Political Reviews
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Political Reviews The Region in Review: International Issues and Events, 2011 nic maclellan Melanesia in Review: Issues and Events, 2011 david chappell, jon fraenkel, gordon leua nanau, howard van trease, muridan s widjojo The Contemporary Pacic, Volume 24, Number 2, 359–431 © 2012 by University of Hawai‘i Press 359 Melanesia in Review: Issues and Events, 2011 Review of Papua New Guinea not top-level schisms. Two of the most included in this issue. senior officers in the Republic of Fiji Military Forces—Land Forces Com- Fiji mander Brigadier General Pita Driti The year 2011 was the first since the and Third Battalion, Fiji Infantry December 2006 coup to occur with- Regiment Commander Roko Tevita out a major political crisis in Fiji. In Uluilakeba Mara—had been, without every previous year, the regime faced official explanation, told to use up stiff tests that potentially threatened outstanding leave in October 2010. its very survival: public sector strikes In February 2011, they were replaced in 2007, the rupture with Mahendra in their substantive positions, respec- Chaudhry’s Fiji Labour Party in 2008, tively, by Colonel Mosese Tikoitoga a ruling on the unconstitutionality of and Lieutenant Colonel Jone Logavatu the government followed by the abro- Kalouniwai. Tevita Mara, the young- gation of the constitution in 2009, est son of the late Ratu Sir Kamisese and schisms among the military top Mara, Fiji’s former president, had command in late 2010. By contrast, until 2008 been a strong backer of 2011 passed without major domestic the 2006 coup and a loyal ally of challenges, although harassment of Bainimarama. He was the officer trade unionists, the Essential National who urged the military’s case at Fiji’s Industries (Employment) Decree Great Council of Chiefs at the time 2011, and cuts in pensions encour- of the December 2006 coup, and aged a significant reconfiguration and he later carried out a mini-coup to internationalization of the opposition. secure for himself chairmanship of Fueled by the silencing of domestic the Lau Provincial Council. In 2010, critics, the foreign sympathizers of the he had been overheard denouncing Frank Bainimarama–led government the regime while overseas, in transit became more outspoken but care- through South Korea, and the matter fully couched their urging of overseas was reported back to Bainimarama. “reengagement” as a sensible strategy Mara and Driti were brought before for protecting Australia’s sphere of the Suva Magistrates Court in May influence from Chinese encroachment. 2011 on charges of sedition and incite- By the end of the year, the Fiji interim ment to mutiny, but they were released government had hired Washington on bail. Coming close on the heels of DC–based spin-doctoring firm Qorvis the November 2010 resignation of to bombard the world’s media with Defence Minister Ratu Epeli Ganilau, positive news stories about Fiji. Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara’s son-in-law, The fifth year since the 2006 the new dismissals signaled a broader coup initially commenced, as 2010 breach with a once-powerful dynasty. had finished, with more signs of Yet the president, Ratu Epeli Naila- 377 378 the contemporary pacific • 24:2 (2012) tikau—who like Ganilau is married tion were subtler. Economist Wadan to one of Ratu Mara’s daughters— Narsey, one of the few coup opponents remained at his post. Rumors spread to continue to publicly denounce the of an impending showdown, which regime, was terminated from his post even extended to draft presidential at the University of the South Pacific decrees dismissing the prime minister, after a government threat to withdraw circulated on the feverishly anti-Baini- funding to the regional institution marama weblogs. (rnzi, 19 Aug 2011). Repression Nailatikau’s predecessor as presi- drove protest underground. In August, dent, Tui Vuda Ratu Josefa Iloilo, the clandestine “Viti Revolutionary died in February, and was given a Forces” was scrawling anti-regime full state funeral in recognition of his graffiti across the capital and setting almost consistent willingness to follow fire to remote bus shelters. Later in the a script written for him by military year, villagers in Namosi openly pro- officers. Traditional presentations tested against the planned Newcrest (i-reguregu) honoring Ratu Iloilo at mining project, but with placards cau- Vuda were made by both Bainima- tiously indicating that the message was rama and his senior military officers “pro-government” but “anti-mining” as well as by their arch-adversary, (PNG Mine Watch 2012). Tui Cakau Ratu Naiqama Lalaba- The Methodist Church had been lavu, whose family is closely tied to prohibited from holding its annual that of Ratu Josefa (FijiLive, 15 Feb meeting in 2009 and 2010, but in 2011). This was one of many events, 2011 the conference was scheduled to as required by protocol in Fiji soci- go ahead in August. Military spokes- ety, during