The Independent: 22 August 2001
FIJI: BABA CASHES IN ON RUGBY CELEBRITY, HOTDOGS AND HOPE
Some pundits believe Fiji's general election next week will be a contest between a new "united" indigenous Fijian party led by unelected banker Laisenia Qarase and the multiracial Labour Party deposed in last year's attempted coup. Others see the rise of a popular Fijian academic and his breakaway New Labour as a "moderate" compromise.
By DAVID ROBIE in Suva
DEPOSED prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry's chief deputy has shed his
stuffy academic image and joined forces with a Fijian rugby hero in a
bold bid to wrest power in the country's vital post-coup election.
As the election campaign reached fever pitch, Dr Tupeni Baba's breakaway
New Labour Unity Party has been riding a wave of support from young and
middle-aged voters as it projects an appealing "moderate" image in this
complex Pacific nation.
A former education professor at the Suva-based regional University of
the South Pacific, Baba has gained national popularity with
controversial television advertisements featuring him with Waisale
Serevi, a celebrity because of his jinxing runs that steered Fiji to
international dominance for many years in the seven-a-side rugby code
(until it was unseated by New Zealand).
An attempt by Fiji Rugby Football Union officials to black out the
political advertisement by "banning" the country's sole television
station, Fiji One, backfired.
Officials were angry with Serevi wearing the white national jersey which bears
the logos of the sponsors, British multinational telephone company
Vodafone and New Zealand sportswear manufacturer Canterbury.
However, the NLUP was given a boost of free national publicity in an
election being contested by a record 18 political parties.
At a recent launching of Baba's party campaign, which endorses reformist
policies favouring the country's canefarmers, labourers, garment workers
and skilled youth - people battered by economic hardship since the
attempted coup on May 19 last year, Serevi, pop singers and hotdog
giveaways charmed the biggest ever crowd for a political gathering.
Baba believes it is time for politics of moderation in Fiji. He wants to
promote justice and "build bridges" between communities, and his
economic
polices include abolition of income tax for low-earners on less than
$10,000 a year, about a third of the workforce.
"We don't share the view of ethno nationalist groups who believe in the
politics of exclusion - of supremacy of one group over the others, or of
confrontation or extremism," he said.
Declaring that he was not paid anything for the the NLUP advertisement,
Serevi quipped: "Every winning team needs a good captain - and Fiji
needs Dr Baba."
The Baba party launch's carnival mood was remarkable in the face of widespread voter
cynicism and apathy following last year's crisis when rogue businessman
George Speight and seven renegade special forces soldiers stormed
Parliament and seized the elected government members, holding them
hostage for 56 days.
Speight and 12 of his alleged henchmen are currently awaiting trial for
treason on a tropical islet, Nukulau, just off the coast of the capital
Suva. The trial date is also due to be set next week, the day before counting begins.
However, a series of legal delays and a reluctance by many leading
figures in the country's indigenous Fijian establishment to press the
prosecution case with vigour has left many in the country disenchanted
over national institutions.
Official ambivalence over Speight was
underlined when a lower court ruled that he could be freed for an hour
to nominate for the elections because of a loophole in the Constitution,
which says that only those actually convicted of a crime are unable to
stand.
One newspaper, the government-owned Daily Post, bitterly condemned the
Elections Office for "pussyfooting" by allowing Speight and two of his
accomplices, a nationalist chief, Ratu Timoci Silatolu, and a former
major in the British SAS, Ilisoni Ligairi, to contest seats where they
can expect to poll strongly.
"It is no secret the three were the visible ringleaders of the uprising
which started on May 19 last year. In the eyes of the majority of the
people of Fiji, and indeed some members of the global village, the three
are already guilty as charged," the paper said.
"The letter of the law dictates that we go through the motions of the
legal technicalities. Everyone knows that. But it is also important
that the spirit of the law be adhered to."
Even if they were elected, they would lose their seats in byelections
because they will not be freed from their island prison while facing
trial. Byelections, assuming all three would win their communal seats in
staunchly nationalist constituencies, as is likely, could mean a further
election bill of more than $150,000.
Prison officials are adamant that they would not be allowed off their
prison isle to attend Parliament: "They won't even be allowed to be
brought to Parliament to be sworn in if they win their seats," said one
senior official.
Fijians, of mixed Polynesian-Melanesian origin, make up about 51 per
cent of country's 830,000 population; 46 per cent are ethnic Indians,
mostly descendants of indentured labourers brought in by the British
colonial administration last century.
Baba, an indigenous Fijian intellectual who was also incarcerated in
Parliament at the hands of the gunmen along with his leader Chaudhry,
the country's first Indo-Fijian prime minister, has emerged as a
potential national leader.
Previously, as foreign minister and senior deputy prime minister, Baba
had been overshadowed by Chaudhry.
But growing tensions between the two came to a head after a Court of
Appeal ruled in March that the regime of caretaker Prime Minister
Laisenia Qarase was illegal.
