4:20 PM |
nice editorial..I don't condone what the military regime are doing, especially with censoring the media, but if NZ and Aussie got of their high horses for a moment and realised the more you back a dog into a corner, the more it barks back, then they would realise that the pressure they are applying is only forcing the regime to impliment harsher measures and policies. the timeline for democratic elections could be seen as unrealistic given the problems with the constitution and four coups within 20 years is proof of that...the racial divide that has arisen from the constitution needs to be addressed first before any election can take place, otherwise more coups will happen. Making the ordinary Fijian suffer is not the solution to deal with bainimarama right now...what happened to the Pacific Way of solving things?
Fiji needs help, not hindrance
THE LONG VIEW - RICHARD LONG - The Dominion PostLast updated 09:48 05/05/2009Bougainville was once the intractable problem of the South Pacific. Former National foreign affairs minister Don McKinnon pulled off a solution there, against all the odds, by dispatching one of his Pacific experts to bang heads together.With a brief that enabled him to cut across boundaries between foreign affairs, defence and other bureaucracies, big, straight- talking Foreign Affairs Ministry staffer John Hayes achieved something of a miracle - although he was lucky to escape with his life when his helicopter was shot down at one stage.
Mr Hayes is now the National MP for Wairarapa and his constituents would no doubt take a dim view of his being dispatched to Fiji for winter to share a kava bowl with the island nation's strongman, Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama, to try to cajole him into earlier elections.
But failing this, or some other refreshingly novel approach at dialogue, such as the Maori Party delegation concept floated by co- leader Tariana Turia at the weekend, we are back to the same old megaphone diplomacy, threatening Suva with the same tired agenda of economic penalties.
These sanctions continued at the weekend with Fiji's suspension from the Pacific Islands Forum. That will no doubt be followed by suspension from the Commonwealth. This enables governments in Australia and New Zealand to claim to their voters that they are doing something to combat the bad guy.
The problem is that it does not bring us one step closer to a solution; it increases economic hardships on poor Fijians, and will eventually turn the Pacific's great success story into a basket case. And that is not in our interest, or Fiji's.
There is a ritual formula about this. There is a call for an immediate return to democracy, failing which there will be sanctions and expulsions.
This megaphone diplomacy shorthand skirts around the fact that democracy as we would understand it has never existed under Fiji's discriminatory system.
Indeed, in an uncanny echo of the foreshore debate here, the allegedly corrupt ultra-nationalist government that Commodore Bainimarama ousted in 2006 was developing plans to seize the foreshore for ethnic Fijians. Do we want Fiji to go back to that?
None of this is to excuse the erratic commodore for his excesses, such as sacking judges, media censorship - now extended further as a thumbing of the nose to the forum expulsion - and the imposition of a state of emergency.
His actions demonstrate poor advice. He should be urged to back away from the political fisticuffs drama and to concentrate on explaining his "people's charter" - ambitious plans for a constitution aimed at true power- sharing between Fijians and Fiji Indians - ostensibly to be introduced at an election in 2014.
In theory, such a constitution would be a remarkable development, holding the best hope of uniting Fiji after four separate coups. The trouble is, New Zealand's sanctions are hindering the process, not helping it.
We penalise officials assisting the military government in Suva, making it difficult for them or their families to visit New Zealand. That frightens off key figures who could be giving the commodore sound alternative advice.
The New Zealand Law Society advises our lawyers not to work in Fiji, which the Kiwi solicitor- general in Suva points out weakens the legal system there at a time when it should be strengthened.
If the Government switched tack on this approach and also swamped the Bainimarama administration with offers of assistance from constitutional experts, it would then speed the redraft of the constitution and make a stronger case for bringing forward the date of that 2014 election.
While we are about it, we could also abandon efforts to wreck the Fijian economy, which are forcing more and more people into those appalling shantytowns of the unemployed around Suva.
Even some backers of the ousted Fijian government agree that our ban on employing Fijian seasonal workers is a retrograde step.
And former prime minister Helen Clark's diktat that it was "immoral" to travel to Fiji on holiday is viewed in Fiji as economic sabotage. The staff at Fijian hotels, while paid a pittance, are in many cases the sole breadwinners for their families.
Failing all this, Prime Minister John Key could always instruct Mr Hayes to pack his lava-lava and kava bowl and have another crack at sorting things out.
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pacific islands media association
pima.nius@gmail.com
aotearoa, new zealand
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