which fierce opponents man Lieutenant Colonel Neumi came together in ceremonial contexts, Leweni insisted that church lead- despite the bitterness occasioned by ers take the opportunity to address the 2006 coup and its aftermath. “anomalies within its hierarchy” (Fiji Bainimarama’s indigenous oppo- Times, 12 Aug 2011). Despite harass- nents were less vociferous in 2011 ment by soldiers at the Queen Eliza- than in earlier years, but tensions beth Barracks, church leaders refused still festered just beneath the surface. to comply with demands that the In February and again in March, agenda for the conference include the international human rights watchdog removal of General Secretary Tui- Amnesty International reported that kilakila Waqairatu and President Ame “the human rights situation in Fiji is Tugaue. As a result, the three-day con- worsening,” pointing to a new spate vention was reduced to a single day of arbitrary detentions and beatings and the choir and soli (fund-raising) of trade unionists, politicians, and competition canceled. Land Forces youth activists (Amnesty Interna- Commander Mosese Tikoitoga said tional 2011). Sam Speight, brother at a press briefing that some ministers of 2000 coup leader George Speight, were “disrupting the forward move- was badly beaten for distributing a ment of the church” while others were video denouncing Bainimarama’s “working very hard to bridge this government. Other forms of intimida- gap” (Fiji Times, 24 Aug 2011). At political reviews • melanesia 379 the scaled-down gathering, Waqairatu (rnzi, 25 May 2011). Samoan Prime and Tugaue were reelected, signaling Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi that Bainimarama’s triumph was not said in jest that Commodore Baini- yet complete, despite all the carefully marama should be grateful to Tonga choreographed apologies for past for rescuing at sea his senior army resistance he was able to obtain across officer: “Perhaps that’s what happens rural Fiji. when their admiral spends all his time In May, Tevita Mara dramati- in politics leaving the navy headless” cally escaped from Fiji to Tonga. He (Malielegaoi 2011). Tuilaepa said claimed—unconvincingly but pre- it was all a “Togafiti,” a squabble sumably to protect the identities of between friends, fully understood those who had assisted—that he had only by those few who knew that been out fishing in waters off Kadavu in Samoan “Togafiti” also means a but had run into difficulties near the sneaky trick. island of Ono-i-Lau, where he had by Now possessing a Tongan passport, chance been picked up by a patrolling Mara traveled to Australia, allowed Tongan naval vessel. He was taken to to enter despite travel bans against the Tongan capital, Nuku‘alofa, and senior Fiji military officers because— placed under the protection of King according to Foreign Minister Kevin George Tupou V, a distant relative. Rudd—he had been “decommissioned From Nuku‘alofa, Mara denounced from the military and [had] disas- the “hateful dictatorship” in Fiji. He sociated himself from the regime” said that he had “believed in Bainima- (abc, 16 June 2011). In a series of rama, in what he was doing” until late speeches broadcast on the Internet, 2007, but that Attorney General Aiyaz Mara alleged rampant corruption in Sayed-Khaiyum was subsequently the coup-spawned government. He brought aboard the, until-then, power- claimed that Bainimarama and his ful military council and had subverted attorney general were surreptitiously the original heroic objectives of the paying themselves multiple salaries, coup (Matangi Tonga, 27 May 2011; one for each of their many ministerial The Age, 17 May 2011). The escape portfolios, through an accounting firm sparked a diplomatic spat between Fiji owned by Sayed-Khaiyum’s aunt Nur and Tonga over demands for the extra- Bano Ali, and that both were taking dition of Mara, potentially to be heard “kickbacks on their Asian infrastruc- before the new Tongan Chief Justice ture deals” (Mara 2011b). Mara also Michael Scott, himself ironically a blamed Bainimarama for personally fugitive from the coup-related fallout beating pro-democracy activists at the in the Fiji judiciary. The Mara epi- barracks (Mara 2011a), a claim at sode also renewed an ancient Tonga- least partially denied by some of those Fiji dispute over the Minerva Reefs, concerned, who insisted that Mara located close to the maritime border and Driti themselves had been key per- between the two nations. Tonga recon- petrators of human rights violations in structed a navigation beacon on the the aftermath of the 2006 coup. Mara reef, claiming that the earlier beacon was also cagey about key parts of his had been destroyed by the Fiji navy story, such as the composition of the 380 the contemporary pacific • 24:2 (2012) military council (abc Pacific Beat, 31 Contact Group was allowed to meet May 2011), generating doubts about freely with political parties, civil soci- the credibility of many of his state- ety, and church leaders (abc Pacific ments.