Recuperation & Rupture
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Reflections on the 1987 Fiji Coups Sanjay Ramesh
162 Fijian Studies Vol. 5 No. 1 Dialogue: Reflections on the 1987 Coup 163 gence Agency (CIA) was behind the coups. The reasons for what has been termed as the ‘CIA chimera’, are many and varied (see Lal, 1990, and Scobell, Reflections on the 1987 Fiji Coups 1994). Immediately after the coup, the Fiji Military Forces (FMF) embarked on a propaganda campaign, informing the coup sympathisers that the coalition had relations with the former Soviet Union and Libya and as such posed a direct Sanjay Ramesh threat to the western alliance and to Fijian traditions and values. Widespread rumours of the coalition being socialist and left-wing in orientation led some The coups of 1987 have become a bitter memory for the people of Fiji, observers to conclude that the CIA was involved. Other observations, such as but unanswered questions still linger about the whole incident. Did then Colonel US Hercules carriers making brief and suspicious stopovers at the Nadi Interna- Sitiveni Rabuka, who claimed that intervention of the army in Fiji’s political tional Airport; the presence of US Ambassador to UN Vernon Walters in the process was necessary to avert ethnic bloodshed (Rabuka, 2000: 9), act entirely country for talks with the coalition in response to the coalitions non-alignment on an instinct to save the indigenous Fijian race from the Indo-Fijian political policy; the appearance of retired US army officer Larry Mackenna at the US designs, or were there other forces at work? Embassy in full military uniform; and the dubious political activities of the The deposed Prime Minister late Dr. -
Introduction
Introduction Brij V. Lal Soldiers rioting on the steps of parliament house in Papua New Guinea; tumultuous politics besetting the presidency in Vanuatu; political assassi nations in New Caledonia; confrontation between soldiers and civilians on the troubled island of Bougainville. In other, calmer times, such inci dents of terror and violence would have stunned observers of Pacific Island affairs. But in the aftermath of the dramatic events in Fiji, news of upheaval in the islands is increasingly being greeted with a weary sense of deja vu. Such has been their impact that the Fiji coups and the forces they have unleashed are already being seen as marking, for better or worse, a turning point not only in the history ofthat troubled island nation but also in the contemporary politics ofthe Pacific Islands region. The issues and emotions that the Fiji coups have engendered touch on some of the most fundamental issues of our time: the tension between the rights ofindigenous peoples ofthe Pacific Islands and the rights ofthose of more recent immigrant or mixed origins; the role and place of traditional customs and institutions in the fiercely competitive modern political arena; the structure and function of Western-style democratic political processes in ethnically divided or nonegalitarian societies; the use of mili tary force to overthrow ideologically unacceptable but constitutionally elected governments. These and similar issues, rekindled by the events in Fiji, will be with us for a long time to come. Unlike any other event in recent Pacific Islands history, the Fiji crisis has generated an unprecedented outpouring of popular and scholarly litera ture, as our Book Review and Resources sections amply demonstrate. -
The Political Struggle
Part I. Quest for Equality: The Political Struggle 1: Address to the 1965 London Constitutional Conference, 26 July 1965 I thank you [Secretary of State Anthony Greenwood] and the United Kingdom Government for the kind invitation and welcome extended us to this historic conference which is called to smelt the existing system of government in the Colony of Fiji and to forge and mould a new constitution which, I hope, will lead our country to complete independence in the not too distant future. Political liberty, equality and fraternity rank foremost among the good things of life, and mankind all over the world cherishes and holds these ideals close to its heart. The people of Fiji are no exception. Without political freedom, no country can be economically, socially or spiritually free. We in Fiji, as in many undeveloped countries of the world, are faced with the three most formidable enemies of mankind, namely, Poverty, Ignorance, and Disease. We need political freedom to confront these enemies and free our minds, bodies and souls from their clutches. Needless to say, when I refer to political freedom, I mean democracy under the rule of law, the sort of freedom which the British people and the people of United States enjoy. We need freedom which will politically, economically and socially integrate the various communities living in Fiji and make out of them one nation deeply conscious of the responsibilities and tasks which lie ahead. I call this conference important and historic because it is the first conference of its kind in the history of Fiji and it may very well prove the beginning of the end of a form of government which stands universally condemned in the modern world. -
State Societyand Governancein Melanesia
