Confronting Fiji Futures

CONFRONTING FIJI FUTURES

EDITED BY A. HAROON AKRAM-LODHI Published by ANU eView The Australian National University Acton ACT 2601, Australia Email: [email protected] This title is also available online at eview.anu.edu.au

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry

Title: Confronting Fiji futures / A Haroon Akram-Lodhi (editor).

ISBN: 9781921934292 (paperback) 9781921934308 (ebook)

Subjects: Fiji--Politics and government. Fiji--Economic conditions. Fiji--Social conditions.

Other Creators/Contributors: Akram-Lodhi, A. Haroon (Agha Haroon), 1958- editor.

Dewey Number: 320.099611

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Cover design and layout by ANU Press. Cover photograph by M M (padmanaba01): www.flickr.com/photos/43423301@N07/3997565309/

Confronting the Present: The Coup of May 2000

A Haroon Akram-Lodhi

On 19 May 2000, as With widespread doubt community politics that it ConfrontingFiji Futures went about who was in charge of suggested was not universal. to press, a group of 7 men the country, the Great It can be argued that the armed with machine guns Council of Chiefs met. On25 failure of the senior entered the Parliamentary May, following an intensely members of the government Complex in Suva. They took divided meeting, the council to recognise and seek to the Prime Minister, authorised the President to strengthen the fragility of Mahendra Chaudhry, establish, pending the the political consensus members of the Cabinet, and release of the hostages and helped create a climate that other members of the Fiji the resignation of the Prime made the coup possible. Labour Party-led People's Minister, a new interim Even backbenchers and Coalition Government administration drawn from grassroots members within hostage, including Ganesh a council of advisers. the indigenous Fijian parties Chand, a contributor to this Although common law was that formed part of the book. A previously little used to justify the Coalition did not support known figure, George authorisation, the suggested the 1997 constitutional Speight, took responsibility arrangements were clearly settlement, or did so for the attempted coup, extra-constitutional. Speight grudgingly. It would appear stating that he had assumed rejected the arrangements. that the rapid movement executive power in order to The coup is an demonstrated by the represent the interests of unfortunate reminder of the government at times on indigenous Fijians. It was salience of the issues raised sensitive issues was an later revealed that rogue in Confronting Fiji Futures. unnecessarily dangerous elements within the Fiji Robbie Robertson argues course of action. Rapid Military Forces' Counter that Fiji has witnessed only movement on sensitive Revolutionary Warfare Unit a partial retreat from the issues overrode the positive were directing the attempted exclusionary communalism achievements of the coup . Indigenous Fijian that shaped the politics of government, such as the youths rampaged through the country in the aftermath maintenance of macro Suva and other of the 1987 coups, despite economic stability. It communities, smashing the achievements of the 1997 overrode a number of major windows, looting shops, Constitution and the 1999 policies to assist the poor, setting fire to buildings, and elections. The limited extent significantly Fijians. It terrorising their fellow of this partial retreat has helped create the ground citizens. Despite the been vividly illustrated by upon which the Ta ukei declaration of a state of the coup, which has also movement could be revived, emergency by the President, illustrated, as both Yash and the politics of exclusion Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, the Ghai and Satendra Prasad resurrected as a viable police and the army seemed note in this book, that political strategy. unable to contain the support for the 1997 violence. Constitution and the cross- Land is a particularly indigenous Fijian interests in Fiji in 1987. The most sensitive