of an elected government by sectional interest in Fiji does not come as a surprise, since plans have been in progress for a year to undermine Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry, who seemingly fell out of favour with Fiji's elite power brokers. The vote sweeping the Chaudhry government to power in May 1999 was not so much a rejection of the Rabuka-Reddy compromise as against Rabuka himself, the original coup master.
By SANJAY RAMESH
THE RECENT hijacking of an elected government by sectional interest in Fiji does not come as a surprise, since plans have been in progress for a year to undermine Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry, who seemingly fell out of favour with Fiji's elite power brokers.
Debate continued for nearly a year on the results of the May 1999 general election. Starting with Rabuka's post election outbursts, many indigenous Fijians believed that Indo-Fijians enmasse rejected the Rabuka-Reddy compromise and voted as a bloc to install the Chaudhry government. However, behind this assertion lies a deeper, more cultural-based, explanation for Indo-Fijian action. The vote against Rabuka and Reddy was not against the constitutional compromise but against Rabuka, who is continued to be seen as an individual responsible for executing the coups and causing enormous pain and suffering for Indo-Fijians.
No doubt that had Reddy formed a partnership with someone other than Rabuka, he and his party would not have been punished so severely at the polls. Things went from bad to worse with the about turn of SVT under the leadership of Ratu Inoke Kubuabola- one of the leaders who carried out the destablisation campaign against the Bavadra government. Joining him were other disgruntled politicians, including Ratu Timoci Silatolu and Ratu Tu'akitau of the Fijian Association Party, Mitieli Bulanauca of the Christian Democratic Alliance (VLV), Fijian Nationalist Viliame Savu and former members of Party of National Unity led by Apisai Tora. Not to mention, reported meetings between a dubious Iranian-born Swedish arms dealer and members of opposition and the army on 6 May in Colo-i-Suva.
It all points to institutional fragility that characterise many multiethnic states. All the way from the Balkans to Africa, self-styled military warlords and thugs have assumed ethnic leadership and waged cultural persecution of other ethnic groups. In the case of Fiji, indigenous Fijians were extended franchise in 1963 and since then engaged in communal voting. The shift towards common voting among largely urban indigenous Fijians resulted in the Bavadra government, which was deposed in the coups of 1987. The process of developing any meaningful culture of democracy among indigenous Fijians was thwarted in 1987 and then given a knee-jerk start in 1997 with the promulgation of the new compromise constitution. At that time, SVT cabinet ministers remained steadfast in their defiance for any concessions to Indo-Fijians and all this is very well reflected in the SVT submission in October of 1995 to the Constitution Review Commission.
Indigenous Fijian political paramountcy remain a powerful ideological tool. This paramountcy is based on the Deed of Cession of 1874 and the concept that the government of Fiji shall remain under the hegemony of the Taukei or indigenous Fijians and that vulagi or foreigners have to participate in the national political economy of Fiji on indigenous Fijian terms. While all this sounds very good, the problem still remains of indigenous Fijian disunity which played a large part in compromising SVT's political position in the last general election. Rabuka in his biography pointed that provincialism was eating away the cultural fabric of Fijian society. However, for the moment this green-eyed monster is conveniently in the background while the Indian bogey remain of urgent concern. In the case of contemporary Fiji, this paragraph from Dr. Frank Harvey is most telling. "Ethnic identities are evoked in certain structural circumstances to advance the material and political interests of actors whose primary purposes are not ethnic. Subsequent myth making and the dredging up of past events become symbols around which ethnic groups coalesce. These symbols make inter-ethnic violence appear just, honourable and legitimate. (Frank P. Harvey, "Primordialism, Evolutionary Theory and Ethnic Violence in the Balkans: Opportunities and Constraints for Theory and Policy," Canadian Journal of Political Science,Vol.XXXIII:No.1,2000)
It means that those whipping up the chimera of Indian dominance are doing so to fan fears of cultural insecurity, which is endemic among grassroot indigenous Fijians. Agitators like Apisai Tora have called for Indo-Fijians to be repatriated. A similar call was made by late Sakeasi Butadroka since 1975. Tora's own political record is anything but consistent. After being in Alliance stalwart, Tora became a leading figure in the 1987 Taukei Movement and was a Minister in the Interim Government until he had his share of fall out with Mara. In 1992, he formed the multicultural All National Congress (ANC), which was disbanded in 1995 following a merger between the Fijian Association and the ANC. In 1998, Tora spearheaded the Party of National Unity (PANU) as an opposition party to the SVT and joined hands with Fijian Association and the Fiji Labour Party later in that year.