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by The Australian National University Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies State, Society and Governance in Melanesia StateSociety and in Governance Melanesia DISCUSSION PAPER Discussion Paper 2008/10 COURTS AND COUPS IN FIJI: THE 2008 HIGH COURT JUDGMENT IN QARASE V BAINIMARAMA INTRODUCTION not provided for in the constitution, and that GEORGE ‘exceptional circumstances existed’ because WILLIAMS On 21st October 2008, the State, Society ‘the stability of the State was endangered’. & Governance in Melanesia Program held a The decision effectively legitimised the interim GRAHAM workshop entitled Courts and Coups; Fiji’s government that had emerged in the wake of LEUNG October 2008 High Court Judgment in the Fiji’s December 5 2006 military coup. Qarase v Bainimarama Case. This brought together George Williams, the Anthony In the first of the four papers included ANTHONY J. Mason Professor in the Faculty of Law at here, Professor George Williams, who REGAN the University of New South Wales, Graham served as Counsel in the 2001 Chandrika Leung, the Managing Partner of Howards Prasad case - which ruled the government JON Lawyers in Suva, as well as Anthony Regan that arose after Fiji’s 2000 coup to be illegal FRAENKEL and Jon Fraenkel from the State, Society - discusses the precedents set by that earlier & Governance in Melanesia Program at case, and how these were dealt with by the ANU. The meeting was chaired by Duncan Fiji judges in 2008. In the second paper, Kerr, Australia’s Parliamentary Secretary for Graham Leung, a lawyer who practises in Fiji Pacific Affairs. -
Relevance in Obsolescence: Recuperation and Temporality in the Work of Guy Debord and the Situationist International
RELEVANCE IN OBSOLESCENCE: RECUPERATION AND TEMPORALITY IN THE WORK OF GUY DEBORD AND THE SITUATIONIST INTERNATIONAL Tom Bunyard RECUPERATION In 2009, the French State bought an archive of Guy Debord’s work, containing his manuscripts, correspondence, reading notes, cinematic material and assorted personal effects. This purchase, which was conducted in order to prevent the archive’s sale to Yale, resulted in its installation in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BNF). In order for this to take place, the President of the Bibliothèque was required to dub Debord’s work a “national treasure”; Sarkozy’s minister of culture was then obliged to endorse that evaluation by describing Debord as a “great French intellectual.”1 Unsurprisingly, these statements have proved somewhat notorious. Debord’s “bad reputation”2 once merited far more attention from the police and secret services than it did from academia, and the irony involved in the archive’s acquisition has not been lost on its many commentators: for as a journalist in Le Monde remarked, it entailed housing, “in a temple of the state,” the archives of “an intellectual who was critical of all institutions, and of society in general.”3 Yet while the tension between the archive’s content and its current location may have been sufficient to provoke commentary in the press, it remains the case that Debord’s work, together with that of the Situationist International (S.I.), has been steadily accepted and celebrated by the society that it opposed for years. This process of accommodation has proceeded apace over the past few decades, and Situationist material has now become a fixture of both the academic Left and of university teaching program; this despite the fact that in 1966, a French judge felt moved to declare Situationist ideas to be a genuine “threat” to the minds of impressionable students, and to society at large.4 Thus while the transition from the status of “threat” to that of “treasure” announced by the archive’s purchase is sharp, it is by no means without precedent. -
Fiji's Road to Military Coup, 20061
2. 'Anxiety, uncertainty and fear in our land': Fiji's road to military coup, 20061 Brij V. Lal Introduction If civilization is to survive, one is driven to radical views. I do not mean driven to violence. Violence always compromises or ruins the cause it means to serve: it produces as much wrong as it tries to remedy. The State, for example, is always with us. Overthrow it and it will come back in another form, quite possibly worse. It's a necessary evilÐa monster that continually has to be tamed, so that it serves us rather than devours us. We can't do without it, neither can we ever trust it.2 Fiji experienced the whole gamut of emotions over the course of a fateful 2006. The year ended on an unsettled note, as it had begun. Fiji was yet again caught in a political quagmire of its own making, hobbled by manufactured tensions, refusing to heed the lessons of its recent tumultuous past, and reeling from the effects of the coup. Ironies abound. A Fijian army confronted a Fijian government, fuelling the indigenous community's worst fears about a Fijian army spilling Fijian blood on Fijian soil. The military overthrow took place 19 years to the day after frustrated coup-maker of 1987 Sitiveni Rabuka had handed power back to Fiji's civilian leaders, Ratu Sir Penaia Ganilau and Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, paving the way for the eventual return to parliamentary democracy. The 2006 coup, like the previous ones, deposed a democratically elected government. Perhaps more importantly, it peremptorily sidelined the once powerful cultural and social institutions of the indigenous community, notably the Methodist Church and the Great Council of Chiefs (GCC)3 ± severing with a startling abruptness the overarching influence they had exercised in national life. -
