Fiji’s interim prime minister, Cmdre Frank Bainimarama, announced that democratic elections are still planned for 2014, but any elected government will follow the military’s plan for Fiji’s future. The leader says his aim to establish a multicultural nation has some support, but his methods of achieving it have been raising concerns amid democratic nations.
Bainimarama, who took over the country during a 2006 military coup, plans for the military to oversee any newly elected Fijian government, ensuring continued military authority over a wide range of institutions, such as the Great Council of Chiefs and the Methodist Church.
The former naval officer has exhibited few democratic principles so far, while exiling some of his critics and gagging local dissent, including the media.
“Bainimarama has made it clear that he intends to draft a constitution that will reflect the country’s unique culture and history. He has also promised to enact electoral reforms that will establish equal suffrage and to hold free, fair, and democratic elections,” asserted Eni Faleomavaega, the delegate of American Samoa to the U.S. House of Representatives, in a surprising display of support last year.
Regions that opposed Bainimarama’s appointment as prime minister were forced to apologize to the leader, with Bainimarama stating districts should “send away those who visit their villages and make complaints against the work of government.”
“People in Fiji must support reform implemented by the government or will be left out,” reported RadioFiji.
The Methodist Church has been banned from holding their annual conference until the 2014 elections. Additionally, Bainimarama has cancelled pension payments to pensioners who oppose the regime, among them former Fijian Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka.
“[The decree] basically means that it will cut off the food line [and] starve those who may be against the government,” said Reverend Akuila Yabaki to ABC Radio. Yabaki heads the Fiji Citizens Constitutional Forum. “It is grossly detrimental to the attempt to have national dialogue, which they are calling for, and will hamper attempts to move the country forward. Such a decree undermines people’s rights, so I think it is not good governance.”
“With Fiji cracking down even harder on its own people, this is not the time for New Zealand and other countries in the region to back down from their strong stance. They must intensify their calls for Fiji to immediately halt arbitrary arrests, intimidation, threats, assaults and detention of critics of the regime,” said Apolosi Bose, Amnesty International’s Pacific researcher.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra, Australia, said it will continue its sanctions, including travel bans on Fijian officials and their families, until the Fijian government returns to democracy and the rule of law.
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute, however, has criticized their approach.
“[Bainimarama] believes that the process will now take until 2014 to do, that he has actually met the requirements of both the forum and the Commonwealth Secretariat in laying down a roadmap to full return to democracy,” said professor Richard Herr of the University of Tasmania to ABC Radio. “[Bainimarama] seems to find it strange there are those that won’t accept that he’s now met that condition and help him get on with it.”
The Commonwealth Secretariat is a voluntary association of nations that promotes democracy and economic development.
Eni Faleomavaega agrees, saying sanctions have not been helpful.“On Fiji, Canberra and Washington have employed heavy-handed tactics and misguided sanctions that have hurt average Fijians far more than the interim government at which they were targeted,” he wrote in an opinion piece for Fairfax News. “Foreign policy elites in Australia and New Zealand erroneously view the region with a Eurocentric mentality without having a better sense of appreciation of Fiji’s colonial history.”
The Australian government expressed its support for New Zealand in re-establishing diplomatic ties with Fiji after both countries expelled each other’s representatives last year. Controversy, however, has since arisen over Fiji’s nomination of military spokesperson Lt. Col. Neumi Lewemi as its ambassador to New Zealand.
Apart from the fact that New Zealand still has a travel ban on military officials involved in the 2006 coup, Lewemi, in his role as permanent secretary for Information, was also responsible for the censorship of Fijian media.
Fiji’s Land Force Cmdr. Brig. Pita Driti told Auckland’s Radio Tarana that the appointment was “a test” to see how far the New Zealand government is willing to accommodate for diplomacy.
Professor of History at Auckland University Steve Hoadley says Bainimarama’s choice of appointment was just another act of defiance.
“So in a sense, the commodore is trying to provoke a fight. He may in the eyes of those who support his regime appear to be resolute, strong and defiant in Fiji’s interests, but I think objective observers will see him as being in fact…somewhat unwilling to take advantage of this opportunity in Fiji’s wider interests,” he told ABC Radio.
Concerns are also mounting about China’s influence on the tiny island nation. While Australia and New Zealand have disengaged from Fiji in an endeavour to force the re-establishment of democracy, China has been quick to fill the gap.
Fiji is poised to receive $70 million in aid from China for more infrastructure projects, such as the China-built and funded Navuso Bridge that opened in May 2009.
“Fiji regards the relationship with the [regime] and the people of the China as one of its most important,” Fiji’s Vice President Ratu Epeli Nailatiku said last year according to media reports.
While Australia, New Zealand, and other nations banned Fijian officials and their families from traveling through their countries, Bainimarama has continued to travel freely to China.
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