issue. Indigenous Fiji could take place. important social cleavage in Fijians own the land, but it Historically, communalism Fiji now lies within the is worked by Indo-Fijians. has been a viable political indigenous Fijian com The government had been strategy to maintain the munity, demonstrated at seeking to deal with the fa<;adeof unity in the face of length by the contributors to issue of land during its term difference, as the events of this book. Differences of of office. Biman Prasad and May 2000 demonstrate. status, region, and class Sunil Kumar examine the The irony is that the have fostered conflict within complexity of the issue here. presumed homogeneity of the indigenous Fijian com Speight has made it clear the indigenous Fijian munity, and it is this conflict that indigenous Fijians community is now very which explains the origins of wanted 'their' land back. much a fiction. Social the coup, an expression of The land issue is seen by inequality occurs not just attempts within the many indigenous Fijians as between communities; it indigenous Fijian com the answer to the economic occurs within them. The munity to establish political backwardness and social contributions by Holger ascendancy. In particular, exclusion faced by some Korth, Steven Ratuva, the coup has witnessed the within their community William Sutherland and indigenous Fijian nouveaux the 'Fijian question' Robbie Robertson demon riches that emerged, as (William Sutherland). Yet, as strate the sharp social, described by Steven Ratuva, Sutherland makes clear, economic and geographical out of the economic affir land will not resolve the differentiation that has mative action policies since Fijian question. During the occurred within the 1987 come into conflict with course of the 1990s the Fiji indigenous Fijian com the economically connected state undertook an extensive munity since 1987. While aristocracy that ruled Fiji program of structural some have prospered, many between 1970 and 1992. Both reform, examined in detail in have not, and the result of groups have used indi this volume. A central these economic differences genous Fijian nationalism in component was economic has been a fracturing of the an effort to unite themselves affirmative action for the culture of the indigenous with the indigenous Fijian benefit of the indigenous Fijian community. Add to community from which they Fijian community as a whole this the difficulties described have become increasingly but which, as is documented by Robertson in even cut off. It is the deepening by Steven Ratuva, ended up defining an indigenous recognition of social cleavage benefiting a minority within Fijian. The leader of the coup within the indigenous Fijian the indigenous Fijian embodies the contradictions. community that has led community. Structural Speight, who is of more indigenous Fijians to reform and economic indigenous Fijian and Euro accept the basic multiethnic affirmative action stood in Fijian parentage, isa foreign and multicultural reality of contradiction, and the result, educated failed businessman their country than at any as discussed in different who both benefited from the time in its history. It is these ways in the contributions by economic affirmative action people who, along with the John Cameron, Jacqueline policies of previous govern members of the other Leckie, Sepehri and Akram ments while at the same time communities of Fiji, tried to Lodhi, Chand, Sutherland, being unable to navigate the oppose the coup. Indeed, it Robertson and Ratuva, was treacherous waters of is the extent of the a deepening of social structural reform. He is an opposition to the coup inequality. This created the atypical indigenous Fijian. across the communities of material circumstances in As stressed by Martin Fiji that can give rise to a which a violent reassertion Doornbos and Haroon guardedly cautious opti of what Simione Durutalo Akram-Lodhi, Fiji in 2000 is mism as Fiji confronts its termed the 'paramountcy' of a very different country from futures. Contents

Contributors x

Preface A Haroon Akram-Lodhi xii

Part I: Politics, economics and social inequality 1

1. Introduction: Confronting the future, confronting the past Martin Doornbosand A Haroon Akram-Lodhi 3

2. The implementation of the Fiji Islands Constitution Yash Ghai 21

3. Fiji's 1999 general elections: outcomes and prospects Satendra Prasad 50

4. Fiji's economy: the challenge of the future Ardeshir Sepehri and A Haroon Akram-Lodhi 71

5. Institutional rigidities and economic performance in Fiji Biman Prasad and Sunil Kumar 111

6. Confronting social policy challenges in Fiji John Cameron 133

7. Labour market deregulation in Fiji

Ganesh Chand 152

8. Women in post-coup Fiji: negotiating work through old and new realities Jacqueline Leckie 178 Part II: The 'Fijian' question 203

9. The problematics of reform and the 'Fijian' question William Sutherland 205

10. Addressing inequality? Economic affirmative action and communal capitalism in post-coup Fiji Steven Ratuva 226

11. Ecotourism and the politics of representation in Fiji Holger Korth 249

12. Retreat from exclusion? Identities in post-coup Fiji Robbie Robertson 269

References 293

Index 310

Tables

Table 3.1 1999 election results for 'Fijian communal seats' 59

Table 3.2 1999 election results in the open seats 62

Table 3.3 Party representation in Cabinet after the 1999 elections 65

Table 4.1 Selected macroeconomic indicators, 1971-96 73

Table 4.2 Specification of the three-gap model 92

Table 4.3 Econometric results of the structural equations and the three-gap equations 96

Table 4.4 Projected growth path scenarios, 1997-2001 102

Table 5.1 Categories of land ownership in Fiji 118

Table 5.2 Land use classification in per cent, 1965 and 1978 119

Table 5.3 Sugarcane production in the Labasa mill area, 1986-95 120

Table 5.4 Percentage of Inda-Fijian and indigenous Fijian farmers in the Seaqaqa project, 1981-93 121 Table 5.5 Classification of native land in Fiji 122

Table 5. 6 Distribution of rents collected by the NLTB 124

Table 6.1 Active life profiles in years for men in Fiji around 1980 139

Table 7.1 Unionisation rate by sector, per cent 165

Table 7. 2 Strike activity, 1970-97 167

Table 7 .3 Number, nature and composition of disputes 168

Table 7.4 Dispute resolution 169

Table 7.5 Real wage ratios 170

Table 7 .6 Real salary ratios 170

Table 7.7 The sectoral composition of employment by gender 171

Table 7. 8 Wage and salary structure by gender 172

Table 9.1 Distribution of Fiji Development Bank commercial loans to indigenous Fijians by sector, 1989-96, per cent 212

Figures

Figure 4.1 Foreign exchange, saving and fiscal gaps 98

Symbols used in tables

n.a. not applicable

not available

zero

insignificant Abbreviations

ALT A Agricultural Landlord and Tenant Act ALT O Agricultural Landlord and Tenants Ordinance ANC All National Congress AV Alternative Vote CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women CLFS Commercial Loans to Fijian Scheme DP9 Ninth National Development Plan EEC European Economic Community EIMCOL Equity Investment Management Company Limited EU European Union FAB Fijian Affairs Board FAGW Fiji Association of Garment Workers FAP Fijian Association Party FAWG Fiji Association of Women Graduates FCRC Fiji Constitution Review Commission FDB Fiji Development Bank FEMM Forum Economic Ministers Meeting FFI Fiji Forest Industry FHC Fijian Holdings Company Limited FLP Fiji Labour Party FNA Fiji Nursing Association FT UC Fiji Trades Union Congress FWCC Fiji Women's Crisis Centre FWRM Fiji Women's Rights Movement GDP Gross Domestic Product GNP Gross National Product ILO International Labour Organization ISS Institute of Social Studies JPSC Joint Parliamentary Select Committee MFA Ministry of Fijian Affairs MOT Ministry of Tourism NBF National Bank of Fiji NEP New Economic Policy NFP National Federation Party NIE new industrialising economies

viii NLCPPSC Native Lands Conservation and Preservation Projects Steering Committee NLTB Native Lands Trust Board NUFCW National Union of Factory and Commercial Workers NVTLP Nationalist Vanua Takolavo Party NZ ODA New Zealand Official Development Assistance programme OECD Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development PAFCO Pacific Fishing Company PANU Party of National Unity PIB Prices and Incomes Board PSA Fiji Public Service Association SEAPAT South East Asia and the Pacific Multidisciplinary Advisory Team SPARTECA South Pacific Regional Trade and Economic Cooperation Agreement SPOCTU South Pacific and Oceanic Council of Trade Unions SVT Soqosoqo Ni Vakavulewa Ni Taukei or Fijian Christian Party UGP United General Party UNDP United Nations Development Programme USP University of the South Pacific VKB Vu/a ni Kawa Bula VLV Veitokani Ni Lewenivanua Vakaristo WTO World Trade Organization