2016 Country Review
Fiji 2016 Country Review http://www.countrywatch.com Table of Contents Chapter 1 1 Country Overview 1 Country Overview 2 Key Data 4 Fiji 5 Pacific Islands 6 Chapter 2 8 Political Overview 8 History 9 Political Conditions 10 Political Risk Index 42 Political Stability 57 Freedom Rankings 72 Human Rights 84 Government Functions 87 Government Structure 92 Principal Government Officials 100 Leader Biography 101 Leader Biography 101 Foreign Relations 104 National Security 109 Defense Forces 111 Chapter 3 114 Economic Overview 114 Economic Overview 115 Nominal GDP and Components 117 Population and GDP Per Capita 118 Real GDP and Inflation 119 Government Spending and Taxation 120 Money Supply, Interest Rates and Unemployment 121 Foreign Trade and the Exchange Rate 122 Data in US Dollars 123 Energy Consumption and Production Standard Units 124 Energy Consumption and Production QUADS 125 World Energy Price Summary 126 CO2 Emissions 127 Agriculture Consumption and Production 128 World Agriculture Pricing Summary 130 Metals Consumption and Production 131 World Metals Pricing Summary 133 Economic Performance Index 134 Chapter 4 146 Investment Overview 146 Foreign Investment Climate 147 Foreign Investment Index 151 Corruption Perceptions Index 164 Competitiveness Ranking 175 Taxation 184 Stock Market 184 Partner Links 185 Chapter 5 186 Social Overview 186 People 187 Human Development Index 188 Life Satisfaction Index 192 Happy Planet Index 203 Status of Women 213 Global Gender Gap Index 215 Culture and Arts 225 Etiquette 227 Travel Information 228 Diseases/Health Data 237 Chapter 6 243 Environmental Overview 243 Environmental Issues 244 Environmental Policy 252 Greenhouse Gas Ranking 253 Global Environmental Snapshot 264 Global Environmental Concepts 275 International Environmental Agreements and Associations 289 Appendices 314 Bibliography 315 Fiji Chapter 1 Country Overview Fiji Review 2016 Page 1 of 327 pages Fiji Country Overview FIJI Fiji became independent in 1970 after nearly a century as a British colony. -
The Case of Fiji
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform Volume 25 Issues 3&4 1992 Democracy and Respect for Difference: The Case of Fiji Joseph H. Carens University of Toronto Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mjlr Part of the Comparative and Foreign Law Commons, Cultural Heritage Law Commons, Indian and Aboriginal Law Commons, and the Rule of Law Commons Recommended Citation Joseph H. Carens, Democracy and Respect for Difference: The Case of Fiji, 25 U. MICH. J. L. REFORM 547 (1992). Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mjlr/vol25/iss3/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform at University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform by an authorized editor of University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. DEMOCRACY AND RESPECT FOR DIFFERENCE: THE CASE OF FIJI Joseph H. Carens* TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ................................. 549 I. A Short History of Fiji ................. .... 554 A. Native Fijians and the Colonial Regime .... 554 B. Fijian Indians .................. ....... 560 C. Group Relations ................ ....... 563 D. Colonial Politics ....................... 564 E. Transition to Independence ........ ....... 567 F. The 1970 Constitution ........... ....... 568 G. The 1987 Election and the Coup .... ....... 572 II. The Morality of Cultural Preservation: The Lessons of Fiji ................. ....... 574 III. Who Is Entitled to Equal Citizenship? ... ....... 577 A. The Citizenship of the Fijian Indians ....... 577 B. Moral Limits to Historical Appeals: The Deed of Cession ............. ....... 580 * Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Toronto. -
Cheibub 104-140.Pdf
The Architecture of Democracy Oxford Studies in Democratization Series Editor: Laurence Whitehead Oxford Studies in Democratization is a series for scholars and students of comparative politics and related disciplines. Volumes will concentrate on the comparative study of the democratization processes that accompanies the decline and termination of the cold war. The geographical focus of the series will primarily be Latin America, the Caribbean, Southern and Eastern Europe, and relevant experiences in Africa and Asia. OTHER BOOKS IN THE SERIESElectoral Systems and Democratization in Southern Africa Andrew Reynolds The Legacy of Human Rights Violations in the Southern Cone: Argeninta, Chile, and Uruguay Luis Roniger and Mario Sznajder Citizenship Rights and Social Movements: A Comparative and Statistical Analysis Joe Foweraker and Todd Landman The International Dimensions of Democratization: Europe and the Americas Laurence Whitehead The Politics of Memory: Transitional Justice in Democratizing Societies Alexandra Barahona de Brito, Carmen González Enríquez, and Paloma Aguilar Democratic Consolidation in Eastern Europe, Volume 1: Institutional Engineering Jan Zielonka Democratic Consolidation in Eastern Europe, Volume 2: International and Transnational Factors Jan Zielonka and Alex Pravda Institutions and Democratic Citizenship Alex Hadenius The Architecture of Democracy Constitutional Design, Conict Management, and Democracy Edited by Andrew Reynolds Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP Oxford University Press is a department of the University -