Baba made an abortive bid to have Parliament recalled and be sworn in as
compromise prime minister. Instead, the President, Ratu Josefa Iloilo,
retained Qarase, citing the need for stability until the elections.
Baba's message of reconciliation between the bitterly divided indigenous
sectoral and political interests, and also with Indo-Fijians, has been
perceived as sincere by many pundits while unelected banker Qarase's
cabinet has been regarded by many as political opportunists. He has
pledged to revitalise the economy and to boost tourism.
While Fiji's conflict was projected internationally as one based on
assertion of indigenous rights against a government perceived to be
Indian-dominated (in fact the Indo-Fijian ministers were a minority),
the real causes were rooted in rivalries in the traditional chiefly
confederacy system. There had been long simmering resentment in the
traditional Kubuna confederacy heartland of Naitisiri and Rewa against
dominance by the eastern chiefs of Tovata, represented by deposed
President Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara.
Qarase's caretaker administration is trying to retain power at the
ballot box through his Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua (SDL), or United
Fijian Party. However, Fijian political aspirations are more divided today
than at any time since independence in 1970.
Revelations that Qarase's government in barely one year in office had
become the largest and most expensive cabinet in the country's history
has fuelled discontent. Its salaries bill cost almost NZ$3 million at a
time when the number of Fiji Islanders reported to be living below the
poverty line has soared from 25 percent in 1991, according to the Fiji
Poverty Report, to an unofficial estimate of 40 percent.
Although Qarase's ministers later forfeited their double salaries under
public pressure, assistant minister Adi Finau Tabakaucoro snapped:
"There was nothing at all about morals and ethics in that decision. To
me, it was political ass-covering at its best."
Adi Kuini Vuikaba Speed, the widow of the country's first Labour
prime minister, Dr Timoci Bavadra, who was deposed in a military coup in
1987, said: "It's outrageous that unelected people who are not accountable to
Parliament should be collecting these large sums of taxpayers' money."
Allegations that the Speight coup, widely believed to have been backed
by corrupt politicians and businessmen, was timed to prevent a public
inquiry into corruption by the Chaudhry-led People's Coalition
government have featured in the campaign.
Documents leaked to the Fiji news media revealed that Chaudhry had
wanted a probe to begin in June last year into "millions of dollars
unaccounted for" in five major projects launched by previous prime
minister and coup leader Sitiveni Rabuka, who has been implicated in
Speight's putsch.
People implicated in the scandal have been described as a "who's who" of
Fiji, including names of prominent politicians, consultants,
accountants, civil servants and business executives. But Speight's
attempted coup was launched just weeks before the inquiry was due to be
carried out.
While many opinion polls cite Baba's NLUP as likely to win the election,
others cite a contest between Chaudhry's Fiji Labour Party, which still
has massive support among the rural sugarcane belts and urban workers,
and Qarase's SDL party, which is trying to capture the fragmented Fijian
vote.
Chaudhry points to his proven economic record while he was prime
minister. The Fiji economy had never been so strong with government
revenue of $1.2 billion for a year and a growth rate of 9.2 percent and
almost nil inflation. Qarase's regime had government revenue of just
over $1 billion, a negative growth rate of 9.3 percent and inflation at
3 percent.
However, Baba's chances were dented by news media allegations that a
Fiji-based Australian conman, Peter Foster, with convictions for a
weight-reducing scam in Australia and Britain, had donated up to
$200,000 to the NLUP campaign. The party refused to disclose how much it
had been given by Foster, who is interesting in developing a tourist
resort.
Chaudhry has been dogged by allegations over international funds donated
to his cause after the hostage drama. Qarase has also faced accusations
over using public funds for his campaign and claims that he personally
benefited from a $20 million interest-free loan to Fijian Holdings Ltd,
claims that he denied.
His pet Constitutional Reform Commission blew its budget of $600,000 in
spite of three times being ordered by the High Court to disband. The
commissioners spent an extra $167,000 for their illegal work and one
politician said "the rule of the jungle must stop".
A major question is over the loyalty of the Fijian Military Forces,
given that the first coups were staged by Rabuka, then-third ranked in
the military, and a hand-picked élite force, and soldiers from the
now-disbanded Meridian Squadron, or Counter-Revolutionary Warfare Unit,
supported Speight. But the high command claims that the 3700 troops will
uphold the constitution.
The President recently endorsed a decree granting immunity for the armed
forces during security operations. This followed allegations of
brutality in suppressing a mutiny last November 2 in which loyalist
soldiers were accused of beating to death five captured rebel suspects.
Colonel Sam Pickering, a senior military policy officer, said: "Last
year's mutiny following the coup was perhaps a blessing in disguise. It
forced us to face up to reality and renew our pledge to the President
and the constitution.
Pictured: Dr Tupeni Baba - "We don't share the viedw of the ethno-nationalists."
Photo: Wansolwara Online (USP)