It seems that after losing his seat, Tora became bitter and hostile and blamed Indo-Fijian voters for thwarting his political ambition. After going public with his comments, Apisai Tora started his own secret project and resigned from PANU. Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry who was previously seen as committed to multiculturalism became a dictatorial monster, harbouring secret ambition to dismember current Fijian land ownership. For Tora, Chaudhry had to be stopped in his tracks before he undermines "Fijian culture." It was shocking to see a non-indigenous Fijian sitting with the high chiefs at the Great Council of Chiefs. Not only that but the Land Use Commission, ALTA, recent changes to the constitution, the mahogany deal, provincial council funding, and civil service reforms were seen as not in the best interest of Fijians. Capitalising on certain concerns, Tora and his gang launched the Taukei Movement in April.
After a failed Taukei Movement protest march on April 20, organizers went back to the drawing board and promised a better performance for the march in Suva on April 28. About 4,000 people marched through Suva in support of the SVT party and the Taukei Movement for the Prime Minister to step down. A group of SVT and Taukei Movement members later presented their petition to the Boselevu Vakaturaga or the Great Council of Chiefs. The petition called for the dissolution of the Chaudhry government, changes to the constitution, the proposed Land Use Commission to be abolished, all Schedule A and B land to be returned to landowners and the mahogany deal to be reviewed. Participating in the march were members of the Fijian Association Party and the Christian Democrats. Another protest march was held by the Nationalist Vanua Tako Lavu Party on 19 May. By then certain commercial interest had thrown support behind the destablisation campaign. It was rumoured that a group within the 15,000 protestors would start riots in Suva on 19 May. However, unfortunately, the looting and burning of mainly Indo-Fijian businesses went out of control.
Following an intensification of anti-government activities, moves were afoot from within the Coalition government to move a motion of no confidence against Prime Minister Chaudhry. It is believed that Dr. Tupeni Baba, who is rumoured to have supported the nationalist protest on 19 May, was to be installed as the new Prime Minister of Fiji. However that was not to happen because George Speight and his six gun men had other plans.
George Speight, a failed businessman from Tailevu, along with six members of the Counter Revolutionary Warfare Unit stormed Parliament and held government MPs, including the Prime Minister at gun point. Speight, who has no notable history of championing indigenous Fijian rights, had appeared in Suva Magistrates Court on fraud charges. In fact Speight, saw his fortune quickly evaporate with the victory of the Coalition government. Among other things, Speight was removed as the Chairman of the Fiji Hardwood Corporation and was fired by the Heath Insurance Fiji Limited for impropriety. Despite these setbacks, Speight was a major player in the mahogany deal with the US based Timer Resource Management (TRM). When it was certain that the Coalition government would give the lucrative multi-million dollar timber contract to the British-based Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC), Speight and his group started advising landowners that they had a better deal with the TRM.
Immediately following a campaign of disinformation, chiefs and landowners started to criticise the government, which referred the matter to the Great Council of Chiefs at its 26-28 April meeting at Raffles Tradeswind hotel in Suva. Apart from lobbying against the government, Speight and his group conspired with an arms dealer to illegally import automatic weapons into Fiji. The plan was hatched with the assistance of certain businesses to bring in arms and ammunitions via Vanua Levu. Army officers were recruited to provide direction and support for the whole operation. While the planning and execution went on with precision, certain chiefs of the Kubuna confederacy were informed and their support assured just in case anything went wrong.
The plan was to hijack the government, abrogate the 1997 Constitution, remove the President, and install a Taukei government under the leadership of one of the Kubuna chiefs. The hostages were to be held for a week with anticipation that the overall disgust with the Chaudhry government will lead to an outright indigenous Fijian support of George Speight and his men. However, unfortunately, things did not go as planned. The Great Council of Chiefs gave unanimous support to Mara to resolve the crisis as some Kubuna chiefs found themselves siding with the terrorists. Mara refused to accept George Speight's Taukei government, but gave in to his demands by dismissing the Coalition government.
With the President holding firm, Speight let out his thugs to provoke the military and the police. As a result, two soldiers and a journalist were wounded and a policeman from the west killed. After intense negotiations between the army and the President, Mara stepped aside on 29 May as military imposed its rule on Fiji and repealed the 1997 Constitution. However, talks between the army and George Speight went nowhere as Speight imposed one new demand after another.
In the end, institutional fragility followed by a serious underdeveloped democratic culture, mainly among indigenous Fijians, allowed radical elements to manipulate the grassroot by creating a myth of a non-existent threat to land and identity.
By: Dr. Sanjay Ramesh
e-mail: mailto:sanjay_ramesh@yahoo.com.au