Chiefly Leadership in Fiji After the 2014 Elections Stephanie Lawson
3 Chiefly leadership in Fiji after the 2014 elections Stephanie Lawson ‘Chiefdoms are highly variable, but they are all about power.’ (Earle 2011, p. 27) Introduction The last quarter century has seen a significant decline of chiefly influence in Fiji’s politics, albeit with some periods of enhanced status for the paramount symbol of indigenous Fijian traditionalism, the Great Council of Chiefs (GCC). This body, however, was abolished by decree under the military regime of Commodore Josaia Voreqe (Frank) Bainimarama in March 2012. The September 2014 elections held prospects for the restoration of chiefly authority and the role of traditionalism through the Social Democratic Liberal Party (SODELPA) led by Ro Teimumu Vuikaba Kepa, holder of a prominent chiefly title. A victory by SODELPA would also have seen the restoration of the GCC. With SODELPA’s resounding defeat by Bainimarama’s FijiFirst Party, such prospects have received a significant blow. This chapter provides an account of chiefly leadership in national politics, beginning with a survey of Fiji’s colonisation, the role of chiefs in the British colonial regime generally, and their domination 41 THE PEOPLE Have SPOKEN of national politics up until 1987. The second section reviews the political dynamics surrounding chiefly leadership from 1987 until the Bainimarama-led coup of 2006. The final sections examine chiefly involvement in national politics in the lead-up to the 2014 elections and prospects for the future of traditional chiefly political leadership which, given the results, look somewhat bleak. British colonialism and chiefly rule In contrast with many other parts of the world, where colonial rule was imposed by force, the paramount chiefs of Fiji petitioned the British to establish a Crown Colony. -
Elections and Politics in Fiji
i ii iii Co-Published by ANU E Press and Asia Pacific Press The Australian National Unversity Canberra ACT 0200 Email: [email protected] Website: http://epress.anu.edu.au National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Lal, Brij V. Islands of turmoil : elections and politics in Fiji. Bibliography. Includes index. ISBN 0 7315 3751 3 ISBN 1 920942 75 0 (Online document) 1. Fiji - Politics and government. 2. Fiji - Social conditions. 3. Fiji - Economic conditions. I. Title. 996.11 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 publishers. The views expressed in this book are those of the author and not necessarily of the publishers. Editor: Bridget Maidment Publisher: Asia Pacific Press and ANU E Press Design: Annie Di Nallo Design Printers: University Printing Service, The Australian National University Cover photo, Nukulau Prison, is copyright and used with permission (www.fijilive.com). Author photo by Darren Boyd, Coombs Photography. First edition © 2006 ANU E Press and Asia Pacific Press For the people of the Fiji Islands There is a dawn at the end of the darkest night v Contents Abbreviations vii Preface viii 1. The road to independence 1 2. Continuity and change 24 3. Things fall apart 49 4. Back from the abyss 77 5. Rabuka’s republic 100 6. Charting a new course 126 7. A time to change 155 8. George Speight’s coup 185 9. In George Speight’s shadow 206 10. -
Country Report
Country Report Fiji June 2005 The Economist Intelligence Unit 15 Regent St, London SW1Y 4LR United Kingdom The Economist Intelligence Unit The Economist Intelligence Unit is a specialist publisher serving companies establishing and managing operations across national borders. For over 50 years it has been a source of information on business developments, economic and political trends, government regulations and corporate practice worldwide. The Economist Intelligence Unit delivers its information in four ways: through its digital portfolio, where the latest analysis is updated daily; through printed subscription products ranging from newsletters to annual reference works; through research reports; and by organising seminars and presentations. The firm is a member of The Economist Group. London New York Hong Kong The Economist Intelligence Unit The Economist Intelligence Unit The Economist Intelligence Unit 15 Regent St The Economist Building 60/F, Central Plaza London 111 West 57th Street 18 Harbour Road SW1Y 4LR New York Wanchai United Kingdom NY 10019, US Hong Kong Tel: (44.20) 7830 1007 Tel: (1.212) 554 0600 Tel: (852) 2585 3888 Fax: (44.20) 7830 1023 Fax: (1.212) 586 0248 Fax: (852) 2802 7638 E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.eiu.com Electronic delivery This publication can be viewed by subscribing online at www.store.eiu.com Reports are also available in various other electronic formats, such as CD-ROM, Lotus Notes, online databases and as direct feeds to corporate intranets. For further information, please contact your nearest Economist Intelligence Unit office Copyright © 2005 The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited.