AP Press Confronting Fiji Futu

r l I Confronting Fiji Futures A Haroon Akram-Lodhi, Editor Asia Pacific Press at The Australian National University © Asia Pacific Press 2000 This work is copyright. Apart from those uses which may be permitted under the Copyright Act 1968 as amended, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission from the publisher. The National Centre for Development Studies gratefully acknowledges the contribution made by the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) towards the publication of this series. National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Confronting Fiji futures. Bibliography. Includes index. ISBN 0 7315 3642 8. 1. Fiji - Politics and government. 2. Fiji - Economic conditions. 3. Fiji - Social conditions. I. Akram-Lodhi, A. Haroon (Agha Haroon), 1958- . II. Australian National University. Asia Pacific School of Economics and Management. 320.099611 Production: Asia Pacific Press Cover design: Sue Whigham Design Cover photograph: AusAID Printed in Australia by Paragon Printers Published by Asia Pacific Press at the Australian National University www.asiapacificpress.com Stop Press 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 J 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

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